E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Cath’arists.
A sect of the Manicheans; so called from their professed purity of faith. (Greek, kath’aros, pure.) They maintained that matter is the source of all evil; that Christ had not a real body; that the human body is incapable of newness of life; and that the sacraments do not convey grace. (See Ducange: vol. ii. p. 289, col. 1.)
