title: AJ Lee

text: Mendez began her professional wrestling career in 2007 in New Jersey's independent circuit. She signed with WWE in 2009 and spent two years in its developmental branch, Florida Championship Wrestling, before her promotion to the main roster. In 2012, she rose to prominence through storylines with her "mentally unstable" character, such as high-profile relationships and a three-month stint as the General Manager of Raw. In subsequent years, she won the Divas Championship a record-tying three times and held the title for an overall record of 406 days. She also won the Slammy Award for Diva of the Year in 2012 and 2014, and readers of "Pro Wrestling Illustrated" voted her Woman of the Year from 2012 to 2014. She retired from in-ring performing in 2015. Mendez's 2017 memoir, "Crazy Is My Superpower", was a "New York Times" Best Seller.


title: AJ Lee

text: April Jeanette Mendez was born on March 19, 1987, in Union City, New Jersey. Her mother, Janet Acevedo, was a homemaker and later a home health aide, while her father, Robert Mendez, was an automotive engineer. She is the youngest of three children, and is of Puerto Rican descent. In describing her childhood, Mendez said her family struggled with poverty, mental illness, and drug addiction. They frequently moved between apartments, sometimes living in motels or their car when they could not afford rent.


title: AJ Lee

text: Her brother's interest in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) influenced her to become a professional wrestler. With inspiration from WWE's female wrestlers, especially Lita, she cemented her ambition at 12 years old. In 2005, she graduated from Memorial High School in West New York, New Jersey. She attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where she majored in film and television production, until family and financial issues led to her dropping out six months into her studies. Afterward, she started working full-time to afford wrestling training. As an homage to her brother, who was in the U.S. Army, she occasionally wore camouflage wrestling attire.


title: AJ Lee

text: Mendez was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a condition her mother also suffered from, around the age of 20. She had previously experienced adverse effects from a misdiagnosis of depression, and overdosed on antidepressants and painkillers. This event, which she considers a suicide attempt, caused her to seek proper treatment and the right diagnosis. She credits the condition for giving her the bravery to achieve her goals.


title: AJ Lee

text: In March 2007, Mendez enrolled in a wrestling school close to her home, where she was trained by Jay Lethal. Around late 2007, she began to perform on the New Jersey independent circuit under the ring name Miss April. She joined the New Jersey-based promotion Women Superstars Uncensored (WSU) in October 2008. After little success in her first months, Miss April formed a tag team with Brooke Carter, who together captured the WSU Tag Team Championship in February 2009. She also won the annual WSU/National Wrestling Superstars King and Queen of the Ring tournament alongside Jay Lethal two months later. In May, she left WSU upon signing with WWE and relinquished her championship.


title: AJ Lee

text: Mendez paid US$1,500 to attend a WWE tryout camp in May 2009, where she signed a contract. She reported to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), WWE's developmental territory, and debuted under the ring name April Lee at a house show in late July. Shortly thereafter, her name was changed to AJ Lee. In February 2010, AJ defeated Serena Mancini to win the Queen of FCW title. A few months later, AJ was eliminated from a tournament that determined the inaugural FCW Divas Champion; she engaged in a feud with the winner, Naomi Knight, and her character became a heel (bad guy). In November, AJ lost the Queen of FCW title to Rosa Mendes. AJ then defeated Naomi for the FCW Divas Championship in December, which made her the first to win both titles available to FCW's female wrestlers. She held the championship until April 2011, when she lost it to Aksana.


title: AJ Lee

text: While in FCW, Mendez took part in the third season of "NXT" beginning in September 2010. The show mixed professional wrestling and reality competition formats as six female participants from FCW competed to be WWE's "next breakout star". Primo was assigned as her "WWE Pro", the role of her mentor in the storyline. She performed as a face (good guy) on the show and WWE adapted her "nerd" fandom to her character. Throughout the season, a relationship between AJ and Primo was teased, with them ultimately kissing on the finale. She also developed an on-screen friendship with fellow competitor, Kaitlyn. On November 23, AJ was eliminated in third place.


title: AJ Lee

text: AJ made her main roster debut on the May 27, 2011, episode of "SmackDown" as part of a tag team with Kaitlyn, referring to themselves as "The Chickbusters". Along with their mentor Natalya, they feuded with the trio of Alicia Fox, Tamina Snuka, and Rosa Mendes for two months. In late July, AJ began a brief storyline on "NXT Redemption" as the girlfriend of Hornswoggle and feuded with Maxine. Meanwhile, on "SmackDown", she was attacked by Natalya, who turned on her protégé and allied with Beth Phoenix to form the Divas of Doom. AJ and Kaitlyn repeatedly lost to the Divas of Doom over the following months, upsetting Kaitlyn.


title: AJ Lee

text: By November 2011, AJ was placed in an on-screen romance with Daniel Bryan, who won the World Heavyweight Championship the next month and developed heel traits. Despite AJ's declaration of love for Bryan, Bryan avoided saying he loved her in return. On January 13, 2012, while accompanying Bryan for his title defense, she was accidentally struck by Big Show and carried off on a stretcher as part of the storyline. She returned on February 3, preventing Bryan from being attacked by Big Show. In March, Bryan started acting verbally abusive towards AJ but she stood by him. At WrestleMania XXVIII on April 1, after sharing a "good luck kiss" with Bryan, he was surprised by Sheamus and defeated in 18 seconds. Bryan blamed AJ for his loss of the World Heavyweight Championship and ended their relationship. AJ made multiple attempts to mend their relationship but Bryan spurned her and left her distraught. As a result, she attacked Natalya and Kaitlyn when they attempted to comfort her, marking her character's transition to "mentally unstable".


title: AJ Lee

text: AJ turned her affections to Bryan's rival and WWE Champion CM Punk as well as Kane. At No Way Out on June 17, AJ interfered in a triple threat match for the WWE Championship between Punk, Bryan, and Kane, helping Punk retain his title by distracting Kane. As Bryan and Punk's feud progressed, AJ was announced as the special guest referee for their title match at Money in the Bank. Bryan made advances on AJ in an attempt to influence her, however, she focused her attention on Punk. Enraged by his disinterest on the July 2 episode of "Raw", she interfered in his match and shoved him, along with Bryan, through a ringside table. After they made amends, she proposed to him but Bryan countered with a proposal of his own; Punk rejected her offer and she slapped both men. At Money in the Bank on July 15, as referee, AJ counted Punk's pinfall on Bryan, resulting in a successful title defense for Punk; as Punk celebrated over a fallen Bryan, AJ was left alone. The next night, Bryan proposed to her again and she accepted.


title: AJ Lee

text: During the exchange of vows at "Raw 1000", AJ announced that WWE chairman Vince McMahon had offered her the job of Raw General Manager and left Bryan at the altar. Her on-screen authority role began on July 30, where she alleged that Bryan only wanted the legal leverage to have her committed and forced him to undergo his own psychological evaluation. AJ continued to exact revenge on both Bryan and Punk throughout her tenure, denying their requests and booking them in matches against their wishes. On August 27 and September 24, she was involved in separate altercations with Vickie Guerrero and Paul Heyman, in which she attacked them. AJ was reprimanded by the board of directors, and the two demanded the General Manager position for themselves, deeming her too childish.


title: AJ Lee

text: AJ stepped down from her General Manager duties on October 22, becoming embroiled in a scandal storyline with John Cena. Vickie Guerrero alleged that they had an affair and presented various material over the next month to support her claim. AJ and Cena denied the accusations and eventually formed a relationship, though Cena grew reluctant due to her behavior. Meanwhile, Cena feuded with Vickie Guerrero's client, Dolph Ziggler, over Ziggler's Money in the Bank contract. During their match at on December 16, AJ turned heel by interfering and pushing Cena off a ladder, causing him to lose. She solidified a relationship with Ziggler the next night on "Raw" and they teamed together against Cena and Guerrero in the main event, which ended in disqualification after the debuting Big E Langston attacked Cena on her behalf. Subsequently accompanied by Langston as her bodyguard, she explained that Cena had "toyed with" her emotions and "broke her heart", so she helped Ziggler "break" him.


title: AJ Lee

text: In March 2013, AJ's storyline rivalry with ex-boyfriend Daniel Bryan was reignited when they traded insults backstage. She and Langston assisted Ziggler in victories over Bryan and his tag team partner Kane, which led to Ziggler and Langston losing to them in a WWE Tag Team Championship match at WrestleMania 29 on April 7, despite her interference. The next night on "Raw", she and Langston accompanied Ziggler as he cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on Alberto Del Rio to win the World Heavyweight Championship.


title: AJ Lee

text: AJ won a battle royal on April 22, 2013, to become the number one contender to Kaitlyn's WWE Divas Championship. Kaitlyn soon began a storyline where she received gifts from a secret admirer. On June 10, after setting up Langston to pose as the admirer, AJ revealed it to be a mind game, berated Kaitlyn and left her in tears. Six days later at Payback, AJ defeated Kaitlyn to capture her first Divas Championship. While she continued to mock Kaitlyn, they participated in the first ever in-ring contract signing for a Divas Championship bout. At Money in the Bank on July 14, AJ won their rematch but later in the show caused Ziggler to lose his own rematch for the World Heavyweight Championship. She hit his opponent, Alberto Del Rio, with her title belt to protect him from further head injury, prompting a disqualification. Angered by her unwanted action, Ziggler ended their relationship. She exacted revenge by costing him another match, then attacked him with Langston. On August 2, Langston was banned from attending her matches. However, AJ again retained the title from Kaitlyn, who was betrayed by Layla.<ref name="SD8/2/13"></ref> Kaitlyn and Ziggler ultimately joined to defeat AJ and Langston in a mixed tag team match at SummerSlam on August 18.


title: AJ Lee

text: On August 26, AJ interrupted the cast of "Total Divas" during a post-match segment and insulted them. She later vowed to defeat every member of the cast, and enlisted Tamina Snuka as her bodyguard. Throughout the remainder of the year, AJ successfully defended the championship against the trio of Brie Bella, Naomi, and Natalya at Night of Champions, Brie Bella at both Battleground and Hell in a Cell, and Natalya at . She also captained a team at Survivor Series in a traditional seven-on-seven elimination tag team match against the entire cast, which her team lost.


