What was established during the Albigensian Crusade?

The term "Cathars" derives from the Greek Word Katheroi and means "Pure Ones". They were a gnostic Christian sect that arose in the 11th century, an offshoot of a small surviving European gnostic community that emigrated to the Albigensian region in the south of France.The medieval Cathar movement flourished in the 12th century A.D. throughout Europe until its virtual extermination at the hands of the Inquisition in 1245. This was also known as the Albigensian Crusade.

There are an ever increasing number of historians and other academics engaged in serious Cathar studies. Interestingly, to date, the deeper they have dug, the more they have vindicated Cathar claims to represent a survival of the Earliest Christian Church.

Thank you!

Brad Hoffstetter

Communications Division

Assembly of good Christians

http://www.cathar.net

May we suggest the following scholarly sources:

http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html

http://www.languedoc-france.info/1212b_moreinfo.htm