Chapter IV: Theology and Its Battles (9)

§ 104.9. The earliest trace of a commemoration of =St. Ursula
and her 11,000 Virgins= is met with in the 10th century.
Excavations in the _Ager Ursulanus_ near Cologne in A.D. 1155
led to the discovery of some thousand skeletons, several of
them being those of males, with inscribed tablets, one of the
fictitious inscriptions referring to an otherwise unknown pope
Cyriæus. St. Elizabeth of Schönau (§ 107, 1) at the same time
had visions in which the Virgin gave her authentic account of
their lives. Ursula, the fair daughter of a British king of
the 3rd century, was to have married a pagan prince; she craved
three years’ reprieve and got from her father eleven ships, each
with an equipment of a thousand virgins, with which she sailed
up the Rhine to Basel, and thence with her companions travelled
on foot a pilgrimage to Rome. On her return, in accordance with
the Divine instruction, Pope Cyriæus accompanied her, whose
name was on this account struck out of the list by the offended
cardinals; for as Martinus Polonus says, _Credebant plerique
eum non propter devotionem sed propter obtectamenta virginum
papatum dimississe_. Near Cologne they met the army of the Huns,
by whom they were all massacred, at last even Ursula herself
on her persistent refusal to marry the barbaric chief.--In
the absence of any historical foundations for this legend,
an explanation has been attempted by identifying Ursula with
a goddess of the German mythology. An older suggestion is
that perhaps an ancient inscription may have given rise to
the legend.[311]

§ 104.10. =Hymnology.=--The Augustan age of scholasticism
was that also of the composition of Latin hymns and sequences
(§ 88, 2). The most distinguished sacred poets were Odo of
Clugny, king Robert of France (_Veni, sancte Spiritus, et
emitte_), Damiani, Abælard, Hildebert of Tours, St. Bernard,
Adam of St. Victor,[312] Bonaventura, Aquinas, the Franciscan
Thomas of Celano, A.D. 126O (_Dies iræ_), and Jacopone da Todi,
† A.D. 1306 (_Stabat mater dolorosa_). The latter, an eccentric
enthusiast and miracle-working saint, called himself “_Stultus
propter Christum_.” Originally a wealthy advocate, living a life
of revel and riot, he was led by the sudden death of his young
wife to forsake the world. He courted the world’s scorn in the
most literal manner, appearing in the public market bridled like
a beast of burden and creeping on all fours, and at another time
appearing naked, tarred and feathered at the marriage of a niece.
But he glowed with fervent love for the Crucified and a fanatical
veneration for the blessed Virgin. He also fearlessly raised his
voice against the corruption of the clergy and the papacy, and
vigorously denounced the ambition of Boniface VIII. For this he
was imprisoned and fed on bread and water. When tauntingly asked,
“When wilt thou come out?” he answered in words that were soon
fulfilled, “So soon as thou shall come down.” =Sacred Poetry= in
the vernacular was used only in extra-ecclesiastical devotions.
The oldest German Easter hymn belongs to the 12th century.[313]
The Minnesingers of the 13th century composed popular songs
of a religious character, especially in praise of Mary; there
were also sacred songs for travellers, sailors, soldiers, etc.
Heretics separated from the church and its services spread their
views by means of hymns. St. Francis wrote Italian hymns, and
among his disciples Fra Pacifico, Bonaventura, Thomas of Celano,
and Jacopone followed worthily in his footsteps.

§ 104.11. =Church Music= (§ 88, 2).--The Gregorian _Cantus
firmus_ soon fell into disfavour and disuetude. The rarity,
costliness, and corruption of the antiphonaries, the difficulty
of their notation and of their musical system, and the want of
accurately trained singers, combined to bring this about. Singers
too had often made arbitrary alterations. Hence alongside of the
_Cantus firmus_ there gradually grew up a _Discantus_ or _Cantus
figuratus_, and instead of singing in unison, singing in harmony
was introduced. Rules of harmony, concord, and intervals were
now elaborated by the monk Hucbald of Rheims about A.D. 900,
while the German monk Reginus about A.D. 920 and the abbot Opo
of Clugny did much for the theory and practice of music. In place
of the intricate Gregorian notation the Tuscan Benedictine Guido
of Arezzo, A.D. 1000-1050, introduced the notation that is still
used, which made it possible to write the harmony along with
the melody, counterpoint, _i.e._ _punctum contra punctum_. The
discoverer of the measure of the notes was Franco of Cologne
about A.D. 1200. The organ was commonly used in churches. The
Germans were the greatest masters in its construction and in
the playing of it.--Continuation, § 115, 8.

