§ 108. THE PROTESTERS AGAINST THE CHURCH.
Mediæval endeavours after reform, partly proceeded from within the
church itself in attempts to restore apostolic purity and simplicity,
partly from without on the part of those who despaired of any good
coming out of the church, and who therefore warred bitterly against
it. Such attempts were often lost amid the vagaries of fanaticism and
heresy, which soon threatened the foundation of the social fabric, and
often came into collision with the State. Most widely spread and most
radical were the numerous dualistic sects of the Cathari. Montanist
fanaticism was revived in apocalyptic prophesyings. There were
also pantheistic sects, and among the Pasagians a sort of Ebionism
reappeared. Another group of sects originated through reformatory
endeavours of individual men, who perceiving the utter corruption
of the church of their day, sought salvation in a revolutionary
overthrow of all ecclesiastical institutions and repudiated often
the truth with the error which was the object of their hate. The only
protesting church of a thoroughly sensible evangelical sort was that
of the Waldensians.
§ 108.1. =The Cathari.=--Opposition to hierarchical pretensions
led to the spread of sects, especially in Northern Italy and
France, from the 11th century. Hidden remnants of Old Manichæan
sects got new courage and ventured into the light during the
period of the crusades. In France they were called Tisserands,
because mostly composed of weavers. In Italy they were called
Patareni or Paterini, either from the original meaning of
the word, rabble, riff-raff (§ 97, 5), or because they so
far adopted the attitude of the Pasaria of Milan, as to offer
lay opposition to the local clergy, or because of the frequent
use of the Paternoster. Of later origin are the names Publicani
and Bulgări, given as opprobrious designations to the Paulicians.
The most widely current name of Cathari, from early times a
favourite title assumed by rigorist sects (§ 41, 3), had its
origin in the East. In France they were called Albigensians,
from the province of Albigeois, which was their chief seat in
Southern France.--Of the =Writings of the Cathari= we possess
from the end of the 13th century a Provençal translation of the
N.T., free from all falsification in favour of their sectarian
views. Their tenets are to be learnt only from the polemical
writings of their opponents, Alanus ab Insulis (§ 102, 5), the
Dominican Joh. Moneta, about A.D. 1240, and Rainerius, Sacchoni,
Dominican and inquisitor, about A.D. 1250.
§ 108.2. Besides their opposition to the hierarchy, all these
sects had in common a dualistic basis to their theological
systems. They held in a more or less extreme form the following
doctrines: The good God who is proclaimed in the N.T. created
in the beginning the heavenly and invisible world, and peopled
it with souls clothed in ethereal bodies. The earthly world, on
the other hand, is the work of an evil spirit, who is held up
as object of worship in the O.T. Entering the heavenly world
he succeeded in seducing some of its inhabitants, whom he, when
defeated by the archangel Michael, took with him to earth, and
there imprisoned in earthly bodies, so as to make return to their
heavenly home impossible. Yet they are capable of redemption,
and may, on repentance and submission to purificatory ordinances,
be again freed from their earthly bonds and brought home again
to heaven. For this redemption the good God sent “the heavenly
man” Jesus (1 Cor. xv. 47) to earth in the appearance of man to
teach men their heavenly origin and the means of restoration.
The Cathari rejected the O.T., but accepted the N.T., which they
read in the vernacular. Marriage they regarded as a hindrance to
Christian perfection. They treated with contempt water baptism,
the Supper, and ordination, as well as all veneration of saints
and relics, and tolerated no images, crosses, or altars. Prayer,
abstinence, and baptism of the Spirit were regarded as the only
means of salvation. Preaching was next to prayer most prominent
in their public services. They also laid great stress upon
fasting, genuflection, and repetitions of stated formulæ,
especially the Lord’s Prayer. Their members were divided into
_Cregentz_ (_credentes_ or catechumens) and _Bos homes_ or
_Bos crestias_ (_boni homines, boni Christiani_=_perfecti_ or
_electi_). A lower order of the catechumens were the _Auditores_.
