ALBIGENSES, a Sect or Party of Reformers about Toulouse, and the Albigenses, in Languedoc; who, in the XIIth Century, became remarkable for their opposition to the Discipline and Ceremonies of the Church of Rome. See REFORMATION.
They were also known by various other Names; as, the Petrobrusians, Arnoldists, Cathars, Patarenes, Publicans, Tisserands, Bons-hommes, Passagiers, &c.
They were also known by various other names; as, the Petrobrusians, Arnoldists, Cathars, Patarenes, Publicans, Tisserands, Bons-hommes, Passagers, &c.
It is pretended, they received their opinions from Bulgaria; which having been infected by the Paulicians of Armenia, disseminated the same into Italy, Germany, &c., and that Peter Bruys was the first that brought them into Languedoc, about the year 1126. See PETROBRUSIAN.
The Romanists tax them with an abundance of heterodox opinions; as, for instance, that there are two Gods, one infinitely good, and the other infinitely evil: that the good God made the invisible world, and the evil one that which we live in; and the rest of the Manichean tenet. See MANICHEE. But this seems rather one of those pious frauds allowed particularly in that church, which esteems it a kind of merit to blacken heretics. However this be, the Albigenses grew so formidable in a little time, that a Holy League or Crusade was agreed upon among the Catholics; and war denounced against them, the Pope himself raising the first standard. In 1229, a peace was struck up, and an Inquisition established at Toulouse; from which time they dwindled by little and little, till the times of the Reformation; when such of them as were left, fell in with the Waldenses, and became conformable to the doctrine of Zwingli, and the discipline of Geneva. See WALDENSES.
