Medieval Heresy
Ronaldo W.
Religious Dissent in The Middle Ages edited by Jeffrey B. Russell of University of California Riverside gives a general account of the Valdesians (Waldensians) taken from Raymonde Foreville and Jean Rousset de Pina, Du premier concile du Latran a l’avenement d’ Innocent III. Which translates from French: Raymonde Foreville and Jean Rousset of Pina, of the first Council of the Lateran was the advent of Innocent III. The beginning of Foreville and Rousset’s account introduces us to between 1170 and 1180, a wealthy merchant of Lyon, whose name was Peter with the surname of Valdo or Valdes. Valdes had given away his riches to the poor in order to live like the gospels. He encouraged not only men, but women as well to follow his example by devoting themselves to a vow of poverty and to preach despite the fact that the papacy had categorically forbidden laymen to do so.
They go onto explain that at the time the Valdesians had already spread into the towns of Dauphine, Provence, Piedmont, and Lombardy where they supported the Humilati and the Arnoldidts, two other heretical groups. Despite their penetration into Languedoc, and even into Germany, the valleys of the Dauphine and of Piedmont endured as their stronghold. The Valdesians were Reformist heretics looking to reform the church as opposed to challenging it. Foreville and Rousset then move to describe the sect of heresy of the Waldensians which began about the year 1170. The founder of this sect was a citizen of Lyons named Waldes or Waldo from whom his followers take their name from. Like Valdes, Waldo was a wealthy man who after giving up all his riches to the poor took a vow of poverty in an imitation of the apostles. Waldo and his followers preached the gospel in the streets and public places converting many men and women. “They were summoned however, by the archbishop of Lyons, the Lord Jean aux Belles-Mains, and were forbidden such great presumption, but they wished to by no means to obey him, and cloaked in their madness by saying that it was necessary to obey God rather than man,” (Russell 43). The Waldosians considered themselves to be imitators of the apostles as opposed to the prelates and the clergy who flourished in riches and lived with great amenities. The Waldosians were described as “arrogant” and since they didn’t obey the church they were declared contumacious and were excommunicated from the city and their country. Apparently they dispersed themselves into the province, through neighboring regions, and into Lombardy. Disconnected from the church they intermingled with other heretics and they “mixed errors and heresies.”
The account now moves to the concerns of the errors of the Waldensians. The principal heresy they maintain was their contempt for the ecclesiastical power. The errors they assert are too vast to mention in full, which is why I will list off a few of them: they teach that they are not subject to the lord pope or Roman pontiff, along with any prelates of the Roman church; they teach that oaths, be they in justice or otherwise are forbidden by God except for if it is in a matter of life or death for themselves or another; they claim to have the power from God alone, just as the apostles had from Christ; they deem indulgences worthless; and they do not believe in transubstantiation.
Next, Foreville and Rousset give us an account of the manner of life of the Waldensians for which there are too vast to list in full so I will mention a few: They establish one superior whom they call their “majoral” who is the equivalent of the lord pope; they call their society a “fraternity”; they commonly call themselves the poor of Christ or the poor of Lyons; and they do not believe in the salutation of the Virgin Mary, “Hail Mary,” or for the Apostles’ Creed “I believe in God,” for they contend that they were composed by the Roman Church and not by Christ.
We now are indoctrinated in the teachings of the Waldensians which once again are too vast to mention, so I will list a few: they belong to two sects, the “perfect,” who teach to others and live lives of chastity and poverty, and the second are the “believers,” who are there disciples and provide assistance to the “perfect,” and who spread the news of the “perfect’s” arrival when they enter a new town; they teach that one should not lie; and according to the them when one’s soul leaves one’s body it either goes to heaven or hell, therefore prayers for the dead are to no avail, for those who are already in heaven don’t need them, and those who are in hell cannot be redeemed.
The general account ends with my favorite part, when they describe the subtleties and deceits with which they conceal themselves in answering interrogations. “When he is asked if he knows why he as been arrested, he answers very sweetly and with a smile, ‘My Lord, I should be glad to learn the reason from you.’ Asked about the faith which he holds and believes he answers, ‘I believe everything that a good Christian ought to believe,’” (Russell 51). When asked if he believes in transubstantiation he says, “Should I not, indeed believe this?” The Waldensians were not opposed to being smart-asses.
The next primary reading is about the heretical group known as the Catharists. The text starts out with a summary of Catharists beliefs taken from Jeffrey B. Russell’s Dissent and Reform in the Early Middle Ages. The Catharists were true dualists who believed that there were two opposing forces in the world, one that was good and one that was evil. The temporal world entangled spirit in manner and was therefore evil. “God of the Old Testament created the word and was was the evil god. The Old Testament was therefore to be rejected, exception being sometimes made for books of the prophets, who were believed to have predicted the coming of Christ,” (Russell 57). By becoming a Catharist one could escape the flesh so they would not be condemned to reincarnation. They rejected purgatory; baptism in the ordinary sense and for infants; Christ’s humanity; his suffering on the cross, which was an illusion; the rejection of the virgin birth; and the rejection of the Trinity.
Russell goes on to describe the hierarchy of the Catharists who had Bishops of their own but no pope. Divisions between the perfecti and the credentes. Admission was attained through a rite known as convenientia. “This made one a credens and to put one under the authority of the perfecti. In certain instances, particularly when they were suspected of having doubts as to their belief, the credentes were obliged to adore the perfecti,” (Russell 58). After a matter of time with instruction and practice which included a year of abstinence, the consolamentum was administered and the credens graduated to a perfectus. Sometimes the austerity was so difficult it ended in death. Russell goes on to tell of other Catharists beliefs such as there three long annual fasts, sin after baptism was often considered unforgivable, they forbade oaths, abstained from meat, marriage was avoided, and sex outside of marriage was almost worst then marriage itself.
The primary text moves to the Catharist heretics of Cologne in the twelfth century as portrayed by a number of documents written between 1143 and 1145. The first document details the claims of the heresy maintaing that they alone follow the doctrine of Christ and not the Church. For they continue in the imitation of the true apostolic life. Then it goes into a description of the austerities the sect endured in the name of God and all of the sacraments they condemned of the Church among other things they reject of the orthodoxy.
The final part of the primary text ends with the conclusion of Christine Thouzellier about how Catharism spread even more rapidly in southern Europe than in the north. As she puts it “The deterioration of Christian morality and the indifference of a clergy often more eager to pursue luxury than humility facilitated the expansion of the Reformist movements,” (Russell 69). The author then begins to juxtapose the heretical movements of the Catharists and the Valdesians in Languedoc explaining that the Catharists were less organized and true dualists, while the Valdesians were defenders of the gospel. Eventually Pope Innocent III unleashed a crusade against the heretics which by physical force vanquished these movements.
Critical Analysis
In A People’s History of Christianity Volume 4 in chapter 8 entitled Heresy and Dissent by Grado G. Merlo the heresies of the Middle Ages are discussed. In the early Middle Ages heresy was a concern for the elites with education. The majority of Europe’s population couldn’t explain the Trinity or the different natures of Jesus; nor did anyone expect them to do so. “Expositions of Christian doctrine intended for a broad public were appropriately elementary and concentrated at least as much on controlling behavior as on shaping belief,” (Merlo 222). At the beginning of the fifth century Bishop Maximus of Turin required the lords of large estates to ban ritual activities that were considered paganistic in hopes of regulating Christian conduct. The church assumed that the laity implicitly accepted the orthodoxy. This would not be the case in the eleventh century.
