BOOK VII.

FROM THE ELECTION OF INNOCENT III TO THE DEATH OF BONIFACE VIII, A.D. 1198-1303.

 

CHAPTER VII.

SECTARIES.

1

THE INQUISITION

 

THE persecutions which were continually carried on against the Albigenses, Waldenses, and others, were not followed by the conversion which was desired and expected, but appeared rather to strengthen in the sectaries their dislike of the ecclesiastical doctrine and system. Thus, the Waldenses, who at their outset had varied so little from the church that they might probably have been reconciled to it by moderate treatment, ran into new developments which had been foreign to the thoughts of the founders. Everywhere we find the heretical parties spreading—the old sects gaining converts, and new sects arising, although the variety of names under which they were known considerably exceeds the varieties of opinion which existed among them. We read of cathari, not only in southern France and in Lombardy, but at Rimini, Florence, and Viterbo, at Rome itself, and at Naples, in Sicily, Spain, Germany, Flanders and various parts of northern and eastern France and those who were discovered were burnt or otherwise severely dealt with. Frederick II taunted the popes with allowing all sorts of heresy among their Milanese allies; and, in consequence of their political connection with Rome, the authorities of Milan found it necessary to vindicate their character for orthodoxy. “The Milanese,” says a chronicler, under the date of 1233, “began to burn heretics in the third year of the lord archbishop William of Ruzolo”; and in 1233 a podestà of Milan recorded, in a verse which may still be read on a public palace of that city, the fact that he had not only erected the building, but, “as he ought,” had burnt the cathari.

Such a view of duty, the clergy—who in the preceding century had themselves been usually opposed to the execution of heretics, but had now changed their system—zealously tried to impress on the laity, in order that persons convicted of heresy might be dealt with by the “secular arm.” The principle of persecution for religious error was very decidedly laid down, and was justified by argument from the punishment of other offences. “He that taketh away the faith,” says Innocent III, “stealeth the life; for the just shall live by faith.” So, the great theologian of the Dominican order argues that, if false coiners be punished with death, much more is such a doom deserved by heretics, forasmuch as a corruption of faith, whereby the soul has its life, is far worse than a falsification of money; and as to this he distinguishes the case of heretics and apostates from that of Jews or others who have never been members of the church, and therefore are not to be forcibly brought into it. In like manner another eminent Dominican, Humbert de Romanis, inculcates the duty of punishing heretics, and declares that “even if the pope were a heretic”, (a supposition which in that age was not supposed to be impossible) “he should be punished”. The especial manner of death for heresy was supposed to be indicated by the Saviour’s declaration that those who abide not in Him are cast into the fire, as withered branches, “and they are burned.”

Even Frederick II, as we have seen, felt himself obliged to do something for his own reputation by publishing severe edicts against sectaries; and these laws were gladly accepted by the popes, and at a later time were renewed by Rudolf of Hapsburg. In France, St. Lewis, and in Hungary, king Ladislaus, seconded the wishes of the popes by allowing their orders for the extirpation of heresy to be carried out. The inquisition, which had been established in Languedoc by the council of Toulouse, in 1229, was, with the consent of the pious king, committed to the Dominicans and Franciscans throughout France. In 1232, the Inquisition was introduced into Aragon, and in 1248 it was fully established throughout Christian Spain.

