The Albigenses, a religious group, were very numerous in Southern France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and are generally considered as a part of the Cathari. The name is derived from the French city of Albi in Languedoc. They were ruthlessly persecuted and finally annihilated in a crusade proclaimed by Innocent III and led by Count Simon de Montiort; the war of extermination lasted twenty years (1209-1229), and was marked by the atrocities of religious hatred. Many writers, among them Ernst Müller (Berner Täufer), list them among the old evangelical movements, therefore related to the Waldenses and Anabaptists. But this assumption is negated by their dualistic-Manichaean doctrine. They resembled the Waldenses and similar religious movements in their moral earnestness and their rejection of the priesthood, but held to other erroneous doctrines and practices.

See Cathars

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 34. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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