Chapter IV: The Counter-Reformation (8)

§ 105.2. =Popular Customs.=--Superstition resting on old
paganism introduced a Christian mythology. In almost all
the popular legends the devil bore a leading part, and he
was generally represented as a dupe who was cheated out of
his bargain in the end. The most sacred things were made the
subjects of blasphemous parodies. On =Fool’s Festival= on New
Year’s day in France, mock popes, bishops, and abbots were
introduced and all the holy actions mimicked in a blasphemous
manner. Of a similar nature was the _Festum innocentum_ (§ 57, 1)
enacted by schoolboys at Christmas. Also at Christmas time the
so-called =Feast of Asses= was celebrated. At Rouen dramatic
representation of the prophecies of Christ’s birth were given;
at Beauvais, the flight into Egypt. This relic of pagan license
was opposed by the bishops, but encouraged by the lower clergy.
After bishops and councils succeeded in banishing these fooleries
from consecrated places they soon ceased to be celebrated. Under
the name of =Calends=, because their gatherings were on the
Calends of each month, brotherhoods composed of clerical and
lay members sprang up in the beginning of the 13th century
throughout Germany and France, devoting themselves to prayer
and saying masses for living and deceased members and relatives.
This pious purpose was indeed soon forgotten, and the meetings
degenerated into riotous carousings.

§ 105.3. =Two Royal Saints.=--=St. Elizabeth=, daughter of
Andrew II. of Hungary, married in her 14th year to St. Louis IV.,
Landgrave of Thuringia, was made a widow in her 20th year
by the death of her husband in the crusade of Frederick II.
in A.D. 1227, and thereafter suffered many privations at the
hand of her brother-in-law. Her father confessor inspired her
with a fanatical spirit of self denial. She assumed in Marburg
the garb of the Franciscan nuns, took the three vows, and retired
into a house of mercy, where she submitted to be scourged by
her confessor. There she died in her 24th year in A.D. 1231.
Her remains are credited with the performance of many miracles.
She was canonized by Gregory IX., in A.D. 1235, and in the
14th century the order of Elizabethan nuns was instituted for
ministering to the poor and sick.[316]--=St. Hedwig=, aunt of
Elizabeth, married Henry duke of Silesia, in her 12th year.
After discharging her duties of wife, mother, and princess
faithfully, she took along with her husband the vow of chastity,
and out of the sale of her bridal ornaments built a nunnery at
Trebnitz, where she died in A.D. 1243 in her 69th year. Canonized
in A.D. 1268, her remains were deposited in the convent church,
which became on that account a favourite resort of pilgrims.

§ 105.4. =Evidences of Sainthood.=

1. =Stigmatization.= Soon after St. Francis’ death in A.D. 1226,
the legend spread that two years before, during a forty days’
fast in the Apennines, a six-winged seraph imprinted on his
body the nail prints of the wounded Saviour. The saint’s
humility, it was said, prevented him speaking of the miracle
except to those in closest terms of intimacy. The papal bull
canonizing the saint, however, issued in A.D. 1228, knows
nothing of this wonderful occurrence. What was then told of
the great saint was subsequently ascribed to about 100 other
ascetics, male and female. Some sceptical critics attributed
the phenomenon to an impressionable temperament, others
again accounted for all such stories by assuming that they
were purely fabulous, or that the marks had been deceitfully
made with human hands. Undoubtedly St. Francis had made
those wounds upon his own body. That pain should have been
felt on certain occasions in the wounds may be accounted for,
especially in the case of females, who constituted the great
majority of stigmatized individuals, on pathological grounds.

2. =Bilocation.= The Catholic Church Lexicon, published in
A.D. 1882 (II. 840), maintains that it is a fact universally
believed that saints often appeared at the same time at
places widely removed from one another. Examples are given
from the lives of Anthony of Padua, Francis Xavier, Liguori,
etc. This is explained by the supposition that either God
gives this power to the saint or sends angels to assume his
form in different places.

§ 105.5. =Religious Culture of the People.=--Unsuccessful
attempts were made by the Hohenstaufens to institute a public
school system and compulsory education. Waldensians and such
like (§ 108) obtained favour by spreading instruction through
vernacular preaching, reading, and singing. The Dominicans took
a hint from this. The Council of Toulouse, A.D. 1229 (§ 109, 2),
forbade laymen to read the Scriptures, even the Psalter and
Breviary, in the vulgar tongue. Summaries of the Scripture
history were allowed. Of this sort was the =Rhyming Bible=
in Dutch by Jacob of Maërlant, † A.D. 1291, which gives in
rhyme the O.T. history, the Life of Jesus, and the history of
the Jews to the destruction of Jerusalem. In the 13th century
=Rhyming Legends= gave in the vernacular the substance of the
Latin Martyrologies. The oldest German example in 3 bks. by
an unknown author contains 100,000 rhyming lines, on Christ
and Mary, the Apostles and the saints in the order of the
church year. Still more effectively was information spread
among the people during the 11th and subsequent centuries
by the performance of =Sacred Plays=. From simple responsive
songs they were developed into regular dramas adapted to
the different festivals. Besides historical plays which were
called =Mysteries==_ministeria_ as representations of the
_Ministri eccl._, there were allegorical and moral plays called
=Moralities=, in which moral truths were personified under the
names of the virtues and vices. The numerous pictures, mosaics,
and reliefs upon the walls helped greatly to spread instruction
among the people.[317]

§ 105.6. =The National Literature= (§ 89, 3).--_Walter v. d.
Vogelweide_, † A.D. 1230, sang the praises of the Lord, the
Virgin, and the church, and lashed the clerical vices and
hierarchical pretensions of his age. The 12th century editor
of the pagan _Nibelungenlied_ gave it a slightly Christian
gloss. _Wolfram of Eschenbach_, however, a Christian poet
in the highest sense, gave to the pagan legend of Parcival
a thoroughly Christian character in the story of the Holy
Grail and the Knights of the Round Table of King Arthur. His
antipodes as a purely secular poet was _Godfrey of Strassburg_,
whose Tristan and Isolt sets forth a thoroughly sensual picture
of carnal love; yet as the sequel of this we have a strongly
etherealized rhapsody on Divine love conceived quite in the
spirit of St. Francis.--The sprightly songs of the _Troubadours_
of Southern France were often the vehicle of heretical sentiments
and gave expression to bitter hatred of the Romish Babylon.[318]

§ 106. CHURCH DISCIPLINE, INDULGENCES, AND ASCETICISM.