title: AJ Lee

text: In January 2014, AJ became the longest-reigning Divas Champion at the time. After fending off title contenders Cameron and Natalya, AJ renewed her on-screen rivalry with SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero, who forced her to defend the Divas Championship in a 14-woman match at WrestleMania XXX. AJ won the match on April 6, marking the first time the championship had been contested for at WWE's flagship event. The next night on "Raw", AJ challenged the debuting Paige to an impromptu title match and was defeated, ending her then-record reign at 295 days. Mendez was subsequently granted time off.


title: AJ Lee

text: Upon her return on June 30, AJ switched to a face role and was no longer accompanied by Tamina. She challenged Paige to an impromptu rematch and won back the Divas Championship. They started pretending to be best friends in a facetious manner. When AJ retained the title from Paige at Battleground, their act escalated into unprovoked attacks. At SummerSlam on August 17, AJ lost the championship to Paige. Their storyline was then intertwined with that of Nikki and Brie Bella, at the behest of Stephanie McMahon, who granted Nikki a championship opportunity. A triple threat match ensued at Night of Champions on September 21, where AJ became a record-tying three-time Divas Champion. Her feud against Paige concluded with a victory at Hell in a Cell in October. She changed focus to Nikki Bella, whose sister, Brie, was involved as her "personal assistant". AJ quickly lost the championship to Nikki at Survivor Series on November 23, due to a distraction by Brie. After losing the rematch at the following month, Mendez took time off to heal a pre-existing neck injury.


title: AJ Lee

text: In February 2015, Mendez criticized WWE's treatment of its female wrestlers, stating they receive only a fraction of the wages and screen time of their male counterparts despite having generated record-selling merchandise and several top-rated segments. Her comments addressed WWE executive Stephanie McMahon, who thanked her for the public statement. WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon acknowledged the issue.


title: AJ Lee

text: AJ returned on the March 2 episode of "Raw", saving her former rival Paige from an attack by Nikki and Brie Bella. AJ and Paige allied together to defeat the Bella Twins at WrestleMania 31 on March 29. A six-woman tag team match the next night on "Raw" wound up being her final match, as WWE announced her retirement from in-ring competition on April 3. In her memoir, Mendez stated that permanent damage to her cervical spine, and the fulfillment of her goals led to the decision. She had also "felt caught in the middle" between WWE and her husband CM Punk following his controversial departure in January 2014 but continued to wrestle for as long as she could.


title: AJ Lee

text: After six years away from the wrestling industry, Mendez joined the WOW – Women of Wrestling promotion as an executive producer in October 2021, serving alongside Jeanie Buss. This announcement coincided with WOW entering into a multi-year distribution agreement with ViacomCBS, the biggest distribution opportunity in the U.S. and abroad in the history of women's professional wrestling. Since September 2022, Mendez has provided color commentary for WOW's syndicated weekly television program.


title: AJ Lee

text: Mendez's character is prominently associated with her mentally unstable gimmick used during her time in WWE. This persona, labeled the "crazy chick", caused Mendez to feel that she "was hiding in plain sight" due to her bipolar disorder. Her diagnosis was not publicly disclosed until the publicity for her memoir, nor was WWE aware of her condition.


title: AJ Lee

text: The "Lee" in her ring name was derived from Wendee Lee, a voice actress in her favorite anime, "Cowboy Bebop". She wore various ring attire styles throughout her career, but settled on a T-shirt, jean shorts, and Chuck Taylor All-Stars, as it reflected her practical style. She also wanted her look to be distinctive and easily replicated for cosplay. When performing, she skipped as she entered ringside, and sometimes used it to taunt an opponent during a match. She primarily performed the octopus hold submission as her finishing maneuver, named "Black Widow" in reference to the Marvel Comics character.


title: AJ Lee

text: In 2012, Mendez became the first female winner of WWE's annual Superstar Challenge video game tournament, where sixteen wrestlers competed in "WWE '12" at WrestleMania XXVIII Axxess. This is recognized by "Guinness World Records", as part of their "Gamer's Edition". Her WWE character was portrayed by Thea Trinidad in the 2019 film "Fighting with My Family".


title: AJ Lee

text: Mendez wrote "Crazy Is My Superpower: How I Triumphed by Breaking Bones, Breaking Hearts, and Breaking the Rules", a memoir published by Crown Archetype on April 4, 2017. The book covers her upbringing and career in professional wrestling. It debuted at No. 10 on "The New York Times" Best Seller list for hardcover non-fiction. Upon release, she described writing as "very much the next chapter" of her life, and had begun work on a second book.


title: AJ Lee

text: Mendez formed a writing partnership with actress Aimee Garcia in 2019. Their first project was the comic book series "GLOW vs. The Babyface", based on the television series "GLOW"; the first of four issues was published by IDW Publishing in November 2019. In 2020, they created the production company Scrappy Heart Productions, dedicated to elevating diverse voices through storytelling. They wrote the "Dungeons & Dragons" four-issue limited series "At the Spine of the World"; the first issue was published by IDW in November 2020. Alongside John Swetman, they co-wrote the screenplay for the 2022 Netflix film "Blade of the 47 Ronin".


title: AJ Lee

text: In 2020, Mendez made the Black List's inaugural Latinx TV list for her television pilot script, "Home". In June 2021, she wrote a story in the first issue of DC Comics' "Wonder Woman: Black and Gold", an anthology mini-series celebrating Wonder Woman's 80th anniversary.


title: AJ Lee

text: An advocate for mental health awareness and animal welfare, Mendez has served as an ambassador for organizations such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), the Jed Foundation, and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In 2018, she was awarded with NAMI's Multicultural Outreach Award.


title: AJ Lee

text: Mendez regards herself as a tomboy and has an interest in comic books, anime, and video games. She has the numerical date of her first WWE Divas Championship win tattooed in tally marks on the back of her neck.


title: AJ Lee

text: Mendez married fellow professional wrestler Phil Brooks, better known as CM Punk, on June 13, 2014. They reside in Chicago, Illinois.


title: Catharism

text: Catharism (; from the , "the pure ones") was a Christian dualist or Gnostic movement between the 12th and 14th centuries which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France. Followers were described as Cathars and referred to themselves as Good Christians; in modern times, they are mainly remembered for a prolonged period of religious persecution by the Catholic Church, which did not recognize their unorthodox Christianity.


title: Catharism

text: Catharism emerged Western Europe in the Languedoc region of southern France in the 11th century. Adherents were sometimes referred to as Albigensians, after the French city Albi where the movement first took hold. Catharism was initially taught by ascetic leaders who set few guidelines, leading some Catharist practices and beliefs to vary by region and over time. The movement was greatly influenced by the Bogomils of the First Bulgarian Empire, and may have originated in the Byzantine Empire, namely through adherents of the Paulician movement in Armenia and eastern Byzantine Anatolia who were resettled in Thrace (Philippopolis).


title: Catharism

text: Among the most notable and controversial beliefs of the Cathars was the idea of two gods or deistic principles, one good and the other evil. The Catholic Church asserted this was antithetical to monotheism, a fundamental principle that there is only one God, who created all things visible and invisible, as stated in the Nicene Creed. Cathars believed that the good God was the God of the New Testament, creator of the spiritual realm, whereas the evil God was the God of the Old Testament, creator of the physical world whom many Cathars identified as Satan. Cathars believed human spirits were the sexless spirits of angels trapped in the material realm of the evil god, destined to be reincarnated until they achieved salvation through the "consolamentum", a form of baptism performed when death is imminent, when they would return to the good God as "Perfect".


title: Catharism

text: The Catholic Church denounced Cathar practices, particularly the "consolamentum" ritual. From the beginning of his reign, Pope Innocent III attempted to end Catharism by sending missionaries and persuading the local authorities to act against them. In 1208, Pierre de Castelnau, Innocent's papal legate, was murdered while returning to Rome after excommunicating Count Raymond VI of Toulouse, who, in his view, was too lenient with the Cathars. Pope Innocent III then abandoned sending Catholic missionaries and jurists, declared Pierre de Castelnau a martyr and launched the Albigensian Crusade in 1209. The nearly twenty-year campaign succeeded in vastly weakening the movement; the Medieval Inquisition that followed ultimately eradicated Catharism by 1350.


title: Catharism

text: There is academic controversy about whether Catharism was a real and organized movement or whether the medieval Church imagined or exaggerated it. The lack of any central organization among Cathars, regional differences in beliefs and practices, as well as the lack of sources from the Cathars themselves has prompted some scholars to question whether Catharism existed. Other scholars say that there is evidence of the existence of Catharism, and also evidence that the threat of it was exaggerated by its persecutors in the Church.


title: Catharism

text: Though the term "Cathar" () has been used for centuries to identify the movement, whether it identified itself with the name is debated. In Cathar texts, the terms "Good Men" (), "Good Women" (), or "Good Christians" () are the common terms of self-identification.


title: Catharism

text: The origins of the Cathars' beliefs are unclear, but most theories agree they came from the Byzantine Empire, mostly by the trade routes and spread from the First Bulgarian Empire to the Netherlands. The name of Bulgarians () was also applied to the Albigensians, and they maintained an association with the similar Christian movement of the Bogomils ("Friends of God") of Thrace. "That there was a substantial transmission of ritual and ideas from Bogomilism to Catharism is beyond reasonable doubt." Their doctrines have numerous resemblances to those of the Bogomils and the Paulicians, who influenced them, as well as the earlier Marcionites, who were found in the same areas as the Paulicians, the Manicheans and the Christian Gnostics of the first few centuries AD, although, as many scholars, most notably Mark Pegg, have pointed out, it would be erroneous to extrapolate direct, historical connections based on theoretical similarities perceived by modern scholars.


title: Catharism

text: John Damascene, writing in the 8th century AD, also notes of an earlier sect called the "Cathari", in his book "On Heresies", taken from the epitome provided by Epiphanius of Salamis in his "Panarion". He says of them: "They absolutely reject those who marry a second time, and reject the possibility of penance [that is, forgiveness of sins after baptism]". These are probably the same Cathari (actually Novations) who are mentioned in Canon 8 of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in the year 325, which states "... [I]f those called Cathari come over [to the faith], let them first make profession that they are willing to communicate [share full communion] with the twice-married, and grant pardon to those who have lapsed ..."


