Albigenses

Albigenses, members of a heretical sect that flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries in southern France. The Albigenses believed that the principles of good and evil are in constant struggle and that matter is evil and only the human spirit is good. A crusade proclaimed by Pope Innocent III in 1208 broke the hold of the heresy, and a special inquisition was created in 1233 to convert the Albigenses.