The ban, directed against notorious individual sinners and foes of the church, and the interdict, directed against a whole country, were formidable weapons which rarely failed in accomplishing their purpose. Their foolishly frequent use for political ends by the popes of the 13th century was the first thing that weakened their influence. The penitential discipline of the church, too (§ 104, 4), began to lose its power, when outward works, such as alms, pilgrimages, and especially money fines in the form of indulgences were prescribed as substitutes for it. Various protests against prevailing laxity and formality were made by the Benedictines and by new orders instituted during the 11th century. Strict asceticism with self-laceration and mortification was imposed in many cloisters, and many hermits won high repute for holiness. The example and preaching of earnest monks and recluses did much to produce a revival of religion and awaken a penitential enthusiasm. Not satisfied with mortifying the body by prolonging fasts and watchings, they wounded themselves with severe scourgings and the wearing of sackcloth next the skin, and sometimes also brazen coats of mail, heavy iron chains, girdles with pricks, etc.

§ 106.1. =Ban and Interdict.=--From the 9th century a
distinction was made between _Excommunicatio major_ and
_minor_. The latter, inflicted upon less serious offences
against the canon law, merely excluded from participation in
the sacrament. The former, called =Anathema=, directed against
hardened sinners with solemn denunciation and the church’s
curse, involved exclusion from all ecclesiastical communion
and even refusal of Christian burial. Zealots who slew such
excommunicated persons were declared by Urban II. not to be
murderers. Innocent III., at the 4th Lateran Council A.D. 1215,
had all civil rights withdrawn from excommunicates and their
goods confiscated. Rulers under the ban were deposed and
their subjects released from their oath of allegiance. Bishops
exercised the right of putting under ban within their dioceses,
and the popes over the whole church.--The =Interdict= was first
recognised as a church institution at the Synod of Limoges in
A.D. 1031. While it was in force against any country all bells
were silenced, liturgical services were held only with closed
doors, penance and the eucharist administered only to the dying,
none but priests, mendicant friars, strangers, and children
under two years of age received Christian burial, and no one
could be married. Rarely could the people endure this long. It
was therefore a terrible weapon in the hands of the popes, who
not infrequently exercised it effectually in their struggles
with the princes of the 12th and 13th centuries.

§ 106.2. =Indulgences.=--The old German principle of
composition (§ 89, 5), and the Gregorian doctrine of purgatory
(§ 61, 4), formed the bases on which was reared the ordinance
of indulgences. The theory of the monks of St. Victor of the
12th century regarding penitential satisfaction (§ 104, 4),
gave an impetus to the development of this institution of
the church. It copestone was laid in the 13th century by the
formulating of the doctrine of the superabundant merit of
Christ and the saints (_Thesaurus supererogationis Christi
et perfectorum_) by Alexander of Hales, Albert the Great, and
Aquinas. The members of the body of Christ could suffer and
serve one for another, and thus Aquinas thought the merits of
one might lessen the purgatorial pains of another. Innocent III.,
in A.D. 1215, allowed to bishops the right of limiting the pains
of purgatory to forty days, but claimed for the pope exclusively
the right of giving full indulgence (_Indulgentia plenaria_).
Clement VI. declared that the pope as entrusted with the keys
was alone the dispenser of the _Thesaurus supererogationis_.
Strictly indulgence was allowed only to the truly penitent,
as an aid to imperfect not a substitute for non-existent
satisfaction. This was generally ignored by preachers of
indulgences. This was specially the case in the times of the
crusaders. Popes also frequently gave indulgences to those who
simply visited certain shrines.

§ 106.3. =The Church Doctrine of the Hereafter.=--All who
had perfectly observed every requirement of the penances
and sacraments of the church to the close of their lives
had the gates of =Heaven= opened to them. All others passed
into the =Lower World= to suffer either positively=_sensus_,
inexpressible pains of fire, or negatively=_damnum_, loss of
the vision of God. There are four degrees corresponding to
four places of punishment. =Hell=, situated in the midst
of the earth, _abyssus_ (Rev. xx. 1), is place and state of
eternal punishment for all infidels, apostates, excommunicates,
and all who died in mortal sin. The next circle is the purifying
fire of =Purgatory=, or a place of temporary punishment positive
or negative for all believing Christians who did not in life
fully satisfy the three requirements of the sacrament of penance
(§ 104, 4). The =Limbus infantum= is a side chamber of purgatory,
where all unbaptized infants are kept for ever, only deprived
of blessedness in consequence of original sin. Then above this
is the =Limbus Patrum=, “Abraham’s bosom,” where the saints of
the Old Covenant await the second coming of Christ.

