“The Albigensian Crusades” (True History – Part VII)

By Darryl Eberhart, Editor of ETI & TTT // Website: www.toughissues.org

A 2-Page Handout // All emphasis is mine unless otherwise stated. // August 31, 2009

 

DEFINITIONS (hopefully in alphabetical order):

 

“Albigenses” (Per Webster’s New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition; 2006): “A religious sect that flourished in the south of France c. A.D. 1020-1250 and was finally suppressed for heresy.”

 

“Albigenses” (Per Darryl Eberhart, Editor of ETI & TTT): “The Albigenses were Bible-believing Christians who lived in southern France, probably making up the majority of the inhabitants of that region by the 12th century. Both they and the Waldenses are most likely the descendents of the Bible-believing Paulicians. One writer (B.F. Wilkinson) describes the Albigenses as the ‘western portion of the Waldenses’. The Albigenses and Waldenses (or, Vaudois) were separate from Papal Rome, and wanted no part of the corruption and false doctrines of that established church. Alarmed at the rapid growth of these Bible-believing Christians (the Albigenses and the Waldenses), the Papacy sent army after army to slaughter these innocent Bible-believing Christians, and to loot their property. The Albigenses were exterminated as a people in southern France by these ‘papal’ armies via the Albigensian Crusades.”

 

“Albigenses” (Per Henry H. Halley; “Halley’s Bible Handbook”): “[Ed.: The Albigensian Christians] preached against the immoralities of the [Ed.: Roman Catholic] priesthood, pilgrimages, worship of saints and idols…opposed the [Ed: pompous and pretentious] claims of the Church of Rome; made great use of the Scriptures. …By 1167 they [Ed.: i.e., the Albigensian Christians] embraced possibly a majority of the population of South France. …In 1208 a crusade was ordered by Pope Innocent III; a bloody war of EXTERMINATION followed, scarcely paralleled in history. Town after town was put to the sword, and the inhabitants MURDERED without distinction of age or sex. …Within a hundred years the Albigenses were utterly rooted out.”

 

“Crime Against Humanity” (Per Webster’s New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition; 2006): “A mass killing or other atrocity committed in furtherance of a program of genocide.”

 

Ed. Comment to the preceding definition: It would be hard to find any “ecclesiastical organization” that has committed more “crimes against humanity” than the Roman Catholic Church. Papal Rome’s record of persecution, torture, and mass murder of Jews, Moslems, independent Bible-believing Christian groups, Protestants, and Orthodox Christians has been well documented throughout the centuries. If you doubt this, then please read my newsletter, “Bloody Hands & Wicked Hearts”, on website www.toughissues.org.

 

“Crusade” (Per Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language): “A military expedition undertaken by Christians [Ed.: more often than not, by Roman Catholics], for the recovery of the Holy Land, the scene of our Savior’s life and sufferings, from the power of infidels or Mohammedans [Ed.: i.e., Moslems]. Several of these expeditions were carried on from Europe, under the banner of the cross, from which the name originated.”

 

“Crusade” (Per Webster’s New World Dictionary, Second College Edition; 1974; first two meanings): “1. Any of the military expeditions which Christians [Ed.: to be more precise, Roman Catholics] undertook from the end of the 11th [Ed.: century] to the end of the 13th century to recover the Holy Land from the Moslems. 2. Any church-sanctioned war or expedition like this.”

 

Ed Comment to the preceding definition: The Papacy launched “holy” crusades against Bible-believing Christian groups, such as the Albigenses in southern France, and the Waldenses in southeastern France and northwestern Italy.

 

“Heretic” (Per Darryl Eberhart, Editor of ETI & TTT): “As concerns historical Roman Catholic use of this term: A ‘label’ applied by the Papacy to anyone who dared in the past, or who dares today, to question either (1) papal authority, or (2) any of the unscriptural doctrines based solely upon ‘tradition’ that have been promulgated by the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, such as ‘transubstantiation’, ‘indulgences’, ‘papal infallibility’, ‘purgatory’, ‘worship of images’, ‘a celibate priesthood’, ‘auricular confession to a priest’, etc. In past centuries, Papal Rome has also applied the label of ‘heretic’ to those individuals possessing, printing, or distributing Bibles.”

