NP whatsoever Re: Cathars and sex

[Sebastian Dangerfield]

I know this has gone very far afield indeed, but I just had to root out
something on this . . . if only to figure out why I had this dim memory
of the Cathars as embracing a Gnosticism laced with a free-love ethos. 
Unfortunately, like many heretical sects, a good deal of what has been
passed down as the history of the sects comes from the Catholic Church,
which is not necessarily the most reliable source wrt competing cults. 
(For a few thoughts on the Cathars from arch-Inquisitor Bernard ("Vond")
Gui, see ttp://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/gui-cathars.html).  Since
the Church launched one of its intra-European Crusades against the sect,
much of what it said, like Augustine's appraisal fo the Gnostic sects
earlier, must be regarded with some skepticism.  Thus how much of the
Cathars' reputation for tolerating sexual license is the result of the
Church's propaganda and how much is based in fact, I don't know.

That said, here are some tentative conclusions:  The sect consisted of
the dyed-in-the-wool believers, the _perfecti_, who embraced a rigorous
ascetic regime, including abstention from marriage, sex, meat, and quite
a few of life's other delicacies.  For the general run of believers,
however, the strictures were relaxed.  Sex was fine, so long as it did
not result in procreation . . . leading no doubt to some interesting and
fun variations on heterosexual intercourse.  This latter feature was no
doubt exagerrated by the Church during its campaign to wipe out the sect.
 (Though there is a present-day group calling itself the Cathars, and I
believe there is some doctrinal link between them and the Heavan's Gate
folks).  

Unfortunately, leaving aside the bigotry of the Church, there is a lot of
fatuous nonsense floating around about the Cathars--their putative
custody of the Holy Grail, their supposed link tot he Historical Jesus,
said to have not been crucifed, but rather gone off to the South of
France where he had lots of kids, thus founding the Merovingian Dynasty,
etc.  Thus it is peculiarly difficult to find anything relable about
them.  Doubtless someone with some credibility, say Elaine Pagels or
Emmanuel Roy Ladurie has written about them.  But since books by neither
are handy at the moment I offer a sampling of what my net dragged up on
my trawl through cyberia this morning. 

>From the Catholics, the following:
<http://www.sni.net/advent/cathen/01267e.htm>

The dualism of the Albigenses [another name for the Cathars, after Albi,
a town in Southern France --SD] was also the basis of their moral
teaching. Man, they taught, is a living contradiction. Hence, the
liberation of the soul from its captivity in the body is the true end of
our being. To attain this, suicide is commendable; it was customary among
them in the form of the endura (starvation). The extinction of bodily
life on the largest scale consistent with human existence is also a
perfect aim. As generation propagates the slavery of the soul to the
body, perpetual chastity should be practiced. Matrimonial intercourse is
unlawful; concubinage, being of a less permanent nature, is preferable to
marriage. Abandonment of his wife by the husband, or vice versa, is
desirable. Generation was abhorred by the Albigenses even in the animal
kingdom. Consequently, abstention from all animal food, except fish, was
enjoined. Their belief in metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls,
the result of their logical rejection of purgatory, furnishes another
explanation for the same abstinence. To this practice they added long and
rigorous fasts. The necessity of absolute fidelity to the sect was
strongly inculcated. War and capital punishment were absolutely
condemned.

This snippet comes from the page, "Illuminations," a rather loathsomely
new-agey site.  But the following, the provenance of which I will not
vouch for, was, I thought, rather fun:

The Bogomils and the Cathars appear to differ from the earlier Marcionite
and Manichaean dualists in their teachings on sexuality, at least for
ordinary believers. Most of the older dualists called for the strictest
asceticism - no meat or other animal foods, no wine, and no sexual
activity. Marriage was opposed for several reasons. It is an attachment
based on the body and its sexual appetites....In addition, marriage
clearly promotes the bearing of children, which implies bringing new
spiritual beings under the         domination of fleshly bodies and so
helping the cause of Evil....Because normal heterosexual intercourse is
conducive to reproduction, it was discouraged, and various alternative
forms of sexual activity encouraged in its place; the vulgar expression
'bugger' is a corruption of 'Bulgar', the name often given the Bogomils
in the West because of their Balkan origin. Although these medieval
Manichaeans did permit ordinary believers to live self-indulgent,
licentious lives, it was expected that all Cathars would receive the
ceremony of the consolamentum before death and thus die pure."
                   - Harold O.J. Brown, Heresies 

I promise to post no more on this subject.  

With apologies,

Sebastian, who is determined to make the "Pointless Information" label
stick


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