§ 106.4. =Flagellation.=--From the 8th century discipline was
often exercised by means of scourging, administered by the
confessor who prescribed it. In the 11th century voluntary
=Self-Flagellation= was frequently practised not only as
punishment for one’s own sin, but, after the pattern of Christ
and the martyrs, as atonement for sins of others. It originated
in Italy, had its great patron in Damiani (§ 97, 4), and was
earnestly commended by Bernard, Norbert, Francis, Dominic,
etc. It is reported of St. Dominic that he scourged himself
thrice every night, first for himself, and then for his living
companions, and then for the departed in purgatory. The zealous
Franciscan preachers were mainly instrumental in exerting an
enthusiasm for self-mortification among the people (§ 98, 4).
About A.D. 1225, Anthony of Padua attracted crowds who went
about publicly lashing themselves while singing psalms. Followers
of Joachim of Floris (§ 108, 5) as =Flagellants= rushed through
all Northern Italy in great numbers during A.D. 1260, preaching
the immediate approach of the end of the world.[319]

§ 107. FEMALE MYSTICS.

Practical mysticism which concerned itself only with the salvation of the soul, had many representatives among the women of the 12th and 13th centuries. Among them it was specially characterized by the prevalence of ecstatic visions, often deteriorating into manifestations of nervous affections which superstitious people regarded as exhibitions of miraculous power. Examples are found in all countries, but especially in the Netherlands, and the Rhine provinces, in France, Alsace and Switzerland, in Saxony and Thuringia. Those whose visions pointed to the inauguration of reforms are of particular interest to us, as they often had a considerable influence on the subsequent history of the church.

§ 107.1. =Two Rhenish Prophetesses of the 12th
Century.=--=St. Hildegard= was founder and abbess of a
cloister near Bingen on the Rhine, where she died in A.D. 1178
in her 74th year. Grieving over clerical and papal corruptions,
she had apocalyptic visions of the antichrist, and travelled
far and engaged in an extensive correspondence in appealing for
radical reforms. St. Bernard and pope Eugenius III. who visited
Treves in A.D. 1147 acknowledged her prophetic vocation, and
the people ascribed to her wonderful healing power.--Hildegard’s
younger contemporary was the like-minded =St. Elizabeth
of Schönau=, abbess of the neighbouring convent of Schönau,
who died in A.D. 1165. Her prophecies were mostly of the
apocalyptic-visionary order, and in them with still greater
severity she lashed the corruptions of the clergy. She also
gave currency to the legend of St. Ursula (§ 104, 9).

§ 107.2. =Three Thuringian Prophetesses of the
13th Century.=--=Mechthild of Magdeburg=, after thirty years
of Beguine life, wrote in a beautiful rhythmical style in German
her “Light of Deity,” setting forth the sweetness of God’s love,
the blessedness of glorified saints, the pains of purgatory and
hell, and denouncing with great moral earnestness the corruptions
of the clergy and the church, and depicting with a poet’s or
prophet’s power the coming of the last day. Influenced by the
apocalyptic views of Joachim of Floris (§ 108, 5), she also gives
expression to a genuinely German patriotism. With her it is a new
preaching order that leads to victory against antichrist, and the
founder of this order, who meets a martyr’s death in the conflict,
is a son of the Roman king. In contrast with Joachim, she thus
makes the German empire not a foe but the ally of the church.
Mechthild’s prophecies largely influenced Dante, and even
her name appears in that of his guide Matilda.--=Mechthild of
Hackeborn=, who died in A.D. 1310, in her _Speculum spiritualis
gratiæ_ published her visions of a reformatory and eschatological
prophetic order, more subjective and personal than those of the
former.--=Gertrude the Great=, who died in A.D. 1311, is more
decidedly a reformer than either of the Mechthilds or any other
woman of the Middle Ages. A diligent inquirer into the depths
of Scripture, she renounced the veneration usually shown to Mary,
the saints, and relics, repudiated all the ideas of her age
regarding merits, ceremonial exercises, and indulgences, and
in the exercise of simple faith trusted only to the grace of
God in Christ. She seems to belong to the 16th rather than to
the 13th century. Her visions, too, are more of a spiritual kind.

V. Heretical Opposition to Ecclesiastical Authority.

§ 108. THE PROTESTERS AGAINST THE CHURCH.

Mediæval endeavours after reform, partly proceeded from within the church itself in attempts to restore apostolic purity and simplicity, partly from without on the part of those who despaired of any good coming out of the church, and who therefore warred bitterly against it. Such attempts were often lost amid the vagaries of fanaticism and heresy, which soon threatened the foundation of the social fabric, and often came into collision with the State. Most widely spread and most radical were the numerous dualistic sects of the Cathari. Montanist fanaticism was revived in apocalyptic prophesyings. There were also pantheistic sects, and among the Pasagians a sort of Ebionism reappeared. Another group of sects originated through reformatory endeavours of individual men, who perceiving the utter corruption of the church of their day, sought salvation in a revolutionary overthrow of all ecclesiastical institutions and repudiated often the truth with the error which was the object of their hate. The only protesting church of a thoroughly sensible evangelical sort was that of the Waldensians.

§ 108.1. =The Cathari.=--Opposition to hierarchical pretensions
led to the spread of sects, especially in Northern Italy and
France, from the 11th century. Hidden remnants of Old Manichæan
sects got new courage and ventured into the light during the
period of the crusades. In France they were called Tisserands,
because mostly composed of weavers. In Italy they were called
Patareni or Paterini, either from the original meaning of
the word, rabble, riff-raff (§ 97, 5), or because they so
far adopted the attitude of the Pasaria of Milan, as to offer
lay opposition to the local clergy, or because of the frequent
use of the Paternoster. Of later origin are the names Publicani
and Bulgări, given as opprobrious designations to the Paulicians.
The most widely current name of Cathari, from early times a
favourite title assumed by rigorist sects (§ 41, 3), had its
origin in the East. In France they were called Albigensians,
from the province of Albigeois, which was their chief seat in
Southern France.--Of the =Writings of the Cathari= we possess
from the end of the 13th century a Provençal translation of the
N.T., free from all falsification in favour of their sectarian
views. Their tenets are to be learnt only from the polemical
writings of their opponents, Alanus ab Insulis (§ 102, 5), the
Dominican Joh. Moneta, about A.D. 1240, and Rainerius, Sacchoni,
Dominican and inquisitor, about A.D. 1250.

