iny of "the Believers;" it gave
them the right to receive the _consolamentum_ on their death-bed.
This remitted all the sins of their life. Only one thing could
deprive them of "this good end," viz., the absence of one of the
Perfected, who alone could lay hands upon them.

Those who died without the Catharan _consolamentum_ were either
eternally lost, or condemned to begin life anew with another chance
of becoming one of "the good men." These transmigrations of the soul
were rather numerous. The human soul did not always pass directly
from the body of a man into the body of another man. It occasionally
entered into the bodies of animals, like the ox and the ass. The
Cathari were wont to tell the story of "a good Christian," one of
"the Perfected," who remembered, in a previous existence as a horse,
having lost his shoe in a certain place between two stones, as he was
running swiftly under his master's spur. When he became a man he was
curious enough to hunt for it, and he found it, in the self-same
spot. Such humiliating transmigrations were undoubtedly rather rare.
A woman named Sybil, "a Believer" and later on one of "the
Perfected," remembered having been a queen in a prior existence.

What the _Convenenza_ promised, the Catharan initiation or
_consolamentum_ gave; the first made "Believers," and predisposed
souls to sanctity; the second made "the Perfected," and conferred
sanctity with all its rights and prerogatives.

The _consolamentum_ required a preparation which we may rightly
compare with the catechumenate of the early Christians.

This probation usually lasted one year. It consisted in an honest
attempt to lead the life of "the Perfected," and chiefly in keeping
their three "lents," abstaining from meat, milk-food and eggs. It was
therefore called the time of abstinence (_abstinentia_). One of "the
Perfected" was appointed by the Church to report upon the life of the
postulant, who daily had to venerate his superior, according to the
Catharan rite.

After this probation, came the ceremony of "the delivery"
(_traditio_) of the Lord's Prayer. A number of "the Perfected" were
always present. The highest dignitary, the Bishop or "the Ancient,"
made the candidate a lengthy speech, which has come down to us:

"Understand," he said, "that when you appear before the Church of God
you are in the presence of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
as the Scriptures prove," etc. Then, having repeated the Lord's