With regard to why the Cathars didn't like John the Baptist
(although I'd be very interested to see the other sources stating this
besides Peter des Vaux-de-Cernay, because I didn't know of it) it
can't be as simple as a rejection of baptism by water just because
it is 'material'. Cathars had ways round this sort of thing when they
wanted to. They broke and blessed their bread after all. They
certainly regarded it as part of evil creation, but Bernard Hamilton
suggests that they justified it as they did many of their
compromises by 'glossing' it in a certain way. Just as they didn'r
lie, but were very often deliberately misleading, so they blessed
broke and shared bread, but called it 'suspersubstantial' bread
rather than 'daily bread' in their prayers and regarded it as spiritual
food in this context. And they laid on hands physically as part of
the consolamentum and gave presants to people who helped them.
So I think its wrong to think of them having nothing to do with the
physical world - sometimes they chose to, but haad to a justify it
to themselves. So if they thought John the Baptist had a useful
role in their understanding of the New Testament, they would have
found a way of glossing his use of 'water' in some metaphorical
sense.
But if they didn't like JtheB, I'm afraid I can't suggest why!
Claire
PS
Professor Hamilton's article doesn't discuss John the Baptist, but
is extremely good on the nature of Cathar theology and spirituality
on similar sorts of issues. Its 'The Cathars and Christian Perfection'
in P. Biller and B. Dobson, The Medieval Church (essays in honour
of Gordon Leff), Boydell, 1999, 5-23. Really good stuff.
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