The idea that human beings were sparks of light trapped in tunics of material flesh had a number of logical consequences:
(1) Procreative sex was bad, since conception would result
in another soul being trapped. For this reason, normal
sex between man and wife was as bad as any other procreative
sex. Marriage was worthless, while contraception was
regarded with approval. Also, there was no reason to
condemn any form of non-procreative sex.
(2) The less one had to do with evil (ie material) things,
the better. Eating animals, or animal products, was
particularly abhorred, though fish were allowed (as they were
thought to reproduce asexually and were not therefore able
to imprison a soul).
(3) The sooner we can shed this tunic of flesh, the sooner
our souls could be free to fly like a spark of light back
to
heaven,
the realm of the good God. There was therefore no reason
to discourage suicide.
(4) There was not any reason to regard men as better than women.
The important part, the soul, was the same. Only the vile material body was different.
(5) Since material objects were creations of the bad god,
it was absurd to imagine that they could be of any virtue.
So, for example, jewels, money, relics, the Eucharist, reproductions
of the cross, and church buildings were of no value whatsoever.
Similarly the Catholic teaching about resurrection of the
body was absurd. The very idea of a physical body in
heaven
was ridiculous. Further, it was not plausible that the
Good God would send anyone from his realm into the evil material
world of the Bad God. Jesus must therefore have
been a sort of phantom, looking like a man but in fact immaterial.
(6) Anyone who attached great value to material things was at best mistaken and at worst a disciple of the Bad God.
It was no secret that the Pope was the richest man in Europe.
Cardinals, bishops and priests lived in great luxury and dressed in gorgeous robes.
Worse, the Roman Church encouraged the worship of material objects such as the relics of saints. And worse yet it venerated the cross - not only a material object but also an instrument of torture.
There was no escaping the logical conclusion.
Roman Catholics were worshipping the wrong God - the God of Evil who had created this world.
The behaviour of devout Catholics seemed to confirm this conclusion.
Carthars referred to the Roman Church as the Church of Wolves.
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