The Cathars

[rainforests1]

They were victims of the Inquisition and would later become extinct. They were also believed to be vegetarian. One site claims they ate fish though. Obviously being vegetarian or even close to vegetarian must have been much more difficult in the 1100's and 1200's than it would be today. Does anyone know what the diet of the Cathars was generally like? Did they have good health?

 

[Amy SF]

I had to look them up, as I had never heard of them before. *blushes*

This is from the Wikipedia article on Catharism:

Killing was abhorrent to the Cathars. Consequently, abstention from all animal food (sometimes exempting fish) was enjoined of the Perfecti. The Perfecti avoided eating anything considered to be a by-product of sexual reproduction.[19]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharism

So it looks like they were vegetarians most of the time, but sometimes made an exception for fish. Since fish are sexually reproduced, I wonder why and how they made such an exception.

 

[kibbleforlola]

I've never heard of the Cathars before, but most people through the middle ages ate very little meat. It was expensive and most people just couldn't afford it, except for special occasions. The average person ate a diet mostly of barley and seasonal vegetables.

 

[rainforests1]

I wasn't familiar with them until recently either. It seems to me they were the victims of genocide. Would it be the first to happen in the world? What was the average calorie intake for Europeans at this time? Unless you eat a huge amount of barley, it couldn't be too high.

 

[das_nut]

Cathars were the people who indirectly gave us the phrase "Kill them all, let God sort 'em out".

Back during the Cathar heresy, there was a mixture of Cathars and non-Cathars in the south of France. After awhile, push came to shove, and the Catholics decided to kill the Cathars. But there was a problem - how to tell Cathar from Catholic?

During the Albigensian Crusade (military action against the Cathars), they decided to attack a city which had both Catholics and Cathars. There was a suggestion to let the Catholics escape - but the worry was that Cathars would claim to be Catholic in order to live.

So... Well, Wikipedia puts it best:

When they discovered, from the admissions of some of them, that there were Catholics mingled with the heretics they said to the abbot “Sir, what shall we do, for we cannot distinguish between the faithful and the heretics.” The abbot, like the others, was afraid that many, in fear of death, would pretend to be Catholics, and after their departure, would return to their heresy, and is said to have replied “Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius - Kill them all for the Lord knoweth them that are His” (2 Tim. ii. 19) and so countless number in that town were slain.