Heretics
The discontent about the richness of
the church (1/3rd of all property and wealth in Europe) and the luxury in which the great
bishops lived led to another movement, the rise of various heresies during this century. Many
different groups rose of Christians who just wanted to live a more Christian life, but
other groups started having strange ideas.
The Waldensians - ‘founded’
by Peter Waldo c. 1173 - a merchant who gave away all his property to the poor in order to live a life
of “apostolic poverty” - eventually growing to distrust the priests and clergy who seemed to be
living such a good life, Waldo and his followers started preaching to people with or
without permission of the church.
The Cathari or Albigensians
- most strong in the area of southern France, this group was characterized by two important
elements - (1) a strong distrust and protest against the wealth and power of the clergy and
(2) teachings that basically came from Persia (e.g., there were two gods, one good, the
other evil; Christ was the ‘good god,’ who was purely spiritual with no real human body; a
person was reincarnated at death and the purpose of life was to break free from that
cycle)
Many of these heretical movements were
accompanied by outbreaks of hatred and mob activity against the heretics.
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