Like the Manichaeans, Abligensians made a sharp distinction between good and evil

This heresy flourished in sourthern France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Like the ancient Manichaeans, the Albigensians viewed matter as evil and taught that the way of salvation was the way of liberation from matter. Albigensianism taught that Christ was primarily a teacher and an angel with a phantom body. The sect rejected the sacraments, marriage, and other practices associated with matter. Albigensianism was condemned in the twelfth century and Innocent III launched a crusade against it. This campaign was notable for its ferocious cruelty. The sect had vanished by the fourteenth century.