§ 108.2. Besides their opposition to the hierarchy, all these
sects had in common a dualistic basis to their theological
systems. They held in a more or less extreme form the following
doctrines: The good God who is proclaimed in the N.T. created
in the beginning the heavenly and invisible world, and peopled
it with souls clothed in ethereal bodies. The earthly world, on
the other hand, is the work of an evil spirit, who is held up
as object of worship in the O.T. Entering the heavenly world
he succeeded in seducing some of its inhabitants, whom he, when
defeated by the archangel Michael, took with him to earth, and
there imprisoned in earthly bodies, so as to make return to their
heavenly home impossible. Yet they are capable of redemption,
and may, on repentance and submission to purificatory ordinances,
be again freed from their earthly bonds and brought home again
to heaven. For this redemption the good God sent “the heavenly
man” Jesus (1 Cor. xv. 47) to earth in the appearance of man to
teach men their heavenly origin and the means of restoration.
The Cathari rejected the O.T., but accepted the N.T., which they
read in the vernacular. Marriage they regarded as a hindrance to
Christian perfection. They treated with contempt water baptism,
the Supper, and ordination, as well as all veneration of saints
and relics, and tolerated no images, crosses, or altars. Prayer,
abstinence, and baptism of the Spirit were regarded as the only
means of salvation. Preaching was next to prayer most prominent
in their public services. They also laid great stress upon
fasting, genuflection, and repetitions of stated formulæ,
especially the Lord’s Prayer. Their members were divided into
_Cregentz_ (_credentes_ or catechumens) and _Bos homes_ or
_Bos crestias_ (_boni homines, boni Christiani_=_perfecti_ or
_electi_). A lower order of the catechumens were the _Auditores_.
These were received as _Credentes_ after a longer period of
training amid various ceremonies and repetition of the Lord’s
prayer, etc. The order of the _Perfecti_ was entered by spiritual
baptism, the _Consolamentum_ or communication of the Holy Spirit
as the promised Comforter, without which no one can enjoy eternal
life. Even opponents such as St. Bernard admit that there was
great moral earnestness shown by some of them, and many met a
martyr’s death with true Christian heroism. Symptoms of decay
appeared in the spread among them of antinomian practices. This
moral deterioration showed itself as a radical part of this
system in the so-called =Luciferians= or devil worshippers,
whose dualism, like that of the Euchites and Bogomils (§ 71),
led to the adoption of two Sons of God. Lucifer the elder,
wrongly driven from heaven, is the creator and lord of this
earthly world, and hence alone worshipped in it. His expulsion
(Isa. xiv. 12) is carried out by the younger son, Michael, who
will, however, on this account, whenever Lucifer regains heaven,
be sent with all his company into eternal punishment. Of an
incarnation of God, even of a docetic kind, they know nothing.
They regarded Jesus as a false prophet who was crucified on
account of the evil he had done.--Catharist sects suspected
of Manichæan tendencies were discovered here and there during
the 11th century. In the following century their number had
increased enormously, and they spread over Lombardy and Southern
France, but were also found in Southern Italy, in Germany,
Belgium, Spain, and even in England. They had a pope residing
in Bulgaria, twelve magistri and seventy-two bishops, each with
a _Filius major_ and _minor_ at his side. In A.D. 1167 they
were able to muster an œcumenical Catharist Council at Toulouse.
Neither clemency nor severity could put them down. St. Bernard
prevailed most by the power of his love, and subsequently learned
Dominicans had more effect with their preaching and disputations.
They found abundant opportunity of displaying their hatred of
the papacy during the struggles of the Guelphs and Ghibellines.
In spite of terrible persecution, which reached its height in
the beginning of the 13th century in the Albigensian crusade
(§ 109, 1), remnants of them were found down into the 14th century.

§ 108.3. The small sect of the =Pasagians= in Lombardy during
the 12th century, protesting against the Manichæan depreciation
of the O.T. of the Catharists, adopted views of a somewhat
Ebionite character. With the exception of sacrifice, they
enforced all the old ceremonial observances, even circumcision,
and held an Arian or Ebionite theory of the Person of Christ.
Their name meaning “passage,” seems to refer to pilgrimages to
the Holy Land, and possibly from this a clue to their origin may
be obtained.

§ 108.4. =Pantheistic Heretics.=

1. =Amalrich of Bena= taught first philosophy, then theology,
at Paris in the end of the 12th century. In A.D. 1204
Innocent III. called him to account for his proposition,
Christian in sound, but probably pantheistically intended,
that no one could be saved who is not a member in Christ’s
body, and obliged him to retract. His death occurred soon
after, and some years later we find traces of a pantheistic
sect founded on the alleged doctrines of Amalrich vigorously
propagated by his disciple William the goldsmith. God had
previously appeared as Father incarnate in Abraham, and
as Son in Christ, and now henceforth as the Holy Spirit
in every believer, who therefore in the same sense as Christ
is God. As such, too, he is without sin, and what to others
would be sin is not so to him. In the age of the Son the
Mosaic law lost its validity, and in that of the Spirit,
the sacraments and services of the new covenant. God has
always been all in all. We find him in Ovid as well as in
Augustine, and the body of Christ is in common bread as well
as in the consecrated wafer on the altar. Saint worship is
idolatry. There is no resurrection; heaven and hell exist
only in the imagination of men. Rome is Babylon, and the
pope is antichrist; but to the king of France, after the
overthrow of antichrist, shall the kingdoms of the earth
be subject, etc. A synod at Paris in A.D. 1209 condemned
William and nine priests to be burnt, and four other priests
to imprisonment for life, and ordered that Amalrich’s
bones should be exhumed and scattered over an open field.
Regarding the physical works of Aristotle as the source of
this heresy, the council also prohibited all lectures upon
these (§ 103, 1). This was seen to be a mistake, and so
in A.D. 1225 Honorius III. fixed on the true culprit and
condemned the _De divisione naturæ_ of Erigena (§ 90, 6).
The penalties inflicted did not by any means lead to the
rooting out of the sect. During the whole 13th century it
continued to spread from Paris over all eastern France as
far as Alsace, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, and in
the 14th century reached its highest development in the
pantheistic-libertine doctrines of the Brothers and Sisters
of the Free Spirit (§ 116, 5). We never again meet with the
name of Amalrich, and the sects were never called after him.

