734 CATHAR LITERATURE
absolute dualists. The good god could never have been the creator of a Lu-
cifer who has the free will to become wicked.
More prominent in mitigated dualism than in absolute dualism is the es-
sential theory of emanation. For the mitigated dualists, there is only one orig-
inal principle: the good god, from whom both Christ and Lucifer emanate.
Lucifer, carrier of light, was originally good and sat next to god, but he became
corrupted and corrupted his angels and they all became demons. For the ab-
solute dualists, there are two principles: the principle of good and the princi-
ple of evil, which is nothingness. Lucifer is Satan, the creature of nonbeing, of
earth, which is the inferno where souls must wait for the possibility of re-
demption and return to the light. Satan has always been evil, and of his own
free will has imprisoned the good spirits (who lack free will) into earthly mat-
ter. The good spirits on earth have not willingly sinned but have been forced
into human bodies.
Some modern scholars attempt to reconcile the two systems, saying that
these two theses do not reflect fundamentally different worldviews but are
simply different ways of explaining how Satan was tempted and absorbed by
matter, how evil entered heaven, and how being was contaminated by nonbe-
ing, all of which was inevitable when god chose to create. Such an argument is
wrong, however, and reflects only the mitigated branch of Catharism. It must
be remembered that the good god of absolute dualism is absolutely separate
from any creation that could have led to evil. This separation from evil, how-
ever, has interesting consequences in limiting the true god's power. God can-
not create evil, and to that extent is not omnipotent like the good god of
mitigated dualism. The absolute god seems to be "all powerful" yet remains
limited because of his inability to concoct an evil universe. His purity and
goodness limit him. Yet he still has contact with evil: the good god will spend
eternity struggling with evil, and ultimately, as Jean de Lugio, the probable au-
thor of the Book of the Two Principles, assures us, this good principle will
overcome the wicked principle, being will vanquish nonbeing, and every soul
infected with evil, except the principle of evil itself, will be redeemable, in-
cluding Satan.
Among the firm dualists, the devil's domain was this world of evil matter.
This is why the good spirit will ascend to the spiritual domain while the mate-
rial body must remain in this world. The Old Testament was the domain of the
creator god and his patriarchs Abraham and Moses, who were villainous, al-
though the other Old Testament prophets as well as the Songs (the Psalms) and
the Song of Songs were accepted. Other gnostic sects (such as the Mandaeans)