Both Catholics and Cathars claimed that their ceremonies had been preserved from apostolic times.
Church historians now accept the validity of many Cathar claims, in particular the claim that their ceromonies and practices predated Catholic ones eg the Consolamentum, public confession, blessing bread without any suggestion of transubstantiation, spiritual succession, the rejection of baptism in water and of any priesthood, recognition of gnostic passages in the New Testament, and so on.
Back
to: Apostolic Succession