 

“Innocent III, Pope” (Per Darryl Eberhart, Editor of ETI & TTT): “Lotario was born circa 1161, and he died in 1216. He was pope from 1198 to 1216. This pope ruled Europe with an iron fist. Roman Catholic writer Peter de Rosa stated that ‘in pursuit of his aims’, Innocent III ‘shed more blood than any other pontiff’. In 1208 he ordered the launching of a crusade against the innocent, Bible-believing Albigensian Christians in southern France. Papal army after papal army invaded southern France, and exterminated the Albigensian Christians. Like other popes, he required ‘blind obedience’ to his orders. He stated: ‘Every cleric must obey the Pope, even if he commands what is evil; for no one may judge the Pope’.”

 

            Please carefully consider the following quotations:

 

            “When confronted with ‘heresy’, she [Ed.: i.e., the Roman Catholic Church] does not content herself with persuasion; arguments of an intellectual and moral order appear to her insufficient, and she has recourse to force, to corporal punishment, [Ed.: and] to torture.” – H.M.A. Baudrillart (Rector of the Catholic Institute of Paris)

 

            “The  [Ed.: Roman] Catholic Church has the right and duty to kill heretics because it is by fire and sword that heresy can be extirpated [Ed.: i.e., exterminated].” – Jesuit Marianus de Luce (1901)

 

            “Roman Catholicism was born in blood, has wallowed in blood, has quenched its thirst in blood, and it is in letters of blood that its true history is written.” – Baron DePonnat (French statesman; 1940)

 

            “From the birth of Popery [Ed.: i.e., Papal Rome] in 600, to the present time [Ed.: then 1845], it has been estimated by careful and credible historians that more than FIFTY MILLIONS [Ed.: emphasis in original] of the human family have been slaughtered for ‘the crime’ of ‘heresy’ by popish [Ed.: i.e., Roman Catholic] persecutors – an average of more than forty thousand religious murders for every year of the existence of Popery.” – John Dowling (“The History of Romanism: From the Earliest Corruptions of Christianity to the Present Time”; 1845)

 

“These religious crusades (carried out by armies dispatched on the orders of Papal Rome) and [accompanying] genocide (frequently in the form of State-Church genocide) were often directed at innocent peasants and farmers (e.g., Albigenses, Waldenses, French Huguenots, etc.) whose only ‘crimes’ were placing the Bible in higher authority than the pope, and refusing to recognize papal authority. These innocent people were falsely called ‘heretics’ (by the Roman Catholic hierarchy). Papal armies were raised (often using murderers, rapists, etc., who had been released from prisons) and sent to exterminate entire villages and regions.” – Darryl Eberhart (Editor of ETI & TTT newsletters; July 13, 2005)

 

“The Albigensian Crusades slash through the history of France and of the [Ed.: Roman Catholic] Church like a gaping wound. From 1208 to 1226 the papacy sent army after army to the South of France to crush the Albigensian ‘heretics’ and to punish their supporters. …They [Ed.: i.e., the Albigensian Crusades] began with a calculated act of terror, the massacre of [Ed.: large numbers of men, women, and children at] Beziers; they ended with the establishment of the Inquisition, one of the most effective means of ‘thought control’ that Europe has ever known. [Ed.: The papal army butchered about 20,000 citizens of the French city of Beziers, populated at that time by many Albigenses.] They [Ed.: i.e., the papal armies] were completely successful: The losing faith, the Albigensian ‘Heresy’, was exterminated. …Their disappearance as a social group was carefully planned and executed with persistent cruelty.” – Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn (“The History and Sociology of GENOCIDE”; 1990; Page 115)

 

NOTE: Papal Rome exterminated the Albigensian Christians, and then did all she could to destroy their reputation, falsely calling them “dualists” and “Manichaeans”. (The overwhelming majority of the Albigensian Bible-believing Christians were not dualists or Manichaeans!) The truth about this horrible Papal genocide must be told!

 

FURTHER RESEARCH:

1. For more information about the Albigenses – and the “crusades” launched against them – and the Inquisition, purchase a copy of the 58-minute DVD, “The Inquisition”, for $8 [includes S&H to U.S. locations]. Make check or money order payable to “Richard Bennett”, and mail it to: Richard Bennett // P.O. Box 192 // Del Valle, TX 78617.

2. For more information about the Albigensian Crusades, do a “google-style” search on the Internet for the book, “The History and Sociology of GENOCIDE”, by Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn. It has an excellent chapter dealing with the Albigensian Crusades – and has chapters dealing with other cases of genocide, such as the Holocaust.