[Dana Carleton Munro, The Middle Ages, 395-1272 (New York: The Century Company, 1921), pp. 354-365]
Weakening of the Church's Authority. Many causes contributed to weaken the authority of the Church. The investiture struggle caused the opponents of the Church to dispute its claims to jurisdiction and to condemn its use of excommunication as a spiritual weapon. The new knowledge gained through the crusades led some to question the accuracy of its teachings. The schisms in the Church and the election of anti-popes shook the unquestioning faith of those who were on the losing side. The wealth that the Church was obtaining provoked unfavorable criticism. As Bernard of Clairvaux said, "The Catholic faith is discussed in the streets and market-places. We have fallen upon evil times. "
Criticism from Within. Bernard himself was one of the most outspoken in condemning the Church's wealth and her absorption in temporal affairs. He wrote to the pope: "Who will permit me to see before I die the Church of God so ordered as it was in the old days, when the apostles cast their nets to fish for souls and not for gold and silver?" This feeling that the Church was in need of a general reformation was shared by all the more earnest Christians. The rise of the new monastic orders was in effect a condemnation of the laxity of the existing orders. The founding of the Premonstratensian and other orders of canons was, as has been stated, partially due to the feeling that the priests were neglecting their duties. There was a constantly rising tide of criticism within the Church, voicing a demand for a radical improvement in the conduct of its officials. This may be seen in the letters of the popes, the actions of the councils, and the writings of the leading churchmen.
Effect of Disciplinary Action. One disciplinary measure for the enforcement of the celibacy of the priesthood needs especial mention. In I059 the synod of Rome forbade any one to attend mass when the celebrant was known to have a wife or concubine. Fifteen years later Gregory VII attempted to enforce this and raised a storm of opposition. A very large proportion of the priests were affected, and their parishioners were virtually asked to sit in judgment upon them. Gregory's enemies claimed that he had fallen into the Donatist heresy that the sacrament is polluted in unworthy hands. Gregory and Urban II insisted that this action was merely a matter of discipline, and did not in any way deny that the sacrament was efficacious to the faithful, even when administered by a priest who was a vile sinner. The general public did not recognize any such distinction, and this disciplinary action of the popes and councils had far-reaching effect, as will be seen in the discussion of the heresies.
Abelard. Before taking up the heresies, however, it is necessary to note another influence, which Bernard of Clairvaux considered very dangerous to the Church. This was the teaching of Abelard (1107-1142), who wrote an interesting autobiography under the title Historia Calamitatum. We see the eager young noble renouncing his inheritance in order to win applause as a scholar. The art of disputation, or dialectics, was then the favorite study, and Abelard soon became an adept in this. He tells of his victories in the provinces and then at Paris, where he confuted the most celebrated teacher of the day and "dared to aspire to become the head of a school." He was successful. Next he took up the study of theology at Laon under Anselm, the leading theologian of the day, and began to criticise him and his methods. Soon Abelard was lecturing on theology amid the applause of those who had been his fellow-pupils. He returned to Paris, whither students flocked to hear him. When he was thirty-six years old occurred the love episode with Heloise which has made their names immortal. In writing of it he says: "Considering myself henceforth the only philosopher on earth and having no doubt as to the future, I began to give free rein to my passions, I who had always lived in the greatest chastity. And the farther I advanced on the road of philosophy and sacred learning, the farther I separated myself by the inferiority of my life from the philosophers and the saints. My reputation was then so great, my youthful beauty and the perfection of my figure gave me so great a superiority over other men, that I might have courted any woman without hesitation. Any woman would have considered herself honored by my love, and I had no refusal to fear." His account of the course of his intrigue with Heloise can be read in his autobiography, where he lays bare his contemptible conduct with the most brutal frankness. The only redeeming feature was the wonderful love of Heloise for him.