title: Catharism

text: The writings of the Cathars were mostly destroyed because of the doctrine's threat perceived by the Papacy; thus, the historical record of the Cathars is derived primarily from their opponents. Cathar ideology continues to be debated, with commentators regularly accusing opposing perspectives of speculation, distortion and bias. Only a few texts of the Cathars remain, as preserved by their opponents (such as the ) which give a glimpse into the ideologies of their faith. One large text has survived, "The Book of Two Principles" (), which elaborates the principles of dualistic theology from the point of view of some Albanenses Cathars.


title: Catharism

text: It is now generally agreed by most scholars that identifiable historical Catharism did not emerge until at least 1143, when the first confirmed report of a group espousing similar beliefs is reported being active at Cologne by the cleric Eberwin of Steinfeld. A landmark in the "institutional history" of the Cathars was the Council, held in 1167 at Saint-Félix-Lauragais, attended by many local figures and also by the Bogomil "papa" Nicetas, the Cathar bishop of (northern) France and a leader of the Cathars of Lombardy.


title: Catharism

text: The Cathars were a largely local, Western European/Latin Christian phenomenon, springing up in the Rhineland cities (particularly Cologne) in the mid-12th century, northern France around the same time, and particularly the Languedoc—and the northern Italian cities in the mid-late 12th century. In the Languedoc and northern Italy, the Cathars attained their greatest popularity, surviving in the Languedoc, in much reduced form, up to around 1325 and in the Italian cities until the Inquisitions of the 14th century finally extirpated them.


title: Catharism

text: Cathar cosmology identified two twin, opposing deities. The first was a good God, portrayed in the New Testament and creator of the spirit, while the second was an evil God, depicted in the Old Testament and creator of matter and the physical world. The latter, often called ("King of the World"), was identified as the God of Judaism, and was also either conflated with Satan or considered Satan's father, creator or seducer. They addressed the problem of evil by stating that the good God's power to do good was limited by the evil God's works and vice versa.


title: Catharism

text: However, those beliefs were far from unanimous. Some Cathar communities believed in a mitigated dualism similar to their Bogomil predecessors, stating that the evil god, Satan, had previously been the true God's servant before rebelling against him. Others, likely a majority over time given the influence reflected on the "Book of the Two Principles", believed in an absolute dualism, where the two gods were twin entities of the same power and importance.


title: Catharism

text: All visible matter, including the human body, was created or crafted by this ; matter was therefore tainted with sin. Under this view, humans were actually angels seduced by Satan before a war in heaven against the army of Michael, after which they would have been forced to spend an eternity trapped in the evil God's material realm. The Cathars taught that to regain angelic status one had to renounce the material self completely. Until one was prepared to do so, they would be stuck in a cycle of reincarnation, condemned to live on the corrupt Earth.


title: Catharism

text: Zoé Oldenbourg compared the Cathars to "Western Buddhists" because she considered that their view of the doctrine of "resurrection" taught by Christ was similar to the Buddhist doctrine of rebirth.


title: Catharism

text: Cathars venerated Jesus Christ and followed what they considered to be his true teachings, labelling themselves as "Good Christians". However, they denied his physical incarnation. Authors believe that their conception of Jesus resembled docetism, believing him the human form of an angel, whose physical body was only an appearance. This illusory form would have possibly been given by the Virgin Mary, another angel in human form, or possibly a human born of a woman with no involvement of a man.


title: Catharism

text: They firmly rejected the Resurrection of Jesus, seeing it as representing reincarnation, and the Christian symbol of the cross, considering it to be not more than a material instrument of torture and evil. They also saw John the Baptist, identified also with Elijah, as an evil being sent to hinder Jesus's teaching through the false sacrament of baptism. For the Cathars the "resurrection" mentioned in the New Testament was only a symbol of re-incarnation.


title: Catharism

text: Most Cathars did not accept the normative Trinitarian understanding of Jesus, instead resembling nontrinitarian modalistic monarchianism (Sabellianism) in the West and adoptionism in the East, which might or might not be combined with the mentioned docetism. Bernard of Clairvaux's biographer and other sources accuse some Cathars of Arianism, and some scholars see Cathar Christology as having traces of earlier Arian roots.


title: Catharism

text: Some communities might have believed in the existence of a spirit realm created by the good God, the "Land of the Living", whose history and geography would have served as the basis for the evil god's corrupt creation. Under this view, the history of Jesus would have happened roughly as told, only in the spirit realm. The physical Jesus from the material world would have been evil, a false messiah and a lustful lover of the material Mary Magdalene. However, the true Jesus would have influenced the physical world in a way similar to the Harrowing of Hell, only by inhabiting the body of Paul. 13th century chronicler Pierre des Vaux-de-Cernay recorded those views.


title: Catharism

text: Some Cathars told a version of the Enochian narrative, according to which Eve's daughters copulated with Satan's demons and bore giants. The Deluge would have been provoked by Satan, who disapproved of the demons revealing he was not the real god, or alternatively, an attempt by the Invisible Father to destroy the giants. The Holy Spirit was sometimes counted as one single entity, but to others it was considered the collective groups of unfallen angels who had not followed Satan in his rebellion.


title: Catharism

text: Cathars believed that the sexual allure of women impeded a man's ability to reject the material world. Despite this stance on sex and reproduction, some Cathar communities made exceptions. In one version, the Invisible Father had two spiritual wives, Collam and Hoolibam (identified with Oholah and Oholibah), and would himself have provoked the war in heaven by seducing the wife of Satan, or perhaps the reverse. Cathars adhering to this story would believe that having families and sons would not impede them from reaching God's kingdom.


title: Catharism

text: Some communities also believed in a Day of Judgement that would come when the number of the just equalled that of angels who fell, when the believers would ascend to the spirit realm, while the sinners would be thrown to everlasting fire along with Satan.


title: Catharism

text: The Cathars ate a pescatarian diet. They did not eat cheese, eggs, meat, or milk because these are all by-products of sexual intercourse. The Cathars believed that animals were carriers of reincarnated souls, and forbade the killing of all animal life, apart from fish, which they believed were produced by spontaneous generation.


title: Catharism

text: The Cathars denied transubstantiation, purgatory, prayers for the dead and prayers to saints. They also believed that the scriptures should be read in the vernacular.


title: Catharism

text: The alleged sacred texts of the Cathars, besides the New Testament, included the Bogomil text "The Gospel of the Secret Supper" (also called "John's Interrogation"), a modified version of "Ascension of Isaiah", and the Cathar original work "The Book of the Two Principles" (possibly penned by Italian Cathar John Lugio of Bergamo). They regarded the Old Testament as written by Satan, except for a few books which they accepted, and considered the Book of Revelation not a prophecy about the future, but an allegorical chronicle of what had transpired in Satan's rebellion. Their reinterpretation of those texts contained numerous elements characteristic of Gnostic literature.


title: Catharism

text: Cathars, in general, formed an anti-sacerdotal party in opposition to the pre-Reformation Catholic Church, protesting against what they perceived to be the moral, spiritual and political corruption of the Church. In contrast, the Cathars had but one central rite, the Consolamentum, or Consolation. This involved a brief spiritual ceremony to remove all sin from the believer and to induct him into the next higher level as a Perfect.


title: Catharism

text: Many believers would receive the Consolamentum as death drew near, performing the ritual of liberation at a moment when the heavy obligations of purity required of Perfecti would be temporally short. Some of those who received the sacrament of the consolamentum upon their death-beds may thereafter have shunned further food or drink and, more often and in addition, expose themselves to extreme cold, in order to speed death. This has been termed the . It was claimed by some of the church writers that when a Cathar, after receiving the Consolamentum, began to show signs of recovery he or she would be smothered in order to ensure his or her entry into paradise. Other than at such moments of , little evidence exists to suggest this was a common Cathar practice.


title: Catharism

text: The Cathars also refused the sacrament of the eucharist, saying that it could not possibly be the body of Christ. They also refused to partake in the practice of Baptism by water. The following two quotes are taken from the Inquisitor Bernard Gui's experiences with the Cathar practices and beliefs:


title: Catharism

text: Killing was abhorrent to the Cathars. Consequently, abstention from all animal food (sometimes exempting fish) was enjoined of the Perfecti. The Perfecti avoided eating anything considered to be a by-product of sexual reproduction. War and capital punishment were also condemned—an abnormality in Medieval Europe. In a world where few could read, their rejection of oath-taking marked them as rebels against social order.


title: Catharism

text: 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 leveled against a suspected Cathar was usually dismissed if the accused could show he was legally married.


title: Catharism

text: When Bishop Fulk of Toulouse, a key leader of the anti-Cathar persecutions, excoriated the 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."


title: Catharism

text: It has been alleged that the Cathar Church of the Languedoc had a relatively flat structure, distinguishing between the baptised (a term they did not use; instead, ) and ordinary unbaptised believers (). By about 1140, liturgy and a system of doctrine had been established. They created a number of bishoprics, first at Albi around 1165 and after the 1167 Council at Saint-Félix-Lauragais sites at Toulouse, Carcassonne, and Agen, so that four bishoprics were in existence by 1200. In about 1225, during a lull in the Albigensian Crusade, the bishopric of Razès was added. Bishops were supported by their two assistants: a (typically the successor) and a , who were further assisted by deacons. The were the spiritual elite, highly respected by many of the local people, leading a life of austerity and charity. In the apostolic fashion, they ministered to the people and travelled in pairs.


title: Catharism

text: Catharism has been seen as giving women the greatest opportunities for independent action, since women were found as being believers as well as Perfecti, who were able to administer the sacrament of the "consolamentum".


title: Catharism

text: Cathars believed that a person would be repeatedly reincarnated until they committed to self-denial of the material world. A man could be reincarnated as a woman and vice versa. The spirit was of utmost importance to the Cathars and was described as being immaterial and sexless. Because of this belief, the Cathars saw women as equally capable of being spiritual leaders.