The Gregorian reform movement modified the Catholic Church into a consolidated hierarchical institution whose leader was the pope who claimed spiritual jurisdiction over all of the Western Christendom. During this same time however, the flourishing economy, growth of trade and commerce, and the rejuvenation of urban life which produced a laity that was richer, more literate, and more aware of their own social and cultural identity caused an interest in trying new forms of religiosity. This caused tension between these new religious experiences and the escalating intolerance for any form of autonomy whatsoever. “A resolution was not always possible, nor was it achieved. Some groups were reincorporated, while others were excluded, often violently; both inclusion and exclusion were pregnant with consequences,” (Merlo 230). With the dualist Cathars being an exception, both oppression and inclusion were achieved within a theoretical lens that perceived heresy mainly in juridical and disciplinary terms rather than theological ones. Beliefs that were deemed heretical due to being contrary to orthodox beliefs stopped being merely an intellectual concern, the debate over what it meant to be a true Christian now involved vast numbers of people and broad segments of society. For the first time in nearly half a millennium heresy was “popular.”
The dualist heretics known in orthodox circles as “Cathars” did not apply that term to themselves, they simply considered themselves to be “good Christians.” The dualism imported into Western Europe fall into two categories, moderate and radical stances. The moderate version are associated with the religious ideas of the Bulgarian priest Bogomil. They believed that God had cast the devil out of Heaven along with his rebel angels and into the material world. The devil in turn gave shape to lifeless human creatures. Through God’s infinite charity these dormant forms were given life by means of the rebel angels who by this were imprisoned in matter. The prospect for liberation was shown by one of his angels, Christ, who taught by living a life of severe penance and detachment from the temporal world could escape the chains of matter.
This moderate dualist myth of creation over time became radicalized. It is unknown when this occurred though it may have happened in the eleventh century by way of influence of ancient Manichaean ideas. The devil now became the malevolent creator of the material world. This new radical form taught that the spirit of darkness had deceived the eternal God of light by taking on the appearance of one of the most illustrious angels, using this opportunity to seduce the angels of the pleasures of the earth realm. Led adrift by the devil angles were imprisoned in matter. This would have been their eternal life in hell had an angel, Christ, not agreed to share in the human condition, all the way to his sacrifice on the cross, this to show the way of salvation to humankind, and to the angels entrapped in this material hell.
These two myths were fluid, responding to the changing needs of the Cathar churches which never fully developed a dogmatic system due to almost immediately being persecuted and forced underground. “the ‘good christians’ as they called themselves, had to grapple with issues of survival and martyrdom rather than theological and philosophical speculation. Still, there is no denying that the variegated Cathar beliefs all shared a dualistic orientation, whether that dualism was moderate (with a single creator) or radical (with two creators),” (Merlo 232). The spread of dualists heresies and the number of dualist heretics were driven by particular local concerns. In Languedoc the good Christians were also known as the Albigensians, from the city of Albi. They appealed to such a large number of people that Cathar churches threatened to become the preeminent presence on the religious scene. This caused Innocent III to declare a crusade against the Cathars of southern France in 1208. The effects of the crusade waged against Catharism rendered it never to flourish as it did in Languedoc in the last quarter of the twelfth century.
In the mid-1170’s Valdes of Lyons who Merlo states is erroneously referred to as Peter Waldo, started renewal of the apostolic mission. Valdes was a wealthy merchant who rid himself of all material possessions and set out to proclaim God’s word, since he held the view that those tasked with that responsibility were evangelically ineffective due to their corrupt behavior. At this same time the Cathar dualists were expanding their heterodox teachings. Valdes claimed to be an instrument of orthodoxy but the priests declared him and his companions to be heretics. This forced them to fight a war on two fronts, against the dualist “good Christians” and against the Roman Catholic clergy. “His concern for orthodoxy led Valdes and his companions to seek the approval of the ecclesiastical leadership, going to Rome at the time of the Third Lateran Council in 1179 and, perhaps meeting with Pope Alexander III himself,” (Merlo 24). It is said that the pope seemed to have had sympathy and admiration for their life of evangelical poverty, though he disagreed with their requests to preach the Word. The church hierarchy could not come up with a working model that would allow those to become preachers who did not belong to the priesthood. It didn’t help that women participated in this mission as well.
In 1184 Pope Lucius III authorized an institutional hardening with Ad abolendam, which lumped together many heretics of a wide range of religious groups. In spite of the papal condemnation the Waldensian movement continued to flourish and expand into southern France, northern Italy, and parts of Germany. Much to Valdes’ dismay around 1205 a large portion of the Waldensians in Lombardy broke off from the rest, becoming autonomous group known as the Poor Men of Lombardy. Valdes died between 1205 and 207 having failed to resolve the issues with the Roman Catholic Church and could not put an end to the schism that developed in the sect of Christianity he had founded.
In 1208 Pope Innocent III confirmed Durand of Huesca, an original Waldensian, and his companions in their apostolic mission, this created a new religious order known as the Poor Catholics. In a lateral fashion in 1210 a group led by Bernard Prim also secured papal authorization calling themselves the Reconciled Poor. However the original belief of Valdes and his companions was decidedly reconstructed and in some cases totally obliterated. The right and duty of laity to preach the Word was replaced by a reaffirmation of only those with papal authorization and permission from the local bishop had the right to espouse the gospel. “Despite their papal approval, however, the Poor Catholics and the Reconciled Poor confronted problems and faced opposition at a local level, as well as competition from the new (and rapidly growing) mendicant orders, the Franciscans and Dominicans,” (Merlo 243). The Reconciled Poor weren’t around long. Due to not being able to attract new members they over time began to join other religious orders before the middle of the thirteenth century. The Poor Catholics lasted until 1256, when they were consumed by the mendicant family of the Augustinian.
The medieval story of heretics and heresy is a story of a people afflicted by brutality and hope. Heretics and heresy forced the Roman Catholic Church to change, once it did change, it was victorious in the elimination of both heretics and heresy. “With the church and society tightly sealed, the only spaces open to heresy were the inner world of conscience and the social fringes of marginalization,” (Merlo 263). Orthodoxy may have prevailed victorious but it was not without consequence, for in the process a very important religious part was lost.
Religious Dissent in The Middle Ages edited by Jeffrey B. Russell of University of California Riverside gives a general account of the Valdesians (Waldensians) taken from Raymonde Foreville and Jean Rousset de Pina, Du premier concile du Latran a l’avenement d’ Innocent III. Which translates from French: Raymonde Foreville and Jean Rousset of Pina, of the first Council of the Lateran was the advent of Innocent III. The beginning of Foreville and Rousset’s account introduces us to between 1170 and 1180, a wealthy merchant of Lyon, whose name was Peter with the surname of Valdo or Valdes. Valdes had given away his riches to the poor in order to live like the gospels. He encouraged not only men, but women as well to follow his example by devoting themselves to a vow of poverty and to preach despite the fact that the papacy had categorically forbidden laymen to do so.
They go onto explain that at the time the Valdesians had already spread into the towns of Dauphine, Provence, Piedmont, and Lombardy where they supported the Humilati and the Arnoldidts, two other heretical groups. Despite their penetration into Languedoc, and even into Germany, the valleys of the Dauphine and of Piedmont endured as their stronghold. The Valdesians were Reformist heretics looking to reform the church as opposed to challenging it. Foreville and Rousset then move to describe the sect of heresy of the Waldensians which began about the year 1170. The founder of this sect was a citizen of Lyons named Waldes or Waldo from whom his followers take their name from. Like Valdes, Waldo was a wealthy man who after giving up all his riches to the poor took a vow of poverty in an imitation of the apostles. Waldo and his followers preached the gospel in the streets and public places converting many men and women. “They were summoned however, by the archbishop of Lyons, the Lord Jean aux Belles-Mains, and were forbidden such great presumption, but they wished to by no means to obey him, and cloaked in their madness by saying that it was necessary to obey God rather than man,” (Russell 43). The Waldosians considered themselves to be imitators of the apostles as opposed to the prelates and the clergy who flourished in riches and lived with great amenities. The Waldosians were described as “arrogant” and since they didn’t obey the church they were declared contumacious and were excommunicated from the city and their country. Apparently they dispersed themselves into the province, through neighboring regions, and into Lombardy. Disconnected from the church they intermingled with other heretics and they “mixed errors and heresies.”
The account now moves to the concerns of the errors of the Waldensians. The principal heresy they maintain was their contempt for the ecclesiastical power. The errors they assert are too vast to mention in full, which is why I will list off a few of them: they teach that they are not subject to the lord pope or Roman pontiff, along with any prelates of the Roman church; they teach that oaths, be they in justice or otherwise are forbidden by God except for if it is in a matter of life or death for themselves or another; they claim to have the power from God alone, just as the apostles had from Christ; they deem indulgences worthless; and they do not believe in transubstantiation.
Next, Foreville and Rousset give us an account of the manner of life of the Waldensians for which there are too vast to list in full so I will mention a few: They establish one superior whom they call their “majoral” who is the equivalent of the lord pope; they call their society a “fraternity”; they commonly call themselves the poor of Christ or the poor of Lyons; and they do not believe in the salutation of the Virgin Mary, “Hail Mary,” or for the Apostles’ Creed “I believe in God,” for they contend that they were composed by the Roman Church and not by Christ.
We now are indoctrinated in the teachings of the Waldensians which once again are too vast to mention, so I will list a few: they belong to two sects, the “perfect,” who teach to others and live lives of chastity and poverty, and the second are the “believers,” who are there disciples and provide assistance to the “perfect,” and who spread the news of the “perfect’s” arrival when they enter a new town; they teach that one should not lie; and according to the them when one’s soul leaves one’s body it either goes to heaven or hell, therefore prayers for the dead are to no avail, for those who are already in heaven don’t need them, and those who are in hell cannot be redeemed.
The general account ends with my favorite part, when they describe the subtleties and deceits with which they conceal themselves in answering interrogations. “When he is asked if he knows why he as been arrested, he answers very sweetly and with a smile, ‘My Lord, I should be glad to learn the reason from you.’ Asked about the faith which he holds and believes he answers, ‘I believe everything that a good Christian ought to believe,’” (Russell 51). When asked if he believes in transubstantiation he says, “Should I not, indeed believe this?” The Waldensians were not opposed to being smart-asses.
The next primary reading is about the heretical group known as the Catharists. The text starts out with a summary of Catharists beliefs taken from Jeffrey B. Russell’s Dissent and Reform in the Early Middle Ages. The Catharists were true dualists who believed that there were two opposing forces in the world, one that was good and one that was evil. The temporal world entangled spirit in manner and was therefore evil. “God of the Old Testament created the word and was was the evil god. The Old Testament was therefore to be rejected, exception being sometimes made for books of the prophets, who were believed to have predicted the coming of Christ,” (Russell 57). By becoming a Catharist one could escape the flesh so they would not be condemned to reincarnation. They rejected purgatory; baptism in the ordinary sense and for infants; Christ’s humanity; his suffering on the cross, which was an illusion; the rejection of the virgin birth; and the rejection of the Trinity.
Russell goes on to describe the hierarchy of the Catharists who had Bishops of their own but no pope. Divisions between the perfecti and the credentes. Admission was attained through a rite known as convenientia. “This made one a credens and to put one under the authority of the perfecti. In certain instances, particularly when they were suspected of having doubts as to their belief, the credentes were obliged to adore the perfecti,” (Russell 58). After a matter of time with instruction and practice which included a year of abstinence, the consolamentum was administered and the credens graduated to a perfectus. Sometimes the austerity was so difficult it ended in death. Russell goes on to tell of other Catharists beliefs such as there three long annual fasts, sin after baptism was often considered unforgivable, they forbade oaths, abstained from meat, marriage was avoided, and sex outside of marriage was almost worst then marriage itself.
The primary text moves to the Catharist heretics of Cologne in the twelfth century as portrayed by a number of documents written between 1143 and 1145. The first document details the claims of the heresy maintaing that they alone follow the doctrine of Christ and not the Church. For they continue in the imitation of the true apostolic life. Then it goes into a description of the austerities the sect endured in the name of God and all of the sacraments they condemned of the Church among other things they reject of the orthodoxy.
The final part of the primary text ends with the conclusion of Christine Thouzellier about how Catharism spread even more rapidly in southern Europe than in the north. As she puts it “The deterioration of Christian morality and the indifference of a clergy often more eager to pursue luxury than humility facilitated the expansion of the Reformist movements,” (Russell 69). The author then begins to juxtapose the heretical movements of the Catharists and the Valdesians in Languedoc explaining that the Catharists were less organized and true dualists, while the Valdesians were defenders of the gospel. Eventually Pope Innocent III unleashed a crusade against the heretics which by physical force vanquished these movements.
Critical Analysis
In A People’s History of Christianity Volume 4 in chapter 8 entitled Heresy and Dissent by Grado G. Merlo the heresies of the Middle Ages are discussed. In the early Middle Ages heresy was a concern for the elites with education. The majority of Europe’s population couldn’t explain the Trinity or the different natures of Jesus; nor did anyone expect them to do so. “Expositions of Christian doctrine intended for a broad public were appropriately elementary and concentrated at least as much on controlling behavior as on shaping belief,” (Merlo 222). At the beginning of the fifth century Bishop Maximus of Turin required the lords of large estates to ban ritual activities that were considered paganistic in hopes of regulating Christian conduct. The church assumed that the laity implicitly accepted the orthodoxy. This would not be the case in the eleventh century.
The Gregorian reform movement modified the Catholic Church into a consolidated hierarchical institution whose leader was the pope who claimed spiritual jurisdiction over all of the Western Christendom. During this same time however, the flourishing economy, growth of trade and commerce, and the rejuvenation of urban life which produced a laity that was richer, more literate, and more aware of their own social and cultural identity caused an interest in trying new forms of religiosity. This caused tension between these new religious experiences and the escalating intolerance for any form of autonomy whatsoever. “A resolution was not always possible, nor was it achieved. Some groups were reincorporated, while others were excluded, often violently; both inclusion and exclusion were pregnant with consequences,” (Merlo 230). With the dualist Cathars being an exception, both oppression and inclusion were achieved within a theoretical lens that perceived heresy mainly in juridical and disciplinary terms rather than theological ones. Beliefs that were deemed heretical due to being contrary to orthodox beliefs stopped being merely an intellectual concern, the debate over what it meant to be a true Christian now involved vast numbers of people and broad segments of society. For the first time in nearly half a millennium heresy was “popular.”
The dualist heretics known in orthodox circles as “Cathars” did not apply that term to themselves, they simply considered themselves to be “good Christians.” The dualism imported into Western Europe fall into two categories, moderate and radical stances. The moderate version are associated with the religious ideas of the Bulgarian priest Bogomil. They believed that God had cast the devil out of Heaven along with his rebel angels and into the material world. The devil in turn gave shape to lifeless human creatures. Through God’s infinite charity these dormant forms were given life by means of the rebel angels who by this were imprisoned in matter. The prospect for liberation was shown by one of his angels, Christ, who taught by living a life of severe penance and detachment from the temporal world could escape the chains of matter.
This moderate dualist myth of creation over time became radicalized. It is unknown when this occurred though it may have happened in the eleventh century by way of influence of ancient Manichaean ideas. The devil now became the malevolent creator of the material world. This new radical form taught that the spirit of darkness had deceived the eternal God of light by taking on the appearance of one of the most illustrious angels, using this opportunity to seduce the angels of the pleasures of the earth realm. Led adrift by the devil angles were imprisoned in matter. This would have been their eternal life in hell had an angel, Christ, not agreed to share in the human condition, all the way to his sacrifice on the cross, this to show the way of salvation to humankind, and to the angels entrapped in this material hell.
These two myths were fluid, responding to the changing needs of the Cathar churches which never fully developed a dogmatic system due to almost immediately being persecuted and forced underground. “the ‘good christians’ as they called themselves, had to grapple with issues of survival and martyrdom rather than theological and philosophical speculation. Still, there is no denying that the variegated Cathar beliefs all shared a dualistic orientation, whether that dualism was moderate (with a single creator) or radical (with two creators),” (Merlo 232). The spread of dualists heresies and the number of dualist heretics were driven by particular local concerns. In Languedoc the good Christians were also known as the Albigensians, from the city of Albi. They appealed to such a large number of people that Cathar churches threatened to become the preeminent presence on the religious scene. This caused Innocent III to declare a crusade against the Cathars of southern France in 1208. The effects of the crusade waged against Catharism rendered it never to flourish as it did in Languedoc in the last quarter of the twelfth century.
In the mid-1170’s Valdes of Lyons who Merlo states is erroneously referred to as Peter Waldo, started renewal of the apostolic mission. Valdes was a wealthy merchant who rid himself of all material possessions and set out to proclaim God’s word, since he held the view that those tasked with that responsibility were evangelically ineffective due to their corrupt behavior. At this same time the Cathar dualists were expanding their heterodox teachings. Valdes claimed to be an instrument of orthodoxy but the priests declared him and his companions to be heretics. This forced them to fight a war on two fronts, against the dualist “good Christians” and against the Roman Catholic clergy. “His concern for orthodoxy led Valdes and his companions to seek the approval of the ecclesiastical leadership, going to Rome at the time of the Third Lateran Council in 1179 and, perhaps meeting with Pope Alexander III himself,” (Merlo 24). It is said that the pope seemed to have had sympathy and admiration for their life of evangelical poverty, though he disagreed with their requests to preach the Word. The church hierarchy could not come up with a working model that would allow those to become preachers who did not belong to the priesthood. It didn’t help that women participated in this mission as well.
In 1184 Pope Lucius III authorized an institutional hardening with Ad abolendam, which lumped together many heretics of a wide range of religious groups. In spite of the papal condemnation the Waldensian movement continued to flourish and expand into southern France, northern Italy, and parts of Germany. Much to Valdes’ dismay around 1205 a large portion of the Waldensians in Lombardy broke off from the rest, becoming autonomous group known as the Poor Men of Lombardy. Valdes died between 1205 and 207 having failed to resolve the issues with the Roman Catholic Church and could not put an end to the schism that developed in the sect of Christianity he had founded.
In 1208 Pope Innocent III confirmed Durand of Huesca, an original Waldensian, and his companions in their apostolic mission, this created a new religious order known as the Poor Catholics. In a lateral fashion in 1210 a group led by Bernard Prim also secured papal authorization calling themselves the Reconciled Poor. However the original belief of Valdes and his companions was decidedly reconstructed and in some cases totally obliterated. The right and duty of laity to preach the Word was replaced by a reaffirmation of only those with papal authorization and permission from the local bishop had the right to espouse the gospel. “Despite their papal approval, however, the Poor Catholics and the Reconciled Poor confronted problems and faced opposition at a local level, as well as competition from the new (and rapidly growing) mendicant orders, the Franciscans and Dominicans,” (Merlo 243). The Reconciled Poor weren’t around long. Due to not being able to attract new members they over time began to join other religious orders before the middle of the thirteenth century. The Poor Catholics lasted until 1256, when they were consumed by the mendicant family of the Augustinian.
The medieval story of heretics and heresy is a story of a people afflicted by brutality and hope. Heretics and heresy forced the Roman Catholic Church to change, once it did change, it was victorious in the elimination of both heretics and heresy. “With the church and society tightly sealed, the only spaces open to heresy were the inner world of conscience and the social fringes of marginalization,” (Merlo 263). Orthodoxy may have prevailed victorious but it was not without consequence, for in the process a very important religious part was lost.
Waldensian Heresy
Waldensian
Heresy
Michael Pecue
Valdes of Lyons often referred to as Peter Waldo was a wealthy merchants that had spiritual conversion around the mid-1170s (Merlo 238, 239). This experience led him to give his goods to the poor and practice the Gospels (Russell 41). According to Merlo, he enlisted two priests to translate some biblical text into his vernacular (240). With this he set out to evangelize like the apostles had done and began to gain a following. Valdes wanted the approval of the Papacy and went to Rome during the Third Lateran Council in 1179 but was denied partly on the basis of there was no frame work for layman preachers (Merlo 240). It’s interesting that at the Lateran Council Walter Map (representing King Henry II of England) said, “They go about two by two, barefoot, clad in woolen garments owning nothing, holding all things in common like the apostles. They are making their first moves now in the humblest manner because they cannot launch an attack. If we admit them, we shall be driven out” (Merlo 240). The Papacy was in charge and was worried about how it would look to let a bunch of poor laymens go and preach when their cup was overflowing with wealth.
Valdes group began to be called the Poor Men of Lyons and Waldensians. They didn’t do any manual labor and lived by begging. In Russell, he writes that they advocated celibacy and the separation of husband and wife. Sound like celibacy was strongly desired but not necessarily a deal breaker. Waldensians believed in the divinity of Christ and the salvation by Jesus Christ (Russell 42). They believed every just man had the power of preaching and absolving of sin. They believed in the supreme authority of the Bible, and had it translated into their vernacular.
The Waldensians was excommunicated in 1184 by Pope Lucius III (Merlo241). The principal heresy of the Waldensians was contempt for ecclesiastical power (Russell 44). The inquisitor in Russell describes the errors in Waldensians doctrine such as the teaching of oaths are forbidden by God and judgment by man is also forbidden by God. Also that miracles of the saint are not true and that prayers should not be made to them (Russell 46). It really came down to the Papacy wasn’t ready for laymen preachers. Even with the excommunication the Waldensian movement continued to expand in southern France, northern Italy and parts of Germany (Merlo 241).
Valdes died between 1205 and 1207 when his movement was developing different versions of doctrine. Valdes wanted to be faithful to orthodoxy as to the church of Christ but some of his followers rejected the ecclesiastical hierarchy. This lead to a split and Waldensians with Durand of Huesca took over for the original Waldensianism. Finally in 1208 Innocent III confirmed Durand and his companions in their mission creating a new religious order known as the Poor Catholics. The Poor Catholics lasted until 1256 when they were absorbed into of the Augustinian Hermits. The other sect of the Waldensian continued to exist and refused to join the Poor Catholics. The myth that the Waldensians were descendants of the first apostles lead to legitimize their preaching as the true Christian faith (Merlo 245).
Michael Pecue
Valdes of Lyons often referred to as Peter Waldo was a wealthy merchants that had spiritual conversion around the mid-1170s (Merlo 238, 239). This experience led him to give his goods to the poor and practice the Gospels (Russell 41). According to Merlo, he enlisted two priests to translate some biblical text into his vernacular (240). With this he set out to evangelize like the apostles had done and began to gain a following. Valdes wanted the approval of the Papacy and went to Rome during the Third Lateran Council in 1179 but was denied partly on the basis of there was no frame work for layman preachers (Merlo 240). It’s interesting that at the Lateran Council Walter Map (representing King Henry II of England) said, “They go about two by two, barefoot, clad in woolen garments owning nothing, holding all things in common like the apostles. They are making their first moves now in the humblest manner because they cannot launch an attack. If we admit them, we shall be driven out” (Merlo 240). The Papacy was in charge and was worried about how it would look to let a bunch of poor laymens go and preach when their cup was overflowing with wealth.
Valdes group began to be called the Poor Men of Lyons and Waldensians. They didn’t do any manual labor and lived by begging. In Russell, he writes that they advocated celibacy and the separation of husband and wife. Sound like celibacy was strongly desired but not necessarily a deal breaker. Waldensians believed in the divinity of Christ and the salvation by Jesus Christ (Russell 42). They believed every just man had the power of preaching and absolving of sin. They believed in the supreme authority of the Bible, and had it translated into their vernacular.
The Waldensians was excommunicated in 1184 by Pope Lucius III (Merlo241). The principal heresy of the Waldensians was contempt for ecclesiastical power (Russell 44). The inquisitor in Russell describes the errors in Waldensians doctrine such as the teaching of oaths are forbidden by God and judgment by man is also forbidden by God. Also that miracles of the saint are not true and that prayers should not be made to them (Russell 46). It really came down to the Papacy wasn’t ready for laymen preachers. Even with the excommunication the Waldensian movement continued to expand in southern France, northern Italy and parts of Germany (Merlo 241).
Valdes died between 1205 and 1207 when his movement was developing different versions of doctrine. Valdes wanted to be faithful to orthodoxy as to the church of Christ but some of his followers rejected the ecclesiastical hierarchy. This lead to a split and Waldensians with Durand of Huesca took over for the original Waldensianism. Finally in 1208 Innocent III confirmed Durand and his companions in their mission creating a new religious order known as the Poor Catholics. The Poor Catholics lasted until 1256 when they were absorbed into of the Augustinian Hermits. The other sect of the Waldensian continued to exist and refused to join the Poor Catholics. The myth that the Waldensians were descendants of the first apostles lead to legitimize their preaching as the true Christian faith (Merlo 245).
The Cathar Heresy
Tim O'Donnell
Both the rise and fall of the Cathar movement can be attributed to the spirit of reform in the Church of the 11th century. Before the Gregorian reforms of the 11th century, the excesses of Church officials led to a widespread distrust of church leaders. The Cathars described themselves as “the Good Christians”, though the degree to which their dualist beliefs could be considered Christian in a wider sense is an open question (Merlo 232). They strove to live the lives they thought a reformed Church should lead. It was that spirit of reform, though, that strengthened and centralized the Orthodox Church to the point where it was able to lead a Crusade against the Cathar faith.
The beliefs of the Cathar faith were dangerous to the Orthodox Church in many ways. A letter written between 1143 and 1145 by Evervinius, a prior of Stenfield, describes some of their beliefs. They live lives of extreme asceticism, foregoing the eating of meat or any food that was the product of sexual reproduction such as eggs, milk, and cheese. They denied the sacraments, including baptism, and held that they had the power to baptize others through a ritual blessing called the consolamentum (Russell 60-63). A book concerning the Cathars was written in 1163 by Eckbert of Schönau, a canon and abbott at Trier, and further expands on their beliefs. The Cathars held that all flesh and matter was made by the Devil, and anything that comes of flesh was to be avoided. They also refused to celebrate Easter or attend Mass except to conceal themselves (Russell 64-68).
The Cathar movement was part of a wider flowering of heresy that occurred during the 11th and 12th centuries. One of the reasons it and heresies contemporary to it were so dangerous to the Church is that they emerged not from internal doctrinal disagreements but from an increasingly culturally literate laity. Common men and women began to be more socially and economically active and were beginning to seek unique identities separate from the church (Merlo 233). A more well-informed populace could question the disparity between what the Church preached and how its leadership acted. A more well-informed populace could appreciate the way that “the Good Christians” lived their faith without hypocrisy. Catharism was ultimately put down by the Albigensian Crusade, but the commitment to purity and asceticism the Cathars made influenced the orthodoxy, forcing the Church to embrace reform and found orders of mendicant preachers that operated much in the same way that Catharism did, but in the service of orthodox teaching (Merlo 238).
Tim O'Donnell
Both the rise and fall of the Cathar movement can be attributed to the spirit of reform in the Church of the 11th century. Before the Gregorian reforms of the 11th century, the excesses of Church officials led to a widespread distrust of church leaders. The Cathars described themselves as “the Good Christians”, though the degree to which their dualist beliefs could be considered Christian in a wider sense is an open question (Merlo 232). They strove to live the lives they thought a reformed Church should lead. It was that spirit of reform, though, that strengthened and centralized the Orthodox Church to the point where it was able to lead a Crusade against the Cathar faith.
The beliefs of the Cathar faith were dangerous to the Orthodox Church in many ways. A letter written between 1143 and 1145 by Evervinius, a prior of Stenfield, describes some of their beliefs. They live lives of extreme asceticism, foregoing the eating of meat or any food that was the product of sexual reproduction such as eggs, milk, and cheese. They denied the sacraments, including baptism, and held that they had the power to baptize others through a ritual blessing called the consolamentum (Russell 60-63). A book concerning the Cathars was written in 1163 by Eckbert of Schönau, a canon and abbott at Trier, and further expands on their beliefs. The Cathars held that all flesh and matter was made by the Devil, and anything that comes of flesh was to be avoided. They also refused to celebrate Easter or attend Mass except to conceal themselves (Russell 64-68).
The Cathar movement was part of a wider flowering of heresy that occurred during the 11th and 12th centuries. One of the reasons it and heresies contemporary to it were so dangerous to the Church is that they emerged not from internal doctrinal disagreements but from an increasingly culturally literate laity. Common men and women began to be more socially and economically active and were beginning to seek unique identities separate from the church (Merlo 233). A more well-informed populace could question the disparity between what the Church preached and how its leadership acted. A more well-informed populace could appreciate the way that “the Good Christians” lived their faith without hypocrisy. Catharism was ultimately put down by the Albigensian Crusade, but the commitment to purity and asceticism the Cathars made influenced the orthodoxy, forcing the Church to embrace reform and found orders of mendicant preachers that operated much in the same way that Catharism did, but in the service of orthodox teaching (Merlo 238).
Waldensians
Amalia Zager
The regulation of Christian conduct is a recurring theme in the history of Christianity. Christendom, as it was known prior to the eleventh century, substantially changed at that time and accordingly, the notion of what constituted acceptable Christian conduct changed as well. The Gregorian reform, combined with a booming economy, growth in commerce and trade, and the rebirth of urban life, produced a society more literate, wealthy, and better able to express its cultural and social identity (Merlo 230). As a result, many felt encouraged to experiment with different forms of religion. As the number of religious practices grew, however, so did the ecclesiastical fear of any challenge to its sovereignty (Merlo 230). Additionally, there was often tension among the different religious groups: while some were reabsorbed, others were rejected (Merlo 230). As people and groups began to stray away from orthodoxy, the more orthodox groups were displeased and felt threatened. This was more than abstract disagreement: “beliefs contrary to orthodox teaching, publicly proclaimed and stubbornly maintained – ceased to be a purely intellectual concern, as the debate over what it meant to be truly Christian involved large numbers of people and broad segments of society” (Merlo 230).
According to Merlo, “heresy is a label assigned by religious opponents who present themselves as defenders of orthodoxy” (Merlo 230). Given the longstanding and almost hasty defense of orthodoxy within the Church establishment, countless heresies have existed throughout the history of Christianity. This paper examines one: the Waldensian heresy of the twelfth century. The relationship between its adherents and the Church decayed over the lifetime of the sect’s founder. While initially allowed a modicum of independence, they veered farther and farther from the accepted theological views of the Church. Like other believers who challenged authority and were condemned as heretics, Waldensians were subject to persecution and excommunication. Unlike many, however, there are still those who call themselves Waldensians today. Thus it is particularly interesting to examine this movement since its ideas and the challenges it presented resonate throughout the history of the Church. This paper will not only summarize but also analyze the Waldensian heresy in its historical context.
Peter Waldo (also known as Valdès) was a rich merchant from Lyon, France who heard the call of apostolic mission in or about 1170 (Russell 41). He decided to strip himself of his wealth, giving his belongings to the poor and said he was submitting to poverty in the name of Jesus Christ; claiming to act from both revelation as well as reason (Merlo 239). This made his commitment to these revolutionary actions particularly profound.
In addition to the vow of poverty, Valdès’ other main belief was that those who the Church gave the responsibility to teach God’s word were fundamentally corrupt and sinful, led to a substantially more revolutionary position. He was determined to assert God’s Word himself and preach as a layman (Merlo 239). Priests, not surprisingly, failed to see the signs of divine will in Valdès’ beliefs and actions since he framed them in terms of disagreement or criticism, and therefore, did not consider them a display of orthodoxy (Merlo 239). Defying the church authorities’ banning laymen from preaching, Valdès recruited many followers who began to study and preach the Gospel. Like Valdès, his followers also rid themselves of their goods, and gave them to the poor to live more like the Apostles (Merlo 239). In addition to poverty and preaching, however, the Waldensians held themselves apart from general society as well as rejecting well-known Church doctrine: “The Valdesians repudiated manual labor, lived by begging, and avoided celibacy and the separation of husband and wife. They believed in the divinity of Christ, in man’s sinfulness, and in salvation by Jesus Christ… they denied transubstantiation and the Communion of Saints, and they believed that every just man had the power of preaching the Gospel, absolving from sin and of presiding over Lord’s Supper” (Russell 42). This last belief made the Waldensians of particular danger to the established Church. As a so-called situational sect, a sect in which the Bible not Church elders acted as the highest authority, the Waldensians produced their own version of the Prophets and the New Testament in the vernacular (Russell 42).
Unlike many who disagreed with the Church and accepted being persecuted outsiders, Valdès wanted to voice his concerns and get the approval of orthodoxy. Therefore, he determined to go to Rome and seek an audience with the ecclesiastical leadership (Merlo 240). This was a courageous step. In 1178 Pope Alexander III had held the Third Lateran Council in Rome, in which heresy was condemned, and all those who encouraged and preserved such practices were labeled heretics (Merlo 240).
In considering the case of Valdès and the Waldensians, the Pope took an unusual stance, taking the challenge of Valdès seriously. He supported the Waldensians’ apostolic lifestyle, i.e. their vows of poverty, and allowed them some degree of preaching. He allowed them to preach but only with the priests’ authorization: “the pope embraced Valdès, and applauded the vows of voluntary poverty which he had taken, but forbade him and his companions to assume the office of preaching except at the request of the priests. They obeyed this instruction for a time, but later they disobeyed, and affronted many, bringing ruin to themselves” (6.25). Because the Waldensians were able to follow the guidance of Pope Alexander III, for only a short time, the deliberate disobedience encouraged Pope Alexander III and the Archbishop of Lyon, Jean Bellesmains, to ban Valdès and his followers from his bishopric (Russell 41). The Council of Verona met in 1184, following their banishment. The Council solidified the condemnation of the sect, Valdès was excommunicated, and Waldensianism was classified as a heresy (Russell 41).
Even with the papal opposition, the movement grew. In fact, the Waldensians spread their movement into northern Italy, southern France and in some areas of Germany (Merlo 241). Each area saw a different form of expansion. Southern France was more difficult for the Waldensians because France was the center of the Cathar movement, a similar Christian heresy. The Waldesians did, however, provide books, produce places of worship, encourage charitable interests; they preached antidualistic (and so, anti-Cathar) polemic and observed their own rites consisting of the Lord’s Supper (Merlo 421). On the opposite side of the spectrum, in Italy, the Waldensians found it much easier to spread the movement: “Waldensian groups were significantly more organized, did not oppose the Cathars, and sometimes even lived together with other dissidents” (Merlo 241).
The spread of the Waldensian movement coupled with their opposition to the papacy stood as a direct challenge to orthodoxy. Because they did not follow the orthodox path, Waldensians stood, by definition, in opposition to the holy Roman church and were, therefore, considered to be acting in violation of canon law (Russell 45). Additionally those who opposed the Waldensian movement held that although the Waldensians preached the Gospels, Epistles, and other sacred writings, their interpretations of those writing were distorted and therefore the Waldensians were not authentic disciples of the truth (Russell 46). Waldensian theology strayed from the accepted practice of the Roman church when it abandoned the sacraments, discarded the office of the clergy, and condemned the church as unapostolic.
As with all heresies, there were many non-theological attacks as well. Because Waldensians rejected the sovereignty of the Roman Church, they were called unreasonable, sinful, illicit, and immoral (Russell 44). Their opponents used scripture and interestingly, the Waldensian view of scripture to support their moral attack: “in whatever shameful way, interpreting the words of the Apostle [Paul]: “It is better to marry than to burn” to mean that it is better to appease desire by any shameful act than to be tempted inwardly in the heart. This doctrine they keep very secret, however, in order not to seem vile to their “believers”” (Russell 47).
Their opponents additionally depicted them as incompetent in their knowledge of prayer, or lack thereof: “they say and teach and recognize no other prayer besides the “Our Father.” They have no regard for the salutation to the Virgin Mary, “Hail Mary,” or for the Apostle’s Creed, “I believe in God,” for they say that these have been arranged or composed by the Roman Church and not by Christ” (Russell 48). These and other perceived imperfections were used as support to subdue the Waldensian movement. They were said to be not true Christians.
Many of the heresies contemporary to the Waldensians broke free from the ways of orthodoxy and refused to conform to what was expected from the Catholic Church. Excommunicated, persecuted and most often condemned to heterodoxy, the movements still continued to spread their message. The Waldensian focus on lay preaching the reading of scripture in the vernacular was a direct challenge to the Church and one which allowed for a grassroots kind of growth. By appealing to the educated as well as the oppressed, it bridged a divide that other groups were unable to do. Like later reformers, Waldensians broke free from established religious orders, and felt no need for new ones. They held that Jesus Christ was their leader. The Waldensians adopted preaching and imitato Christi as a means of religious practice, which profoundly challenged the principles of the Church, and orthodoxy as it was defined in society.
According to Merlo, “heresy is a label assigned by religious opponents who present themselves as defenders of orthodoxy” (Merlo 230). Given the longstanding and almost hasty defense of orthodoxy within the Church establishment, countless heresies have existed throughout the history of Christianity. This paper examines one: the Waldensian heresy of the twelfth century. The relationship between its adherents and the Church decayed over the lifetime of the sect’s founder. While initially allowed a modicum of independence, they veered farther and farther from the accepted theological views of the Church. Like other believers who challenged authority and were condemned as heretics, Waldensians were subject to persecution and excommunication. Unlike many, however, there are still those who call themselves Waldensians today. Thus it is particularly interesting to examine this movement since its ideas and the challenges it presented resonate throughout the history of the Church. This paper will not only summarize but also analyze the Waldensian heresy in its historical context.
Peter Waldo (also known as Valdès) was a rich merchant from Lyon, France who heard the call of apostolic mission in or about 1170 (Russell 41). He decided to strip himself of his wealth, giving his belongings to the poor and said he was submitting to poverty in the name of Jesus Christ; claiming to act from both revelation as well as reason (Merlo 239). This made his commitment to these revolutionary actions particularly profound.
In addition to the vow of poverty, Valdès’ other main belief was that those who the Church gave the responsibility to teach God’s word were fundamentally corrupt and sinful, led to a substantially more revolutionary position. He was determined to assert God’s Word himself and preach as a layman (Merlo 239). Priests, not surprisingly, failed to see the signs of divine will in Valdès’ beliefs and actions since he framed them in terms of disagreement or criticism, and therefore, did not consider them a display of orthodoxy (Merlo 239). Defying the church authorities’ banning laymen from preaching, Valdès recruited many followers who began to study and preach the Gospel. Like Valdès, his followers also rid themselves of their goods, and gave them to the poor to live more like the Apostles (Merlo 239). In addition to poverty and preaching, however, the Waldensians held themselves apart from general society as well as rejecting well-known Church doctrine: “The Valdesians repudiated manual labor, lived by begging, and avoided celibacy and the separation of husband and wife. They believed in the divinity of Christ, in man’s sinfulness, and in salvation by Jesus Christ… they denied transubstantiation and the Communion of Saints, and they believed that every just man had the power of preaching the Gospel, absolving from sin and of presiding over Lord’s Supper” (Russell 42). This last belief made the Waldensians of particular danger to the established Church. As a so-called situational sect, a sect in which the Bible not Church elders acted as the highest authority, the Waldensians produced their own version of the Prophets and the New Testament in the vernacular (Russell 42).
Unlike many who disagreed with the Church and accepted being persecuted outsiders, Valdès wanted to voice his concerns and get the approval of orthodoxy. Therefore, he determined to go to Rome and seek an audience with the ecclesiastical leadership (Merlo 240). This was a courageous step. In 1178 Pope Alexander III had held the Third Lateran Council in Rome, in which heresy was condemned, and all those who encouraged and preserved such practices were labeled heretics (Merlo 240).
In considering the case of Valdès and the Waldensians, the Pope took an unusual stance, taking the challenge of Valdès seriously. He supported the Waldensians’ apostolic lifestyle, i.e. their vows of poverty, and allowed them some degree of preaching. He allowed them to preach but only with the priests’ authorization: “the pope embraced Valdès, and applauded the vows of voluntary poverty which he had taken, but forbade him and his companions to assume the office of preaching except at the request of the priests. They obeyed this instruction for a time, but later they disobeyed, and affronted many, bringing ruin to themselves” (6.25). Because the Waldensians were able to follow the guidance of Pope Alexander III, for only a short time, the deliberate disobedience encouraged Pope Alexander III and the Archbishop of Lyon, Jean Bellesmains, to ban Valdès and his followers from his bishopric (Russell 41). The Council of Verona met in 1184, following their banishment. The Council solidified the condemnation of the sect, Valdès was excommunicated, and Waldensianism was classified as a heresy (Russell 41).
Even with the papal opposition, the movement grew. In fact, the Waldensians spread their movement into northern Italy, southern France and in some areas of Germany (Merlo 241). Each area saw a different form of expansion. Southern France was more difficult for the Waldensians because France was the center of the Cathar movement, a similar Christian heresy. The Waldesians did, however, provide books, produce places of worship, encourage charitable interests; they preached antidualistic (and so, anti-Cathar) polemic and observed their own rites consisting of the Lord’s Supper (Merlo 421). On the opposite side of the spectrum, in Italy, the Waldensians found it much easier to spread the movement: “Waldensian groups were significantly more organized, did not oppose the Cathars, and sometimes even lived together with other dissidents” (Merlo 241).
The spread of the Waldensian movement coupled with their opposition to the papacy stood as a direct challenge to orthodoxy. Because they did not follow the orthodox path, Waldensians stood, by definition, in opposition to the holy Roman church and were, therefore, considered to be acting in violation of canon law (Russell 45). Additionally those who opposed the Waldensian movement held that although the Waldensians preached the Gospels, Epistles, and other sacred writings, their interpretations of those writing were distorted and therefore the Waldensians were not authentic disciples of the truth (Russell 46). Waldensian theology strayed from the accepted practice of the Roman church when it abandoned the sacraments, discarded the office of the clergy, and condemned the church as unapostolic.
As with all heresies, there were many non-theological attacks as well. Because Waldensians rejected the sovereignty of the Roman Church, they were called unreasonable, sinful, illicit, and immoral (Russell 44). Their opponents used scripture and interestingly, the Waldensian view of scripture to support their moral attack: “in whatever shameful way, interpreting the words of the Apostle [Paul]: “It is better to marry than to burn” to mean that it is better to appease desire by any shameful act than to be tempted inwardly in the heart. This doctrine they keep very secret, however, in order not to seem vile to their “believers”” (Russell 47).
Their opponents additionally depicted them as incompetent in their knowledge of prayer, or lack thereof: “they say and teach and recognize no other prayer besides the “Our Father.” They have no regard for the salutation to the Virgin Mary, “Hail Mary,” or for the Apostle’s Creed, “I believe in God,” for they say that these have been arranged or composed by the Roman Church and not by Christ” (Russell 48). These and other perceived imperfections were used as support to subdue the Waldensian movement. They were said to be not true Christians.
Many of the heresies contemporary to the Waldensians broke free from the ways of orthodoxy and refused to conform to what was expected from the Catholic Church. Excommunicated, persecuted and most often condemned to heterodoxy, the movements still continued to spread their message. The Waldensian focus on lay preaching the reading of scripture in the vernacular was a direct challenge to the Church and one which allowed for a grassroots kind of growth. By appealing to the educated as well as the oppressed, it bridged a divide that other groups were unable to do. Like later reformers, Waldensians broke free from established religious orders, and felt no need for new ones. They held that Jesus Christ was their leader. The Waldensians adopted preaching and imitato Christi as a means of religious practice, which profoundly challenged the principles of the Church, and orthodoxy as it was defined in society.
Cathars
Robert Rojas
David Reis
Rel 322
Reflection: Heresy
Cathars
During the twelfth century, a religion opposing the long-reigning Catholic were called “Cathars.” The Cathars came from the Reformist movement, and the religion grew quickly once it started. Among the sect, one could find a form of hierarchy. The hierarchy went from the credents (believers) to the perfeti (elite), after having taken the consolamentum (sacred sacrament) (Russell 55). In order to go from a crente, one had to go through a purity process that usually took more than a year, after which, one would receive the consolamentum, which appeared to be the equivalent of the Catholic’s water baptism. One usually waiting on this, because once one received consolamentum, any sin committed afterwards was considered “unforgivable.” Scripture was used to base their actions and in doing this their belief was that of two gods: a good God and an evil god. The evil god was the god of the Old Testament, and therefore, the Old Testament was rejected. However, one Premonstratensian wrote to Saint Bernard explaining what the Cathars were doing in Cologn and a few of his reasons as to why they were heretics is as follows: (1) Jesus was not a human. His life, death and resurrection were only an illusion to point us in the right direction. (2) Rejection of baptism, marriage, sex. Procreation is responsible for imprisoning spirits in the flesh and therefore evil. (3) No prayer for the dead, because they believed in re-incarnation; that if one did not fulfill their penance on earth for their soul, they would be reborn into a new body to make right for their evil soul. (4) They have no popes in which to lead them, only those they call bishops.
