Another trend in the academic debate about Manichaean influence on Catharism centers on developments in medieval Europe itself. By the year 1000, the church had become very corrupt. Ecclesiastical offices were sold, celibacy as a clerical requirement was often ignored, and the parish priests received hardly any theological training. The heretics’ chief objections concerned the seven sacraments and the unworthiness of the clergy. They wanted to return the church to the pristine era of the apostles <ref>Van Schaik, p. 51</ref>. However the sources before about 1150 provide no substantive information about their heretical teachings. This gave rise to a broad religious reaction: the lay people in particular sought to return to the origins of Christianity. This reaction is known as the [[Pope Gregory VI|Gregorian]] reform movement. Some researchers think that Catharism is a logical radicalization of this reformation.<ref>Moore; Morghen</ref> | Another trend in the academic debate about Manichaean influence on Catharism centers on developments in medieval Europe itself. By the year 1000, the church had become very corrupt. Ecclesiastical offices were sold, celibacy as a clerical requirement was often ignored, and the parish priests received hardly any theological training. The heretics’ chief objections concerned the seven sacraments and the unworthiness of the clergy. They wanted to return the church to the pristine era of the apostles <ref>Van Schaik, p. 51</ref>. However the sources before about 1150 provide no substantive information about their heretical teachings. This gave rise to a broad religious reaction: the lay people in particular sought to return to the origins of Christianity. This reaction is known as the [[Pope Gregory VI|Gregorian]] reform movement. Some researchers think that Catharism is a logical radicalization of this reformation.<ref>Moore; Morghen</ref> |