title: Catharism

text: Women accused of being heretics in early medieval Christianity included those labeled Gnostics, Cathars, and, later, the Beguines, as well as several other groups that were sometimes "tortured and executed". Cathars, like the Gnostics who preceded them, assigned more importance to the role of Mary Magdalene in the spread of early Christianity than the church previously did. Her vital role as a teacher contributed to the Cathar belief that women could serve as spiritual leaders. Women were found to be included in the Perfecti in significant numbers, with numerous receiving the after being widowed. Having reverence for the Gospel of John, the Cathars saw Mary Magdalene as perhaps even more important than Saint Peter, the founder of the church.


title: Catharism

text: Catharism attracted numerous women with the promise of a leadership role that the Catholic Church did not allow. Catharism let women become a Perfect. These female Perfects were required to adhere to a strict and ascetic lifestyle, but were still able to have their own houses. Although many women found something attractive in Catharism, not all found its teachings convincing. A notable example is Hildegard of Bingen, who in 1163 gave a rousing exhortation against the Cathars in Cologne. During this discourse, Hildegard announced God's eternal damnation on all who accepted Cathar beliefs.


title: Catharism

text: While women Perfects rarely traveled to preach the faith, they still played a vital role in the spreading of Catharism by establishing group homes for women. Though it was extremely uncommon, there were isolated cases of female Cathars leaving their homes to spread the faith. In Cathar communal homes (ostals), women were educated in the faith, and these women would go on to bear children who would then also become believers. Through this pattern, the faith grew exponentially through the efforts of women as each generation passed.


title: Catharism

text: Despite women having a role in the growth of the faith, Catharism was not completely equal; for example, the belief that one's last incarnation had to be experienced as a man to break the cycle. This belief was inspired by later French Cathars, who taught that women must be reborn as men in order to achieve salvation. Toward the end of the Cathar movement, Catharism became less equal and started the practice of excluding women Perfects. However, this trend remained limited; for example, later on, Italian Perfects still included women.


title: Catharism

text: In 1147, Pope Eugene III sent a legate to the Cathar district in order to arrest the progress of the Cathars. The few isolated successes of Bernard of Clairvaux could not obscure the poor results of this mission, which clearly showed the power of the sect in the Languedoc at that period. The missions of Cardinal Peter of Saint Chrysogonus to Toulouse and the Toulousain in 1178, and of Henry of Marcy, cardinal-bishop of Albano, in 1180–81, obtained merely momentary successes. Henry's armed expedition, which took the stronghold at Lavaur, did not extinguish the movement.


title: Catharism

text: Decisions of Catholic Church councils—in particular, those of the Council of Tours (1163) and of the Third Council of the Lateran (1179)—had scarcely more effect upon the Cathars. When Pope Innocent III came to power in 1198, he was resolved to deal with them.


title: Catharism

text: At first Innocent tried peaceful conversion, and sent a number of legates into the Cathar regions. They had to contend not only with the Cathars, the nobles who protected them, and the people who respected them, but also with many of the bishops of the region, who resented the considerable authority the Pope had conferred upon his legates. In 1204, Innocent III suspended a number of bishops in Occitania; in 1205 he appointed a new and vigorous bishop of Toulouse, the former troubadour Foulques. In 1206 Diego of Osma and his canon, the future Saint Dominic, began a programme of conversion in Languedoc; as part of this, Catholic–Cathar public debates were held at Verfeil, Servian, Pamiers, Montréal and elsewhere.


title: Catharism

text: Dominic met and debated with the Cathars in 1203 during his mission to the Languedoc. He concluded that only preachers who displayed real sanctity, humility and asceticism could win over convinced Cathar believers. The institutional Church as a general rule did not possess these spiritual warrants. His conviction led eventually to the establishment of the Dominican Order in 1216. The order was to live up to the terms of his rebuke, "Zeal must be met by zeal, humility by humility, false sanctity by real sanctity, preaching falsehood by preaching truth." However, even Dominic managed only a few converts among the Cathars.


title: Catharism

text: In January 1208 the papal legate, Pierre de Castelnau, a Cistercian monk, theologian and canon lawyer, was sent to meet the ruler of the area, Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse. Known for excommunicating noblemen who protected the Cathars, Castelnau excommunicated Raymond for abetting heresy, following an allegedly fierce argument during which Raymond supposedly threatened Castelnau with violence. Shortly thereafter, Castelnau was murdered as he returned to Rome, allegedly by a knight in the service of Count Raymond. His body was returned and laid to rest in the Abbey of Saint-Gilles.


title: Catharism

text: As soon as he heard of the murder, the Pope ordered the legates to preach a crusade against the Cathars, and wrote a letter to Philip Augustus, King of France, appealing for his intervention—or an intervention led by his son, Louis. This was not the first appeal, but some see the murder of the legate as a turning point in papal policy. The chronicler of the crusade which followed, Peter of Vaux de Cernay, portrayed the sequence of events in such a way that, having failed in his effort to peaceably demonstrate the errors of Catharism, the Pope then began a formal crusade, appointing a series of leaders to head the assault on Catharism.


title: Catharism

text: King Philip II of France refused to lead the crusade himself, and could not spare his son, Prince Louis VIII, to do so either—despite his victory against John, King of England, as there were still pressing issues with Flanders and the empire along with the threat of an Angevin revival. While King Philip II could not lead the crusade nor spare his son, he did sanction the participation of some of his barons, notably Simon de Montfort and Bouchard de Marly. There followed twenty years of war against the Cathars and their allies in the Languedoc: the Albigensian Crusade.


title: Catharism

text: This war pitted the nobles of France against those of the Languedoc. The widespread northern enthusiasm for the Crusade was partially inspired by a papal decree that permitted the confiscation of lands owned by Cathars and their supporters. This angered not only the lords of the south, but also the King Philip II of France, who was at least nominally the suzerain of the lords whose lands were now open to seizure. King Philip II wrote to Pope Innocent in strong terms to point this out—but Pope Innocent refused to change his decree. As the Languedoc was supposedly teeming with Cathars and Cathar sympathisers, this made the region a target for northern French noblemen looking to acquire new fiefs.


title: Catharism

text: The first target for the barons of the North were the lands of the Trencavel, powerful lords of Carcassonne, Béziers, Albi, and the Razes. Little was done to form a regional coalition, and the crusading army was able to take Carcassonne, the Trencavel capital, incarcerating Raymond Roger Trencavel in his own citadel where he died within three months. Champions of the Occitan cause claimed that he was murdered. Simon de Montfort was granted the Trencavel lands by Pope Innocent, thus incurring the enmity of Peter II of Aragon who previously had been aloof from the conflict, even acting as a mediator at the time of the siege of Carcassonne. The remainder of the first of the two Cathar wars now focused on Simon de Monfort's attempt to hold on to his gains through the winters. Then, with a small force of confederates operating from the main winter camp at Fanjeaux, he was faced with the desertion of local lords who had sworn fealty to him out of necessity—and attempts to enlarge his newfound domain during the summer. His forces were then greatly augmented by reinforcements from France, Germany, and elsewhere.


title: Catharism

text: Summer campaigns saw Simon not only retake what he had lost in the winter, but seek to widen his sphere of operation—and we see him in action in the Aveyron at St. Antonin and on the banks of the Rhône at Beaucaire. Simon de Monfort's greatest triumph was the victory against superior numbers at the Battle of Muret—a battle which saw not only the defeat of Raymond of Toulouse and his Occitan allies—but also the death of Peter II of Aragon—which effectively ended the ambitions of the house of Aragon/Barcelona in the Languedoc.


title: Catharism

text: The crusader army came under the command, both spiritually and militarily, of the papal legate Arnaud-Amaury, Abbot of Cîteaux. In the first significant engagement of the war, the town of Béziers was besieged on 22 July 1209. The Catholic inhabitants of the city were granted the freedom to leave unharmed, but many refused and opted to stay and fight alongside the Cathars.


title: Catharism

text: The Cathars spent much of 1209 fending off the crusaders. The Béziers army attempted a sortie but was quickly defeated, then pursued by the crusaders back through the gates and into the city. Arnaud-Amaury, the Cistercian abbot-commander, is supposed to have been asked how to tell Cathars from Catholics. His reply, recalled by Caesarius of Heisterbach, a fellow Cistercian, thirty years later was —"Kill them all, the Lord will recognise His own". The doors of the church of St Mary Magdalene were broken down and the refugees dragged out and slaughtered. Reportedly, at least 7,000 men, women and children were killed there by Catholic forces. Elsewhere in the town, many more thousands were mutilated and killed. Prisoners were blinded, dragged behind horses, and used for target practice. What remained of the city was razed by fire. Arnaud-Amaury wrote to Pope Innocent III, "Today your Holiness, twenty thousand heretics were put to the sword, regardless of rank, age, or sex." "The permanent population of Béziers at that time was then probably no more than 5,000, but local refugees seeking shelter within the city walls could conceivably have increased the number to 20,000."


title: Catharism

text: After the success of his siege of Carcassonne, which followed the massacre at Béziers in 1209, Simon de Montfort was designated as leader of the Crusader army. Prominent opponents of the Crusaders were Raymond Roger Trencavel, viscount of Carcassonne, and his feudal overlord Peter II of Aragon, who held fiefdoms and had a number of vassals in the region. Peter died fighting against the crusade on 12 September 1213 at the Battle of Muret. Simon de Montfort was killed on 25 June 1218 after maintaining a siege of Toulouse for nine months.


title: Catharism

text: The official war ended in the Treaty of Paris (1229), by which the king of France dispossessed the House of Toulouse of the greater part of its fiefs, and the house of the Trencavels of the whole of their fiefs. The independence of the princes of the Languedoc was at an end. In spite of the wholesale massacre of Cathars during the war, Catharism was not yet extinguished, and Catholic forces would continue to pursue Cathars.


title: Catharism

text: In 1215, the bishops of the Catholic Church met at the Fourth Council of the Lateran under Pope Innocent III; part of the agenda was combating the Cathar heresy.


title: Catharism

text: The Inquisition was established in 1233 to uproot the remaining Cathars. Operating in the south at Toulouse, Albi, Carcassonne and other towns during the whole of the 13th century, and a great part of the 14th, it succeeded in crushing Catharism as a popular movement, driving its remaining adherents underground. Cathars who refused to recant or relapsed were hanged, or burnt at the stake.


