BOOK V.

FROM THE DEATH OF CHARLEMAGNE TO THE DEPOSITION OF POPE GREGORY VI,

A.D. 814-1046.

 

CHAPTER VIII.

HERESIES. A.D. 1000-1052.

 

The beginning of the eleventh century is remarkable for the appearance of heretical teachers in various parts of Italy and France. It would appear that the doctrines professed by some of these persons had long been lurking among the Italians, and that now the discredit into which the church had fallen combined with the general suffering and distraction of the time to draw them forth into publicity and to procure adherents for them. From the fact that Gerbert, at his consecration as archbishop of Reims (A.D. 991), made a profession of faith in which he distinctly condemned (among other errors) some leading points of the Manichaean system, it has been inferred that heresy of a Manichaean character was then prevalent in some neighbouring quarter; but perhaps it may be enough to suppose that the Manichaeism which Gerbert wished to disavow was one of the many errors with which he was personally charged by the enmity or the credulity of his contemporaries. The opinions which were now put forth were of various kinds. One Leutard, a man of low condition, who about the year 1000 made himself notorious in the neighbourhood of Châlons-on-the-Marne, would seem to have been a crazy fanatic. He professed to have received commands from heaven while sleeping in a field; whereupon he went home, put away his wife “as if by evangelic precept”, and, going into a church, broke the crucifix. He denounced the payment of tithes, and said that some parts of Scripture were not to be believed, although, when summoned before the bishop of the diocese, he alleged scriptural texts as evidence of his mission. For a time Leutard found many proselytes; but the greater part of them were recovered by the bishop, and their leader drowned himself in a well.

In another quarter, Vilgard, a grammarian of Ravenna, who was put to death for his heresy, attempted a revival of the classical paganism—maintaining “that the doctrines of the poets were in all things to be believed”; and we are told that demons used to appear to him by night under the names of Virgil, Horace, and Juvenal. The historian from whom we derive our knowledge of Vilgard and Leutard relates also that paganism was very common in Sardinia, and that many professors of it went from that island into Spain, where they attempted to spread their opinions, but were driven out by the Catholics.

A sect of Manicheans is said to have been detected in Aquitaine in 1017, and in 10223 a more remarkable party of the same kind was discovered at Orleans. These are reported to have derived their opinions from a female teacher, who came out of Italy, and was so “full of the devil” that she could convert the most learned clerks. For a time the sect grew in secret. Its leaders were two ecclesiastics named Stephen and Lisoi—both respected for their piety, their learning, and their charity, while Stephen was confessor to Constance, the queen whom Robert of France had espoused on his forced separation from Bertha. Among the proselytes were ten canons of the cathedral, and many persons of rank, not only in Orleans and its neighbourhood, but, even in the royal court

The discovery of these sectaries is variously related. The most circumstantial account ascribes it to Arefast, a Norman noble, who, having allowed a chaplain named Herbert to go to Orleans for the purpose of study, was startled by finding on his return that he had there imbibed new and heretical opinions. At the desire of King Robert, to whom, through the medium of the duke of Normandy, he reported the matter, Arefast proceeded to Orleans for the purpose of detecting the heretics, and by the advice of a clergyman of Chartres, whom he had consulted on the way, he affected to become a pupil of Stephen and Lisoi. They taught him that Christ was not really born of the virgin Mary; that He was not really crucified, buried, or risen; that baptism had no efficacy for the washing away of sin; that priestly consecration did not make the sacrament of the Redeemer’s body and blood; that it was needless to pray to martyrs or confessors. On Arefast’s asking how he might attain salvation, if the means to which he had hitherto looked were unavailing, the teachers replied that they would bestow on him the imposition of their hands, which would cleanse him from all sin and fill him with the Holy Spirit, so that he should understand the Scriptures in their depth and true dignity; that they would give him heavenly food, by which he would be enabled to see visions and to enjoy fellowship with God. By this mysterious food, which was represented as having the power to confirm disciples immovably in the doctrines of the party, was doubtless meant something of a spiritual kind—the same with the consolamentum of somewhat later sectaries. But a wild story was imagined in explanation of it—that the heretics at some of their meetings recited a litany to evil spirits; that the devil appeared in the form of a small animal; that the lights were then extinguished, and each man embraced the woman nearest to him—even if she were his mother, his sister, or a consecrated nun. A child born of such intercourse was, at the age of eight days, burnt at a meeting of the sect; the ashes were preserved, to be administered under the name of “heavenly food”; and such was the potency of this “diabolical” sacrament that any one who received it became irrevocably bound to the heresy.

