From such sources as those indicated above, it may be concluded with tolerable certainty that the Albigenses were part of that great new-Manichean heresy, which, taking its rise amongst the Slav populations of the Balkan peninsula, gradually spread over almost every part of Western Europe, leaving traces of its name and aspirations in more than one modern language. The self-laudatory term of Cathari (from the Greek word καθαρός, pure) assumed by some of the heretics, was converted by the Germans into the generic term of ‘Ketzer,’ or heretic; and the Italian word ‘bugiardo,’ liar, is a lasting testimony of the repute in which Bulgarian veracity, deservedly or undeservedly, was held; not to mention other still more opprobrious epithets derived from the same root. In common with other new-Manichean sects, the Albigenses seem to have rejected a Trinity, and to have placed in its stead a dualism of creative principles: one good, the other evil; one representing the invisible and spiritual, the other the physical and tangible. More obnoxious perhaps than this merely speculative attempt at the solution of an old metaphysical problem must have been, in the eyes of Romish priests, those doctrines which more immediately clashed with Papal dogmas and rites. To these belong the abolishment of mass and sacraments, and of the veneration of the saints. The idea of transubstantiation the Albigenses treated with scorn, and, moreover, they founded this and other heterodox opinions on the exclusive authority of the Bible, or rather of the New Testament, for against the Hebrew books they had a strange prejudice. The spiritual tinge of their doctrine made them adverse to marriage or any form of sexual intercourse, from which indeed the initiated abstained totally. From a similar point of view we have to explain another of their moral precepts, viz., vegetarianism, founded not on the nature-worship of Buddhism, or on Shelley s humanitarian enthusiasm, but on the abhorrence of the flesh and everything procreated by the flesh. For the same reason the prohibition did not extend to fish. It is less apparent on what grounds they insisted upon another demand of modern philanthropists, the abolition of capital punishment. And it is not unlikely that our admiration of this almost unique instance of humanity in those cruel times would be considerably diminished by our knowledge of its motive. Most probably some absurd theological crotchet was at the bottom of it. For in that respect mediæval heretics were by no means in advance of their Catholic contemporaries. One of the questions, for instance, hotly discussed by Pope Innocent III. and the heretics, was, whether the number of nails used at the Crucifixion was three or four. The heretics inclined to the lower figure, and were soundly rated for that reason by a learned controversialist, who denounces their doctrine as unworthy of Catholics and Christians.