2. =David of Dinant= at the same time with Amalrich taught
philosophy and theology in the University of Paris. He
also lived for a long while at the papal court in Rome,
high in favour with Innocent III. as a subtle dialectician.
The Synod of Paris of A.D. 1209, which passed judgment on
the Amalricians, pronounced David a heretic and ordered his
works to be burnt. He avoided personal punishment by flight.
The central point of his system was the assumption of a
single eternal substance without distinctions, from which
God, spirit (νοῦς), and matter (ὕλη) sprang as the three
principles of all later forms of existences (_corpora_,
_animæ_, and _substantiæ æternæ_). God is regarded as the
_primum efficiens_, matter as the _primum suscipiens_, and
spirit as the medium between the two. David’s scholars never
formed a sect and never had any connection apparently with
the followers of Amalrich.

3. =The Ortlibarians= were a sect condemned by Innocent III.,
followers of a certain Ortlieb of Strassburg about A.D. 1212.
They held the world to be without beginning. They looked
upon Jesus as the son of Joseph and Mary, sinless like all
other children, but raised to be son of God only through
illumination from the doctrines of their sect, which had
existed from the earliest times. They admitted the gospel
story of Christ’s life, sufferings, and resurrection, not,
however, in a literal but only in a moral and mystical
acceptation. The consecrated host was but common bread,
and in it was the body of the Lord. A Jew entering their
sect needed not to be baptized, and fellowship with them
was sufficient to secure salvation. There is no resurrection
of the flesh; man’s spirit alone is immortal. After the
last judgment, which will come when pope and emperor are
converted to their views and all opposition is overcome,
the world will last for ever, and men will be born and die
just as now. They professed a strictly ascetic life, and
many of them fasted every second day.

§ 108.5. =Apocalyptic Heretics.=--The Cistercian abbot =Joachim
of Floris=, who died in A.D. 1202, with his notions of the so
called “_Everlasting Gospel_,” as a reformer and as one inclined
to apocalyptic prophecy, followed in the footsteps of Hildegard
of Bingen and Elizabeth of Schönau (§ 107, 1). His prophetic
views spread among the Franciscans and were long unchallenged.
In A.D. 1254 the University of Paris, warning against the begging
monks (§ 103, 3), got Alexander IV. to condemn these views as set
forth in commentaries on Isaiah and Jeremiah ascribed to Joachim,
but now found to be spurious. Preger doubts but, Reuter maintains
the genuineness of the three tracts grouped under the title of
the _Evangelium æternum_. The main points in his theory seem
to have been these: There are three ages, that of the Father
in the O.T., of the Son in the N.T., and of the Holy Spirit in
the approaching fulness of the kingdom of God on earth. Of the
apostles, Peter is representative of the first age, Paul of the
second, and John of the third. They may also be characterized as
the age of the laity, the clergy, and the monks, and compared in
respect of light with the stars, the moon, and the sun. The first
six periods of the N.T. age are divided (after the pattern of
the forty-two generations of Matt. i. and the forty-two months
or 1260 days of Rev. xi. 2, 3) into forty-two shorter periods of
thirty years each, so that the sixth period closes with A.D. 1260,
and then shall dawn the Sabbath period of the New Covenant as the
age of the Holy Spirit. This will be preceded by a short reign
of antichrist as a punishment for the corruptions of the church
and clergy. By the labours of the monks, however, the church is
at last purified and brought forth triumphant, and the life of
holy contemplation becomes universal. The germs of antichrist
were evidently supposed to lie in the Hohenstaufen empire of
Frederick I. and Henry VI. The commentaries on Isaiah and
Jeremiah went so far as to point to the person of Frederick II.
as that of the antichrist.

§ 108.6. =Ghibelline Joachites= in Italy, mostly recruited
from the Franciscans, sided with the emperor against the pope
and adopted apocalyptic views to suit their politics, and
regarded the papacy as the precursor of antichrist. One of
their chiefs, Oliva, who died in A.D. 1297, wrote a _Postilla
super Apoc._, in which he denounced the Roman church of his
day as the Great Whore of Babylon, and his scholar Ubertino of
Casale saw in the beast that rose out of the sea (Rev. xiii.)
a prophetic picture of the papacy.--In Germany these views
spread among the Dominicans during the 13th century, especially
in Swabia. The movement was headed by one Arnold. who wrote an
_Epistola de correctione ecclesiæ_ about A.D. 1246. He finds in
Innocent IV. the antichrist and in Frederick II. the executioner
of the Divine judgment and the inauguration of the reformation.
Frederick’s death, which followed soon after in A.D. 1250, and
the catastrophe of A.D. 1268 (§ 96, 20), must have put an end
to the whole movement.