Frederick’s persecuting laws were intended rather for Italy and Sicily than for his northern dominions. But in 1232 a priest named Conrad of Marburg—a man of coarse and uncultivated mind, but of much power as a preacher—appeared under papal sanction as inquisitor in Germany. By some, he is described as a Dominican; by others, as a Franciscan; but in truth it would seem that no monastic order can claim the credit or the infamy of reckoning him among its members. His cruelty had been execrably displayed in the sway which he exercised over the saintly Elizabeth, daughter of the king of Hungary, and widow of Lewis, landgrave of Thuringia, who had died at Brindisi on his way to the crusade. The devout and submissive character of her mind provoked Conrad to indulge in outrageous excesses of tyranny. Having secured her compliance by a vow of obedience, he persuaded her, under the name of religion, to renounce her children and relations, and to withdraw into a hospital where she devoted herself to the practice of ascetic exercises and of ministering to the most loathsome forms of disease. He cut off from her the society of all whom she had known or loved—even of her nurse; he compelled her to live as a servant among her servants; he even carried his prohibition of all that could gratify her so far as to forbid an indulgence in almsgiving; he would allow her no other companion than some “austere” women, who treated her tyrannically, and told tales against her; whereupon he flogged her, and gave her blows on the face, “which, however,” says a biographer, “she had wished and longed to bear, in remembrance of the Lord’s bufferings”. Under this system the princess died in 1231, before she had completed her twenty-fourth year; and the savage bigotry and cruelty which Conrad had shown as a spiritual director found an ampler field for their exercise in his new character of inquisitor. Beginning with the lowest classes, he gradually included persons of better station in his inquiries, until at length counts and marquises were marked out as victims; and a chronicler tells us that a king or a bishop was of no greater account with him than a poor layman. Those who were accused were required to choose between two courses: they were either to confess and be burnt (or, at least, to be shorn and shut up for life), or they were to be burnt for denial of the charges against them, although with the consolation of being assured by the inquisitor that any who might be put to death innocently would be rewarded with the bliss and glory of martyrs. To speak in mitigation of the sentence, was to become a partner of heresy, and liable to the same punishment as the accused. The proceedings of the inquisitor’s court were very summary: the accusation, the sentence, and the execution of it were often the work of a single day. Many in despair confessed offences of which they were guiltless, while others endured death rather than disavow their innocence. False accusations of heresy were prompted by private revenge, or by quarrels as to property, and soon became common. All along the Rhine, the proceedings of Conrad spread terror, and aroused general execration. The archbishops of Mainz, Treves, and Cologne assembled diets to consider the matter, and, in accordance with the decision of these assemblies, reported his proceedings to Gregory IX; and even Gregory expressed regret that he had intrusted the inquisitor with so much power, and astonishment that the Germans had endured so long. But before an act of deprivation could be prepared, Conrad, while on a journey, was waylaid, and fell a victim to the vengeance which his tyranny had provoked. Gregory, although he eulogized the murdered inquisitor, did not exact severe punishment from those who had shared in his death. And it is perhaps to the indignation excited by Conrad that Germany owed its exemption from a permanent inquisition.

In other cases, also, the severity of inquisitors was avenged by lawless means. Thus, three Dominican inquisitors were murdered at Avignonnet, in Languedoc, in 1239; and a more celebrated instance of this kind is the assassination of the Dominican Peter of Verona, which has furnished a theme for the genius of Titian and of Guido.

Among the causes of difference which arose between Philip the Fair and the papacy, one was connected with the proceedings of the Dominican inquisitors of Toulouse, who were said to imprison persons of all classes under frivolous pretexts, and to release those who submitted to bribe them. In consequence of these reports, one of the king’s officers inquired into the matter, and set at liberty many persons, whom the inquisitors had committed to prison. For this invasion of the church’s privileges, he was excommunicated at Paris and elsewhere. He appealed to the pope against this sentence; but before any judgment could be obtained, he died at Perugia, during the vacancy which followed after the death of Benedict XI.

It is said that some of the sectaries endeavoured to protect themselves against the questions of inquisitors by a remarkable system of equivocation. Thus we are told that at Treves, and at Montvimer (their head-quarters in northern France), the cathari had a pope and a bishop corresponding in names to the reigning pope of Rome and to the bishop of the diocese; while certain old women of the sect were spoken of as St. Mary, the Church, Baptism, the Eucharist, Marriage, and the like; so that the sectaries, when asked whether they acknowledged pope Gregory or the blessed Virgin, holy Church or the sacrament of marriage, might reply in the affirmative, with a mental reference to the persons who were designated by these names in their own communion.

The crusades had had the effect of making the cathari of the West and those of the East mutually known, and of bringing them into intercourse and correspondence with each other. In consequence of the intercourse thus established, the doctrine of the bogomiles made its way into the West, and with some of the cathari of North Italy superseded the system of pure dualism, which was still retained in the south of France.

