Editing Catharism (section)

=== Social relationships ===
Killing was abhorrent to the Cathars. Consequently, abstention from all animal food, [[Pescetarianism|sometimes exempting fish]], was enjoined of the Perfecti. The Perfecti avoided eating anything considered to be a by-product of sexual reproduction.{{sfn|Johnston|Renkin|2000|p=252}} War and [[capital punishment]] were condemned—an abnormality in Medieval Europe,<ref name="Belloc 1938 91"/> despite the fact that the sect had armed combatants prepared to engage in combat and commit murder on its behalf.<ref name="Belloc 1938 92">{{harvnb|Belloc|1938|p=92}}</ref> For example, the [[Papal Legate]], [[Pierre de Castelnau]], was assassinated in January 1208 in Provence.<ref name="Madaule 1967">{{harvnb|Madaule|1967|p=missing}}</ref>

To the Cathars, reproduction was a moral evil to be avoided, as it continued the chain of reincarnation and suffering in the material world. Such was the situation that a charge of heresy levelled against a suspected Cathar was usually dismissed if the accused could show he was legally married.<ref>{{harvnb|Belloc|1938|p=95}}</ref>

Despite the implicit [[anti-Semitism]]  of their views on the Old Testament God, the Cathars had little hostility to Jews as an [[Ethnic groups in Europe|ethnic group]]: probably, Jews had a higher status in Cathar territories than they had elsewhere in Europe at the time. Cathars appointed Jews as bailiffs and to other roles as public officials, which further increased the Catholic Church's anger at the Cathars.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/albigenses | title=Albigenses }}</ref>

Despite their condemnation of reproduction, the Cathars grew in numbers in southeastern France. By 1207, shortly before the murder of the Papal Legate Castelnau, many towns in that region, i.e. Provence and its vicinity, were almost completely populated by Cathari,<ref name="Belloc 1938 92"/> and the Cathari population had many ties to nearby communities. When [[Folquet de Marselha|Bishop Fulk]] of [[Toulouse]], a key leader of the anti-Cathar persecutions, excoriated the [[Militia of the Faith of Jesus Christ|Languedoc Knights]] for not pursuing the heretics more diligently, he received the reply, "We cannot. We have been reared in their midst. We have relatives among them and we see them living lives of perfection."{{sfnp|O'Shea|2000|p=42}}