by modern standards yes, it was a persecution of a religious minority...

the wars against the hussites were officially also crusades, since the hussites were also a christian sect.

The Albigensians were a group of Cathars - one of several gnostic groups considered heretics by the Roman Catholic church heirarchy at that time.  The cathars take their name form the Greek katharos - meaning pure. 

One version of the claims against them (Raynaldes - "Annales") says that they held a strong belief in the duality of our universe - that is was split into Good and Evil.  The held that these two worlds were divided into visible (evil) and invisible (good) each created by it's own God.  Hence - all things material were evil as they were created by the Evil God.  The evil God was the author of the Old Testament, the Good author of the New Testament. 

The purest of the group were completely chaste, and vegetarians who refused to eat meat, eggs and cheese.

A synopsis of their beliefscan be found here:

http://www.le-guide.com/catharindex.html - http://www.le-guide.com/catharindex.html

Fragments of their texts and critiques of their order are still available:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/cathar-traditio.html - http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/cathar-traditio.html

http:// http://www.gnosis.org/library/cathtx.htm - www.gnosis.org/library/cathtx.htm

Jeff Brown's paper "Medieval Dualism & Its Discontents:  A Study Of Cathar Dualism And Its  Eschatological Vision Of Reform" can be found here: 

http://www.brownflower.com/essays/cathar-paper.html - http://www.brownflower.com/essays/cathar-paper.html

There is a good short sumary of the Albigensian Crusade here:

http://www.xenophongroup.com/montjoie/albigens.htm - http://www.xenophongroup.com/montjoie/albigens.htm

with links to several other sites - some only en francais

Yes - and - at the same time - no.  Both were Gnostic groups with similar beliefs in dualism - stemming from the same sources and traditions - who  had both  followed quite a different path from mainstream Christianity.  Cathar beliefs adapted themselves to application in the post Roman society of the Mediterranean. The Manichaeans followed traditions that rose in the 3rd century Persia and were strongly influenced by Zoroastrianism - another dualist belief structure where Light is believed to be the source of all Good and darkness the source of all evil.

The Manichaean groups were strictly speaking only the direct followers of the teaching of Mani or Manes:

http://www.gnosis.org/library/manis.htm - http://www.gnosis.org/library/manis.htm

yeah but why apply rules for a game that has no rules? i mean in the past time everyone did as he felt like. and why are minors not able to be elected president? i mean humans are obviously not born with all abilites yet, they have to learn it, so does humankind...I think it's just unjust to judge ancients and not even knowning them or the reasons. it looks a bit arrognat to judge people fo a different period with the moral of todays world.

Hmm.. I think it just a little unprecise - The Albigensians was the usual name given in the XIII century to the all hertics of southern France, no matter if they were really heretics of christian faith (as waldens, arnoldists or petrobrusians) or just anoter faith ( manicheism) as cathars - which have orginated from bogomils and paulicians..as the cathars were the most numerous group the name of Albigensians is most commonly linked with them..

Hi TJK

You're right - a simplification - yes - therefore imprecise - yes

I'm not sure that anyone would read it if I elaborated on  the differences between the Paulicians (not really gnostic but certainly dualists based in Armenia but several centuries too early for this discussion - 8th - 9th cent), Manichaeans (Persian dualists 3rd - 5th cent - much too early), Waldensians (who were neither gnostic, nor dualists), the Bogomils (who were gnostic dualists based in the Balkans), Cathars (gnostic dualists primarily in the Languedoc area - with beliefs originally based on Bogomil teachings) and/or  Albigensians (any resident of the town of Albi - generalized to any heretic in the south of France). 

There is a good brief discussion of the Cathars in Mircea Eliade's "A History of Religious Ideas - Vol 3: From Muhammad to the Age of Reforms" subsection 294 p. 184 -  188. 

Eliade discusses:

     The basic Cathar beliefs "...God did not create the visible world; matter is impure, marriage, baptism, the Eucharist and confession are useless; the Holy Spirit, descending upon the believer by the iposition of hands, purifies and sanctifies him..."

     The earlest executions of Cathar heretics (28 Dec, 1022)

     Similarities with the Roman liturgy explained by the liturgical tradition of the ancient Christian Church.

     The Fourth Lateran Council:  http://www.dailycatholic.org/history/12ecume1.htm - http://www.dailycatholic.org/history/12ecume1.htm

     The Albigensian Crusade and its consequenses (the unification and expansion of France, the ruin of the meridional civilization, the increased power of the Inquisition, The Synod of Toulouse and eventual reforms encouraging the spread of the Dominicans and Franciscans)

If you are really interested - I'll see if I can find more good links that give further information on the above.

Wikipedia is a start - if also somewhat oversimplified

Thanks vagabond !

I just start to go a little deeper in this subject and in fact my knowledge about albigensians  is quite limited. The Mircea's book is nearly unknown in Poland but I would like to buy some Fernad Niel's books.

I think murder and genocide are very universal crimes. We are using the sense of ethics and judgment that Western World had inherited from ancient Greek philosophers and expanded upon these values, after Dark Ages had passed.
In the case of crusaders we are dealing with deranged religious zealotry that probably has no parallel in the world history.

Good example from crusades against Cathares is this exchange that took part between commander of crusaders and pope's envoy, after population of some town ran to seek shelter in the local church.
"Sir, I cannot differentiate between ours and heretics.
Pope's envoy: "Commander, do your duty. God will recognize his flock"
Everybody was slaughtered, including non Cathares.
This is quoted from memory, somebody may know original source.

Emmanuel Ladurie's books on the heretics of the village of Montaillou are a superb evocation of the atmosphere of the time. They are based on the Vatican archives relating to the heretic trials of the period.

 I think it is all a little bit of an over-reaction to call all that a genocide. You forget one thing, the cathars weren't lamps, they had also their heroes and an army under Raymond of Toulouse. I think the crusades was just secondary here, Raymond was nearly succesful to create a nation (Occitania) that would have separated northern France from Southern France. Avignon was also attacked by the crusaders.

 Interesting arguments Komnenos and Regimund. Learn a lot from you guys.