There are 20 references to Cathars in this document. As a factual clarification, the term “Cathars” derives from the Greek word Katheroi and means “Pure Ones". They were a gnostic Christian sect of tolerant pacifists that arose in the 11th century, an offshoot of a small surviving European gnostic community that emigrated to the Albigensian region in the south of France.The medieval Cathar movement flourished in the 12th century A.D. throughout Europe until its virtual extermination at the hands of the Inquisition in 1245. There are an ever increasing number of historians and other academics engaged in serious Cathar studies. Interestingly, to date, the deeper they have dug, the more they have vindicated claims that medieval Catharism represented a survival of the earliest Christian practices. Thank you! Brad Hoffstetter Communications Division Assembly of good Christians www.cathar.net Some credible sources: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/ http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook....