Ben D.
I. Summary and Themes
The section of reading was an excerpt of a guide for interrogation for inquisitors attempting to find heresy within the members of Cathar Christianity with views contrary to that of the Roman Catholic Church. Bernard of Gui begins by describing the ways in which Cathar christianity diverges from the views of the Church. With scorn, Bernard notes that Cathar Christians despise the “laity of the evil lives of the Roman church” (24) and denounce the representatives of the church as false prophets. Cathar Christians are also assumed to “attack and vituperate, in turn, all the sacrament of the church, especially the Eucharist” (25). Bernard indicates that the Cathars also do not believe that water which is “material and corruptible” (25) has the divine power to sanctify the soul, essentially denouncing the ritual of baptism. He continues by accusing the Cathars of claiming that “confessions to a priest of the Roman church is useless” (25).
Bernard then has a sample conversation with a “suspected” heretic to discuss the difficulties in getting a person who believes they are a perfect Christian to admit to subverting the true teachings of Christ. His strategy for accomplishing this is going through each teaching specific to the Roman Church and asking the heretic to confirm that he believes in these teachings. The inquisitor then asks the heretic to swear before god that he believes in the teachings of the Roman Church, if he dodges the question, he is a heretic, and if he swears falsely then it is a legal matter, punishable by the secular institution.
II. Critical Analysis
Bernard of Gui represents the Cathar form of living as denying the basic tenets of the Roman Church and therefore heretical. Unsurprisingly, Bernard does not take a particularly nuanced view of the Cathars and tends to list all their failings according to the Catholic church. He indicates that an important heresy is denying the power of confession of Roman priests and this contributes to his refutation of Cathars as pure christians. Since they cannot confess their sins in a Roman way, they cannot be pure. This denial of confessional power is a particularly powerful challenge to the church’s doctrine which may be why they took such an aggressive, inquisitorial strategy for defeating this heresy.
The difficulty that Bernard of Gui tries to circumvent with his interrogation guide is that the accused will say “I believe in all things Christians believe” (25) because they actually believe this is true. He attempts to get around this by approaching specific doctrines of the Catholic Church in turn and then making the person swear before god that they believe in this. Since he already knows them to be a heretic, eitter answer they give can be punished, in the secular institution or the spiritual one. This gets the result that the inquisitor wants, punishment for someone who disagrees with the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church.
I. Summary and Themes
The section of reading was an excerpt of a guide for interrogation for inquisitors attempting to find heresy within the members of Cathar Christianity with views contrary to that of the Roman Catholic Church. Bernard of Gui begins by describing the ways in which Cathar christianity diverges from the views of the Church. With scorn, Bernard notes that Cathar Christians despise the “laity of the evil lives of the Roman church” (24) and denounce the representatives of the church as false prophets. Cathar Christians are also assumed to “attack and vituperate, in turn, all the sacrament of the church, especially the Eucharist” (25). Bernard indicates that the Cathars also do not believe that water which is “material and corruptible” (25) has the divine power to sanctify the soul, essentially denouncing the ritual of baptism. He continues by accusing the Cathars of claiming that “confessions to a priest of the Roman church is useless” (25).
Bernard then has a sample conversation with a “suspected” heretic to discuss the difficulties in getting a person who believes they are a perfect Christian to admit to subverting the true teachings of Christ. His strategy for accomplishing this is going through each teaching specific to the Roman Church and asking the heretic to confirm that he believes in these teachings. The inquisitor then asks the heretic to swear before god that he believes in the teachings of the Roman Church, if he dodges the question, he is a heretic, and if he swears falsely then it is a legal matter, punishable by the secular institution.
II. Critical Analysis
Bernard of Gui represents the Cathar form of living as denying the basic tenets of the Roman Church and therefore heretical. Unsurprisingly, Bernard does not take a particularly nuanced view of the Cathars and tends to list all their failings according to the Catholic church. He indicates that an important heresy is denying the power of confession of Roman priests and this contributes to his refutation of Cathars as pure christians. Since they cannot confess their sins in a Roman way, they cannot be pure. This denial of confessional power is a particularly powerful challenge to the church’s doctrine which may be why they took such an aggressive, inquisitorial strategy for defeating this heresy.
The difficulty that Bernard of Gui tries to circumvent with his interrogation guide is that the accused will say “I believe in all things Christians believe” (25) because they actually believe this is true. He attempts to get around this by approaching specific doctrines of the Catholic Church in turn and then making the person swear before god that they believe in this. Since he already knows them to be a heretic, eitter answer they give can be punished, in the secular institution or the spiritual one. This gets the result that the inquisitor wants, punishment for someone who disagrees with the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church.