INTRODUCTION
Catharism is a religion based on salvation according to a re-interpretation of the New Testament and a Gnostic interpretation of the Gospel of Saint John. Although it was an authentic form of Christianity, its belief in the two creative principles of Good and Evil, and its refusal to acknowledge all the sacraments of the church of Rome, soon made it appear to threaten official Christianity which considered it to be heretical. The Catharist movement reached western Europe in the 11th century and spread throughout Italy, France, Catalonia, Germany and England, however it was in the lands of the Counts of Toulose, where the traditional tolerance of the local lords greatly promoted its penetration. In 1167 the council of St. Félix of Lauragais founded four Catharist bishoprics (Agen, Toulouse, Carcassone and Albi) and it developed as a true “Adversary church”. It was much less hierarchical than the church of Rome and made use of “prefects”, known as “bon homes” (good men and good women). It provided a very modern lesson on relations between man and power, money and sexuality, deeply opposed to the power of Rome. A great number of these “prefects” died at the stake. The end of the Catharist movement coincided with the suffering of Belibaste, the last “known” prefect who, on returning from exile in Catalonia was burnt alive in Villerouge Terménès (in the Corbières area) in 1321.