title: Catharism

text: On Friday 13 May 1239, in Champagne, 183 men and women convicted of Catharism were burned at the stake on the orders of the Dominican inquisitor and former Cathar Perfect . Mount Guimar, in northeastern France, had already been denounced as a place of heresy in a letter of the Bishop of Liège to Pope Lucius II in 1144.


title: Catharism

text: From May 1243 to March 1244, the Cathar fortress of Montségur was besieged by the troops of the seneschal of Carcassonne and the archbishop of Narbonne. On 16 March 1244, a large and symbolically important massacre took place, wherein over 200 Cathar Perfects were burnt in an enormous pyre at the ("field of the burned") near the foot of the castle. Moreover, the Church, at the 1235 Council of Narbonne, decreed lesser chastisements against laymen suspected of sympathy with Cathars.


title: Catharism

text: A popular though as yet unsubstantiated belief holds that a small party of Cathar Perfects escaped from the fortress prior to the massacre at . It is widely held in the Cathar region to this day that the escapees took with them "the Cathar treasure". What this treasure consisted of has been a matter of considerable speculation: claims range from sacred Gnostic texts to the Cathars' accumulated wealth, which might have included the Holy Grail (see below).


title: Catharism

text: Hunted by the Inquisition and deserted by the nobles of their districts, the Cathars became more and more scattered fugitives, meeting surreptitiously in forests and mountain wilds. Later insurrections broke out under the leadership of Roger-Bernard II, Count of Foix, Aimery III of Narbonne, and Bernard Délicieux, a Franciscan friar later prosecuted for his adherence to another heretical movement, that of the Spiritual Franciscans at the beginning of the 14th century. By this time, the Inquisition had grown very powerful. Consequently, many presumed to be Cathars were summoned to appear before it. Precise indications of this are found in the registers of the Inquisitors Bernard of Caux, Jean de St Pierre, Geoffroy d'Ablis, and others. The "perfects", it was said, only rarely recanted, and hundreds were burnt. Repentant lay believers were punished, but their lives were spared as long as they did not relapse. Having recanted, they were obliged to sew yellow crosses onto their outdoor clothing and to live apart from other Catholics, at least for a time.


title: Catharism

text: After several decades of harassment and re-proselytising, and, perhaps even more important, the systematic destruction of their religious texts, the sect was exhausted and could find no more adepts. The leader of a Cathar revival in the Pyrenean foothills, Peire Autier, was captured and executed in April 1310 in Toulouse. After 1330, the records of the Inquisition contain very few proceedings against Cathars. The last known Cathar "perfect" in the Languedoc, Guillaume Bélibaste, was executed in the autumn of 1321.


title: Catharism

text: From the mid-12th century onwards, Italian Catharism came under increasing pressure from the Pope and the Inquisition, "spelling the beginning of the end". Other movements, such as the Waldensians and the pantheistic Brethren of the Free Spirit, which suffered persecution in the same area, survived in remote areas and in small numbers through the 14th and 15th centuries. The Waldensian movement continues today; Waldensian ideas influenced other proto-Protestant sects, such as the Hussites, Lollards, and the Moravian Church.


title: Catharism

text: After the suppression of Catharism, the descendants of Cathars were discriminated against and at times required to live outside towns and their defences. They retained their Cathar identity, despite their reintegration into Catholicism. As such, any use of the term "Cathar" to refer to people after the suppression of Catharism in the 14th century is a cultural or ancestral reference and has no religious implication. Nevertheless, interest in the Cathars and their history, legacy and beliefs continues.


title: Catharism

text: The term , French meaning "Cathar Country", is used to highlight the Cathar heritage and history of the region in which Catharism was traditionally strongest. The area is centred around fortresses such as Montségur and Carcassonne; also, the French département of the Aude uses the title in tourist brochures. The areas have ruins from the wars against the Cathars that are still visible today.


title: Catharism

text: Some criticise the promotion of the identity of as an exaggeration for tourism purposes. Many of the promoted Cathar castles were not built by Cathars but by local lords, and many of them were later rebuilt and extended for strategic purposes. Good examples are the castles of Queribus and Peyrepertuse, which are both perched on the side of precipitous drops on the last folds of the Corbières Massif. They were for several hundred years frontier fortresses belonging to the French crown, and most of what is still there dates from a post-Cathar era. Many consider the County of Foix to be the actual historical centre of Catharism.


title: Catharism

text: In an effort to find the few remaining heretics in and around the village of Montaillou, Jacques Fournier, Bishop of Pamiers, future Pope Benedict XII, had those suspected of heresy interrogated in the presence of scribes who recorded their conversations. The late 13th- to early-14th-century document, the Fournier Register, discovered in the Vatican archives in the 1960s and edited by Jean Duvernoy, is the basis for Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie's work "Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error".


title: Catharism

text: The publication of the early scholarly book "Crusade Against the Grail", by the young German Otto Rahn in the 1930s, rekindled interest in the connection between the Cathars and the Holy Grail, especially in Germany. Rahn was convinced that the 13th-century work "Parzival" by Wolfram von Eschenbach was a veiled account of the Cathars. The philosopher and Nazi government official Alfred Rosenberg speaks favourably of the Cathars in "The Myth of the Twentieth Century".


title: Catharism

text: Academic books in English first appeared at the beginning of the 21st century: for example, Malcolm Lambert's "The Cathars" and Malcolm Barber's "The Cathars".


title: Catharism

text: Starting in the 1990s and continuing to the present day, historians like R. I. Moore have challenged the extent to which Catharism, as an institutionalized religion, actually existed. Building on the work of French historians such as Monique Zerner and Uwe Brunn, Moore's "The War on Heresy" argues that Catharism was "contrived from the resources of [the] well-stocked imaginations" of churchmen, "with occasional reinforcement from miscellaneous and independent manifestations of local anticlericalism or apostolic enthusiasm". In short, Moore claims that the men and women persecuted as Cathars were not the followers of a secret religion imported from the East; instead, they were part of a broader spiritual revival taking place in the later twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Moore's work is indicative of a larger historiographical trend towards examining how heresy was constructed by the church.


title: Catharism

text: Scholars since the 1990s have referred to the fearful rumors of Cathars as a moral panic. The crusade against Cathars as a possibly-imaginary enemy has been compared to European witch-hunts, anti-Semitic persecution, and the Satanic Panic.


title: Catharism

text: In 2016, "Cathars in Question". edited by Antonio Sennis, presents a range of conflicting views by academics of medieval heresy, including Feuchter, Stoyanov, Sackville, Taylor, D'Avray, Biller, Moore, Bruschi, Pegg, Hamilton, Arnold and Théry-Astruc, who had met at University College London and the Warburg Institute in London in April 2013. Sennis describes the debate as about "an issue which is highly controversial and hotly debated among scholars: the existence of a medieval phenomenon which we can legitimately call 'Catharism'."


title: Catharism

text: Dr. Andrew Roach in "The English Historical Review" commented that "Reconciliation still seems some distance away" among the "distinguished, if sometimes cantankerous, scholars" who contributed to the volume. He said:


title: Catharism

text: Professor Rebecca Rist describes the academic controversy as the "heresy debate" – "some of it very heated" – about whether Catharism was a "real heresy with Balkans origins, or rather a construct of western medieval culture, whose authorities wanted to persecute religious dissidents." Rist adds that some historians say the group was an invention of the medieval Church, so there never was a Cathar heresy; while she agrees that the medieval Church exaggerated its threat, she says there is evidence of the heresy's existence.


title: Catharism

text: Professor Claire Taylor has called for a "post-revisionism" in the debate, saying that legacy historians assumed the heresy was a form of dualism and therefore a form of Bogomilism, whereas "revisionists" have focused on social origins to explain the dissent.


title: Catharism

text: Lucy Sackville has argued that while the revisionists rightly point to the Cathars' opaque origins and their branding as 'Manichaeans', this does not mean we should disregard all evidence that their heresy had an organised theology.


title: Catharism

text: The principal legacy of the Cathar movement is in the poems and songs of the Cathar troubadors, though this artistic legacy is only a smaller part of the wider Occitan linguistic and artistic heritage. The Occitan song "Lo Boièr" is particularly associated with Catharism.


title: Catharism

text: Recent artistic projects concentrating on the Cathar element in Provençal and troubador art include commercial recording projects by Thomas Binkley, electric hurdy-gurdy artist Valentin Clastrier, La Nef, and Jordi Savall.


title: Catharism

text: In popular culture, Catharism has been linked with the Knights Templar, an active sect of monks founded during the First Crusade (1095–1099). This link has caused about the Cathars and the possibility of their possession of the Holy Grail, such as in the pseudohistorical "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail."


title: Catharism

text: Though they were criticized by many historians, some Protestants such as John Foxe and Jean Duvernoy have argued that Cathars followed Proto-Protestant theology, and Foxe argued that they followed Calvinist soteriology. Such have argued that Cathars did not follow dualism but instead argued that such accusations were either misinterpretations of Cathar theology, wrongly attributed to Cathars or merely hostile claims. Other historians have also argued that Cathars instead followed Protestant theology because the Reformation spread rapidly to the land in which Cathars mainly existed. They argued that the people "held Protestant ideas" well before the Reformation. However, such arguments are generally viewed as weak.


title: Catharism

text: A similar pseudohistorical theory has argued that the Cathars are part of "baptist successionism", which places the Cathars as forerunners of Baptist theology. Hisel Berlin, advocating for the Baptist successionist theory, argued that claims about the Cathars were mainly false and that they denied things such as infant baptism.


title: Tor missile system

text: The Tor (; ) is an all-weather, low- to medium-altitude, short-range surface-to-air missile system designed for destroying airplanes, helicopters, cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles and short-range ballistic threats (anti-munitions). Originally developed by the Soviet Union under the GRAU designation 9K330 Tor, the system is commonly known by its NATO reporting name, SA-15 "Gauntlet". A navalized variant was developed under the name 3K95 "Kinzhal", also known as the SA-N-9 "Gauntlet". Tor was designed to shoot down guided weapons like the AGM-86 ALCM and BGM-34 day and night, in bad weather and jamming situations. Tor can detect targets while on the move. The vehicle must stop intermittently when firing, although trials have been conducted with the aim of eliminating this restriction.


