Credentes
Encyclopedia
Credentes or Believers, were the ordinary followers of what became known as the Cathar
or Albigensian movement, a Christian sect which flourished in western Europe during the 11th, 12th and 13th Centuries. Credentes constituted up the main part of the Cathar community in the region. Although Catharism sprang up in Spain, the Rhineland
, Flanders
and Italy its main focus was in the southern region of France, particularly the area known as the Languedoc
. Although pacifist in nature, Catharism drew the condemnation of the Catholic Church which, when persuasion failed, launched successive Crusades
and instigated the Inquisition
to destroy it.
(cf Gospel of John
) who had created the material universe as a consequence of his rebellion against God. Christ
was an emissary of God
, sent into this world to help us return to the Father.
Catharism held to a doctrine of reincarnation
, the individual soul
being born into this world of suffering again and again until it had reached the state of inner purification which meant it could return. It was in this way that the Cathars interpreted the idea of Eternal Life in Jesus Christ. They argued for a return to the essence of Christ's teaching, an embracing of the Apostolic ideal of human behaviour and rejected the established Church as "the Synagogue of Satan" for having turned its back on Christ's message with its vast material power, wealth and corruption.
, lived lives of extreme poverty as well as abstinence from sexual contact and eating meat.
Credentes vied for the honour of housing Perfecti on their travels in the tradition described in the Gospel of Luke
of how the Apostles were to move among the wider community. As the Cathars built no churches or places of worship, preferring to hold their ceremonies in peoples' homes or natural places such as fields, caves or forests it was a particular honour to have the sacraments performed in one's own place of dwelling.
Credentes had the option of becoming Perfecti after a long and arduous process of training, after which they were inducted into the Perfecti community. They were then expected to follow the rigid vows of the elite for the rest of their lives. At death, Credentes could also ask for the Consolamentum, the equivalent of the Last Rites
of the Cathar community. This was a ceremony of purification of sins which was intended to enable the soul to pass into death in a higher spiritual state, thus enabling it to achieve a better incarnation in its next existence in this world or return to God.
An interesting feature of the structure of Cathar faith was its correspondence with that of the early Christian Gnostic movement of Bishop Valentinus
. As the Cathars divided themselves among Perfecti and Credentes, with everyone else as non-Believers, the Valentinians divided the world into three categories: Pneumatics
whose souls were wholly united with God (i.e. Perfecti), Psychics, who had a connection with God through their spirits but still lived in this world (i.e. Credentes) and Hylics
, people who lived only in the world of Matter and had no spiritual dimension to their existence at all. In practice this did not mean discrimination among the Cathars either between Perfecti and Credentes or between Cathars and non-Cathars. Indeed evidence suggests that the non-Cathar (i.e. Catholic) population of the Languedoc viewed the Cathars among them with tolerance and in many cases, admiration. The sacking of Béziers
by the Crusaders
, for instance, came about because the population of the city (some 18-20000 people) refused to hand over 2000 Cathars who lived among them. This suggests that however stratified the Cathar community may have been it did not view humanity hierarchically, otherwise its followers would not have received such support from the non-Cathar community.
As with their Perfecti leaders, the Credentes underwent immense persecution at the hands of the Catholic Church and the temporal authorities of the day who invaded their regions through a crusade launched by the Pope
at the time. Although largely wiped out by the mid 13th century, some isolated Cathar communities survived in the Languedoc until the 14th century, most famously at the small village of Montaillou
in the Ariege region of the French Pyrenees
.
It is said that on the last night of the Siege of Montsegur
, the last major Cathar stronghold to resist the Crusaders before the movement was finally destroyed, the Perfecti present gave the Credentes the option to become Perfecti, thus condemning them to the stake, or to go free as part of the conditions of surrender agreed with the besieging forces. Twenty six Credentes came forward to do so, thus facing certain death rather than recant their faith.
Cathar
Catharism was a name given to a Christian religious sect with dualistic and gnostic elements that appeared in the Languedoc region of France and other parts of Europe in the 11th century and flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries...
or Albigensian movement, a Christian sect which flourished in western Europe during the 11th, 12th and 13th Centuries. Credentes constituted up the main part of the Cathar community in the region. Although Catharism sprang up in Spain, the Rhineland
Rhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
, Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
and Italy its main focus was in the southern region of France, particularly the area known as the Languedoc
Languedoc
Languedoc is a former province of France, now continued in the modern-day régions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées in the south of France, and whose capital city was Toulouse, now in Midi-Pyrénées. It had an area of approximately 42,700 km² .-Geographical Extent:The traditional...
. Although pacifist in nature, Catharism drew the condemnation of the Catholic Church which, when persuasion failed, launched successive Crusades
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
and instigated the Inquisition
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
to destroy it.
Catharism
Catharism was a self-described Christian movement which incorporated Gnostic and Dualistic ideas into its interpretation of Scripture. The terms Cathar, Catharism and even Perfecti and Credentes were ones used by their persecuters, the religious and temporal authorities of the time. The Cathars themselves never referred to themselves as such, calling themselves only "Bons Hommes", "Bonnes Femmes" or "Bons Chretiens" (i.e. "Good Men", "Good Women" and "Good Christians"). They believed that all human beings contained within them an element of the Divine Light trapped in bodies of Matter by "the Prince of this world", SatanSatan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
(cf Gospel of John
Gospel of John
The Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
) who had created the material universe as a consequence of his rebellion against God. Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
was an emissary of God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
, sent into this world to help us return to the Father.
