The adepts, properly so called, were initiated by the ceremony of the _consolamentum_ or imposition of hands, which induced the descent upon them of the Consoling Spirit.

Among them were enthusiasts who after this ceremony placed themselves in _endura_--that is to say, they starved themselves to death in order not to descend from this state of grace.
In Languedoc, where this sect went by the name of Albigenses, they had an organization which embraced all Central Europe, and everywhere supported flourishing schools attended by the children of the nobles.

In Italy they were hardly less powerful; Concorrezo, near Monza in Lombardy, and Bagnolo, gave their names to two congregations slightly different from those in Languedoc.[24] But it was especially from Milan[25] that they spread abroad over all the Peninsula, making proselytes even in the most remote districts of Calabria.

The state of anarchy prevailing in the country was very favorable to them.

The papacy was too much occupied in baffling the spasmodic efforts of the Hohenstaufen, to put the necessary perseverance and system into its struggles against heresy.