title: Tor missile system

text: The development of the Tor missile system started on 4 February 1975, in response to the directives of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Initiated as a successor to the 9K33 Osa (NATO reporting name SA-8 "Gecko"), development of the land based version was conducted in parallel with the naval variant of the system (3K95 Kinzhal/SA-N-9 "Gauntlet"), to be installed on a number of upcoming ship classes, including the s, and retrofitted onto older ships. Responsibility for development was given to the Antey design bureau (headed by V.P. Efremov), the missiles designed by MKB Fakel (under P.D. Grushin) and the Altair design bureau (headed by S.A. Fadeyev) was responsible for the development of Kinzhal. All the developers and manufacturers of the Tor missile system unified into Almaz-Antey in 2002.


title: Tor missile system

text: The closest foreign equivalent to the Tor, in function and operation, are systems like the British Rapier missile and French Crotale missile systems, which some consider to have somewhat less performance than Tor (the other two systems being based on older equipment). All three systems are mobile and self-propelled, Tor using the 9A330 combat vehicle, which carries a crew of four (one driver, three operators), and acts as an autonomous Transporter, Launcher, And Radar unit, or TLAR (similar to but not a TELAR, as it does not erect the missile to a launch position). The 9A330 is based on the GM-355 chassis manufactured by MMZ, the Tor-M1 using the improved GM-5955. It is equipped with NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical) protection. Like Rapier and Crotale, in addition to the tracked vehicle, there are also static and towed versions of the Tor, as well as a wheeled one. Mobility time is 3 minutes and it can be transported by any transport means (including aerial). The reaction time of the original Tor is 7–8 (standard) / 7–10 (if it is in motion) seconds.


title: Tor missile system

text: Arranged in a similar fashion to the previous 9K33 Osa and 9K22 Tunguska () air defense systems, Tor's TLAR features a turret with a top mounted target acquisition radar, and frontal tracking radar, with 8 ready to fire missiles stored vertically between the two radars. The target acquisition radar is an F band pulse doppler 3D radar, equipped with a truncated parabolic antenna, and a mechanically, later electronically, scanned in azimuth with a 32 degree sector view, and has an average power output of 1.5 kW, which provides a maximum detection range of . For reference, a McDonnell Douglas F-15 at an altitude of 6 km has a detection probability of 0.8 at this range. The electronic 'heart' of the system is a digital fire control system, which allows detection of up to 48 targets and the tracking of ten at any one time, and integrates IFF functionality; the IFF antenna being mounted above the search radar.


title: Tor missile system

text: The target engagement radar is a G band/H band (later K band) pulse doppler radar with an (in azimuth) passive electronically scanned array antenna. The radar is classed as a thinned array (design using fewer elements) incorporating only 570 phase shifters and uses linear polarization. The radar has an average power output of 0.6 kW providing a maximum detection range of 20 km/12 mi. An F-15 type aircraft had a detection probability of 0.8 at this range. Originally Tor could only engage one target at a time, and with only two of its missiles. Later variants of the Tor system (Tor-M1 and M2E) incorporate additional fire control channels, as well as improved fire control computers, allowing the system to engage two (M1) and then four (M2E) targets, while simultaneously guiding up to four (M1) and then eight (M2E) missiles. There is also a small antenna on the top of the target engagement radar to communicate with missiles after launch. Together these radars carry the NATO reporting name "Scrum Half". To reduce the dimensions of the vehicle, the target acquisition radar can be folded down horizontally when travelling, and the tracking radar can partially rotate away from vertical. To allow engagements in an ECM-heavy environment, the Tor missile system is equipped with an optical tracking system, complementing the main radar.


title: Tor missile system

text: As a fully mobile system, the Tor is capable of acquiring and tracking targets while the TLAR is moving. Due to the interference with launch operations while in motion, missiles can be fired only when the system is stationary. Once set up, the reaction time (from target detection to engagement) is described as 5–8 seconds, depending on the variant; however, reaction time is somewhat longer (around 10 seconds) while in motion and firing in short halts. To facilitate this mode of operation, an auxiliary power unit (APU) is fitted so that the main engine can be shut down while the radar and missile system continue to operate when stationary, enabling long periods of readiness. The digital computers allowed for a higher degree of automation than any previous Soviet system of its type. Target threat classification is automatic and the system can be operated with little operator input, if desired.


title: Tor missile system

text: Typically, a battery of four Tor vehicles is accompanied by the mobile Ranzhir-M () command center, which provides automatic interaction with the Tor, 9K33 Osa, 9K31 Strela-1, 2K22 Tunguska. It allows for efficient allocation of tasks between the individual Tor-M1 crews and allows each TLAR to be linked into a wider air defense system, thereby increasing target detection range and reducing reaction time.


title: Tor missile system

text: Tor vehicles are accompanied by the mobile Polyana-D4, which provides automatic interaction with the Tor, Buk, 2K22 Tunguska, S-300V, (integrates all functions of several different systems into a single whole + various air force aircraft + direct transfer of target designation).


title: Tor missile system

text: Tor-M1 receiving commands from Ranzhir-M / Polyana-D4 can shoot down targets in the range of 0–84 degrees. Tor-M1 system (the time of creating the version, 1991) can operate in a pair, then the angle of observation was 0–64 degrees (vertical).


title: Tor missile system

text: Combat vehicle of antiaircraft Tor missile system provides simultaneous detection of up to 48 targets.


title: Tor missile system

text: Weighing , the 9M330 missile is long, carries a warhead and has a peak speed of around . Using command guidance and radar controlled proximity fuzes, the missiles can maneuver at up to 30 g and engage targets flying at up to . Cold launched, the missiles are propelled out of the vehicle before the solid fuel rocket motor fires and the thrust vectoring system turns them toward their target. Missiles can also be fired against surface targets. Each missile is a sealed round, stored in two groups of four. Engagement range is up to with minimum range varying between , depending upon version and an effective altitude of .


title: Tor missile system

text: A new 9M338 missile has been developed by Almaz Antey offering improved range and precision. Its smaller size also enables the modified Tor-M2 to be equipped with 16 missiles as opposed to the original 8.


title: Tor missile system

text: The project was given strict design specifications to meet; Tor had to provide extended detection and tracking of fast, low radar cross section targets and be capable of quickly and efficiently dealing with massed air raids, while providing a high degree of automation and integration with other air defence assets.


title: Tor missile system

text: To meet these demanding specifications, the designers used a variety of new technologies, including advanced passive electronically scanned array radar for improved detection and tracking performance, enhanced digital information processing, and vertically launched missiles to improve reaction time and increase the number of readily available munitions. After testing and evaluation between December 1983 and December 1984, the land-based system was accepted into service on 19 March 1986.


title: Tor missile system

text: "Tor-M1", introduced in 1991 with the 9M331 missile, with greatly improved missile accuracy and the ability to engage two targets simultaneously, minimum range , minimum height .


title: Tor missile system

text: Even while the Tor was being introduced into service, work started on improving the system, resulting in an enhanced version, the Tor-M1. Many improvements over the original system were made; these included the addition of a second fire control channel, allowing two targets to be engaged at once; as well as upgrades to the optical tracking system and computer equipment. ECM protection and warhead design were also modified, as was the ammunition handling system. State tests, conducted between March and December 1989, showed that the result was a system which could engage more targets in a shorter time frame with reaction times reduced by over a second and an increased probability of target destruction. Further modifications occurred partly as a response of insight gained from the 1995 NATO bombing in Bosnia and Herzegovina resulting in the Tor-M1-1, or Tor-M1V, which offered improved network connectivity and ECM functions as well as protection against countermeasures.


title: Tor missile system

text: In 1993 Tor, in the test conditions reflecting targets employing defensive countermeasures, repeatedly downed small-sized rockets (similar to the much later and static complexes Iron Dome 1 target) with a 100% success rate. In comparison, Tor-M2E achieved a 100% rate in 2009, Tor-M2 a 100% rate in 2013 (10 km), and Tor-M2  a 100% rate in 2014, all in heavy ECM environments against four simultaneous small, high-speed targets.


title: Tor missile system

text: Upgrades have continued over the lifetime of the system, with developer Almaz Antey unveiling the newest incarnation of the Tor missile system, the Tor-M2E, at the MAKS Airshow in 2007.


title: Tor missile system

text: Ammunition of the Tor-M2 includes 8 missiles 9M331 or 16 missiles 9M338 with increased altitude and range. Tor-M2 missiles have a range of 16 km, maximum altitude of 10 km and maximum speed of 1000 m/s. The system is capable of short-stop firing, which takes 2–3 seconds for the system to go from motion to stationary and firing of the missile.


title: Tor missile system

text: The Tor-M2E is offered in either wheeled or tracked chassis and is equipped with a new digital computer system and all weather optical tracking system. It is currently produced at OJSC Izhevsk Electromechanical plant «Kupol».


title: Tor missile system

text: "Tor-M1-2U" entered service at the end of 2012. This system is designed to destroy aircraft, helicopters, UAVs, missiles, and other precision guided weapons, flying at medium, low and very low altitudes in all weather. The system is able to engage four targets simultaneously at a height of up to 10 kilometers. Its crew consists of three people.


title: Tor missile system

text: The 3K95 "Kinzhal" ( – "dagger") is the naval version of the Tor missile system developed by "Altair" and has the NATO reporting name SA-N-9 Gauntlet. Using the same 9M330 missile as the land based version, the system can be mounted on vessels displacing over 800 tonnes and is known to be installed on aircraft carriers, "Kirov"-class multimission cruisers, anti-submarine destroyers and frigates. The naval version of the later Tor-M1 is known as the "Yozh" ( – "hedgehog"), while the export version of the Kinzhal is known as "Klinok" ( – "blade").


title: Tor missile system

text: Despite starting testing earlier than its terrestrial counterpart, the naval variant, Kinzhal, had a more protracted development. After an extended testing period using a Project 1124 (including the engagement and destruction of four P-5 Pyatyorka (SSC-1a Shaddock) anti-ship missiles in 1986) Kinzhal finally entered service in 1989.


