_consolamentum_ unless he had
renounced all marital relations. In this case, the woman "gave her
husband to God, and to the good men." It often happened, too, that
women, moved by the preaching of "the Perfected," condemned their
unconverted husbands to an enforced celibacy. This was one of the
results of the neo-Manichean teachings.

Moreover, they carried their principles so far as to consider it a
crime even to touch a woman.

They forbade a man to sit next to a woman except in case of
necessity. "If a woman touches you," said Pierre Autier, "you must
fast three days on bread and water; and if you touch a woman, you
must fast nine days on the same diet." At the ceremony of the
_consolamentum_, the Bishop who imposed hands on the future sister
took great care not to touch her, even with the end of his finger; to
avoid doing so, he always covered the postulant with a veil.

But in times of persecution, this over-scrupulous caution was
calculated to attract public attention. "The Perfected" (men and
women) lived together, pretending that they were married, so that
they would not be known as heretics. It was their constant care,
however, to avoid the slightest contact. This caused them at times
great inconvenience. While traveling, they shared the same bed, the
better to avoid suspicion. But they slept with their clothes on, and
thus managed to follow out the letter of the law: _tamen induti quod
unus alium in nuda carne non tangebat_.

Many Catholics were fully persuaded that this pretended love of
purity was merely a cloak to hide the grossest immorality. But while
we may admit that many of "the Perfected" did actually violate their
promise of absolute chastity, we must acknowledge that, as a general
rule, they did resist temptation, and preferred death to what they
considered impurity.

Many who feared that they might give way in a moment of weakness to
the temptations of a corrupt nature, sought relief in suicide, which
was called the _endura_. There were two forms for the sick heretic,
suffocation and fasting. The candidate for death was asked whether he
desired to be a martyr or a confessor. If he chose to be a martyr,
they placed a handkerchief or a pillow over his mouth, until he died
of suffocation. If he preferred to be a confessor, he remained
without food or drink, until he died of starvation.

The Cathari believed that "the Believers," who asked for the
_consolamentum_ during sickness, would not keep