CHAPTER III.

SPECIAL CAUSES AND OMENS OF AN ECCLESIASTICAL REVOLUTION PRIOR TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

THE medieval type of religion, in contrast with primitive Christianity, is pervaded by a certain legalism. Everything is prescribed, reduced to. rule, subjected to authority. Medieval Catholicism may be contemplated under the three departments of dogma, of polity, and of Christian life, under which modes of worship are included.1 Under this last comprehensive rubric, monasticism, for example, which springs out of a certain conception of the Christian life, belongs. The dogmatic system, as elaborated by the schoolmen from the materials furnished by tradition and sanctioned by the Church, constituted a vast body of doctrine, which every Christian was bound to accept in all its particulars. The polity of the Church lodged all government in the hands of a superior class, the priesthood, who were the commissioned, indispensable almoners of divine grace. The worship centered in the sacrifice of the mass, a constantly repeated miracle wrought by the hands of the priest. In the idea of the Christian life, the visible act was made to count for so much, ceremonies were so multiplied and so highly valued, that a character of externality was stamped upon the method of salvation. Salvation, instead of being a purely gratuitous act, flowing from the mercy of God, was connected with human merit. The quantitative, as opposed to the qualitative standard of

1 Ullmann, Reformatoren vor der Reformation, i. p. 13 seq.

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excellence, the disposition to lay stress on performances and abstinences, instead of the spirit or principle at the foundation of the whole life, lay at the root of celibacy and the monastic institution. The masses, pilgrimages, fastings, flagellations, prayers to saints, homage to their relics and images, and similar features so prominent in mediæval piety, illustrate its essential character. Christianity was converted into an external ordinance, into a round of observances.1

The reaction which manifested itself from time to time within the Church, anterior to the Reformation, might have a special relation to either of the constituent elements of the medieval system, or it might be directed against them all together. It might appear in the form of dissent from the prevailing dogmas, especially from the doctrine of human merit in salvation; it might be leveled against the priesthood as usurping a function not given them in the Gospel, and as departing in various ways from the primitive idea of the Christian ministry; it might take the form of an explicit or indirect resistance to the exaggerated esteem of rites and ceremonies and austerities. In either of these directions the spiritual element of Christianity, which had become overlaid and cramped by traditions, might appear as an antagonistic or silently renovating force. A general progress of intelligence, especially if it should lead to the study of early Christianity, would tend to the same result.

The forerunners of the Reformation have been properly divided into two classes.2 The first of them consists of the men who, in the quiet path of theological research and teaching, or by practical exertions in behalf of a contemplative, spiritual tone of piety, were undermining the traditional system. The second embraces the

1 This fact is well presented by Ullman, Reformatoren vor der Reformation, i. p. xiii. seq., p. 8 seq.

2 Ullmann, i. p. 15 seq.

names of men who are better known, for the reason that they attempted to carry out their ideas practically in the way of effecting ecclesiastical changes. The first class are more obscure, but were not less influential in preparing the ground for the Reformation. Protestantism was a return to the Scriptures as the authentic source of Christian knowledge and to the principle that salvation, that inward peace, is not from the Church or from human works ethical or ceremonial, but through Christ alone, received by the soul in an act of trust. Whoever, whether in the chair of theology, in the pulpit, through the devotional treatise, or by fostering the study of languages and of history, or in perilous combat with ecclesiastical abuses, drew the minds of men to the Scriptures and to a more spiritual conception of religion, was, in a greater or less measure, a reformer before the Reformation.

In the preceding chapter we have reviewed the rise of the hierarchical order, and have noticed one of the main causes, the tendency to centralization, the spirit of nationalism, which had weakened the authority of the clergy, and especially, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, had materially reduced the power of the Papacy.

We have now to direct attention to various special causes and omens of an approaching revolution, which would affect not only the polity but the entire religious system of the medieval Church.