"Sic et Non". Abelard's self-reliance led him to be impatient of authority. The keynote to his method of teaching is found in the prologue to his Sic et Non: "The first key to wisdom is this constant and frequent interrogation.... For by doubting we are led to question, by questioning we arrive at the truth." The work consists of one hundred fifty-eight theses. Under each Abelard said: "We have collected diverse statements from the fathers to provoke young readers to seek out the truth with the greatest diligence, and to render them more acute by the search." Abelard made no comments. He merely collected the contradictory views and showed how greatly the authorities disagreed. His theses included important phases of theology and morals: for example, "That God is threefold, and the contrary "; "That sin is pleasing to God, and the contrary "; "That nothing happens by chance, and the contrary "; "That no one can be saved without the baptism of water and the contrary"; "That it is lawful to lie, and the contrary." Naturally, his students' reverence for the authority of the Church would be shaken when they studied such a work and attempted to form their own opinions. The prologue to the Sic et Non deprecates any such result. Abelard writes, "Even if the sayings of the fathers do not agree, it is not to be judged that they are untrue. The seeming disagreement may come from our lack of ability to understand them, not from their mistakes. "
Abelard's Method. This method that Abelard introduced became the usual one followed in theological works. His pupil, Peter Lombard, in his Book of Sentences, collects the different authorities, pro and con. Gratian did the same in his collection for the Canon Law, his Decretum. St. Thomas Aquinas lent the weight of his great prestige to the method. But all of these men did one thing more than Abelard did in his Sic et Non---after citing the quotations pro and con they gave a solution; Gratian's work was called Concordantia discordantium canonum. Thus a new authority was substituted, a result wholly different from Abelard's method in his Sic et Non of throwing the discussion open and not telling the students how to solve it. Such an appeal to human reason Bernard rightly judged to be dangerous and likely to provoke doubt.
Other Writings. Equally dangerous from the standpoint of medieval theology were Abelard's Ethica, or Scito Teipsum, and his dialogue between the philosopher, the Jew, and the Christian. In the first, for instance, he argues that no one sins except when acting against his own conscience; in the second the philosopher urges that it is not necessary to follow the Jewish or the Christian faith in order to be acceptable to God. We need not discuss his more technical writings, which exposed him to condemnation as a heretic. The general character of his teaching made his pupils potential sources of danger to the established authorities.
Arnold of Brescia. One of the most noted of Abelard's pupils was Arnold of Brescia, the radical reformer. He taught that the Church ought to live from its tithes and the free gifts of the faithful and ought to confine itself to spiritual functions. After an active career in northern Italy, Zurich, and Swabia, he went to Rome about 1145, and soon became the actual leader of the commune that the Romans had set up. Arnold preached against the greed of the pope and cardinals. Bernard who had written in a similar strain, but supported the Church, while Arnold was undermining its influence, described the latter as "the man whose speech is honey, whose doctrine is poison, whom Brescia has vomited forth, whom Rome abhors, whom France drives to exile, whom Germany curses, whom Italy refuses to receive." Eventually Arnold was seized and executed by Frederic Barbarossa, who wished to gain the pope's support. But his influence lived after him and secret associations were formed of Arnoldistas, or "Poor Men," who held as one of their tenets that the sacraments could be administered only by men of virtue. They were frequently condemned as heretics.
Anti-sacerdotalists. Similar ideas were widespread, especially in France. One of the two great classes of heretics, in which the Arnoldistas would be included, may be termed "anti-sacerdotalists." They thought themselves to be good Christians, and at first opposed only the evil lives of the priests and the worldliness of the Church. They came almost entirely from the lower classes of society. They gathered eagerly about any leader who denounced the abuses that were due mainly to an ignorant and degraded priesthood. Bernard of Clairvaux and many another orthodox churchman ascribe these heresies wholly to the lack of proper teaching and the greed, lust, and crimes of the wolves in sheep's clothing who acted as priests. Almost the only heretical belief that was common to all the anti-sacerdotalists was the Donatist heresy that the sacraments are polluted in unworthy hands.