The general use of the Scriptures, and the translation of them into the vernacular languages, had been discouraged by Gregory VII, and the circumstance that the Waldensian and other sectaries professed to ground their opposition to Rome on a free and unprejudiced study of Scripture, tended to make the authorities of the church more unwilling to allow such study. We have already seen how the Waldensians of Metz were dealt with by Innocent III, who interprets the command “If a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned”, as meant to discourage presumptuous study of Scripture by persons who were not duly qualified as to ability or knowledge. But the council of Toulouse in 1229 went further, by forbidding lay persons to have the books of the Old or New Testament, “unless perchance one may of devotion wish to nave a Psalter or a Breviary for Divine offices, or the Hours of the blessed Mary’’; and even these it was “most strictly forbidden” to have in the vulgar tongue. So a council at Tarragona in 1234 prohibits the Scriptures “in the Romance tongue,” and orders such translations to be burnt ; and a council at Beziers in 1246 forbade lay­men to have any theological books, even in Latin, while clergy and laity were alike forbidden to have them in the vernacular. The popular knowledge of Scripture history, of which the sources were thus interdicted, was now derived from the compendium of Peter Comestor.

 

2

THE STEDINGERS.

 

In the middle of the century, a whole people was destined to furnish an instance of the readiness with which charges of heresy were brought against persons who had offended their accusers in some other way. The Stedingers, a simple and hardy tribe of Frisian origin, occupied a country to the east of the Weser in its lower part, and appear to have acknowledged the counts of Oldenburg as their liege-lords, but were immediately subject to the archbishops of Bremen, with whose officials, from about the year 1187, they were embroiled about questions of ecclesiastical dues. They would seem, also, to have complained of the insolence and immorality of their priests, and thus their differences with the clergy came to be misrepresented as originating in heresy. Strange fables—partly new, and partly borrowed from the traditional charges against Manichaean and other sectaries—were circulated. It was said that the Stedingers had relapsed into heathenism and that they practised magic; that in their initiation they kissed the hinder parts of a toad, and allowed the reptile to spit into their mouths; that a man, tall, fleshless, and of ghastly paleness, with piercing dark eyes, appeared among them; and that in the moment when they kissed him, and felt the icy chill of his touch, all remembrance of the catholic faith vanished from their minds. To these charges were added the old tales of obscene reverence to a black cat, darkened rooms, and licentious orgies.

In 1232, Gregory IX wrote to king Henry, the son of the emperor Frederick, to the bishop of Minden and other prelates of the neighbourhood, and to the inquisitor Conrad of Marburg, stating these and other abominations which were imputed to the Stedingers, and urging that they should be punished. A crusade against them was proclaimed, and a large army, under the duke of Brabant and the counts of Holland and Cleves, overwhelmed the unfortunate people, of whom, in a second campaign, 6000—men, women, and children—are said to have been slain. After this calamity, even the pope appears to have found reason to doubt the truth of the information on the strength of which the Stedingers had been butchered as enemies to the faith; and he issued a decree which gave the strongest possible condemnation to his late policy, by omitting all mention of heresy among the charges against them, and by authorizing their absolution on condition that they should promise to give no offence in time to come.

 

3

BEGHARDS AND BEGUINES.

 

Among the sectaries of this age the names of Beghards and Beguines often occur, while the same terms are also used to designate persons whose orthodoxy was unimpeachable according to the standard of the time. The derivation of the words has been much questioned. Some refer it to the old Saxon beggen or begheren, which means either to beg or to pray, but must here be understood in the second of these senses, as mendicancy was no part of the system. Others trace it to the epithet bègue (or stammerer), attached to the name of one Lambert, a priest of Liége, who, about 1180, founded a society of beguines there. A third etymology is from the name of Begga, duchess of Brabant, and mother of Pipin of Heristal; but this, although it has in later times naturally found favour with the Flemish beguines, is quite without foundations

