when after death the powers of the air throng around and,
persecute, the soul flees into the first lodging of clay that it
finds.[2] Christ was a life-giving spirit, and the _boni homines_, the
"good men," as the Cathars called themselves, are his ambassadors. They
alone have kept the spiritual baptism with fire which Christ instituted,
and which has no connexion with the water baptism of John; for the
latter was an unregenerate soul, who failed to recognize the Christ, a
Jew whose mode of baptism with water belongs to the fleeting outward
world and is opposed to the kingdom of God. It would be interesting to
trace Bardesanes and the Syriac Hymn of the Soul in all this.

The Cathars fell into two classes, corresponding to the Baptized and the
Catechumens of the early church, namely, the Perfect, who had been
"consoled," i.e. had received the gift of the Paraclete; and the
_credentes_ or Believers. The Perfect formed the ordained priesthood,
were women no less than men, and controlled the church; they received
from the Believers unquestioning obedience, and as vessels of election
in whom the Holy Spirit already dwelt, they were adored by the faithful,
who were taught to prostrate themselves before them whenever they asked
for their prayers. For none but the Consoled had received into their
hearts the spirit of God's Son, which cries "Abba, Father." They alone
were become adopted sons, and so able to use the Lord's Prayer, which
begins, "Our Father, which art in heaven." The Perfect alone knew God
and could address him in this prayer, the only one they used in their
ceremonies. The mere _credens_ could at best invoke the living saint,
and ask him to pray for him.

All adherents of the sect seem to have kept three Lents in the year, as
also to have fasted Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays of each week; in
these fasts a diet of bread and water was usual. But a _credens_ under
probation for initiation, which lasted at least one and often several
years, fasted always. The life of a Perfect was so hard, and, thanks to
the inquisitors, so fraught with danger, that most Believers deferred
the rite until the death-bed, as in the early centuries many believers
deferred baptism. The rule imposed complete chastity. A husband at
initiation left his wife, committing her "to God and the gospel"; a wife
her husband. A male Perfect could not lay his hand on a woman without
incurring penance of a three-days' fast. All begetting of children