Yes, Catharism teaches that the flesh is evil, and that humans are spiritual souls trapped in a prison of impure flesh. The Dominicans needed to very much addr

Yes, Catharism teaches that the flesh is evil, and that humans are spiritual souls trapped in a prison of impure flesh. The Dominicans needed to very much address this by teaching that the flesh is good, that humans are meant to enjoy our lives and all that entails: marital sex, good food and wine, recreation time, sensual pleasures in moderation. In fact, the American Shakers took a page from this book and, like the Albigensians, they renounced marriage, and renounced sexual congress altogether, and vowed never to touch one another. My pastor was known to remark that this is why they were known as "Shakers", because they were so repressed that they vibrated. Anyway, "Simple Gifts" is a lovely legacy that the Shakers left; while there is still one village extant today, the Shakers only reproduced when dissenters rejected celibacy and left the community. An allied heresy is Jansenism: it teaches that there's nothing humans can do to cooperate in our salvation, and in fact salvation is really, really difficult; so difficult that only a few may be saved, and that even though there's nothing you can do about it, you should try really hard and purify yourself excessively. Jansenism was ravaging the French landscape when Saint Thérèse of Lisieux came on the scene, and so her "Little Way" of love was, in part, an answer to this nasty heresy, and she is regarded as a Doctor of the Church. Blessed Duns is similarly regarded as a Doctor of the Church, unofficially for now, but he is known as Doctor Subtilis already, and so many pious people like me think it would be awesome if the Church acknowledges that title for his canonization.