ALBIGENSES

name applied about 1200 to religious sect, of southern France, offshoot of a movement in both Eastern and Western Christen dom. Their exact beliefs are uncertain, but they certainly disbelieved in the sacramental system of Catholicism and protested against clerical abuses. Many were Catharists. St. Bernard and St. Dominio tried to convert them, and they were finally crushed ad heretics with great cruelty in XIII. cent.