Tanchelm. Early in the twelfth century, Tanchelm, who may have been a monk, preached reform in Flanders, and eventually made Antwerp his headquarters. In that wealthy city there was only one priest, and he was well known to be leading a vile life. Consequently Tanchelm soon had a large following. All our information about him comes from his enemies and may not be true. It is evident that he did not consider himself a heretic, and probably the pope did not, as Tanchelm went to Rome to ask that changes should be made in the boundaries of the episcopal dioceses in order that the Church might be administered better, and he was allowed to return without any hindrance. But the priests in Flanders and the neighboring lands considered him a heretic and told many tales of his alleged false teachings. After one narrow escape he was finally killed by a priest. A decade later his followers were won back to the Church when Norbert the founder of the Premonstratensian order, took charge in Antwerp and his virtuous canons practiced what they preached. Then heresy there quickly came to an end.
Eon. In Brittany a little later a heretic named Eon gained a great following, with whose aid he plundered the churches and gave the wealth to the poor. Many of his followers were captured and burned. He himself was clearly insane, and fortunately fell into the hands of Suger, who had him cared for. His insanity took the form of a belief that it was he who was to judge the quick and the dead at the day of judgment. He based this belief upon the Biblical passage: Per eum qui ventures est judicare vigos et Aortas et saeculm per igneous. He said that eum was merely the Latin form of his own name, Eon.
Peter and Henry. About the same time, in the south of France, Peter of Bruys was preaching with great success against infant baptism, transubstantiation, offerings for the dead, reverence for the priesthood, and other articles of the faith. After he had been burned alive many of his followers joined an apostate monk named Henry of Lausanne. The heretics became very bold. The nobles aided them, for they too disliked the priests. Bernard of Clairvaux was summoned to rescue the Church, and according to his biographers had a great success in bringing the heretics back into the church.
took its name from Peter Waldo, a rich merchant of Lyons. It is said that one day he stopped in the market-place to listen to a jongleur, who chanced to be telling the story of St. Alexis, and he was so moved by the tale that he determined to imitate Alexis as far as lay in his power. After providing for his wife and daughters he gave the remainder of his wealth to the poor. Then he gave himself up to preaching the gospel. He had the New Testament translated into the vernacular, and studied it eagerly. Soon other men and women joined in his work. They adopted a special costume and took as their name the "Poor Men of Lyons." In vain they sought permission to preach from two different popes and from the Third Lateran Council, in 1179, and finally they were forced into opposition to the Church. They, however, continued to insist that they were good Christians. As far as their conduct was concerned they certainly were; every one bore testimony to their character; they were generally known as the "good people "; but in doctrine they had separated themselves widely from the orthodox beliefs. They refused obedience to the authority of the pope and prelates. They held that laymen and even women might preach; that God was to be obeyed rather than man; that masses, prayers, and alms for the dead were of no avail; that prayer anywhere, in bed or in a stable, was as efficacious as in church. The Waldensians were active missionaries, and their faith spread to Aragon, Savoy, Pomerania, Bohemia, and elsewhere.
Manicheans. The second class of heretics were the Manicheans, who believed in the two principles of good and evil and their eternal warfare. St. Augustine had held and then combated this heresy; emperors had persecuted its adherents; but it had persisted in the Orient, and many of its sectaries had been colonized in the Balkans; thence, following the trade routes, it had introduced itself into many parts of Europe. At the close of the twelfth century it was especially strong in Languedoc, where its sectaries were known as Albigenses, or Albigensians, from the town of Albi, one of their strongholds. In other parts of Europe heretics who held similar beliefs were known by very many different names. But elsewhere it was not so dangerous to the Church as in southern France. There feudal anarchy prevented any strong government.
Popular favor. The mixed population was very tolerant. The Jews were numerous and held a high social position. Priests were looked down upon; as Innocent III wrote, "Prelates in this region are the laughing stock of the laity." A favorite exclamation to express strong distaste was, "I'd rather be a priest than do that. On the other hand, the leaders of the heretics were admired for their virtuous lives and asceticism. They preached in public. They had their own cemeteries, where even Catholics sought to be buried in order that they might be among the "good people. ' Men traveled, if possible, in company with the heresiarchs, so as to be protected by the reverence that these inspired. Noblemen frequented their society and desired their ministrations when at the point of death. Their success was enhanced by the doctrine they taught. While the leaders, "the perfect, "led a very ascetic life, they did not demand such a sacrifice from their followers. The latter, if they had faith, could attain salvation if they received the last rite, the consolamentum, from the hands of the perfect They taught that there was no purgatory and no hell. They inveighed against the wealth and iniquity of the clergy. They believed themselves to be Christians, asserting that the Catholics had gone astray. While their doctrine was very different from Christianity, they used the Bible to prove their statements. They insisted that the principle of evil had created the world and all material things, and quoted texts from the Bible in proof of this. The sacraments that they retained were not fundamentally unlike the Catholic.
