ter replied: "Of strangers." Jesus saith to him: "Then
are the children free (of every obligation)."[1]

[1] Matt. xvii. 24, 25.

The Cathari quoted these words to justify their refusal of allegiance
to princes. Were they not disciples of Christ, whom the truth had
made free? Some of them not only disputed the lawfulness of taxation,
but went so far as to condone stealing, provided the thief had done
no injury to "Believers."[1]

[1] Contrary to the Catholic teaching, the Cathari absolved those who
stole from "non-believers," without obliging them to make
restitution. Doellinger, _Beitraege_, vol. ii, pp. 248, 249, cf. pp.
245, 246.

Some of the Cathari admitted the authority of the State, but denied
its right to inflict capital punishment. "It is not God's will," said
Pierre Garsias, "that human justice condemn any one to death;" and
when one of the Cathari became consul of Toulouse, he wrote to remind
him of this absolute law. But the _Summa contra haereticos_ asserts:
"all the Catharan sects taught that the public prosecution of crime
was unjust, and that no man had a right to administer justice;"[1] a
teaching which denied the State's right to punish.

[1] _Summa contra haereticos_, ed. Douais, p. 133, Moneta, op. cit.,
p. 513.

The Cathari interpreted literally the words of Christ to Peter: "All
that take the sword shall perish with the sword,"[1] and applied the
commandment _Non occides_ absolutely. "In no instance," they said,
"has one the right to kill another;"[2] neither the internal welfare
of a country, nor its external interests can justify murder. War is
never lawful. The soldier defending his country is just as much a
murderer as the most common criminal. It was not any special aversion
to the crusades, but their horror of war in general, that made the
Cathari declare the preachers of the crusades murderers.

[1] Matt. xxvi. 52.

[2] Cf. Doellinger, _Beitraege_, vol. ii, p. 199.

These anti-Catholic, anti-patriotic, and anti-social theories were
only the negative side of Catharism. Let us now ascertain what they
substituted for the Catholic doctrines they denied.

Catharism, as we have already hinted, was a hodgepodge of pagan
dualism and Gospel teaching, given to the world as a sort of reformed
Christianity.

Human souls, spirits fallen from heaven into a material body which is
the work of the Evil Spirit, were subject on this earth to a
probation, which was ended by Christ, or rather by t