Heresy Lecture Essay

What I found to be particularly interesting in the lecture “Heresy Lecture Part One” was the practice of piety. As piety demonstrated an individual’s devotion to their faith by conducting religious activities on a daily basis. For devout Christians performed piety religious acts out of their own desire, not because they were forced to or that they were unwilling. However, those that did not abide by the principles of the Roman Catholic Church could be accused of heresy. For individuals that did not partake in the piety revival could possibly be persecuted for failing to provide evidence of their devotion to God. Therefore, during the piety revival, there was an increase of people being accused of heresy, which resulted in people being
burned at the stake.
Moreover, there was a group of people that the Roman Catholic Church deemed as heretics that were referred to as the Cathar who disputed the Churches claim and argued that they were Christians. The Roman Catholic Church asserted that the Cathar were devil worshipers, but it is possible that they did not properly interpret the teachings of the Cathar. As the Cathar did adopt many of the commonly accepted Christian values such as the holy trinity and that Jesus is the son of God. The Cathar’s were perceived as a threat that must be eliminated by the Roman Catholic Church as they considered themselves as the true followers of Jesus Christ. For the Cathar preached that Christians should avoid all of the impurities that Jesus mentioned. Any people that didn’t abide by this belief was recommended to be avoided.