The orthodox Church in Languedoc was too weak to crush them and too degenerate to keep its own adherents firm in the faith. Innocent III wrote of the clergy and of the archbishop of Narbonne: "Blind men, dumb dogs, who are no longer able to bark, and simoniacs who sell justice, who absolve the rich and condemn the poor. They do not even observe the laws of the Church; they accumulate benefices and intrust sacerdotal and ecclesiastical functions to unworthy priests and illiterate children. That is the cause of the insolence of the heretics and the contempt felt by lords and people for God and his Church."
Albigensian Crusade. The pope made every effort to stamp out the heresy. He sent legates armed with full power and commanded them to offer to the French king and to nobles who would aid in extirpating the heresy the same plenary indulgence as for a crusade to the Holy Land. The offer was in vain. In 1207 a crusade was preached against Count Raymond of Toulouse, and great privileges were offered to crusaders, but with no result. The murder of a papal legate the following year by one of Raymond's followers finally aroused such indignation that many nobles took the cross and recruits hastened to win the rewards, both spiritual and temporal, that were offered for only forty days' service. The crusade lasted with varying success for several years. The people in the threatened land fought bravely, both Catholics and heretics side by side, in what soon became a war between the North and the South. It was decided by the overwhelming power of the North, and all Toulouse eventually passed to the French crown. The war had been very bloody and in some captured places the whole population had been slain.
Inquisition. But the heresy had not been crushed. In order to accomplish this there gradually was formed a new tribunal, known as the "inquisition." Bishops had long been intrusted with inquisitions for heretics in their dioceses. Some had been zealous, but others had neither the inclination nor the knowledge for the task. The spread of heresy in the last quarter of the twelfth century had shown that some other action must be taken if its progress was to be checked. In the first half of the thirteenth century two factors made it possible for the pope to establish a papal inquisition that should work more uniformly and more certainly than the episcopal had done. One of these factors was the enactment of laws against heretics by lay rulers, especially by the free-thinking and frequently excommunicated Frederic II, which gave to the Church the support of royal officials in dealing with heretics. The Church had long striven to get this aid, and finally the kings had thought it wise to yield to the pressure. The other was the founding of the mendicant orders, which furnished agents of ability, impartiality, and zeal to carry out the papal decrees. The papal inquisition was gradually evolved, in part with the assistance of the bishops, from the procedure that the bishops had used to seek out heretics; in part by new enactments that eventually made the inquisitors the special papal legates in matters of heresy. But the inquisition did not attain its full development in the period to which this volume is limited.
Poor Catholics. Before the crusade zealous churchmen had attempted to win back the heretics by persuasion and by preaching the true faith. These efforts never ceased, although during the fighting they were usually of little effect. In 1207 one of the Waldensian leaders in Aragon, Duran de Huesca, had taken part in a disputation concerning the faith, and had been converted from heresy. He, in turn, was anxious to convert others, and founded an order devoted to poverty and good works. Innocent III approved of his plan, and he soon had many followers. They called themselves "Poor Catholics," and practised asceticism. They devoted themselves to preaching, caring for the poor, and helping the sick. The idea spread rapidly, and by 1209 six branches of the order had been established. But, in spite of the pope's support, their work was hindered by the opposition of the clergy and by the spread of intolerance among the crusaders, who preferred to exterminate the heretics rather than convert them. After a few years of work the "Poor Catholics" were no longer prominent. But the spirit that actuated them was destined to bear fruit in the great mendicant orders.