title: Tor missile system

text: Stored within rotary VLS modules, the missiles are clustered into launchers comprising three to six modules (32 ("Neustrashimy"), 64 ("Udaloy") or 192 ("Kuznetsov", "Kirov") missiles) and mounted flush to the deck. Each module has up to eight missiles stored ready to fire; during firing the missile is cold launched using a gas catapult before the launcher brings the next round to a firing position.


title: Tor missile system

text: Fire control (FC) is handled by the 3R95 multi-channel FC system, (NATO reporting name Cross Swords), composed of two different radar sets, a G-band target acquisition radar (maximum detection range 45 km/28 mi,) and a K band target engagement radar, that handles the actual prosecution of a target.


title: Tor missile system

text: Using two top mounted, mechanically scanned, parabolic target acquisition radars, the fire control system provides a 360 degree field of view, as well as IFF. The target engagement radar is a passive electronically scanned array antenna of the reflection type mounted on the front of the fire control system with a 60 degree field of view. Much like its land based sibling, the target engagement radar can track and guide eight missiles on up to four targets at once and is effective to a range of 1.5–12 km and an altitude of 10–6000 m. The system is managed by a crew of 13. Additional missile guidance antennae can be seen around the fire control system and the 3K95, like the upgraded Tor launchers, is equipped with a secondary infrared guidance system. The 3R95 can also provide fire control information for the vessels AK-630 close in weapons systems (CIWS) providing a second line of defence should anything penetrate the missile layer.


title: Tor missile system

text: The Tor-M2KM is a self-contained fighting module version of the system that can be mounted in various locations. In October 2016, it was loaded onto the helipad of the "Admiral Grigorovich" frigate by means of an ordinary wharf crane and fixed in position with steel chains to fire at simulated cruise missiles while the ship was underway. This could give advanced SAM capabilities to vessels without the capacity to install the larger and heavier Kinzhal system; it can also be mounted on a truck, building roof, or any horizontal surface at least 2.5 m wide and 7.1 m long. The module weighs 15 tons and contains all equipment needed to operate without any external support. It can go from standby to full alert in 3 minutes and acquire 144 air targets while simultaneously tracking the 20 most dangerous ones marked for priority by the two-man crew. The Tor-M2 km missiles have a range of 15 km. In June 2022, it was installed on the helipad of the "Vasily Bykov" patrol boat. The system uses the new 9M331M surface-to-air missiles.


title: Tor missile system

text: The system is especially designed to be used for Arctic region at temperatures up to -50 degrees C based on the chassis of the DT-30PM tracked all-terrain vehicle and is capable of detecting over 40 air targets, especially high-precision weapons, and to track and engage up to four of them simultaneously at a range of up to 12 km and altitudes up to 10 km with its 16 missiles even on the move. Its creation was completed in 2018 and the first delivery of 12 systems was held in November of the same year.


title: Tor missile system

text: JSC Rosoboronexport, part of the Rostec State Corporation, has started promoting the newest Tor-E2 SAM system developed and produced by the Almaz-Antey Air and Space Defence Concern in 2018. Tor-E2 combat vehicle is an independent, mobile, all-terrain fighting unit that provides detection and identification of air targets on the march and at the halt, target lock-on and engagement at the halt, from a short stop and on the move. A battery of the four-channel Tor-E2 SAM systems, consisting of four combat vehicles, can simultaneously engage up to 16 targets flying from any direction at a range of at least 15 km and an altitude of up to 12 km. Each vehicle carries 16 missiles, twice as many as the previous version of the Tor system. In addition, the two Tor-E2 combat vehicles can operate in the "link" mode, which enables them to exchange information about the air situation at different altitude ranges and coordinate joint engagement operations. In this mode, one of the combat vehicles, acting from an ambush, receives information from the other one and does not reveal itself until the launch of the missile. A command post can be attached to a battery of four Tor-E2 combat vehicles to control and coordinate the Tor combat vehicles and interact with the customer's air defense control system.


title: Tor missile system

text: The HQ-17 is a Chinese development of the Tor-M1 system with a new chassis, IFF array, radar, and other electronics.


title: Tor missile system

text: In 1996, China ordered 14 Tor-M1 missile systems from Russia which were delivered under contract in 1997. In 1999, another contract for 13 Tor-M1 systems was signed between Russia and China. Delivery of the systems took place in 2000.


title: Tor missile system

text: The FM-2000 is a mobile short-range air-defence (SHORAD) system unveiled by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation at the 2018 Zhuhai Airshow and in service as of 2019. Its range is 15 km and engagement altitude is 10 km. It is carried on a 3 axle TEL. It is a version of the HQ-17.


title: Tor missile system

text: In a press conference regarding the 2008 South Ossetia War, Russian defence ministry spokesperson Anatoliy Nogovitsyn speculated about the use of the Tor missile system by Georgian Armed Forces against attacking Russian aircraft suggesting it as a possible cause of the loss of a Tu-22MR strategic bomber, shot down by Georgian air-defences while on a reconnaissance mission during the conflict. Following analysis attributed the loss of the bomber to Georgian Buk-M1 system, which Georgia obtained from Ukraine in 2007.


title: Tor missile system

text: Since 30 September 2015, Russian military forces have been directly involved in the Syrian Civil War.


title: Tor missile system

text: As part of the air defense, Tor-M2, along with the Pantsir-S1 point air defense system, has been deployed at the Khmeimim Air Base, allegedly, on multiple occasions proving to be superior to the Pantsir-S1 in countering UAV swarm attacks, the vehicles destroyed more than 45 improvised UAVs as of June 2020.


title: Tor missile system

text: On 9 April 2018, the Israeli Air Force reportedly destroyed an Iranian Tor system along with a drone hangar at Syria's T-4 airbase. The system was not yet operational.


title: Tor missile system

text: On 9 January 2020 it was reported by Newsweek that U.S. officials believed Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot down by an Iranian Tor-M1 missile, probably by accident. Later that day, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that there was credible allied and Canadian intelligence that an Iranian surface-to-air missile likely caused the loss of the Ukrainian airliner. He would not elaborate further on the intelligence. Eliot Higgins of Bellingcat tweeted photographs of a Tor nose section with its distinctive canards, claimed to be taken at the crash site. On 11 January 2020, Iran admitted that it had shot down the Ukrainian airliner due to human error but Iran didn't close the air space because of war situation, and on 20 January, Iran's Civil Aviation Organization confirmed that "two Tor-M1 missiles [...] were fired at the aircraft."


title: Tor missile system

text: Worried about an Israeli strike, according to previous military intelligence, similar incidents happened before, with one in particular directly mentioning Iranian Revolutionary Guards Tor-M1 batteries firing a missile toward a civilian airliner by mistake in June 2007.


title: Tor missile system

text: On 9 November 2020, the Azerbaijan Ministry of Defence published a video showing the destruction of an Armenian Tor-M2KM system in the vicinity of Khojavend. A drone tracked the vehicle as it parked inside a garage where it was subsequently struck by an IAI Harop "kamikaze" drone and multiple guided bombs.


