Albigenses

Albigenses, the heretics—especially the Catharist heretics—of 12th–13th-century southern France. (See Cathari.) The name, apparently given to them at the end of the 12th century, is hardly exact, for the movement centred at Toulouse and in nearby districts rather than at Albi (ancient Albiga). The heresy, which had penetrated into these regions probably by trade routes, came originally from eastern Europe. It is exceedingly difficult to form any very precise idea of the Albigensian doctrines because...