The Albigensian Heresy

Summary

The interest and importance of the so-called Albigensian Heresy[1] lie in the fact that while it bears "a local habitation and a name," its actual habitation was not local, and its name is misleading. Its origin must be traced back to pre-Christian Ages, and its fruits will remain for ages to come. Its current title is inexact and incomplete; inexact, because Albi was not the fons et origo of a movement which, although it took deepest root in Southern France, was sporadic throughout Central and Western Europe; incomplete, because the movement was not one heresy, but many, defying rigid classification, heterogeneous, self-contradictory, yet united in opposition to the Church of Rome.