Into the Wardrobe

There is only one true Heresy, and it is the Antichristian Heresy: that it is good, or even merely acceptable, to use violence to control "heresy".

The Nazis actually committed this Heresy, in a sense. They had some very good ideas about labor, the Great Depression, and the problems Germany was facing. They became the Enemy as soon as they decided that they should try to kill those who held diifferent views. Likewise, the Church becomes the same Enemy when they make the same decision.

In the global balance of things, all of Christianity, the entire business - all of Faith and Church and Tradition - was made forfeit when the very first Christian was killed by another Christian for heresy. All of it. At that moment, the Ressurrection died. Jesus wept. The only thing that makes Christianity worth anything in the face of the continuing Antichristian Heresy is the miraculous forgiving power of God. We have lost our mandate. We have lost it over and over again. This is why, ultimately, we must all individually transcend our cultures and our congregations and make a personal peace with God.

No membership in any church or political system can make one a Christian. Only the singular promise between an individual and God can do that. Simply put, since the Enemy has taken territory within the Church itself, the Church does not have the authority to make Christians. It might have had it once, but it has lost it. Things change.

When Priscillian of Avila was executed, this was the greater of two evils. If the entire church had been destroyed instead, we would still be in the exact state we are today, needing that personal relationship with God. Only that can save any one of us in the face of the blood of the heretics.

As I understand it the reason the Cathars were really rooted out because many wanted to lay claim to their lands which were very fertile and used the heresy charge as a tool to get this. Or at least the land played a large role in this "crusade", but like a lot of subjects there is no easy answer here.