title: Tor missile system

text: In 2022, Tor missiles are being used by the Russian armed forces during its invasion of Ukraine. Several systems were reportedly abandoned by the Russian army after being stuck in mud, some of them photographed by individuals. One such photo, featuring a man named "Igor", garnered considerable attention on Twitter.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: Blade: Trinity is a 2004 American superhero film written and directed by David S. Goyer, who also wrote the screenplays to "Blade" and "Blade II". It stars Wesley Snipes as Blade, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, who also produced with Goyer, Peter Frankfurt and Lynn Harris, with a supporting cast of Ryan Reynolds, Jessica Biel, Kris Kristofferson, Dominic Purcell, Parker Posey and Triple H in his acting debut.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: The third and final installment in the "Blade" trilogy, the war between humans and vampires continues. Blade has been framed for numerous murders by the vampire leader Danica Talos, who is determined to lead her bloodthirsty compatriots to victory. Blade must team up with a band of rogue vampire hunters to save humanity from his most challenging enemy yet: Dracula.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: "Blade: Trinity" was released in the United States on December 8, 2004. The film grossed $132 million at the box office worldwide on a budget of $65 million and received mostly negative reviews from critics for its formulaic themes, directing and acting; it is the worst-reviewed film in the trilogy. The film was followed by 2006's "", and also marks Reynolds' first superhero role, as well as his first collaboration with Marvel Entertainment. Marvel regained the film rights to the character in 2012.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: A small group of vampires investigate an ancient tomb in the Syrian Desert, which they believe belongs to Dracula, the first vampire. To keep Blade from interfering, they frame him for the murder of a human familiar. FBI agents subsequently locate Blade's hideout and kill his mentor and friend, Abraham Whistler. Demoralized, Blade surrenders and is arrested.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: The vampires' familiars have arranged for the authorities to turn Blade over to them. He is rescued by Hannibal King and Abigail Whistler, Abraham's daughter, who invite Blade to join their band of vampire hunters, the Nightstalkers. From them, Blade learns that Danica Talos, an old enemy of King, has revived Dracula, or "Drake", with the goal of using his powers to cure vampires of their weaknesses. As the first of the vampires, Drake is able to survive in sunlight. Along with newly-innovative ultraviolet "Sun dog" ammunition, the Nightstalkers have created an experimental bioweapon known as Daystar, capable of killing vampires at the genetic level. However, they need a purer blood source to make it effective. As Drake is too powerful to kill via normal means, they hope that the virus will kill him and, with his blood in the mix, ensure the rest of the species is wiped out; but also fear that this will include Blade.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: Eager to test Blade, Drake isolates him from the Nightstalkers. He explains his view that all humans and vampires are inferior in his eyes and that he intends to wipe them from the Earth. Abigail finds evidence of the vampires' plans for human subjugation, a network of "blood farms" where brain dead humans are drained of their blood for vampire consumption. Blade deactivates the farm's life support systems and executes the familiar who had been rounding up homeless humans for the vampires.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: Returning to the Nightstalkers' hideout, Abigail and Blade find all of them dead except for King and Sommerfield's daughter Zoe, both of whom have been taken captive. A recording left by Sommerfield, Daystar's creator, reveals that Drake's blood is all that is needed to make it complete and effective. King is tortured by the vampires for information, but refuses to talk, even when they threaten to turn him and force him to feed from Zoe's blood.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: Blade and Abigail arrive and free the captives. Drake eventually bests Blade in combat and prepares to kill him with his own sword. Abigail fires the Daystar arrow, but Drake catches it before it strikes him. He drops it to the floor by Blade, not realizing the danger it poses to him. Abigail shoots Drake with another arrow, this time wounding him. Blade uses the distraction to stab Drake with the Daystar arrow, triggering a chemical reaction that completes the "Daystar" virus, releasing it into the air. The virus becomes airborne, killing Danica and the rest of the vampires. As Drake slowly succumbs to his wounds and the virus, he praises Blade for fighting honorably, but warns him that he will eventually succumb to his need for blood, thus proving that Blade is the future of the vampire race.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: Using the last of his power, Drake shapeshifts into Blade. The FBI recover the body, but as they begin the autopsy, it transforms back into the deceased Drake. King narrates that Drake's final transformation was a gift so that Blade could escape, leaving Blade free to continue fighting his never-ending war against the forces of evil.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: In the unrated extended edition, the body in the morgue does not transform back into Drake. "Blade" awakens as the autopsy begins and attacks the doctors and FBI agents present. The scene ends as he menacingly approaches a cowering orderly. King narrates that the virus did not kill Blade as the human half of his heart did not stop beating, it only slowed down, causing him to enter into a comatose state until his body was ready to fight again.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: In another alternate ending, the Nightstalkers reappear six months later, having tracked a werewolf to a casino in Asia.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: In 2001, before the release of "Blade II", New Line made a deal with David S. Goyer to write and produce a third Blade film. In 2002, German director Oliver Hirschbiegel was in talks to direct the film, but chose instead to direct a film about Adolf Hitler called "Downfall". Goyer is friends with both Stephen Norrington and Guillermo Del Toro and asked for their advice. Del Toro did conceptual art work for the film, and was thanked in the end credits.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: In August 2003, Ryan Reynolds was in negotiations to join the film and Ashley Scott was also being considered as his counterpart, and that they would also star in a potential spin-off film. Later that month, Jessica Biel signed on to the project. Producers at New Line suggested casting wrestler Triple H and Goyer was highly skeptical. Goyer was impressed by Triple H's comic timing and self deprecation, and ended up expanding his role.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: Apple did not pay for product placement. They made the equipment available and included the option to buy it at a 60% reduction.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: Reportedly, Wesley Snipes was unhappy with the film's script and original choice of director. David S. Goyer, who had written all three films in the franchise, was then selected to replace the director of the film, which Snipes also protested. Snipes reportedly caused difficulty during filming, including frequently refusing to shoot scenes, often forcing director Goyer to use stand-ins and computer effects to add his character to scenes. Goyer described making the film as "the most personally and professionally difficult and painful thing I've ever been through". Co-star Patton Oswalt alleged that Snipes would spend much of his time smoking marijuana in his trailer, and that he became violent with Goyer after accusing him of racism. It has also been alleged that Snipes refused to interact with Goyer or his co-stars, and would instead communicate with them through his assistant or the use of notes. Snipes also allegedly referred to co-star Ryan Reynolds as a "cracker" on one or more occasions.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: Snipes denied that version of events and said that as an executive producer on the film he had the authority to make decisions but that some people had difficulty accepting that.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: In the DVD special features, Goyer talks about how cities are often multilingual. Goyer used Esperanto and its flag as part of the fictional city where Blade is set.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: The Esperanto flag is shown twice, at the entrance to the Police headquarters after Blade is rescued from jail, and in the rooftop scene where Drake threatens to drop a baby over the edge. Background elements such as signs and advertisements include Esperanto translations.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: Hannibal King is at one point seen watching the William Shatner-starring Esperanto language film "Incubus" on television; one reviewer remarked that it was "an unintentionally apt reference" considering first-time director "Goyer's grasp of directorial fundamentals (such as when to tilt the camera and when to shoot in close-up) is about as strong as Shatner's fluency in Esperanto". The film's director of photography, Gabriel Beristain, makes a cameo appearance as the one-eyed newspaper vendor who talks to Whistler in Esperanto and discusses the public perception that Blade is a menace to society.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: A soundtrack containing hip hop music and electronic music was released on November 23, 2004 by New Line Records. It peaked at #68 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and #15 on the Top Soundtracks.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: In 2005, Snipes sued New Line Cinema and Goyer, claiming that the studio did not pay his full salary, that he was intentionally cut out of casting decisions and the filmmaking process, despite being one of the producers, and that his character's screen time was reduced in favor of co-stars Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: In 2006, Snipes was sued by United Talent Agency for allegedly failing to fulfill agreements to pay commission to the agency on his earnings.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: The film's American box office gross was $52 million, and the total worldwide gross was $132 million. This matched the first "Blade"s take but came behind "Blade II", which had grossed $150 million worldwide.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of based on reviews from critics, with an average rating of . The website's consensus reads: "Louder, campier, and more incoherent than its predecessors, "Blade: Trinity" seems content to emphasize style over substance and rehash familiar themes". On Metacritic the film has a score of 38% based on reviews from 30 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Rotten Tomatoes included the film at 76 out of 94 on a countdown (from 94 to 1) of "worst to best" comic book to film adaptations. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: Roger Ebert, who gave "Blade" three stars out of four and "Blade II" three and a half stars, gave "Blade: Trinity" one and a half stars, writing: "It lacks the sharp narrative line and crisp comic-book clarity of the earlier films, and descends too easily into shapeless fight scenes that are chopped into so many cuts that they lack all form or rhythm". James Berardinelli also rated the film one and a half stars out of four: ""Blade: Trinity" is a carbon copy of its predecessors. It's all kick-ass attitude and style without any substance to back it up. Yet, where the first two "Blades" satisfied on a visceral level, this one doesn't".


title: Blade: Trinity

text: Later David S. Goyer was very critical about the final product: “I don’t think anyone involved in that film had a good experience on that film, certainly I didn’t. I don’t think anybody involved with that film is happy with the results. It was a very tortured production.”


title: Blade: Trinity

text: In October 2008, "Blade" director Stephen Norrington was developing a prequel trilogy to "Blade", featuring Stephen Dorff reprising his role as Deacon Frost. In 2016, "Underworld" actress Kate Beckinsale stated that a crossover sequel to "Blade: Trinity" with the "Underworld" film series had been in development but was cancelled after the film rights reverted to Marvel Studios in 2012.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: In May 2013, Marvel had a working script for a new Blade film. Snipes said in July 2015 that he had discussions with Marvel to reprise the role.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: In July 2019, at the San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel Studios announced "Blade" reboot set into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Mahershala Ali cast as the title character. Producer Kevin Feige said that the "Blade" reboot was planned to be part of slate of films, and said that the reboot would be rated PG-13 instead of an R-rating. In February 2021, Stacy Osei-Kuffour was hired to write the script.


title: Blade: Trinity

text: A tie-in Java mobile game developed by Mforma was released. Gamespot rated it 7.1 out of 10, and IGN gave it 7.7 out of 10.


title: Zapatista Army of National Liberation

text: The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (, EZLN), often referred to as the Zapatistas (Mexican ), is a far-left political and militant group that controls a substantial amount of territory in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico.


title: Zapatista Army of National Liberation

text: Since 1994, the group has been nominally at war with the Mexican state (although it may be described at this point as a frozen conflict). The EZLN used a strategy of civil resistance. The Zapatistas' main body is made up of mostly rural indigenous people, but it includes some supporters in urban areas and internationally. The EZLN's main spokesperson is Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano, previously known as Subcomandante Marcos (a.k.a. Compañero Galeano and Delegate Zero in relation to "the Other Campaign"). Unlike other Zapatista spokespeople, Marcos is not an indigenous Maya.


title: Zapatista Army of National Liberation

text: The group takes its name from Emiliano Zapata, the agrarian revolutionary and commander of the Liberation Army of the South during the Mexican Revolution, and sees itself as his ideological heir. Nearly all EZLN villages contain murals with images of Zapata, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, and Subcomandante Marcos.


title: Zapatista Army of National Liberation

text: EZLN's ideology has been characterized as libertarian socialist, anarchist, Marxist, and having roots in liberation theology although the Zapatistas have rejected and defied political classification. The EZLN aligns itself with the wider alter-globalization, anti-neoliberal social movement, seeking indigenous control over local resources, especially land. Since their 1994 uprising was countered by the Mexican Armed Forces, the EZLN has abstained from military offensives and adopted a new strategy that attempts to garner Mexican and international support.


title: Zapatista Army of National Liberation

text: The Zapatistas describe themselves as a decentralized organization. The pseudonymous Subcomandante Marcos is widely considered its leader despite his claims that the group has no single leader. Political decisions are deliberated and decided in community assemblies. Military and organizational matters are decided by the Zapatista area elders who compose the General Command (Revolutionary Indigenous Clandestine Committee – General Command, or CCRI-CG).


title: Zapatista Army of National Liberation

text: The Chiapas region has been the scene of a succession of uprisings, including the "Caste War" or "Chamula Rebellion" (1867–1870) and the "Pajarito War" (1911).


title: Zapatista Army of National Liberation

text: The EZLN emerged during the government of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which at the time had ruled Mexico for more than sixty years, in a dominant-party system. The situation led many young people to consider the legal channels of political participation closed and to bet on the formation of clandestine armed organizations to seek the overthrow of a regime that from their point of view was authoritarian, and thus improve the living conditions of the population. One of these organizations, was known as the National Liberation Forces (FLN). The FLN were founded on August 6, 1969, by César Germán Yáñez Muñoz, in Monterrey, Nuevo León. According to Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro, in his report "Subversive movements in Mexico", "they had established their areas of operations in the states of Veracruz, Puebla, Tabasco, Nuevo León and Chiapas."


title: Zapatista Army of National Liberation

text: In February 1974, a confrontation took place in , State of Mexico, between a unit of the Mexican Army, under the command of Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro, and members of the FLN, some of whom lost their lives during combat, reported having been tortured.