I. Among these phenomena is to be mentioned the rise of anti-sacerdotal sects which sprang up as early as the eleventh century, but flourished chiefly in the twelfth and thirteenth. These indicated a wide-spread dissatisfaction with the worldliness of the clergy, and with prelatical government in the Church. There were individuals, like Peter of Bruys, himself a priest, and Henry the Deacon, a monk of Clugny, who, in the earlier part of the twelfth

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century, made a great disturbance in Southern France by vehement invectives against the immoralities of the priesthood and their usurped dominion. The simultaneous appearance of persons of this character, whose impassioned harangues won for them numerous adherents, shows that the popular reverence for the clergy was shaken. Conspicuous among the sectaries of this period are the Catharists, who were found in several countries, but were most numerous in the cities of North Italy and of the south of France. The dualism of the ancient Manicheans and of the later Paulicians- the theory that the empire of the world is divided between two antagonistic principles-together with the asceticism that grows out of it, reappears in a group of sects, which wear different names in the various regions where they are found.1 They are characterized in common by a renunciation of the authority of the priesthood. In Southern France, where they acquired the name of Albigenses, they were well organized, and were protected by powerful laymen. The poems of the troubadours show to what extent the clergy had fallen into disrepute in this wealthy and flourishing district. In the extensive, opulent, and most civilized portion of France, which formed the dominion of the Count of Toulouse, the old religion was virtually supplanted by the new sect. The Albigensian preachers, who mingled with their heterodox tenets a sincere zeal for purity of life, were heard with favor by all classes. The extirpation of this numerous and formidable sect was ac

1 Upon the origin and mutual relation of these sects, their tenets, and their relation to the earlier dualistic heresies, see Neander, Church History, iv. 552, seq.; Gieseler, Kirchengeschichte, III. iii. 7, § 87; Milman, History of Latin Christianity, v. 156 seq.; Baur, Kirchengeschichte, iii. 489 seq.; Schmidt, Hist. et Doctrine de la Secte des Cathares (Paris, 1849), and article "Katharer" in Herzog's Real-Encyclopädie; Hahn, Geschichte d. Ketzer im Mittelalter, i. ; Maitland, Facts and Documents illustrative of the History, etc., of the Albigenses and the Waldenses (1832); also, Eight Essays (Lond. 1852). Schmidt attempts to disprove the historic connection of the Catharists with the Paulicians as well as with the Manicheans.

2. Milman, Latin Christianity, v. 164. See also p. 137.

complished only through a bloody crusade, that was set on foot under the auspices of Innocent III., and was followed by the efforts of the Inquisition, which here had its beginning.1 The Albigenses, in their opposition to the authority of ecclesiastical tradition and of the hierarchy, and in their rejection of pilgrimages and of certain practices, like the worship of saints and images, anticipated the Protestant doctrine; although in other respects their creed is even more at variance with the spirit of Protestantism than is that of their opponents. It is interesting to observe that at the moment when the Papacy appeared to be at the zenith of its power, a rebellion broke out, which could only be put down by a great exertion of military force, and by brutalities which have left an indelible stain upon those who instigated them.2

The Waldenses, a party not tainted with Manichean doctrine, and distinct from the Catharists, arose in 1170, under the lead of Peter Waldo, of Lyons. Finding themselves forbidden to preach in a simple manner, after the example of the Apostles, the " Poor Men of Lyons," as they were styled, made a stand against the exclusive right of the clergy to teach the Gospel. Although the Waldenses are not of so high antiquity as was often supposed, since they do not reach further back than Waldo, and although they were far less enlightened as to doctrine than they became after they had been brought in contact with Protestantism, yet their attachment to the Scriptures, and their opposition to clerical usurpation and profligacy, entitle them to a place among the precursors of the Reformation.3

1 "It was a war," says Guizot, "between feudal France and municipal France." History of Civilization, lect. x.

2 The distinguished Catholic theologian, Hefele, in the Kirchen-Lexikon, art. "Albigenses," endeavors to lessen the responsibility of the Pope and the ecclesiastical authorities for the Albigensian massacres. But this is possible only to a very limited extent. It was not until frightful atrocities had been committed, that an attempt was made to curb the ferocity which had been excited by the most urgent appeals.

8 The principal works which have served to settle disputed points respecting