Note 69 — Chapter III · THE CATHARI.
Reading edition
P. Siculi op. cit.—Bleek’s Avesta, III. 4.—Haug’s Essays, 2d ed. pp. 244, 249, 286, 367.—Yajnavalkya, I. 37.
For the corresponding tenets of the Cathari, see Radulf. Ardent. T. I. p. ii. Hom. xix.—Ermengaudi contra Hæret. Opusc.—Epist. Leodiens. ad Lucium PP. III. (Martene. Ampl. Collect. I. 776-778).—Ecberti Schonaug. Serm. contra Catharos, Serm. I. viii. xi.—Gregor. Episc. Fanens. Disput. Catholici contra Hæret.—Monetæ adv. Catharos Lib. i. cap. 1.—Arch. de l’Inq. de Carcassonne (Coll. Doat, XXXII. f. 93).—Rainerii Saccon. Summa.—Cæsar. Heisterbac. Dial. Mirac. Dist. v. cap. 21.—Lib. Sentt. Inquis. Tolosan. pp. 92, 93, 249 (Limborch).—Lib. Confess. Inq. Albiens. (MSS. Bib. Nat. fonds latin 11847).—Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1163.
In a MS. controversial tract against the Cathari, dating from the end of the thirteenth century, the writer, following Moneta, states that their objections to the Old Testament sprang from four roots: first, the contradiction which seemed to exist between the Old and New Testaments; second, the changefulness of God himself, manifest in Scripture; third, the cruel attributes of God in Scripture; fourth, the falsehood ascribed to God. A single example will suffice of the arguments which the heretics advanced in support of their position. “They quote Genesis iii. ‘Behold, Adam has become as one of us.’ Now God says this of Adam after he had sinned, and he must have spoken truth or falsehood. If truth, then Adam had become like him who spoke and those to whom he spoke; but Adam after the fall had become a sinner, and therefore evil. If falsehood, then he is a liar; he sinned in so saying and thus was evil.” To this logic the orthodox polemic contents himself with the answer that God spoke ironically. Throughout the tract the reasoning ascribed to the Cathari shows them to possess a thorough acquaintance with Scripture, and the use which they made of it explains the prohibition of the Bible to the laity by the Church.—Archives de l’Inq. de Carcassonne, Coll. Doat, XXXVI. 91. (See Appendix.)
Yet the Catharan ritual published by Cunitz quotes Isaiah and Solomon. (Beiträge zu den theolog. Wissenschaften, B. IV. 1852, pp. 16, 26.)