Robert, on receiving information from Arefast, repaired to Orleans, where the whole party of the sectaries was apprehended, and Arefast appeared as a witness against them. They avowed their doctrines, and expressed an assurance that these would prevail throughout the world. They professed to entertain views far above the apprehension of ordinary Christians—views taught to them inwardly by God and the Holy Spirit. They spoke with contempt of the doctrine of the Trinity, and of the miraculous evidence of Scripture. They maintained that the heavens and the earth were eternal and uncreated. They appear to have also maintained that the sins of sensuality were not liable to punishment, and that the ordinary duties of religion and morality were superfluous and useless.

After a vain attempt to reclaim the sectaries, they were condemned to death. Such of them as were clerks were deposed and were stripped of their robes. While the trial was proceeding, queen Constance, by her husband’s desire, had stood on the steps of the church in which it was held, in order that her presence might restrain the populace from rushing in and tearing the accused to pieces. Bent on proving that her abhorrence of heresy prevailed over old personal attachment, she thrust her staff into one of her confessor’s eyes as he was led out after condemnation. Two of the party, a clerk and a nun, recanted; thirteen remained steadfast, and approached the place of execution with a smiling and triumphant air, in the expectation of deliverance by miracle. One historian of the time relates that, when the flames were kindled around them, yet no interposition took place, they cried out that the devil had deceived them; but, according to another account, they retained their exultant demeanour to the last. Some dust, which was supposed to be the “heavenly food”, was thrown into the flames with them. The body of a canon named Theodatus, who had been a member of the sect but had died three years before, was taken from the grave and cast into unconsecrated ground.

In 1025, Gerard, bishop of Arras and Cambray, a pupil of Gerbert, discovered in the former city some sectaries who professed to have received their opinions from an Italian named Gundulf. The bishop placed them before a council, and drew forth an acknowledgment of their doctrines. They denied the utility of baptism and the Eucharist, resting their objections to baptism on three grounds—the unworthiness of the clergy; the fact that the sins renounced at the font were afterwards actually committed; and the idea that an infant, being incapable of faith or will, could not be benefited by the profession of others. They were charged with denying the use of penance, with setting at nought the church, with condemning marriage, with refusing honour to the confessors, and limiting it to apostles and martyrs alone. They held that churches were not more holy than other buildings; that the altar was merely a heap of stones, and the cross was but like other wood. They condemned episcopal ordination, the distinction of orders and ranks in the ministry, the use of bells, incense, images, and chanting, and the practice of burying in consecrated ground, which they asserted that the clergy encouraged for the sake of fees. It would seem also that they denied the resurrection of the body. In answer to the bishop, they professed that their opinions were scriptural; that their laws bound them to forsake the world, to abstain from fleshly lusts, to earn their maintenance by the work of their hands, to show kindness to those who opposed them. If they observed these rules, they had no need of baptism; if they neglected the rules, baptism could not profit them.

Gerard combated the opinions of the party at great length, with arguments agreeable to the theology of the age; and, although we may smile at the miraculous stories which he adduced, we must honour his wisdom and excellent temper. He blamed them especially for holding an opinion of their own merits which was inconsistent with the doctrine of divine grace. The sectaries, who appear to have been men of simple mind and of little education, were convinced—rather, it would seem, by the bishop’s legends than by his sounder reasons. They prostrated themselves before him, and expressed a fear that, since they had led others into error, their sin was beyond forgiveness. But he comforted them with hopeful assurances, and, on their signing a profession of orthodoxy, received them into the communion of the church.

Heresy of a Manichaean character was also taught at Toulouse, where the professors of it who were detected were put to death, although their opinions continued to spread in the district; and in 1044 Heribert, archbishop of Milan, when on a visitation of his province, discovered a sect at Monteforte, near Turin. The chief teacher of this sect was named Gerard; it was patronized by the countess of Monteforte, and among its members were many of the clergy. When questioned as to his belief, Gerard gave orthodox answers; but on further inquiry it proved that these answers were evasive. The sectaries held that by the Son of God was meant the human soul, beloved by God and born of Holy Scripture; that the Holy Spirit was the understanding of divine things; that they might be bound and loosed by persons who were authorized for the work, but that these were not the clergy of the church. They said that they had a high priest different from the pontiff of Rome—a high priest who was not tonsured, besides whom there was no other high priest and no sacrament; that he daily visited their brethren who were scattered throughout the world, and that, when God bestowed him on them, they received forgiveness of all sin. They had a peculiar hierarchy of their own; they lived rigidly, ate no flesh, fasted often, kept up unceasing prayer by alternate turns, and observed a community of goods. They inculcated the duty of virginity, living with their wives as mothers or sisters, and believed that, if all mankind would be content to live in purely spiritual union, the race would be propagated after the manner of bees. They considered it desirable to suffer in this life in order to avert sufferings in the life to come; hence it was usual that those among them who had escaped outward persecution should be tortured and put to death by their friends.

