Monday, February 2, 2009

different orders of magnitude

A Catholic student was having a conversation with his teacher. "What is the difference between the Jesuit and Dominican Orders?" the student asked.

The teacher replied, "Well, they were both founded by Spaniards -- St. Dominic for the Dominicans, and St. Ignatius of Loyola for the Jesuits. They were also both founded to combat heresy -- the Dominicans to fight the Albigensians, and the Jesuits to fight the Protestants."

"So what's so different about that?" said the student.

"Met any Albigensians lately?" responded the teacher.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank joke never gets old!

The Albigensians also known as "Cathars" derives from the Greek word Katheroi and means "Pure Ones". They were a gnostic Christian sect that arose in the 11th century, an offshoot of a small surviving European gnostic community that emigrated to the Albigensian region in the south of France.The medieval Cathar movement flourished in the 12th century A.D. throughout Europe until its virtual extermination at the hands of the Inquisition in 1245.

There are an ever increasing number of historians and other academics engaged in serious Cathar studies. Interestingly, to date, the deeper they have dug, the more they have vindicated Cathar claims to represent a survival of the Earliest Christian Church.

Thank you!

Brad Hoffstetter
Communications Division
Assembly of good Christians
http://www.cathar.net