LOMBERS, COUNCIL OF

Meeting in May or June 1165, in the French castle of Lombers, about ten miles south of Albi, France. Here, for the first time in Languedoc, the cathari, then called Bonshommes and later known as albigenses, were prosecuted for heresy. Neither a colloquium nor a provincial council, the assembly was a trial conducted by authority of the bishop of albi, a suffragan of Bourges, with the bishops and abbots of neighboring Narbonne province, several great nobles, and the local populace in attendance. Assisted by four assessores, the bishop of Lodève examined the accused and found them heretical on seven counts. All present approved these findings, although their action did little to check the growth of the movement.

Bibliography: Sacrosancta Concilia, ed. p. labbe and g. cossart, 17 v. (Paris 1671–73) 10:1470–79, under the year 1176, original ed. of complete acta; Chronica magistri Rogeri de Houedene, ed. w. stubbs, 4 v. (Rerum Brittanicarum medii aevi scriptores 51; 1868–71) 2:105–117, xvii–xxii, abr. version under the year 1176. c. de vic and j. vaissete, Histoire générale de Languedoc, ed. e. dulaurier et al., 16 v. in 17 (new ed. Toulouse 1872–1904) 6:3–5 and esp. 7:1–5, n.l for place (not Lombez) and date. c. j. von hefele, Histoire des conciles d'après les documents originaux, tr. and continued by h. leclercq, 10 v. in 19 (Paris 1907–38) 5:1006–10, for bibliog., otherwise unreliable. a. borst, Die Katharer (Schriften der Monumenta Germaniae Historica 12; Stuttgart 1953) 95–96, with bibliog.

[r. kay]