Noun
a Christian religious sect in southern France in the 12th and 13th centuries; believers in Albigensianism
Source: WordNetYou know, the Cathars believed that the world was not created by God but by a demon who had stolen a few technological secrets from Him and made this world - which is why it doesn't work. Eugène Ionesco
Actually, most of the promoted Cathar castles were not built by Cathars but by local lords and later many of them were rebuilt and extended for strategic purposes. Source: Internet
Although it has been proposed that the witch-hunt developed in Europe from the early 14th century, after the Cathars and the Templar Knights were suppressed, this hypothesis has been rejected independently by two historians (Cohn 1975; Kieckhefer 1976). Source: Internet
Anne Bradford Townsend, The Cathars of Languedoc as heretics: From the Perspectives of Five Contemporary Scholars, page 147 (UMI Microform, ProQuest, 2008). Source: Internet
As the Languedoc was supposedly teeming with Cathars and Cathar sympathisers, this made the region a target for northern French noblemen looking to acquire new fiefs. Source: Internet
Decisions of Catholic Church councils—in particular, those of the Council of Tours (1163) and of the Third Council of the Lateran (1179)—had scarcely more effect upon the Cathars. Source: Internet