Catharism held to a doctrine of reincarnation
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
, the individual soul
Soul
A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
being born into this world of suffering again and again until it had reached the state of inner purification which meant it could return. It was in this way that the Cathars interpreted the idea of Eternal Life in Jesus Christ. They argued for a return to the essence of Christ's teaching, an embracing of the Apostolic ideal of human behaviour and rejected the established Church as "the Synagogue of Satan" for having turned its back on Christ's message with its vast material power, wealth and corruption.
Credentes & Perfecti
The Cathar community was layered between the spiritual elite and the ordinary believers, much as other Christian communities were. The elite were referred to by the Catholic Church as Perfecti (Parfaits in French, Perfects in English). The Perfecti consisted of both men and women and traveled around the Languedoc in same-sex pairs administering to the community spiritually and as healers. The rest of the Cathar followers were referred to as Credentes, or Believers. These constituted the majority of the movement and were not expected to adopt the austere lifestyle of the Perfecti, who, as carriers of the Holy SpiritHoly Spirit
Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...
, lived lives of extreme poverty as well as abstinence from sexual contact and eating meat.
Credentes vied for the honour of housing Perfecti on their travels in the tradition described in the Gospel of Luke
Gospel of Luke
The Gospel According to Luke , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Luke or simply Luke, is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels. This synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. It details his story from the events of his birth to his Ascension.The...
of how the Apostles were to move among the wider community. As the Cathars built no churches or places of worship, preferring to hold their ceremonies in peoples' homes or natural places such as fields, caves or forests it was a particular honour to have the sacraments performed in one's own place of dwelling.
Credentes had the option of becoming Perfecti after a long and arduous process of training, after which they were inducted into the Perfecti community. They were then expected to follow the rigid vows of the elite for the rest of their lives. At death, Credentes could also ask for the Consolamentum, the equivalent of the Last Rites
Last Rites
The Last Rites are the very last prayers and ministrations given to many Christians before death. The last rites go by various names and include different practices in different Christian traditions...
of the Cathar community. This was a ceremony of purification of sins which was intended to enable the soul to pass into death in a higher spiritual state, thus enabling it to achieve a better incarnation in its next existence in this world or return to God.
An interesting feature of the structure of Cathar faith was its correspondence with that of the early Christian Gnostic movement of Bishop Valentinus
Valentinus
Valentinus is a Roman masculine given name. It is derived from the Latin word "valens" meaning "healthy, strong". Valentinus may refer to:*Pope Valentine , pope for thirty or forty days in 827...
. As the Cathars divided themselves among Perfecti and Credentes, with everyone else as non-Believers, the Valentinians divided the world into three categories: Pneumatics
Pneumatics
Pneumatics is a branch of technology, which deals with the study and application of use of pressurized gas to effect mechanical motion.Pneumatic systems are extensively used in industry, where factories are commonly plumbed with compressed air or compressed inert gases...
whose souls were wholly united with God (i.e. Perfecti), Psychics, who had a connection with God through their spirits but still lived in this world (i.e. Credentes) and Hylics
Hylics
In modern usage "hylic" refers to anything that is slanted toward the thought of any illusory concept, or that which gives an unbalanced view of life. It does not just refer to things slanted toward materialistic pursuits but to anything that is out of order with the rhythm of nature. Nature, in...
, people who lived only in the world of Matter and had no spiritual dimension to their existence at all. In practice this did not mean discrimination among the Cathars either between Perfecti and Credentes or between Cathars and non-Cathars. Indeed evidence suggests that the non-Cathar (i.e. Catholic) population of the Languedoc viewed the Cathars among them with tolerance and in many cases, admiration. The sacking of Béziers
Béziers
Béziers is a town in Languedoc in southern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the Hérault department. Béziers hosts the famous Feria de Béziers, centred around bullfighting, every August. A million visitors are attracted to the five-day event...
by the Crusaders
Crusaders
The Crusaders are a New Zealand professional rugby union team based in Christchurch that competes in the Super Rugby competition. They are the most successful team in Super Rugby history with seven titles...
, for instance, came about because the population of the city (some 18-20000 people) refused to hand over 2000 Cathars who lived among them. This suggests that however stratified the Cathar community may have been it did not view humanity hierarchically, otherwise its followers would not have received such support from the non-Cathar community.
Persecution
As with their Perfecti leaders, the Credentes underwent immense persecution at the hands of the Catholic Church and the temporal authorities of the day who invaded their regions through a crusade launched by the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
at the time. Although largely wiped out by the mid 13th century, some isolated Cathar communities survived in the Languedoc until the 14th century, most famously at the small village of Montaillou
Montaillou
Montaillou is a commune in the Ariège department in southwestern France.-History:The town is best known for being the subject of Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie's pioneering work of microhistory, Montaillou, village occitan. It analyzes the town in great detail over a thirty-year period from 1294 to 1324...
in the Ariege region of the French Pyrenees
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
.
It is said that on the last night of the Siege of Montsegur
Montségur
The Château de Montségur is a former fortress near Montségur, a commune in the Ariège department in southwestern France. Its ruins are the site of a razed stronghold of the Cathars. The present fortress on the site, though described as one of the "Cathar castles," is actually of a later period...
, the last major Cathar stronghold to resist the Crusaders before the movement was finally destroyed, the Perfecti present gave the Credentes the option to become Perfecti, thus condemning them to the stake, or to go free as part of the conditions of surrender agreed with the besieging forces. Twenty six Credentes came forward to do so, thus facing certain death rather than recant their faith.