It appears the Cathars were a sect of the Catholic faith. The Cathars found favor in those who felt disappointed in the Church and were looking for something else. Many of the Catharists rituals and services mirror that of the Catholics: The way in which they have a junior believer follow a more senior, baptism of fire and spirit, a creator of all things. While many things mirrored up with the Catholic teaching, it was the things that differed that got the attention of the Church, and really started to make them worry that this new religion was becoming too much. For the Catholic Church, it appeared the more they tried to convert the Cathars, the more the Cathars grew in strength (Russell 56). While the Cathars were growing in number, not all those who converted stayed with the religion. In fact, at least two of them returned to the Church; and from them is where much of the information the writer of the letter sent to Saint Bernard of Clairvaus came from. Although a big portion of the problems for the Church appeared in Cologne, another part of the world it was growing in numbers was France and Northern Italy. Just like the Church would go and publish books using Scriptures to support themselves, so did also the Cathars. One of these books was based on the principles of their rituals and in which they talked about “Principles of Evil”, “alien God and many gods”, and “creators of the universe” (Russell 75). The Cathars tried to prove themselves to be superior to the Catholics and the only true way to heaven.
In the early part of Christian history, doctrine of the Trinity and/or dual nature of Christ was not meant for the lay-people to understand or even be able to explain. The responsibility for explaining Scriptures and the meaning behind them were left to the bishops and priests of the Church. Then in the fifth century, one bishop, Maxiums of Turnus insisted on the need to regulate the conduct of Christians due to the heresy of the growing belief of the Cathars. At this time, the term “heresy” was given to those who opposed the Church; the Cathars did not consider themselves heretics, but rather “Good Christians” (Bornstein 250). Being the only “Good Christians” they believed their way was the only way to heaven. The message preached by the Cathars was one of “liberation”, setting oneself free from the sin of the flesh and doing penance to God to remove the chains of this world from the souls of the pure. One fryer, Dominic of Calerugea got permission to fight the Cathars with their own weapons: living in poverity, living a life of preaching. Dominic could impose penance on converted heretics as well as take actions against them. Not long after this, the pope in Rome found the Cathar behavior too threatening and wanted this threat “eliminated at any cost” (Bornstein 256). In 1184 Pope Lucius III declared all in the Church fight against heresy or become excommunicated. 1208, Innocent III declared a Crusade against the Albigensians because of the rapidness of the Cathars in the city.
A major theme that seemed to play itself out amongst the Cathar religion was that of two separate gods. The difference between the good god of the New Testament and the evil god of the Old Testament. It would appear that this difference is what helped set aside many of their rules and regulations. For example, in the New Testament would be the good God, and the good God is against matter and since the flesh is matter, Christ could not have been born in the flesh. Since Christ was not born in the flesh , He must have been an illusion to us, along with His death and the powerful meaning of His resurrection; which was to redeem lost souls from this life and give them an everlasting life in Heaven. The religion of Cathars was a cult, which is to say, they believed their way was the only way and all others roads would lean one to destruction and damnation in hell. The Church tried to convert many of them back to the Catholic faith, but those who were considered perfecti of the Cathars would not have their mind changed, and lived their lives on the run from the Catholics and lived in hiding for much of their lives.
David Reis
Rel 322
Reflection: Heresy
Cathars
During the twelfth century, a religion opposing the long-reigning Catholic were called “Cathars.” The Cathars came from the Reformist movement, and the religion grew quickly once it started. Among the sect, one could find a form of hierarchy. The hierarchy went from the credents (believers) to the perfeti (elite), after having taken the consolamentum (sacred sacrament) (Russell 55). In order to go from a crente, one had to go through a purity process that usually took more than a year, after which, one would receive the consolamentum, which appeared to be the equivalent of the Catholic’s water baptism. One usually waiting on this, because once one received consolamentum, any sin committed afterwards was considered “unforgivable.” Scripture was used to base their actions and in doing this their belief was that of two gods: a good God and an evil god. The evil god was the god of the Old Testament, and therefore, the Old Testament was rejected. However, one Premonstratensian wrote to Saint Bernard explaining what the Cathars were doing in Cologn and a few of his reasons as to why they were heretics is as follows: (1) Jesus was not a human. His life, death and resurrection were only an illusion to point us in the right direction. (2) Rejection of baptism, marriage, sex. Procreation is responsible for imprisoning spirits in the flesh and therefore evil. (3) No prayer for the dead, because they believed in re-incarnation; that if one did not fulfill their penance on earth for their soul, they would be reborn into a new body to make right for their evil soul. (4) They have no popes in which to lead them, only those they call bishops.
It appears the Cathars were a sect of the Catholic faith. The Cathars found favor in those who felt disappointed in the Church and were looking for something else. Many of the Catharists rituals and services mirror that of the Catholics: The way in which they have a junior believer follow a more senior, baptism of fire and spirit, a creator of all things. While many things mirrored up with the Catholic teaching, it was the things that differed that got the attention of the Church, and really started to make them worry that this new religion was becoming too much. For the Catholic Church, it appeared the more they tried to convert the Cathars, the more the Cathars grew in strength (Russell 56). While the Cathars were growing in number, not all those who converted stayed with the religion. In fact, at least two of them returned to the Church; and from them is where much of the information the writer of the letter sent to Saint Bernard of Clairvaus came from. Although a big portion of the problems for the Church appeared in Cologne, another part of the world it was growing in numbers was France and Northern Italy. Just like the Church would go and publish books using Scriptures to support themselves, so did also the Cathars. One of these books was based on the principles of their rituals and in which they talked about “Principles of Evil”, “alien God and many gods”, and “creators of the universe” (Russell 75). The Cathars tried to prove themselves to be superior to the Catholics and the only true way to heaven.
In the early part of Christian history, doctrine of the Trinity and/or dual nature of Christ was not meant for the lay-people to understand or even be able to explain. The responsibility for explaining Scriptures and the meaning behind them were left to the bishops and priests of the Church. Then in the fifth century, one bishop, Maxiums of Turnus insisted on the need to regulate the conduct of Christians due to the heresy of the growing belief of the Cathars. At this time, the term “heresy” was given to those who opposed the Church; the Cathars did not consider themselves heretics, but rather “Good Christians” (Bornstein 250). Being the only “Good Christians” they believed their way was the only way to heaven. The message preached by the Cathars was one of “liberation”, setting oneself free from the sin of the flesh and doing penance to God to remove the chains of this world from the souls of the pure. One fryer, Dominic of Calerugea got permission to fight the Cathars with their own weapons: living in poverity, living a life of preaching. Dominic could impose penance on converted heretics as well as take actions against them. Not long after this, the pope in Rome found the Cathar behavior too threatening and wanted this threat “eliminated at any cost” (Bornstein 256). In 1184 Pope Lucius III declared all in the Church fight against heresy or become excommunicated. 1208, Innocent III declared a Crusade against the Albigensians because of the rapidness of the Cathars in the city.
A major theme that seemed to play itself out amongst the Cathar religion was that of two separate gods. The difference between the good god of the New Testament and the evil god of the Old Testament. It would appear that this difference is what helped set aside many of their rules and regulations. For example, in the New Testament would be the good God, and the good God is against matter and since the flesh is matter, Christ could not have been born in the flesh. Since Christ was not born in the flesh , He must have been an illusion to us, along with His death and the powerful meaning of His resurrection; which was to redeem lost souls from this life and give them an everlasting life in Heaven. The religion of Cathars was a cult, which is to say, they believed their way was the only way and all others roads would lean one to destruction and damnation in hell. The Church tried to convert many of them back to the Catholic faith, but those who were considered perfecti of the Cathars would not have their mind changed, and lived their lives on the run from the Catholics and lived in hiding for much of their lives.