The Cathar spiritual elite were called the Perfect, literally saints on earth whose task it was to help others renounce the material realm, sort of like Christian boddhisattvas. Each individual made a decision as to whether to dedicate oneself to the pursuit of the purely spiritual those who did not attain the higher spiritual plane were reincarnated to try it again in another life. Sexual mores were looser, church authority was disdained and women were treated as equals with men. : The Perfect Heresy: The Life and Death of the Cathars (9781861972705) by OShea. Therefore, the mundane things of the world didn't cause them much concern. The Cathars were part of a long heretical tradition of dualists, who believe that the material world is evil, and only the invisible, spiritual realm is good. Stephen OShea is a historian and the acclaimed author of Sea of Faith: Islam and Christianity in the Medieval Mediterranean World, The Perfect Heresy: The. But it is also a story well told, making it as much of a page turner as any good beach book. Stephen O'Shea's "The Perfect Heresy" has elements of both: it is a historical account of the Cathars, the heretical gnostic sect that flourished in what is now southern France during the 13th and 14th centuries.
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