ALBIGENSES

ALBIGENSES were a religious sect, odious, as heretical, to the Church. The sect existed in the 12th-13th centuries in southern France. They were identified with the Cathars.

The sect sprung up about Albi, in the south of France, in the 12th century. Their teaching was a form of Manichaean dualism. They were extremely strict in moral and social code.

However, Pope Innocent III had proclaimed a crusade against them, which was carried on by Simon de Montfort in the 13th century, and by the Inquisition afterwards, to their utter annihilation.