Dominic. Among the preachers who were active in Languedoc in the early years of the thirteenth century was Dominic. He was born in Spain in 1170, and had studied for ten years at Palencia before entering the monastic profession. He chanced to accompany his bishop to Languedoc, and soon began to preach in an attempt to convert the heretics. Of his labors we know comparatively little. It is significant that all the miracles related to have been wrought by him were beneficent ones. Dante's characterization of him summarizes the general opinion:
"Therein the zealous lover was revealed Of Christ's true faith, the athlete consecrate, Kind to her friends, to those who hate her steeled.
Activities. He established, with the aid of the bishop of Toulouse, a monastery for women at Prouille, where converted heretics might find shelter and "poor girls of gentle blood" might receive an education. This was soon richly endowed. At the Fourth Lateran Council, in 1215, Dominic sought and obtained from Innocent III recognition of the fraternity that he had established. At that time there were only sixteen members, but they were picked men from different countries. Six of them were Spaniards; with these were associated not only men from Toulouse, Provence, and Navarre, but also men from England, Normandy, Northern France, and Lorraine.
Dominicans. Dominic and his associates adopted the rule of the canons regular of St. Augustine. They took the name of "Preaching Friars," which Innocent had used in speaking of them. This name denotes their ideals. They were to preach, and, in order to be able to do this, to devote themselves to study, they were to be friars, not monks; to live, not secluded in a convent, but in the busy haunts of men; the world was to be their cloister. In 1217 Dominic sent them forth on their mission. He said: "You are still a little flock, but already I have formed in my heart the project of dispersing you abroad. You will no longer abide in the sanctuary of Prouille. The world henceforth is your home, and the work God has created for you is teaching and preaching. Go you, therefore, into the whole world, and teach all nations. Preach to them the glad tidings of their redemption. Have confidence in God, for the field of your labors will one day widen to the uttermost ends of the earth." Accordingly some went to Spain, some to Paris, and some to Bologna. Their success was very rapid. Four years later, when Dominic died, the order was organized into eight provinces-- Spain, Provence, France, England, Germany, Hungary, Lombardy, and Romagnuola, and had sixty convents. It had adopted the vow of poverty and had become a mendicant order.
The Dominicans' special sphere of activity was in the university towns. They were noted for their learning; and Dominican masters, or professors, in spite of opposition, were soon teaching at Paris, Oxford, Cologne, Montpellier, Bologna, and Toulouse. Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas were their most illustrious scholars; Vincent of Beauvais, another Dominican, wrote the thirteenth-century encyclopedia. It was chiefly because of their learning that the inquisition eventually came to be under their control.
Francis of Assisi. Francis of Assisi was younger than Dominic, since he was born in 1182. He was the son of a rich merchant, and as a youth led a joyous life. As a result of a dangerous illness he was converted when he was about twenty. Henceforth he devoted himself to poverty and charity. Other men of like mind gathered about him until there were twelve in all. Then they sought the pope at the Lateran Council, in 1215, to have their undertaking confirmed. They fared better than the Poor Men of Lyons had done, and the "Minorites," or "Friars Minor," as they called themselves in their humility, were allowed to begin their work. From the first, Francis insisted upon absolute poverty. The brethren were to labor with their hands, but were not to receive wages in money. They were to take no thought for the morrow, and to give to the poor all that was not absolutely necessary for the day. The rule orders: "The brethren shall appropriate to themselves nothing, neither house, nor place, nor other thing, but shall live in the world as strangers and pilgrims, and shall go confidently after alms. In this they shall feel no shame, since the Lord for our sake made himself poor in the world. It is this perfection of poverty which has made you, dearest brethren, heirs and kings of the kingdom of heaven. Having this, you should wish to have nought else under heaven. "
Success. The success of the order was due to the spirit of Francis, which many of his earliest followers imbibed. He tried to follow the precepts of Christ and to imitate His life; he delighted in sacrifice for the poor, and especially for the lepers, who were the outcasts of society. He loved all created things. He was always gay and at times even playful. Brother Juniper he named "the plaything of Jesus Christ "; the brethren, "the Lord's jugglers." "Is it not in fact true," he said, "that the servants of God are really like jugglers, intended to revive the hearts of men and to lead them to spiritual joy?" He was patient and humble, yet he "possessed an original and well-balanced mind, extraordinary common sense, an iron will, and indomitable courage." In his youth he had wished to be a knight or troubadour: after his conversion he adopted "My lady Poverty" as his mistress, and sang her praises. He was very eloquent and by his preaching swayed men to do his will. Of all the medieval saints he was probably the one who would seem least out of place in the twentieth century.
