Foi et doctrines chez les croyants des hérétiques

Abstract

The hope of salvation, a dominant preoccupation of the Cathar believers, seems to leave little place for heretical theses. Many of the depositions made before the Inquisition show them ignorant of the most fundamental doctrines. One must take care in drawing radical conclusions, because it only takes one simple believer to have a serious knowledge of heresy to invalidate this opinion. In the middle of the XIIIth century, the dossier compiled against Pierre Garcias du Bourget Nau is a brilliant proof of this. He often deploys a subtle argument to give the texts from Scripture a meaning consistent with his convictions. All these propositions find precise echoes in the Traité cathare anonyme, in the Summa quadripartite of Alain de Lille, and equally in the treatise of Moneta of Cremona. A simple believer, he is probably of oral culture, and his knowledge comes from long frequenting of heretical circles. He gives the name of those he holds responsible for his education, which leads one to believe that, as a believer who has a good knowledge of heresy, he is not alone.