The beguines seem to have been originally women who lived in a society which had somewhat of a monastic character, although without vows or any special rule—retaining the liberty to marry, and being allowed to enjoy such property as they might possess, while they earned money by weaving or similar works, and gave all that they could spare to the poor, the sick, and the strangers, for whom in some cases they provided hospitals. It has been supposed that these communities originated in the excess of the female sex which resulted from the vast consumption of men in the crusades; but the system was soon taken up by men, who were styled beghards; and from Liege the institution speedily made its way into other parts. Matthew Paris says that about 1243 there were 2000 beghards and beguines in and about Cologne—the women being more numerous than the men; and about the same time a man who has already been mentioned as having passed himself off for a catharist in various countries, speaks of beguini as a kind of “new religious,” whom he saw at Neustadt, in Austria. The female societies were under the government of “mistresses”, of whom in the larger houses there were two or more; and the beghards had in like manner their heads, who were sometimes called masters, but more commonly ministers (or servants). The names of beghards and beguines came not unnaturally to be used for devotees who, without being members of any regular monastic society, made a profession of religious strictness; and thus the application of the names to some kinds of sectaries was easy—more especially as many of these found it convenient to assume the outward appearance of beghards, in the hope of disguising their differences from the church. But on the other hand, this drew on the orthodox beghards frequent persecutions, and many of them, for the sake of safety, were glad to connect themselves as tertiaries with the great mendicant orders. And between the orthodox and the sectaries who were confounded under these common names, they served also to designate persons whose opinions might perhaps be tinged with unconscious sectarianism, but who were chiefly noticeable for eccentricity in dress and manners, or for a religious zeal too little accompanied by knowledge or discretion. In the fourteenth century the popes dealt hardly with the beghards; yet orthodox societies under this name still remained in Germany; and in Belgium, the country of their origin, sisterhoods of beguines flourish to the present day.

 

4

SECT OF THE FREE SPIRIT.

 

Among those who were confounded with the beghards—partly because, like them, they abounded along the Rhine—were the brethren and sisters of the Free Spirit. These appear in various places under various names, and in many points the system attributed to them reminds us of other sects, such as the followers of Amalric of Bena, although it is very doubtful whether they were directly connected with any of these. Their doctrines and their practical system were of a highly enthusiastic kind. They wore a peculiarly simple dress, professed to give themselves to contemplation, and, holding that labour is a hindrance to contemplation and to the elevation of the soul to God, they lived by beggary. Their doctrines were mystical and almost pantheistic—that all things come from God, and will be absorbed into Him; that the soul is part of the Godhead, and may by contemplation become united with it in such wise that a man shall be Son of God in the same sense as the Saviour was; that when this perfection is attained, he is freed from all carnal appetites, and rises above all laws, as being independent of them, so that he may look down on prayers, sacraments, and other rites as elements fit only for children. These principles naturally led to fanaticism in practice. The brethren and sisters are said to have slept together; for modesty and shame were regarded as proofs that the soul had not yet overcome its evil desires; and the statement may be believed, as the enemies of the sect allow that breaches of chastity were rare among them, and account for this by supposing that the devil produced in the sectaries a coldness which rendered them insensible to the temptations of the senses.

The brethren and sisters of the Free Spirit were much persecuted, and probably formed a large proportion of those who were burnt under the name of beghards. To this sect also perhaps belonged a woman of the name of Wilhelmina, who was revered at Milan as a saint for twenty years after her death in 1251, until an inquiry into her merits resulted in the demolition of her gorgeous tomb, and the burning of her bones as those of a heretic.

 

5

THE “APOSTLES”.

 

The idea of evangelical poverty, which had given rise to the two great mendicant orders, was widely spread in this age, and influenced most of the new sects in a greater or less degree. Among the most remarkable of these was the party which claimed the title of Apostles, founded by Gerard Segarello, of Parma, a layman of humble birth, weak understanding, and scanty education, about the year 1249. Segarello attempted to gain admission into a society of Franciscans, as being the order nearest to his ideas of apostolical poverty, and, having been refused, continued to hang about the convent, until a picture of the apostles in the cloister gave him the idea of adopting the dress in which they were represented—with long hair and beard, a long white coat of coarse cloth, and a rope by way of girdle—and of establishing a new brotherhoods He sold his property, threw away the price in the market-place, and is said to have gone through a strange imitation of the Saviour’s early life—submitting to circumcision, lying swathed in a cradle, and receiving nourishment like an infant. In 1260, the year on which abbot Joachim had fixed for the beginning of the last age of the church, and in which the frenzy of the flagellants broke out, Segarello became more conspicuous by gathering about thirty disciples round him; and strange stories are told of the insane fanaticism which he displayed. For nearly twenty years the party was allowed to spread without being molested; but in 1279, two of Segarello’s female adherents were burnt at Parma as catharists; whereupon the people plundered the convent of the Dominican inquisitors, killed some of the friars, and banished the rest. The bishop, Obizzo Sanvitale, although no friend to the inquisitors, arrested Segarello, but after a time, being convinced that he was a simple and harmless man, kept him as a sort of domestic jester, until in 1286 he felt himself bound to dismiss and to banish him, in consequence of a decree by which Honorius IV, grounding his act on a canon of the second council of Lyons against any new religious orders but such as were approved by the holy see, prohibited the peculiarities of the apostolicals as to dress and other matters, and ordered that no one should bestow alms on them, or otherwise encourage them. Notwithstanding a repetition of this decree by Nicolas IV in 1290, Segarello ventured to return to Parma, but in the year of jubilee, 1300, the Dominicans, who had been received back with honour, brought him to trial, and, although July 18, he recanted the errors which were imputed to him, he was made over to the secular arm, and burnt as a relapsed heretic.

