Catharism

Catharism appeared in the Rhineland, northern France, the Languedoc and northern Italy in the twelfth century; its first confirmed report comes from Cologne in 1143. The Cathars, named from the Greek word for the pure, probably drew on the Bogomils of the Balkans.

Souls were reborn until freed. Only the Perfect, who received the consolamentum, were sure of returning to God.

Innocent III proclaimed the Albigensian Crusade in 1208, the crusaders marched in 1209, and by 1244 Catharism was driven underground in the Languedoc. The Inquisition hunted the survivors, who lasted there until about 1325 and in the Italian cities into the fourteenth century.