The members of the sect were seized and were removed to Milan. Attempts were made to reclaim them, but without effect; and the magistrates, on learning that they had endeavoured to gain converts among the country people, ordered them, although without the archbishop’s consent, to be carried to a place outside the city, where they were required, on pain of burning, to bow to the cross, and to profess the catholic faith. Almost all refused; they covered their eyes with their hands, and rushed into the fire which was prepared for them.

It is generally assumed by modern writers, on grounds which it is impossible to discover, that the statement of Heribert’s freedom from any share in the fate of these unfortunate fanatics is untrue. But in another quarter, at least, a voice was raised by a bishop in behalf of Christian principle and humanity as to the treatment of religious error. Wazo, bishop of Liege, who died in 1048, received a letter from Roger, bishop of Châlons-on-the Marne, reporting the appearance of some heretics who avowed the doctrines of Manes, and supposed him to be the Holy Ghost. Among other things, Roger states that even the most uneducated persons, when perverted to this sect, became more fluent in their discourse, than the most learned clerks; and he asks how he should deal with them. Wazo tells him in reply, that forcible measures are inconsistent with our Lord’s parable of the tares; that bishops do not at their ordination receive the sword; that their power is not that of killing but of making alive; that they ought to content themselves with excluding those who are in error from the church, and preventing them from spreading the infection. The writer who has preserved the correspondence enforces this advice by the authority of St. Martin, and expresses a belief that the bishop of Tours would have strongly reprobated the punishment of some sectaries who were put to death at Goslar in 1052.

The origin of the sects which thus within a short period appeared in so many quarters is matter of doubt and controversy. The heretical parties north of the Alps professed for the most part to have received their opinions immediately from Italy; but it is asked whether they had been introduced into that country by Paulician refugees, the offspring of the Paulicians who, in 969, had been transported by John Tzimisces from Armenia to Thrace, and established as guards of the western frontiers of his empire, with permission to retain their religion;—or whether they were derived from Manicheans who, notwithstanding the vigorous measures of Leo the Great and other popes for the suppression of the sect, had continued to lurk in Italy. The avowal of the party at Monteforte, that they did not know from what part of the world they had come, which had been cited in behalf of the connection with Paulicianism, appears rather to favour the opposite view, inasmuch as it would seem to imply not only a foreign origin (which was common to both Manicheans and Paulicians), but an establishment of their doctrines in Italy long before the then recent time at which Paulicianism had been introduced into Europe. Moreover the sectaries of Monteforte differed from the Paulicians in the rejection of flesh and of marriage, in the system of their hierarchy, in maintaining the distinction between elect and hearers; and the western sects in general paid honour to Manes, whereas the Paulicians anathematized him. The indistinctness with which the Manichaean tenets appear in some of the cases has been accounted for by supposing that the obscure followers of Manes, lurking in corners for centuries, were kept together rather by external observances than by any accurate knowledge of the system which they professed; while something must also be allowed for the defectiveness of the notices which have reached us. It seems, therefore, possible that the new heretics may have derived their opinions from the Manicheans; and, according to the advocates of this view, it was not until the east had been brought into communication with the west by the crusades that the western sectaries learnt to trace a likeness between themselves and the Paulicians, which, by means of fabulous inventions, was then referred to a supposed connection in earlier times. But there seems to be a deficiency of proof for the supposition that the Manichaean sect had continued to exist in Italy—the only evidence of its existence after the time of Gregory the Great being apparently the mention of some heretics who are styled Arians, but may have been Manicheans, at Padua in the tenth century.

In the east also the beginning of the eleventh century was marked by the rise or by the increased activity of some heretical sects—as the Athinggani, the Children of the Sun, and the Euchites; but their influence was so limited that it is unnecessary here to give any particular account of them.

 

 

CHAPTER IX.

SUPPLEMENTARY.