In the meantime the sect had acquired a member who by abilities and education was better fitted for the office of leader, which, indeed, Segarello had always declined. Dolcino was the son of a priest in the diocese of Novara, and was educated at Vercelli, where he is described as having been quick and diligent in study, and generally popular, until he was obliged to withdraw in consequence of having robbed a priest who had been his tutor. His next appearance was in the Tyrol, where he addressed himself with powerful and effective eloquence to the spirit which had prevailed in that region from the days of Arnold of Brescia, denouncing the luxury of the clergy, and recommending a community of goods, and even, it is said, of women. But he was dislodged by the bishop of Trent, and was expelled from Milan, Como, and other cities of Lombardy. On the death of Segarello, Dolcino assumed the post of chief of the sect, and brought into prominence its opposition to the Roman church. He sent forth three letters, in the first of which he describes as his enemies all the secular clergy, many of the great and powerful, and the whole of the religious orders, especially the preachers and the minorites. Before these he intimates his intention of retiring, until in due time he should reappear for their destruction; and it has been supposed that he resided for a time in Dalmatia, and thence issued his later epistles.

The apostolicals professed that they agreed with the church in doctrine and desired nothing more than a thorough reform of its corruptions—a restoration of the primitive simplicity and poverty. They affected an air of mystery in imparting the peculiarities of the party to converts. The doctrine of Dolcino was founded on that of Joachim, although greatly varying from it. He taught that there were four states of the church, each rising above that which had gone before it, and each declining before the following state came in as a remedy. First, the state of patriarchs, prophets, and righteous men—when it was right that mankind should multiply. Next, the state under Christ and His apostles, in which virginity was to be preferred to marriage, and poverty to wealth. Then, the age from Constantine and Sylvester, which was subdivided by the appearance of St. Benedict, and again by that of St. Dominic and St. Francis; and lastly, the age which began with Gerard of Parma, and was to continue and fructify until the day of judgment. The difference between the older mendicant orders and the apostolicals was declared to be, that, whereas the former had houses to which they might carry the spoils of their begging, the newer and more perfect party had no houses, and were not allowed to carry away what was given to them. The church of Rome was identified with the apocalyptic harlot, and was said to have lost all spiritual power through the vices of her rulers; all popes since Sylvester had been deceivers, with the exception of Celestine V; their excommunications were naught, nor could any pope really absolve unless he were utterly poor, and equal in holiness to St. Peter. The religious orders were declared to be mischievous; for it was better to live without than under a vow, and the apostolicals were not constrained by any outward rule, but by the free spirit of love. They claimed an understanding of the Scriptures which was not derived from man, and held that except by joining their body, of which every member was perfect as the apostles, there could be no salvation. Although oaths were forbidden in general, it was held to be lawful to save their lives even by forswearing their opinions; and this Dolcino acknowledged that he had thrice done when he fell into the hands of inquisitors; but if death were inevitable, it was their duty to avow their doctrines boldly.

