ANTI-SACERDOTAL SECTS. 55 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, I. 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. 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 ANTI-SACERDOTAL SECTS. 57 Wherever they went, they kindled among the people the desire to read the Bible. The principal theatre of their labors was Milan, and other places in the north of Italy and the south of France, where the hierarchy had a weaker hold on the people, and where many who were disgusted with the priesthood were likewise repelled by the obnoxious theology of the Catharists. The departure of the Franciscans from the rule of poverty led the stricter party in that order to break off; and all efforts to heal the schism proved ineffectual. The Spirituals, as the stricter sect were called, in their zeal against ecclesiastical corruption did not spare the Roman Church; and they, especially the lay brethren among them, the Fratricelli, were delivered over to the Inquisition. At the end of the twelfth century there were formed in the Netherlands societies of praying women, calling themselves Beguines, who led a life of devotion without monastic vows. Similar societies of men, who were called Beghards, were afterwards formed. Many of both classes, for the sake of protection, connected themselves with the Tertiaries of the monastic orders. Many, following the rule of poverty, became mendicants along the Rhine and, perhaps, through the influence of the sect of the Free Spirit a Pantheistic sect-adopted heretical opinions; so that the names Beguine and Beghard, outside of the Netherlands, became synonymous with heretic. A swarm of enthusiasts and fanatics, known by these appellations, cherished a sincere hostility to the corrupt administration of the Church. the Waldenses are Dieckhoff, Die Waldenser im Mittelalter (1851); Herzog Die romanischen Waldenser (1853). Herzog has brought forward new infor mation in his article on the Waldenses in his Real-Encyclopädie. The lately discovered manuscript of the Nobla Leyczon renders it highly probable that this poem was composed in the fifteenth century. On the date of the other Waldensian writings, and the interpolations which they have suffered, see Herzog's article. That the Waldenses have no existence prior to Waldo is conceded at present by competent scholars. The existence and the number of this species of sectaries, whom the Inquisition could not extirpate, and who, it should be observed, were mostly plain and unlearned people, prove that a profound dissatisfaction with the existing order of things, and a deep craving, mingled though it was with ignorance and superstition, for the restoration of a more simple and apostolic type of Christianity, had penetrated the lower orders of society. Formerly they who were offended by the wealth and worldly temper of the clergy, had found relief by retreating to the austerities of monastic life within the Church. But the monastic societies, each in its turn, as they grew older, fell into the luxurious ways from which their founders had been anxious to escape. Now, as we approach the epoch of the Reformation, we observe the tendency of this sort of disaffection to embody itself in sects which assume a questionable or openly inimical attitude towards the Church. Yet it is well that the ecclesiastical revolution was not left for them to accomplish, but was reserved for enlightened and sober-minded men, who would know how to build up as well as to destroy. II. The Conservative Reformers, the champions of the liberal, episcopal, or Gallican, as contrasted with the papal conception of the hierarchy; the leaders in the reforming councils, both by what these eminent men achieved and by what they failed to achieve, prepared the way for the great change from which they themselves would have recoiled in dismay. In carrying forward their battle they were led to expose with unsparing severity the errors and crimes, as well as the enormous usurpations of authority, with which the popes were chargeable. This could not but essentially lower the respect of men for the papal office itself. At the same time the discomfiture of these reformers, as far as their principal attempt is concerned, to reform the Church "in head and members," a discomfiture effected by the persistency and dexterity of RADICAL REFORMERS. 59 the popes and their adherents, could not fail to leave the impression on many minds that a more stringent remedy would have to be sought for the unbearable grievances under which the Church labored. It must not be forgotten, however, that Gerson, D'Ailly, and their compeers, were as firmly wedded to the doctrine of a priesthood in the Church, and to the traditional dogmatic system, as were their opponents. At Constance, the Paris theologians almost outstripped their papal antagonists in the violent treatment of Huss during the sessions of the Council, and in the alacrity with which they condemned him and Jerome of Prague to the stake. It was a reformation of morals, not of doctrine, at which they aimed; the distribution, but not the destruction of priestly authority. III. But there were individuals before, and long before the time of Luther, who are appropriately called radical reformers; men who, in essential points, anticipated the. Protestant movement. There were conspicuous efforts which, if they proved to a considerable extent abortive at the moment, left seed to ripen afterwards, and were the harbinger of more effectual measures. Of all this class of reformers before the Reformation, John Wickliffe is the most remarkable.1 Living in the midst of the fourteenth century, nearly a hundred and fifty years before Luther; not an obscure or illiterate man, but a trained theologian, a Professor at Oxford; not hiding his opinions, but proclaiming them with boldness; he, nevertheless, took the position not only of a Protestant, but, in many important particulars, of a Puritan. In his principal work he affirms that no writing, not even a papal decree, has any validity further than it is founded on the Holy Scriptures; he denies transubstantiation, and 1 Life and Sufferings of John Wicklif, by J. Lewis (Oxford, 1820); Life of Wicklif, by Charles Webb Le Bas (1846); John de Wycliffe, a Monograph, by Robert Vaughan, D. D. (London, 1853); Weber, Geschichte der akatholischen Kirchen u. Secten von Gross-Brittanien, i. 62 seq.; Hardwick, History of the Christian Church: Middle Age, p. 402 seq. |