Cats and dogs posted:
The Albigensians were evangelical and held to two doctrines necessary to a New Testament Church; Scriptural Baptism and Scriptural Salvation.(1) They spread throughout southern France and northern Italy and their main fault seemed to be that they did not follow the dictates of the Roman Catholic Church.
They were condemned for speculations for virtuous rules of action.
If obligatory abstention from marital sexual union is virtuous then yes they were virtuous. But for a sola-scriptura group they were definitely anti-Scripture on this one, least it is difficult to see how one should ‘go forth and multiply’ if celibacy within the marital union is the expected norm!
They said that a Christian church should consist of good people, a Church had no power to frame any constitutions; it was not right to take any oaths;
The CC is so vast its members inevitably consist of the good the bad and the indifferent. So too with most mainstream Protestant denoms and non-Christian religious groups. But Christ did say He came not for the virtuous but for the sick as the virtuous had no need of a phycian. This is the teachings of Christ. When I was required to go into a court of law, I refused to take an oath on the Bible as I believed it to an immoral abuse of the Church’s Holy Book.
it was not lawful to kill mankind; the Church ought not to persecute people at all, even the wicked; the benefits of society should be available to all people; faith without works could not save a man;
It is universally accepted that to kill is wrong. The CC is particularly emphatic about this, hence such staunch defence of the unborn.
In my experience the Church does ot persecute but seek only to reconcile man to God. Social constructivism is not a religious obligation. But this is what successive Popes have been very vocal on the world stage about, critizing regimes who do not work for the common good.
there was no need for Priests, the Sacraments, and orders, and ceremonies of the Church of Rome were futile, expensive, oppressive, and wicked. They were decidedly anti-clerica.
Well it is difficult to see how we could celebrate the Mass without a Priest.
Mass has been celebrated since the foundation of Christianity. By the end of the first century AD the Mass was already an established standard form of worship. Pope St Sixtus decreed as early as 115 that ‘only ordained Priests should touch the sacred vessels that contained the Sacred Elements’. He also introduced the Sanctus into the Mass. This also testifies to belief in the Real Presence from the first century.
As for a sola-scriptura group saying there is no need for the Sacraments, they clearly did not know their Bible that well, else they would have been aware of Lk 22:19; Jn 20:23; Js 5:14;Mt 19:6! These are among the passages of Scripture which teach about the Sacraments.
The Albigensian “heresy”
They had very high moral standards and their actions showed their zeal for the purity of life. angered the pope.
It is hardly surprising they angered the Pope when they taught that it was wrong for husband and wife to have marital sex.
But of greater depravity was their teachings that suicide was an ideal to aspire to, particularly encouraging parents to kill their children before killing themselves.
Small wonder the Pope was angry at such obscenty.
They were condemned by the Lateran Council in 1139 and by the same in Tours in 1163. The RCC sent mission after mission to get them to return to the Roman Church and in 1189 they employed force. Pope Innocent III started a crusade against them and the first city they captured was Braziers, a city of 40,000 people. The Earl of Leicester asked the Abbott of Ceteaus, the Papal legate, What he was to do with the inhabitants of Braziers and the legate answered: “Kill them all. God knows His own.” This war carried on for 20 years until they were all wiped out. Town after town was taken, pillaged, and burnt. Nothing was left but a smoking waste. In 1229 the inquisition finished its work.(Schaff-Herzog, pp. 62-63)
This just does not deserve a response. It is pure fiction and historically incorrect.
It was not because of any heresy to the Scriptures but the fact that the people did not want to believe what the RCC was teaching as it was against Scripture. That’s what really happened but I am sure the RCC has recorded it differently.
It is interesting Cats and Dogs says 'there was no heresy to the Sciptures. Where in Sacred Scripture is it taught that ritual suicide is an ideal to aspire to? Where is it taught that parents should win God’s favour by performing human sacrifices?
I suggest that much of the demise of this group had more to do with them wiping themselves out as any act by an outside force.
A group which encourages simple folk to kill their children and then kill themselves is sick perverse and warped. Small wonder the CC acted and acted swiftly. It would not be the CC that I know love an cherish had it acted any differently.