§ 108.7. =Revolutionary Reformers.=

1. The =Petrobrusians=, whose founder, =Peter of Bruys=,
was a pupil of Abælard and a priest in the south of France,
repudiated the outward or visible church and sought the
true or invisible church in the hearts of believers. He
insisted on the destruction of churches and sanctuaries
because God could be worshipped in a stable or tavern, burnt
crucifixes in the cooking stove, eagerly opposed celibacy,
mass, and infant baptism, and after a twenty years’ career
perished at the stake about A.D. 1126 at the hands of a
raging mob. One of Peter’s companions, =Henry of Lausanne=,
whose fiery eloquence had been influential in inciting to
reform, succeeded to the leadership of the Petrobrusians,
who from him were called =Henricians=. St. Bernard succeeded
in winning many of them back. Henry was condemned to
imprisonment for life, and died in A.D. 1149.

2. =Arnold of Brescia=, who died in A.D. 1155, a preacher
of great moral and religious earnestness, addressed himself
to attack the worldliness of the church and the papacy.
Except in maintaining that sacraments dispensed by unworthy
priests have no efficacy, he does not seem to have deviated
from the church doctrine. Officiating as reader in his
native town, his bishop complained of him as a heretic
to the second Lateran Council of A.D. 1139. His views
were condemned, and he himself was banished and enjoined
to observe perpetual silence. He now went to his teacher
Abælard in France. Here St. Bernard accused him at the synod
convened against Abælard at Sens in A.D. 1141 (§ 102, 2) as
“the armour-bearer” of this “Goliath-heretic,” and obtained
the condemnation of both. He was then excommunicated
by Innocent II. and imprisoned in a cloister. Arnold,
however, escaped to Switzerland, where he lived and taught
undisturbed in Zürich for some years, till Bishop Hermann
of Constance, at the instigation of the Saint of Clairvaux,
threatened him with imprisonment or exile. He was now taken
under the protection of Guido de Castella, Abælard’s friend
and patron, and accompanied him to Bohemia and Moravia.
On Guido’s elevation as Cœlestine II. to the papal chair
in A.D. 1143, Arnold returned to his native land. From
A.D. 1146 we find him in Rome at the head of the agitation
for political and ecclesiastical freedom. For further
details of his history, see § 96, 13, 14. A party of
so-called Arnoldists occupied itself long after his death
with the carrying out of his ecclesiastico-political ideal.

§ 108.8.

3. The so called =Pastorelles= were roused to revolution by
the miseries following the crusades. An impulse was given
to the sect by the news of the imprisonment of St. Louis
(§ 94, 6). A Cistercian =Magister Jacob= from Hungary
appeared in A.D. 1251 with the announcement that he had
seen the Mother of God, who gave him a letter calling upon
the pastors to rescue the Holy Sepulchre. Those who have
heard the Christmas message are called of God to undertake
the great work which neither the corrupt hierarchy nor the
proud, ambitious nobles were able to perform; but before
them, the poor shepherds, the sea will open a way, so that
they may hasten with dry feet to the release of king Louis.
His fanatical harangues soon gathered immense crowds of
common people around him, estimated at about 100,000 men.
But instead of going to the Holy Land, they first gave
vent to their wrath against the clergy, monks, and Jews
at home by murdering, plundering, and ill treating them
in all manner of ways. The queen-mother Blanca, favourable
at first, now used all her power against them. Jacob was
slain at Bourges, his troops scattered, and their leaders
executed.

4. In the =Apostolic Brothers= we have a blending of Arnoldist
and Joachist tendencies. Their founder, =Gerhard Segarelli=,
an artisan of Parma, was moved about A.D. 1260 by the sight
of a picture of the apostles in their poverty to go about
preaching repentance and calling on the church to return to
apostolic simplicity. He did not question the doctrine of
the church. Only when Honorius in A.D. 1286 and Nicholas IV.
in A.D. 1290 took measures against them did they openly
oppose the papacy and denounce the Roman church as the
apocalyptic Babylon. Segarelli was seized in A.D. 1294
and perished in the flames with many of his followers in
A.D. 1300. =Fra Dolcino=, a younger priest, now took the
leadership, and roused great enthusiasm by his preaching
against the Roman antichrist. He bravely held his ground
with 2,000 followers for two years in the recesses of the
mountains, but was reduced at last in A.D. 1307 by hunger,
and died like his predecessor at the stake. He distinguished
four stages in the historical development of the kingdom
of God on earth. The first two are those of the Father
and the Son in the O.T. and the N.T. The third begins
with Constantine’s establishment of the Christian empire,
advanced by the Benedictine rule and the reforms of the
Franciscans and Dominicans, but afterwards falling into
decay. The fourth era of complete restoration of the
apostolic life is inaugurated by Segarelli and Dolcino.
A new chief sent of God will rule the church in peace, and
the Holy Spirit will never leave the restored communion of
His saints. Remnants of the sect were long in existence in
France and Germany, where they united with the Fraticelli
and Beghards. Even in A.D. 1374 we find a synod at Narbonne
threatening them with the severest punishments.

§ 108.9. =Reforming Enthusiasts.=

1. A certain =Tanchelm= about A.D. 1115 preached in the
Netherlands against the corruptions of the church. He
claimed like honour with Christ as being assisted by the
same Spirit, is said to have betrothed himself to the
Virgin Mary, and to have been killed at last in A.D. 1124
by a priest.

2. A Frenchman, =Eon de Stella= of Brittany, hearing in
a church the words “_per =Eum= qui venturus est judicare
vivos et mortuos_,” and understanding it of his own name,
went through the country preaching, prophesying, and working
miracles. He secured many followers, and when persecuted,
fled to the woods. He denied the Divine institution of
the hierarchy, denounced the Roman church as false because
of the wicked lives of the priests, rejected the doctrine
of a resurrection of the body, denied that marriage was
a sacrament, and regarded the communication of the Spirit
by imposition of hands the only true baptism. In A.D. 1148
troops were sent against him, and he and many of his
followers were taken prisoners. His adherents were burnt,
but Eon was brought before a synod at Rheims, where he
answered the question of the pope Eugenius III., “Who art
thou?” by saying _Is qui venturus est_, etc. He was then
pronounced deranged and delivered over to the custody of
the archbishop.

