Secondly, one would have to show that the
Cathari could have had sufficient knowledge of the Kabbalah at a formative period in the development of their own ideas to be materially influenced by it.
Epiphanius' account of the
Cathari is canon eight of Nicaea with explanatory glosses.
By the time the last
Cathari stronghold fell in 1244, what was left of the movement had gone underground.
The
Cathari and other medieval movements questioned the holiness of the church as well.
In addition to frayed morality, an equally prominent reason was contemporary antisacramental movements, especially the
Cathari, known as the Albigensians in southern France and as the Patarenes in Lombardy, who rejected the flesh and material creation as evil, concluding about sacraments that God does not act through evil instruments.
In this one can note a certain demonic element, as renewed study of the persecution of medieval movements like the
Cathari has illustrated.