Cathars and Templars

It's not clear if the process against the Templars was initiated by the Inquisition on the basis of suspected heresy or if the Inquisition itself was exploited by the king of France, Philip the Fair, who wanted the knights wealth. But in 1307 the King ordered the arrest of all Knights Templar across Europe and the seizure of all their assets. The Templars had simply become too powerful, too rich and too much of a threat to the crown. Like the Templars, the Cathars were mostly in the South of France, in cities like Toulouse. The Cathars main heresy was their belief in dualism: the evil God created the materialistic world and the good God created the spiritual world. Therefore, Cathars preached poverty, chastity, modesty and all those values which in their view helped people to detach themselves from materialism. To the Church in Rome, this was simply not acceptable.