§ 104.12. =Ecclesiastical Architecture.=--Church building, which
the barbarism of the 10th century, and the widespread expectation
of the coming end of the world had restrained, flourished during
the 11th century in an extraordinary manner. The endeavour to
infuse the German spirit into the ancient style of architecture
gave rise to the =Romance Style of Architecture=, which prevailed
during the 12th century. It was based upon the structure of
the old basilicas, the most important innovation being the
introduction of the vaulted in place of the flat wooden roof,
which made the interior lighter and heightened the perspective
effect. The symbolical and fanciful ornamentation was also richly
developed by figures from the plants and animals of Germany, from
native legends. Towers were also added as fingers pointing upward,
sometimes over the entrance to the middle aisle or at both sides
of the entrance, sometimes over the point where the nave and
transepts intersected one another, or on both sides of the choir.
The finest specimens of this style were the cathedrals of Spires,
Mainz, and Worms. But alongside of this appeared the beginnings
of the so-called =Gothic Architecture=, which reached its height
in the 13th and 14th centuries. Here the German ideas shook
themselves free from the bondage of the old basilica style.
Retaining the early ground plan, its pointed arch admitted
of development in breadth and height to any extent. The pointed
arch was first learnt from the Saracens, but its application to
the Gothic architecture was quite original, because it was not as
with the Saracens decorative, but constructive. The blank walls
were changed into supporting pillars, and became a magnificent
framework for the display of ingenious window architecture. A
rich stone structure rose upon the cruciform ground plan, and
the powerful arches towered up into airy heights. Tall tapering
pillars symbolized the heavenward strivings of the soul. The
rose window over the portal as the symbol of silence teaches that
nothing worldly has a voice there. The gigantic peaked windows
send through their beautifully painted glass a richly coloured
light full on the vast area. Everything in the structure points
upward, and this symbolism is finally expressed in the lofty
towers, which lose themselves in giddy heights. The victory over
the kingdom of darkness is depicted in the repulsive reptiles,
demonic forms, and dragon shapes which are made to bear up the
pillars and posts, and to serve as water carriers. The wit of
artists has made even bishops and popes perform these menial
offices, just as Dante condemned many popes to the infernal
regions.[314]

§ 104.13. The most famous architects were Benedictines. The
master builder along with the scholars trained by him formed
independent corporations, free from any other jurisdiction.
They therefore called themselves “=Free Masons=,” and erected
“=Lodges=,” where they met for consultation and discussion. From
the 13th century these lodges fell more and more into the hands
of the laity, and became training schools of architecture. To
them we are largely indebted for the development of the Gothic
style. Their most celebrated works are the Cologne cathedral
and the Strassburg minster. The foundation of the former was
laid under Archbishop Conrad of Hochsteden in A.D. 1248; the
choir was completed and consecrated in A.D. 1322 (§ 174, 9).
Erwin of Steinbach began the building of the Strassburg minster
in A.D. 1275.

§ 104.14. =Statuary and Painting.=--Under the Hohenstaufens
=statuary=, which had been disallowed by the ancient church,
rose into favour. Its first great master in Italy was Nicola
Pisano, who died in A.D. 1274. Earlier indeed a statuary school
had been formed in Saxony, of which no names but great works
have come down to us. The goldsmith’s craft and metallurgy were
brought into the service of the church by the German artists,
and show not only wonderful technical skill, but also high
attainment in ideal art. In =Painting= the Byzantines taught
the Italians, and these again the Germans. At the beginning
of the 13th century there was a school of painting at Pisa and
Siena, claiming St. Luke as its patron, and seeking to impart
more life and warmth to the stiff figures of the Byzantines.
Their greatest masters were Guido of Siena and Giunta of Pisa,
and the Florentine Cimabue, † A.D. 1300. Mosaic painting mostly
on a golden ground was in favour in Italy. Painting on glass
is first met with in the beginning of the 11th century in the
monastery of Tegernsee in Bavaria, and soon spread over Germany
and all over Europe.[315]--Continuation, § 115, 13.

§ 105. NATIONAL CUSTOMS AND THE NATIONAL LITERATURE.

It was an age full of the most wonderful contradictions and anomalies in the life of the people, but every phenomenon bore the character of unquestionable power, and the church applied the artificer’s chisel to the unhewn marble block. In club law the most brutal violence prevailed, but bowed itself willingly or unwillingly before the might of an idea. The basest sensuality existed alongside of the most simple self-denial and renunciation of the world, the most wonderful displays of self-forgetting love. The most sacred solemnities were parodied, and then men turned in awful earnest to manifest the profoundest anxiety for their soul’s salvation. Alongside of unmeasured superstition we meet with the boldest freethinking, and out of the midst of widespread ignorance and want of culture there radiated forth great thoughts, profound conceptions, and suggestive anticipations.

§ 105.1. =Knighthood and the Peace of God.=--Notwithstanding
its rude violence there was a deep religious undertone in
knighthood, which came out in Spain in the war with the Saracens,
and throughout Europe in the crusades. What princes could not do
to check savagery was to some extent accomplished by the church
by means of the injunction of the Peace of God. In A.D. 1034
the severity of famine in France led to acts of cannibalism
and murder, which the bishops and synods severely punished. In
A.D. 1041 the bishops of Southern France enjoined the Peace of
God, according to which under threat of anathema all feuds were
to be suspended from Wednesday evening to Monday morning, as the
days of the ascension, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
At a later council at Narbonne in A.D. 1054, Advent to Epiphany,
Lent to eight days after Easter, from the Sunday before Ascension
to the end of the week of Pentecost, as well as the ember days
and the festivals of Mary and the Apostles, were added. Even on
other days, churches, cloisters, hospitals, and churchyards, as
well as priests, monks, pilgrims, merchants, and agriculturists,
in short, all unarmed men, and, by the Council of Clermont,
A.D. 1095, even all crusaders, were included in the peace of
God. Its healthful influence was felt even outside of France,
and at the 3rd Lateran Council in A.D. 1179 Alexander III. raised
it to the rank of a universally applicable law of the church.

§ 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.=