Growth of the Order. The growth of the order was astonishingly rapid. It soon spread throughout the civilized world and numbered its members by the thousands. Its spirit was different from that of the Dominicans, and the difference was emphasized by the lapse of years. Yet at first the two mendicant orders were very similar in many respects, and were equally popular. "Wandering onward over the face of Europe, under burning suns or chilling blasts, rejecting alms in money, but receiving thankfully whatever coarse food might be set before the wayfarer, or enduring hunger in silent resignation, taking no thought for the morrow, but busied eternally in the work of snatching souls from Satan and lifting men up from the sordid cares of daily life, of ministering to their infirmities and of showing to their darkened souls a glimpse of heavenly light--such was the aspect in which the earliest Dominicans and Franciscans presented themselves to the eyes of men." Naturally, the people held them in veneration and were anxious to give them great gifts. Many men and women wanted to join one or the other of the two orders.
The Friars Expand. Both the Franciscans and the Dominicans established monasteries for women, and in addition each had connected with it an organization of the laity by which men and women, while continuing their activities in the world, might be associated with the order and to some extent be under its discipline and protection. The Franciscan association was known as the "Brothers and Sisters of Penitence" or as the "Tertiary Order of Minorites"; the Dominicans as the "Militia of Jesus Christ." Many persons of all ranks and ages eagerly enrolled themselves as members. St. Louis of France was a tertiary of St. Francis.
Missionary Work.The mendicants also engaged in missionary work among the heathens and among the schismatic Christians in the East. Francis himself went to Syria to convert the sultan of Babylon, but without success. The Dominicans were successful in converting the Jacobites to the orthodox Catholic faith, and a Franciscan baptized the khan of Tartary. One of the kings of Armenia became "Friar John." Ninety Dominicans suffered martyrdom at the hands of followers of Genghis Khan. In 1258 the pope addressed a bull to the Franciscans "in the lands of the Saracens, Pagans, Greeks, Bulgarians, Cumans, Ethiopians, Syrians, Iberians, Alans, Cathari, Goths, Zichori, Russians, Jacobites, Nubians, Nestorians, Georgians, Armenians, Indians, Muscovites, Tartars, Hungarians, and the missionaries to the Christian captives among the Turks." The wonderful missionary work of the Dominicans in America, in Japan and in China, and in many other parts of the world, was a continuation of the activity of their early years. The members of the two orders were highly privileged. In 1227 the pope had given them the right to preach, hear confessions, and grant absolution in any parish. A few years later they were made entirely independent of the regular hierarchy.
Privileges and opposition. These privileges provoked much opposition from the bishops and priests, who found in the mendicants dangerous rivals. Their parishioners often preferred mendicants as confessors, and the priests found both their prestige and their revenue diminished; for the early friars won the hearts of all but the priests by their eloquence, by their care for the wretched, and by their exemplary lives. Consequently the opposition of the bishops and priests, and even of the older monastic orders, sometimes became very bitter. But the opposition was in vain as long as the mendicants retained their primitive purity.
Decline of the orders. Even before Francis died he is said to have predicted divisions within his order because some would not follow the rule of poverty. Soon a distinction was made between the poverty of the individual members and the wealth that was permissible for the communities as a whole. Those who clung to the ideas of Francis were in the minority, and in 1257 Bonaventura, the general of the order, felt it necessary to utter a warning against the greed, idleness, and other vices that had become so prevalent. But some kept to the path shown by Francis, and the founding of the order had led to a real awakening. Francis and his followers had emphasized the dignity of manual labor; the duty of Christians to care for those in want, and the need for reform in the lives of the clergy.