§ 108.10. =The Waldensians.=

1. =Their Origin.=--A citizen of Lyons, named Valdez
(Valdesius, Waldus, the Christian name of Peter, given
to him first 120 years later, is quite unsupported), who
had become rich by the practice of usury, an occupation
condemned by the church, was about A.D. 1173 deeply
impressed by reading the legend of St. Alexius, and was
in his spiritual anxiety directed by a theologian to the
words of Christ to the rich young ruler in Matthew xix. 21.
Making over to his wife only his landed property, and
distributing all the rest of his possessions among the
poor, and then, for further instruction in regard to the
imitation of Christ required of him, having applied himself
to the study of the gospels, the Psalter, and other biblical
books, and a selection of classical passages translated for
his use by two friendly priests out of the writings of the
Fathers into the Romance dialect, he founded in A.D. 1177,
in company with certain men and women, who were prepared
like himself to abandon the world and all its goods,
a society for preaching the gospel among the people. In
accordance with the Lord’s command to the seventy disciples
(Luke x. 1-4), they went forth two and two in apostolic
costume, in woollen penitential garments, without staff
or scrip, their feet protected with merely wooden sandals
(_sabatas, sabots_), preaching repentance, and proclaiming
the gospel message of salvation throughout the land, in
order to bring back again among the people the Christian
life in its purity and simplicity. The Archbishop of
Lyons prohibited their preaching; but they referred to
Acts v. 29, and appealed, praying for a confirmation of
their association, to the Third Lateran Council of A.D. 1179,
under Alexander III., which, however, scornfully dismissed
their appeal. As they nevertheless still continued to preach,
Pope Lucius III., at the Council of Verona, in A.D. 1184,
laid them under the ban. They had hitherto no intention
of offering any sort of opposition to the doctrine,
worship, or constitution of the Catholic church. Even the
Catholic authorities did not so much take offence at what
they preached but rather only at this, that they without
ecclesiastical call and authority had assumed the function
of preaching. Innocent III., also, admitted the imprudence
of his predecessor, and favoured the plan of a Waldensian
who had left his brethren to transform the association of
the _Pauperes de Lugduno_ into the monastic-like lay union
of _Pauperes Catholici_, to which in A.D. 1208 he assigned
the duties of preaching, expounding Scripture, and holding
meetings for edification under episcopal supervision. But
this concession came too late. Since the church had itself
broken off the fetters which had previously bound them to
the traditional faith of the Catholic church, the Leonists
had gone too far upon the path of evangelical freedom to
be satisfied with any such terms. Innocent now renewed the
ban against them at the Fourth Lateran Council of A.D. 1215.
Of the later life and work of the founder we know with
certainty only this, that he made extensive journeys in
the interests of his cause. Even during his lifetime (he
died probably about A.D. 1217) the members (_socii_) of
the society (_Societas Valdesiana_) founded by him had
spread themselves in great numbers over the whole of the
south of France, the east of Spain, the north of Italy,
and the south of Germany, and had even crossed the Channel
into England. They were named, in accordance with their
fundamental principle, as well as from the starting
point of their apostolic mission, _Pauperes de Lugduno_
or _Leonistæ_=from Lyons, also from the covering of
their feet, _Sabatati_; but they styled themselves among
one another _fratres_ and _sorores_, and their adherents
among the people _amici_ and _amicæ_; while the Catholic
polemical writers, who for a similar class among the
Cathari had employed the distinctive terms _Perfecti_
and _Credentes_, made use of these designations in
treating of the Waldensians. The latter continue “in
the world,” that is, in the exercise of their family
duties, and the discharge of civil obligations, and all
the positions and entanglements connected therewith;
while the former devoted themselves to a celibate life,
to absolute poverty, to incessant preaching from place to
place, and to unconditional refusal of all oathtaking, and
a literal acceptance of all the precepts of the Sermon on
the Mount, involving the rejection of any sort of fixed
residence, and on the basis of Luke x. 7, 8, any handiwork
that would earn for them the necessaries of life. They
had their own _ministri_ for the administration of the
sacraments; but these were elected only _ad tempus_,
namely once a year, simply for the discharge of that duty.
At the head of the whole community down to his death stood
the founder himself. He led the entire movement, received
new members into the _societas_, and chose and ordained
the _ministri_.--The two most important sources for the
primitive history of the Waldensian movement, mutually
supplementing one another, are, the _Chronicon Laudunense_
of an unnamed canon of Laon in the _Mon. Germ. Scrr._
xxvi. 447, and the tract _De Septem Donis Spir. S._ of the
inquisitor Stephen de Borbone, who died A.D. 1261, which is
given in full in _de la Marche, Anecdotes historiques_, etc.,
Paris, 1877.

§ 108.11.

