Smith,”The Lost Teachings of the Cathars – Their Beliefs & Practices” (reviewed by Catherine C. Peterson)

Review
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Title: The Lost Teachings of the Cathars – Their Beliefs & Practices
Author: Andrew Phillip Smith
Publisher: Watkins (www.watkinspublishing.com)
Genre: History
Year Published: 2015
Number of Pages: 260
Binding: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-78028-715-7
Price: US $14.95

Reviewed by Catherine C. Peterson for the Association for Mormon Letters

At the base of Montsegur (secure mountain) in the Languedoc region of France, at the Field of the Burned stands a stele inscribed, “The Cathars, martyrs of pure Christian love. March 16th, 1244.” Andrew Phillip Smith’s book, *The Lost Teachings of the Cathars – Their Beliefs and Practices,* explains the theology, sacraments and history of the Cathars, a religious sect persecuted and destroyed by the powerful Catholic Church. After resorting to the stronghold of Montsegur to defend themselves against the siege of the crusaders, remaining Cathars were captured and burned alive in a mass conflagration, killing over 200 and virtually wiping out those who dwelt in the area. Later, other Cathars in Italy would suffer a similar fate.

Because the Cathars would not renounce their faith under pressure to do so, nor would they convert to Catholicism, they became the focal point of the Albigensian Crusade which gave impetus to the Inquisition. Interestingly, most of the written beliefs of the Cathars were scrupulously recorded by the Inquisitors as evidence of heresy. This book, although well researched, only proves the difficulty of tracing any religious sect after the biblical Christian era, and can only express themes where assumptions can be set forth by culling information from any written records, geographic evidence, folktales, traditions and oral histories.

The book includes allusions and stories connecting the Cathars with the modern lore of Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail, troubadours, Mary Magdalene as the wife of Jesus, dualism between the spiritual realm and the material world, reincarnation, religious ritual and practice, the journey of the soul, hidden treasure, the Crusaders and the Inquisition. Of particular interest to Latter-day Saints who are students of Gnosticism, the Great Apostasy, gospel ordinances, the Plan of Salvation, Mary Magdalene as the wife of Jesus, there are facets of Cathar legend and history that have similarities to LDS belief. A few examples follow from the book:

1. “… it is interesting to see a version of Catharism in which marriage and family was respected to the extent that it would be resumed in heaven” (Eternal Marriage)

2. “The imposition of hands that took place during the consolamentum was the baptism of the Holy Spirit” (Confirmation)

3. “… there were appeals for a pardon from God, … used in the monthly ceremony of the apparellamentum” (Fast and Testimony Meeting)
However, the hierarchy, called the Perfects, did not eat meat, abstained from sexual intercourse, and believed that individuals who could not reach the level of Perfect had to be reincarnated. Souls must pass through as many carnal bodies, human and animal, necessary for progression and purification to enter heaven, where the true spirits and God reside. Obviously, for the culture to continue there had to be reproduction or numerous conversions. Thus, a lower strata, called Believers, lived at a more base and carnal level, making potential Perfect babies, and providing defense and material support to the Perfects. The interpretations of rules and customs varied between locales and decades and were bent to optimize survival of the Cathars.

The Cathars have spawned a renewed interest in their history in our day and age, and even now “Neo-Cathars” attach meaning to those who were martyred for the cause of God and choose to follow Cathar teachings according to their interpretations.  Novels, movies, music and Cathar Country tourism testify of the continuing appeal of the Cathar sect. Probing questions such as “Who am I?,” “Where did I come from?,” “How long have I existed?,” “What will become of me?, “What is my relationship to God?” have been pondered by many. *The Lost Teachings of the Cathars* gives historical evidence of the conflicting ideas answering those questions and attempts to trace a history and context for readers interested in tracing the diffusion of the Christian sects and schools of thought. The Gnostics, Manichaeans, Bogomils and even Buddhism carry parallels that are infused within Catharism. Unfortunately for the Cathars, they did not survive the barbarity of the Inquisition, but left an inspirational story and myth for us to explore.

As we search for meaning in life, we join those who have gone before us, attempting to understand the spiritual realm and our places in it.  As illustrated in *The Lost Teachings of the Cathars*, “Good Men” and “Good Women” strove through ritual and practice to rise from the materialism assigned to our fallen state to the spiritual realm deemed the pinnacle of our existence. Smith has given us a gift and glimpse of this universal quest in this book.