Dolcino announced that Frederick of Sicily, on whom the antipapalists were fond of resting their hopes, was to enter Rome on Christmas-day 1305, was to be chosen as emperor, and to set up ten kings who were to reign three years and a half—evidently the ten horns of the apocalyptic beast, which was thus turned to the antipapal interest. The emperor was to slay pope Boniface with his cardinals, the prelates, clergy, monks, and friars, and was to restore the church to its apostolical poverty. After the destruction of Boniface, a new pope, specially sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and equal in perfection to St. Peter, was to be appointed by supernatural means (for there would be no cardinals to elect). Perhaps this pope might prove to be Dolcino himself, if then alive; perhaps Segarello restored to life. After preaching three years and a half, the holy pope and his associates were to be caught up to paradise, while Enoch and Elias were to descend, to preach of antichrist, and to be slain by him; and when the time of antichrist should have passed away, the pope and his followers were to return, and to convert all men to the true faith, with a marvellous effusion of the Holy Ghost. The seven angels of the apocalyptic churches were interpreted to mean respectively Benedict, Sylvester, Francis, Dominic, Gerard Segarello, Dolcino himself, and the future holy pope. If at any time the course of events did not agree with Dolcino’s predictions, he was ready to alter these, or in some other manner to get over the difficulty.

The apostolicals are described by a contemporary as spending their time in idleness, neither working nor praying. They kissed the feet of Dolcino, as being the holiest of men, while the orthodox shuddered at his profanity in eating flesh during Lent and on fast days. The sectaries regarded marriage as purely spiritual. The men led about sisters, and with these they renewed the fanatical trials which have been mentioned in connexion with other parties. Dolcino’s companion was a beautiful maiden of Trent, named Margaret, whom he extolled as perfect. After a time, it was rumoured (apparently without ground) that she was pregnant. “If so” said Dolcino, “it must be of the Holy Ghost.”

In 1304, Dolcino, at the invitation of a wealthy land­owner, established himself in the Val Sesia, and disciples gathered rapidly around him from both sides of the Alps. The clergy were alarmed, and an army of crusaders took the field against the apostolicals, under the command of Rainier, bishop of Vercelli, and under the patronage of the great local saint, Eusebius. Although the principles of the sect forbade the use of force, even in self-defence, Dolcino now displayed an instinctive genius for war; he disappeared by night from the Val Sesia, and, with more than fourteen hundred companions, took up a strong position on the impregnable “Mountain of the Bare Wall,” near Varallo. But after they had here defied their enemies for a time, the dread of famine began to be felt. They were compelled to eat horses, dogs, rats, and even the flesh of their own dead companions. In Lent they endeavoured to support themselves on roots, leaves, and hay. In their desperation they made sallies into the neighbouring country, plundered and profaned churches, burnt, ravaged, carried off captives, whom they put to heavy ransom, and reduced many of the peaceable inhabitants to beggary. Leaving their sick and infirm behind them, about 1000 of the sectaries made their way through fearful difficulties, over mountains covered with deep snow and ice, to the still wilder March 10, height of Mount Zebello, near Ivrea, where they fortified themselves in their new position, and dug a deep well. But here many of them fell victims to cold, and the distress of the survivors became more terrible than ever; for their money, of which they had accumulated a large store by plunder, was unable to procure them any provisions. A holy war was proclaimed against them by Clement V, and many enlisted under bishop Rainier for the enterprise. Yet in this dreadful extremity of hunger the sectaries kept up the sternness of their resolution, until, after having held out somewhat more than a year on the mountain, and after successes which they abused by cruelty and plunder, their strength was utterly exhausted. On Maundy Thursday 1307, after a fierce and desperate resistance, they were overpowered and almost exterminated by the crusading force. Dolcino, Margaret, and one of the leaders named Longino, were reserved for a more terrible death. They were tried before a mixed tribunal of clergy and lawyers, and pope Clement, on being consulted, answered that they should be punished in the same places which had witnessed their misdeeds. Dolcino and his “sister,” therefore, suffered at Vercelli. It is said that, when Margaret was led out for punishment, her beauty so captivated the beholders that many nobles offered her marriage if she would consent to save her life by renouncing her errors; but she persevered, and without flinching endured the torture of a slow fire, while Dolcino was compelled to look on, and calmly exhorted her to endurance. Dolcino himself bore with equal constancy the tearing of his flesh with red-hot pincers, and Longino suffered death with the same circumstances of atrocious cruelty at Biella. Thus the sect of the apostolicals was extinguished in blood, and, although slight traces of it may be discovered somewhat later, its name and even its influence speedily disappear.

 

 

CHAPTER VIII.

SUPPLEMENTARY.