Third Lateran Council (1179) – canon 27 against the Cathars and demonic dualism (Mansi vol. 22)

The Third Lateran Council (1179), the Eleventh Ecumenical Council, presided over by Alexander III, is the first ecumenical council to deal specifically with the Cathar heresy, which held a radical demonic dualism. Its canon 27 (Sicut ait beatus Leo) condemns the Cathars and establishes the canonical basis for the repression of the dualist heresy. Text in Mansi, Sacrorum Conciliorum vol. 22, col. 209-235.

Who were the Cathars?

The Cathars (“the pure”, in Greek) were a medieval heretical sect with origins in Balkan Manichaeism (the Bogomils of Bulgaria), which spread through southern France (Languedoc), northern Italy, and Spain between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. Their central doctrines:

• Absolute dualism: two eternal principles, the God of good (spirit) and the God of evil (the Devil, creator of matter)
• Evil Demiurge: the Devil would be the creator of the material world and of the human body
• Christ not true man: only the “appearance” of a man (Docetism)
• Rejection of the Catholic sacraments: baptism, Eucharist, and matrimony considered material and therefore demonic
• Ritual suicide (endura) to escape the material body
• Absolute vegetarianism: they forbade eating animals (creatures of the Devil)

The Cathars were radically opposed to the Catholic doctrine of the original goodness of creation and of the limited action of the demons. For them, the material world was completely demonic.

Latin text, canon 27 (Mansi vol. 22, col. 231-232)

“Sicut ait beatus Leo, licet Ecclesiastica disciplina, sacerdotali contenta iudicio, cruentas refugiat ultiones, catholicorum tamen Principum constitutionibus adiuvatur, ut saepe quaerant homines salutiferum remedium, dum corporale super se metuunt evenire supplicium. Eapropter, quia in Gasconia, Albigesio et partibus Tolosanis et aliis locis ita haereticorum quos alii Catharos, alii Patarinos, alii Publicanos, alii aliis nominibus vocant, invaluit damnata perversitas, ut iam non in occulto, sicut alibi, nequitiam suam exerceant, sed errorem suum publice manifestent, et ad consensum suum simplices attrahant et infirmos: eos et defensores eorum et receptatores anathemati decernimus subiacere.”

English translation, canon 27

“As the blessed Leo says, although ecclesiastical discipline, content with priestly judgment, shrinks from bloody vengeance, it is nevertheless supported by the constitutions of Catholic Princes, so that men may frequently seek the saving remedy, while they fear that bodily punishment may fall upon them. Therefore, since in Gascony, in Albi, in the regions of Toulouse, and in other places, the condemned perversity of the heretics, called by some Cathars, by others Patarenes, by others Publicans, by others by other names, has so prevailed that they no longer exercise their wickedness in secret, as in other places, but publicly manifest their error and draw the simple and the weak to their consent: we decree that these, together with their defenders and harborers, be subject to anathema.”

What is specifically condemned

Canon 27 of Lateran III condemns:

1. Cathar dualist doctrine: two eternal principles (good and evil)
2. Attribution of creation to the Devil
3. Rejection of the sacraments
4. Denial of the real Incarnation of Christ
5. The practice of the endura (spiritually justified suicide)

The text quoted: Saint Leo the Great

Canon 27 opens with the quotation “Sicut ait beatus Leo” (As the blessed Leo says), referring to Letter 15 of Saint Leo the Great (449), which had already condemned Priscillianism (the Hispano-Gallic dualist heresy). Lateran III thus establishes a magisterial continuity of more than 700 years against dualism:

• 449: Saint Leo the Great, Letter 15 against Priscillianism
• 561: First Council of Braga, 13 anathemas against dualism
• 1139: Lateran II, canon 23 (precedent)
• 1179: Lateran III, canon 27 (present)
• 1215: Lateran IV, Firmiter credimus against the Cathars
• 1229: Council of Toulouse, the Inquisition against the Cathars

Implications for Catholic demonology

Lateran III establishes fundamental principles that are the basis of all subsequent Catholic demonology:

1. The Devil is not an eternal principle opposed to God
2. The Devil is not the creator of anything: God alone creates
3. The Devil has no absolute power: his actions are limited by divine sovereignty
4. Matter is good: created by God for holy ends
5. The body is not a prison of the soul: but a temple of the Holy Spirit
6. The material sacraments are salvific: not demonic
7. Extreme asceticism (the endura) is forbidden: suicide does not redeem

The Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229)

In response to the persistence of the Cathars after Lateran III, in 1209 Pope Innocent III summoned the Albigensian Crusade, a military operation against the Cathars of southern France. This was one of the darkest pages in the history of the Church, with massive destruction (Béziers, Carcassonne, etc.). Lateran IV (1215) was convoked in part to deal with the consequences.

Doctrinal legacy

The condemnation of Cathar demonic dualism at Lateran III was confirmed and deepened:

• Lateran IV (1215) Firmiter credimus: a positive definition, “God is the one creator of all things”
• Florence, Cantate Domino (1442): takes up Lateran IV again
• Roman Catechism (1566): post-Tridentine synthesis
• CDF, Fede e Demonologia (1975): contemporary, rejects any dualism

The Cathars and the New Age movement

Although extinct by the fourteenth century, the Cathars have come to influence modern currents once again:

• New Age movements that teach a cosmic dualism
• Modern gnosis (Helena Blavatsky, Annie Besant)
• Psychological Manichaeism (Carl Jung on the “shadow”)
• Neo-Cathar romanticism in some esoteric circles of southern France

The condemnation of Lateran III remains current against these revivals of demonic dualism.

Further reading

Fourth Lateran Council (1215) | First Council of Braga (561) | CDF Fede e Demonologia | Florence Cantate Domino

See also: What is Angelology? The angels in the Bible and in the Magisterium