And yet, even in that long-ago age, nearly all wars were fought without the numbers of mass-murders reported against Cathars-Albigensians.
And of course, my point here is that if we are to "do unto others as we would have them do unto us", then a Church which has committed exterminating mass murders against heretics, must fervently hope and pray it will not itself suffer the same fate it meted out.
vladimir998: "Also, there is no actual contemporary evidence that anyone said: 'Kill them all, the Lord will recognise His own.' "
And yet, the crusader army was under command, both spiritually and militarily, of the papal legate Arnaud-Amaury, Abbot of Cîteaux, who reported to Pope Innocent III:
vladimir998: "The Albigensians were a bizarre, murderous, perverted sect.
I can’t say it was bad that the crusaders wiped many of them out."
And yet, all the objective evidence we have tells us just the opposite -- see roamer_1 post #28 above.
Objectively, it was the Roman Church of that time which was the "bizarre, murderous, perverted sect."
“And yet, even in that long-ago age, nearly all wars were fought without the numbers of mass-murders reported against Cathars-Albigensians.”
If there were major sieges, and mass takeovers of cities there actually were many massacres. This would continue in Europe until at least the 17th century.
“And of course, my point here is that if we are to “do unto others as we would have them do unto us”, then a Church which has must fervently hope and pray it will not itself suffer the same fate it meted out.”
The Church never “committed exterminating mass murders against heretics”. Bezier was besieged by men, not the Church. Even if a bishop was leading troops, any crimes he committed are entirely his own.
“And yet, the crusader army was under command, both spiritually and militarily, of the papal legate Arnaud-Amaury, Abbot of Cîteaux, who reported to Pope Innocent III”
I don’t know what that is supposed to mean since the city was taken after the defenders made a rather stupid sortie and the crusaders pursued the defenders right back into the city and took it by storm. There’s no one in command when a complete rout takes place. Also, it doesn’t matter who Arnaud-Amaury reported to. He was responsible for his actions and no one else.
“And yet, all the objective evidence we have tells us just the opposite — see roamer_1 post #28 above.”
No, actually all the known evidence shows that the Albigensians were perverts (they eschewed marriage and encouraged unnatural practices), practiced ritual murder (called “endure”) and had stupid, illogical, anti-Christian beliefs such as believing physical creation was evil.