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Off the top of my head...  Perhaps if you looked at the specific 
texts that the Cathars accepted (since they did not accept the Old 
Testament, or I believe, great chunks of the New Testament in its 
Catholic form) you could get a lead on this question.  Or, 
alternately, if you considered Bogomil theology; the two are not 
interchangeable but I think that the influence of the Eastern heresy 
upon the development of Catharism in the West is pretty well accepted 
these days (isn't it?).

As a last point, since I cannot resist putting my two cents in on the 
question of Cathar belief -- we should be very very cautious in 
portraying Cathar dogma in a unified manner.  We all know about the 
regional differences/disputes, but there is ample evidence that 
believers were pretty unclear on any number of fairly substantive 
theological points (much as Catholic believers were at the time).  In 
short, what one perfect proclaimed as "correct" in one region may 
well have not been believed by the Cathar believers there or may have 
been believed in a creative way).

Cheers,

Nicole

Dr. N. M. Schulman
Assistant Professor, Department of History
Ohio Wesleyan University
Delaware, OH  43015-2398  U.S.A.


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