Untitled - Shattering Denial

ing.
THE INQUISITION 71
Bonacursus, a Catharan bishop converted to Cathol
icism, writes about 1190: "Behold the cities, towns and
homes filled with these false prophets."
1
Caesarius, of
Heisterbach, tells us that a few years later there were
Cathari in about one thousand cities, 2
especially in Lom-
bardy and Languedoc.
There were at least seven to eight hundred of "the
Perfected" in Languedoc alone; and to obtain approxi
mately the total number of the sect, we must multiply
this number by twenty or even more. 3
Of course, perfect unity did not exist among the Cathari.
The different names by which they were known clearly
indicate certain differences of doctrine among them.
Some, like the Cathari of Alba and Desenzano, 4
taught
with the Paulicians an absolute dualism, affirming that
all things created came from two principles, the one
essentially good, and the other essentially
bad. Two
other groups, the Concorrezenses and the Bagolenses, 5
like the ancient Gnostics held a modified form of dual
ism; they pretended that the evil spirit
had so marred
the Creator s work, that matter had become the instru
ment of evil in the world. Still they agreed with the
1
Manifestatio hczresis Catharorum, in Migne, P. L., vol. cciv, col. 778.
2
Dialogi, Antwerp, 1604, p. 289.
3 This is Dollinger s estimate, Beitrdge, vol. i, pp. 212, 213.
4 Alba was a city of Piedmont; Desenzano was a small city southwest of
Lac de Garde, where the Cathari were numerous.
6 Concorezzo was a district of Lombardy, Bagnolo was the name of many
cities in Italy; cf. Vernet, op. cit., col. 1993, 1994-