Cathar teachings shared by the Waldensians became defining features of Protestant belief. Many of these teachings follow from the rejection of Roman Catholic "tradition" in favour of scripture. Examples include the rejection of a priesthood, the rejection of graven images and the idolatry associated with them, and a rejection of the Roman Church's sacraments.
Protestants, like Cathars, rejected the medieval Roman doctrine of transubstantiation and infant baptism. Like Cathars and Waldensians , Protestant Churches encourage laymen to read the scriptures for themselves. Most accept women as ministers, and most affirm the dignity of labour. Churchmen themselves are increasingly working for a living rather than living off tithes. Protestant theology is that of mitigated dualism, embracing predestination and rejecting the Catholic position on Free Will. Protestants, like Cathars, reject the medieval Roman Catholic notion of Purgatory, along with the practice of praying for the dead, and the entire system of indulgences. In the last century, mainstream Protestant Churches moved closer still to the beliefs of the Cathars. Contraception is not merely permitted but positively encouraged by Protestant theologians. Many Protestants are Universalists, believing in the eventual redemption of all.
Even belief in re-incarnation is now increasingly common among mainstream Christians.
Proto-Protestants, such as Anabaptists, and later non-conformists like the Quakers adopted even more Cathar and Waldensian ideas. They refused to swear oaths - even commercial and legal oaths. They refused to sit in judgement. They practised poverty as well as preaching it. They refused to kill - even in war. Along with a priesthood they rejected special vestments, church buildings, relics, and the hierarchy of Archbishops, Metropolitans, Primates, Popes and Patriarchs.
Among minority sects one can find yet more Cathar ideas still flourishing today. Pentecostalists still celebrate baptism by fire rather than water. The so-called House Church movement rejects the idea of church buildings. And Jehovah's Witness still believe the Roman Church to be the Church of Satan. Catharism may have been exterminated long ago, but every single one of its teachings is still flourishing today.
Click on the following link for a summary of Cathar
ideas adopted by Roman Catholics
.
Click on the following link to read an on-line copy of
a book published by the American Tract Society in 1866,
giving a Protestant account of the the persecution of proto-Protestants,
Vaudois and Cathars: W. Carlos Martyn,
A History of the Huguenots
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