2. =Their Divisions.=--One of the oldest, most important,
and most reliable sources of information regarding the
affairs of the old Waldensians was first published by
Preger in 1875, in his _Beiträge z. Gesch. d. Waldensier
im MA._, namely, an epistle embodied by the “_anonymous
writer of Passau_” in his heretic catalogue, from the
“Poor Men of Italy” to their fellow believers in Germany,
_ad Leonistas in Alamannia_, in which they give a report of
the proceedings at a convention held at Bergamo in A.D. 1218,
with the deputies from “_the ultramontane_,” that is, the
French, “Poor Men.” On the basis of this communication
Preger has contested the view that the “Poor Men of Italy”
were the Waldensians, and traces their origin rather to
the working men’s association of the _Humiliati_ that
had already sprung up in the eleventh century (§ 98, 7),
which having even before this, by adopting Arnoldist ideas,
become estranged from the Catholic church, came also into
connection with Valdez, appropriated many of his opinions,
and then entered into fraternal relations with the French
Waldesians. This theory, as also no less the explanations
connected therewith of the constitutional and doctrinal
differences of the two parties, has been proved by Carl
Müller in his _Die Waldensier u. ihre einzelne Gruppen
bis Auf d. 14. Jhd._ to be in many particulars untenable,
and he has shown that the Waldensian origin of “the Poor
Men of Lombardy” is witnessed to even by this epistle.
The results of his researches are in the main as follows:
The movement set on foot in A.D. 1177 by Valdez of Lyons
in the direction of an apostolic walk and conversation was
transplanted at a very early period into northern Italy,
and found there a favourable reception, especially in the
ranks of the Humiliati. These, too, as well as Valdez, in
A.D. 1179, approached Alexander III. with the prayer to
authorize their entering on such a vocation, but were also
immediately repulsed, attached themselves then to the “Poor
Men of Lyons,” submitting to the monarchical rule of their
founder, and along with them, in A.D. 1184, fell under the
papal ban. Yet among the Lombards a strong craving after
greater independence and freedom soon found expression,
which asserted itself most decidedly in the claim to the
right of their own independent choice and ordination of
lifelong organs of government for their society, as well
as for priestly services, which, however, Valdez, fearing
a dissolution of the whole society from the granting of
such partial independence, answered with a decided refusal.
With equal decision did he insist upon the disbanding of
those workmen’s associations for common production, which
the Lombards, as formerly the Humiliati, formed from the
laymen belonging to them, and forbade them even engaging
in any handicraft which they had hitherto pursued alongside
of their spiritual vocations, as inconsistent with the
apostolic life according to the prescriptions of Christ in
Luke x. Thus it came about, in consequence of the unyielding
temper of both parties, that there was a formal split; for
the Lombards appointed their own independent _præpositus_,
who, just like their _ministri_ charged with the conduct
of worship, held office for life. In the course of the year
the split widened through the adoption of other divergences
on the part of the Lombards. Yet after the death of the
founder, about A.D. 1217 they entered upon negotiations
about a reunion, which found a hearty response also among
the French. By means of epistolary explanations a basis
for union in regard to those questions which had occasioned
the separation had already been attained unto. The French
granted to the Lombards independent election and ordination
of their ministers for church government and worship, and
allowed the appointment to be for life, while they also
agreed to the continuance of their workmen’s associations.
In May, A.D. 1218, six brethren from the two parties were
at Bergamo appointed to draw up definite terms of peace,
and to secure a verbal explanation of other less important
differences, which was also accomplished without difficulty.
The whole peace negotiations, however, were ultimately
shattered over two questions, which first came to the front
during the verbal explanations: (i.) Over the question of
the felicity of the deceased founder, which the Lombards
were disposed to affirm only conditionally, _i.e._ in case
he had been penitent before his death for the sins of which
he had been guilty through his intolerant treatment of them,
while the French would have it affirmed unconditionally;
and (ii.) over the controversy about the validity of the
dispensation of the sacrament of the altar by an unworthy
person. On both sides they were thoroughly agreed in
saying that not the priest, but the omnipotence of God,
changed bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper into the body
and blood of Christ. But while the French drew from this
the conclusion that even an unworthy and wicked priest
could truly and effectually administer the sacrament, the
Italians persisted in the contrary opinion, and quoted
Scripture and the writings of the Fathers to prove the
correctness of their views.

§ 108.12.

3. =Attempts at Catholicizing.=--On the origin, character,
and task of the _Pauperes Catholici_ referred to above,
the epistles of Pope Innocent III. regarding them afford
us pretty accurate and detailed information. The first
impulse toward their formation was given by a disputation
with the French Waldensians held by Bishop Diego of Osma
at Pamiers in A.D. 1206, by means of which he succeeded,
aided by the powerful co-operation of his companion
St. Dominic, in persuading a number of the heretics to
return to the obedience of the Catholic church. Among
those converted on that occasion was the Spaniard Durandus
of Osca (Huesca), who now laid before the pope the plan
of forming from among the converted Waldensians a society
of Catholic Poor Men under the oversight of the bishops,
which, by appropriating and carrying out all the fundamental
principles of the Waldensian system--apostolic poverty,
apostolic dress, apostolic life, and apostolic vocation,
according to Luke x.--would not only paralyse or outbid
the ministry of the heretical Poor Men among the people,
but would also open up the way for their own return and
attachment again to the church. The pope approved of his
plan, and confirmed the union founded by him in A.D. 1208.
The undertaking of Durandus seems to have been from the
first not altogether without success in the direction
intended. At least we find that Bernard Primus was
encouraged one and a half years later to found a second
similar society on essentially the same basis, which
Innocent III. approved and confirmed. This later association
was distinguished from the earlier only in this, that it
allowed its members, besides their itinerant preaching
and pastoral work, to engage also in their own handicraft.
We are now led, by this difference, to the conclusion that,
as the institution of Durandus issued from the bosom of the
French Waldensians, that of Bernard had its origin among
the groups of the Poor Men of Lombardy. This supposition
is further confirmed when we observe that the latter, in
drawing up its Catholic confession of faith, expressly
abjures the formerly cherished conviction of the inefficacy
of sacramental actions performed by unworthy priests.
But the reason why both these unions, notwithstanding
papal approval and support, failed to exert any permanent
influence is to be sought pre-eminently in this, that,
tainted as their reputation was with the memory of their
former heresy, they were soon far outrun and overshadowed
by the two great mendicant orders, which wrought with
ampler means and appliances in the same direction.

§ 108.13.