Cathars Explained?

I developed a sort of fascination with the cathars. They were a religious sect in france during the middle ages.

Could anyone give me a more detailed rundown on them, their beliefs, and history?
 
Catholics have always been big fans of Celibacy but the Cathars took Celibacy so far they were declared by Catholics to be extremists. They believed in predestination, centuries before the Protestant reformation. This contracted that doctrine that everyone free-will. Going against the Church was a big deal back then.

The Pope called a crusade against them. Atrocities were committed. The Catholics justification even today is that Cathars had to be wiped out because they would have caused the extinction of the human race otherwise.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albigensian_Crusade
 
I read a theory that the 'Cathars' didn't actually exist but were the product of a 'moral panic' on part of the Catholic Church due to a misunderstanding of a nascent peasant revolt with a few religious overtones and the whole thing snowballed from there since at the time 'Southern France' was largely outside of the King of France's control and the 'Albigensian Crusade' let him reestablish control by wiping out the more disloyal nobility as 'heretics' and nip the revolt in the bud.

Personally I found the theory a bit weak but it would make for an interesting WI.
 
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