Albigenses, followers of the single most important heresy within the Christian church during the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century). They were named after the town of Albi (Latin Albiga), in southern France, a major center of the movement.

The Albigenses embraced the Manichaean dualistic system that flourished in the Mediterranean area for centuries (see Manichaeism; Dualism). The dualists believed in the separate and independent existence of a god of good and a god of evil. Within western Europe, the adherents of dualism—called Cathari (from the Greek katharos, meaning “purified”)—first appeared in northern France and the Low Countries toward the late 11th or early 12th century. Persecuted and expelled from the north, the Catharist preachers traveled south and found far greater success in the semi-independent province of Languedoc and the surrounding areas.

The Albigenses believed that the whole of existence was a struggle between two gods: the god of light, goodness, and spirit, usually associated with Jesus Christ and the God of the New Testament; and the god of darkness, evil, and matter, identified both with Satan and the God of the Old Testament. Whether the two deities wielded equal power or whether the forces of evil were subordinate to the forces of good was a question subject to considerable debate; but, by definition, anything material—including wealth, food, and the human body itself—was evil and abhorrent. The soul had been imprisoned by Satan in the human body, and the only hope of human salvation was to live a good and spiritual life. By living a good life, after death a person could win freedom from material existence. Failure to achieve righteousness during one’s lifetime would result in the soul’s being born again as another human being or even as an animal. The Albigenses believed that Christ was God, but that during his time on earth he was a kind of angel with a phantom body taking the appearance of a man. They held that the traditional Christian church, with its corrupt clergy and its immense material wealth, was the agent of Satan and therefore to be avoided.

Adherents of the Albigensian doctrine were divided into the simple believers and the “perfects.” The perfects vowed themselves to lives of extreme asceticism. Renouncing all possessions, they survived entirely from donations given by the other members. They were forbidden to take oaths, to have sexual relations, or to eat meat, eggs, or cheese. Only the perfects could communicate with God through prayer. The simple believers might hope to become perfects through a long initiation period followed by the rite called consolamentum, or baptism of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands. Some would receive this rite only when they were near death. They would then attempt to ensure their salvation by abstaining from all food and drink, in effect committing a form of suicide.

The Christian church initially attempted to reconvert the Albigenses through peaceful means. When every attempt failed, Pope Innocent III launched the armed Albigensian Crusade (1208-1229), which brutally repressed the Albigenses and desolated much of southern France. Small groups of Albigenses survived in isolated areas and were pursued by the Inquisition as late as the 14th century.

See also Bogomils; Cathari; Paulicians.