Cathari

Cathari, a name given to a sect of heretics, otherwise called Gnostics. The word means "Puritans," and the sect, which professed to base itself upon the New Testament and certain apocryphal scriptures, aimed at a pure and ascetic life. They existed at Turin from 1035 till the fourteenth century, and under the name of Albigenses they attained some importance in Southern France. They finally disappeared under the kindly attentions of the Inquisition during the fourteenth century.