"The Da Vinci Code" and the Albigenses

The much talked about book, "The Da Vinci Code", has been in the news recently because of the court case brought against the author, Dan Brown, by the authors of another book, "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail". This has led to a great boost in the sales for the latter book.

In many ways, this book is a greater danger to the ignorant than "The Da Vinci Code" as it is not a novel and seeks to prove what Dan Brown only states. It asserts that Christ was the leader of a dualistic sect, he was merely mortal, he was married to Mary Magdalene, he didn't die on the Cross, but Simon of Cyrene died in his place, the Gospels are untrustworthy, Peter and the other Apostles tried to suppress the truth and were jealous of Mary Magdalene, and various other attacks on the faith. The authors confess to be atheists and agnostics, but say that they didn't start out to destroy the faith of Christians, they were just fascinated in seeking out where certain evidence that they had uncovered led to.

The attacks on the Gospel are truly pathetic. Here is an example: Matthew states that wise men visited the baby Jesus in a house, but Luke states that shepherds visited him in a stable; therefore they contradict one another, and therefore we can’t trust them. But we can trust the Gnostic Gospels such as the Gospel of Thomas!

Of great concern to me, is their repetition of the lies told against an influential group of believers in medieval southern France, the Albigenses or Cathars. The amazing thing is that after stating that reading the evidence against them is a bit like reading what the SS and Gestapo said about the Jews, they go ahead and repeat the Romanists’ slanders.

The Romanists claim that the Albigenses were heretics who held to an ancient heresy called Manichaeism. This was the same slander placed upon the Paulicians and the Waldensians during the same period. (The Albigenses probably came from the Paulicians of the East.) Mani taught a dualistic religion where there is a constant battle between a good god who is spirit-oriented and a bad god who is material-oriented. He also taught that Jesus didn’t have a real body.

The Romanists led a crusade against the Albigenses under the pretence of heresy and utterly destroyed them. Noblemen were only too pleased to have an excuse to loot the lands that prospered so well under the influence of the Gospel. They were so thorough in extirpating these people and destroying their writings that the only evidence we have about them is from their enemies.

There is good reason to believe that the Albigenses were proto-protestants who separated themselves from the Roman Antichrist. J.A. Wylie writes about them (and the other proto-protestants) in his excellent “The History of Protestantism”. One of the best defences of the Albigenses was written by G.S. Faber as part of “The History of the Ancient Vallenses and Albigenses”.

I urge you to get to know the faithful Paulicians and Waldensians, and especially the much-maligned Albigenses. We are commanded to consider the works of God, and we should also stand up for our brethren who spilled their blood for the sake of the Truth.