The Cathars believed in two principles—a good creator god and his evil adversary. They practiced lives of simplicity and chastity. Believing the physical world to be inferior to the spiritual, the avoidance of sex was intended to keep more spirit beings from becoming entrapped in physical bodies. The Cathars were said to have committed ritual suicide, presumably as a release from the burdens of a carnal existence, but the claim of Cathar suicide has been described by some historians as mere propaganda. | The Cathars believed in two principles—a good creator god and his evil adversary. They practiced lives of simplicity and chastity. Believing the physical world to be inferior to the spiritual, the avoidance of sex was intended to keep more spirit beings from becoming entrapped in physical bodies. The Cathars were said to have committed ritual suicide, presumably as a release from the burdens of a carnal existence, but the claim of Cathar suicide has been described by some historians as mere propaganda. |