Albigensianism was a controversial religious belief during the middle ages, which caused some issues, including a conflict known as the Albigensian crusade. But what did the Albigensian’s believe exactly? Why was this belief so problematic?
The belief of Albigensianism is rather similar to the belief of Manichaeism(a belief that there was a good and an evil spirit). Albigensian’s instead of believing in two spirits believed in two gods: a good god and an evil god. Also they believed that the spirit is good and that matter is evil. Because the spirit is good, the good god controls all things in relation to the spirit, and because matter is evil, the evil god controls all things in relation to matter.
Because of this belief Albigensian’s rejected worldly pleasures, they did this by not eating much, living in poverty, and not having children. Also because the human body is in the category of matter and is considered evil, pregnant women were shamed and hated upon by Albigensian’s. Because of the supposed belief that pregnant women brought more evil to the world.
There were two “classes” of Albigensian’s: the “believers” and the “perfect.” The “perfect,” were the people who completely devoted their lives to the belief of Albigensianism. The” believers” on the other hand are the people who believed in Albigensianism but could not fully devote their lives to the belief.
So in short, the Albigensians believed in two gods; a good god who was in control of all things related to the spirit(which is considered good in the Albigensians belief), and an evil god who was in control of all things that was related to matter(which is considered evil in the Albigensians belief).
The Dreamer 