Krieg der Kirche gegen die Katharen
By Eric Wynants
During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the region known as the Languedoc, spreading approximately southward from the Loire to the Pyrenees down into Arragon and eastward to the Rhone, became the most highly civilized area of Western Europe. Its fertile soil and pleasant climate provided the means for a leisurely life. The Rhone and the Garonne were notable routes of communication and the passage of many Crusaders on their way to the East gave an immense stimulus to trade. Above all the Moslem conquest of Spain had brought the influence of Arabic culture. The larger cities had schools of medicine, mathematics and astrology where Arabian scholarship was imparted. Jews were not debarred from public life and were highly respected as doctors and teachers. The Catholic Church no longer held the monopoly of knowledge; and were gradually losing their power hold in the Languedoc.
Katharen
The Manicheans saw in the search for the evil itself the beginning of the transformation. This search was an act of cognition. What is the origin of evil? Evil is in the first instance a displaced good. What in one sphere or at one time is right and good, is evil in another sphere or at another time.
The Manichaens believed that in the course of repeated earth lives the light element will be victorious over the darkness, in a process of gradual soul-transformation. Man will become a co-fighter of the King of Light against the Regent of Darkness.
The Cathars were part of the movement of the "poor," dating back to older times. And of which, for example, the hermits who, at the beginning of the Christian era, lived around the Mediterranean were a part. During the 12th century, this movement was taken up idealistically by the people at large. The way into poorness was in reality the way into the deeper realms of the higher "I." The "Monachos" went all the way within, to have a dialogue with "God." Wealth, therefore, was being rejected by the Cathars as "external." The way of the Troubadour, on the other hand, valued the ego as a result of self-knowledge. The values contained in the ego, had to come to fruition in order to reach completion. So the Cathars represented more the inward path, the Troubadours the other.
During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the region known as the Languedoc, spreading approximately southward from the Loire to the Pyrenees down into Arragon and eastward to the Rhone, became the most highly civilized area of Western Europe. Its fertile soil and pleasant climate provided the means for a leisurely life. The Rhone and the Garonne were notable routes of communication and the passage of many Crusaders on their way to the East gave an immense stimulus to trade. Above all the Moslem conquest of Spain had brought the influence of Arabic culture. The larger cities had schools of medicine, mathematics and astrology where Arabian scholarship was imparted. Jews were not debarred from public life and were highly respected as doctors and teachers. The Catholic Church no longer held the monopoly of knowledge; and were gradually losing their power hold in the Languedoc.
Katharen
The Manicheans saw in the search for the evil itself the beginning of the transformation. This search was an act of cognition. What is the origin of evil? Evil is in the first instance a displaced good. What in one sphere or at one time is right and good, is evil in another sphere or at another time.
The Manichaens believed that in the course of repeated earth lives the light element will be victorious over the darkness, in a process of gradual soul-transformation. Man will become a co-fighter of the King of Light against the Regent of Darkness.
The Cathars were part of the movement of the "poor," dating back to older times. And of which, for example, the hermits who, at the beginning of the Christian era, lived around the Mediterranean were a part. During the 12th century, this movement was taken up idealistically by the people at large. The way into poorness was in reality the way into the deeper realms of the higher "I." The "Monachos" went all the way within, to have a dialogue with "God." Wealth, therefore, was being rejected by the Cathars as "external." The way of the Troubadour, on the other hand, valued the ego as a result of self-knowledge. The values contained in the ego, had to come to fruition in order to reach completion. So the Cathars represented more the inward path, the Troubadours the other.
posted by alvaro @ 12:17 AM
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