These were received as _Credentes_ after a longer period of
training amid various ceremonies and repetition of the Lord’s
prayer, etc. The order of the _Perfecti_ was entered by spiritual
baptism, the _Consolamentum_ or communication of the Holy Spirit
as the promised Comforter, without which no one can enjoy eternal
life. Even opponents such as St. Bernard admit that there was
great moral earnestness shown by some of them, and many met a
martyr’s death with true Christian heroism. Symptoms of decay
appeared in the spread among them of antinomian practices. This
moral deterioration showed itself as a radical part of this
system in the so-called =Luciferians= or devil worshippers,
whose dualism, like that of the Euchites and Bogomils (§ 71),
led to the adoption of two Sons of God. Lucifer the elder,
wrongly driven from heaven, is the creator and lord of this
earthly world, and hence alone worshipped in it. His expulsion
(Isa. xiv. 12) is carried out by the younger son, Michael, who
will, however, on this account, whenever Lucifer regains heaven,
be sent with all his company into eternal punishment. Of an
incarnation of God, even of a docetic kind, they know nothing.
They regarded Jesus as a false prophet who was crucified on
account of the evil he had done.--Catharist sects suspected
of Manichæan tendencies were discovered here and there during
the 11th century. In the following century their number had
increased enormously, and they spread over Lombardy and Southern
France, but were also found in Southern Italy, in Germany,
Belgium, Spain, and even in England. They had a pope residing
in Bulgaria, twelve magistri and seventy-two bishops, each with
a _Filius major_ and _minor_ at his side. In A.D. 1167 they
were able to muster an œcumenical Catharist Council at Toulouse.
Neither clemency nor severity could put them down. St. Bernard
prevailed most by the power of his love, and subsequently learned
Dominicans had more effect with their preaching and disputations.
They found abundant opportunity of displaying their hatred of
the papacy during the struggles of the Guelphs and Ghibellines.
In spite of terrible persecution, which reached its height in
the beginning of the 13th century in the Albigensian crusade
(§ 109, 1), remnants of them were found down into the 14th century.
§ 108.3. The small sect of the =Pasagians= in Lombardy during
the 12th century, protesting against the Manichæan depreciation
of the O.T. of the Catharists, adopted views of a somewhat
Ebionite character. With the exception of sacrifice, they
enforced all the old ceremonial observances, even circumcision,
and held an Arian or Ebionite theory of the Person of Christ.
Their name meaning “passage,” seems to refer to pilgrimages to
the Holy Land, and possibly from this a clue to their origin may
be obtained.
§ 108.4. =Pantheistic Heretics.=
1. =Amalrich of Bena= taught first philosophy, then theology,
at Paris in the end of the 12th century. In A.D. 1204
Innocent III. called him to account for his proposition,
Christian in sound, but probably pantheistically intended,
that no one could be saved who is not a member in Christ’s
body, and obliged him to retract. His death occurred soon
after, and some years later we find traces of a pantheistic
sect founded on the alleged doctrines of Amalrich vigorously
propagated by his disciple William the goldsmith. God had
previously appeared as Father incarnate in Abraham, and
as Son in Christ, and now henceforth as the Holy Spirit
in every believer, who therefore in the same sense as Christ
is God. As such, too, he is without sin, and what to others
would be sin is not so to him. In the age of the Son the
Mosaic law lost its validity, and in that of the Spirit,
the sacraments and services of the new covenant. God has
always been all in all. We find him in Ovid as well as in
Augustine, and the body of Christ is in common bread as well
as in the consecrated wafer on the altar. Saint worship is
idolatry. There is no resurrection; heaven and hell exist
only in the imagination of men. Rome is Babylon, and the
pope is antichrist; but to the king of France, after the
overthrow of antichrist, shall the kingdoms of the earth
be subject, etc. A synod at Paris in A.D. 1209 condemned
William and nine priests to be burnt, and four other priests
to imprisonment for life, and ordered that Amalrich’s
bones should be exhumed and scattered over an open field.
Regarding the physical works of Aristotle as the source of
this heresy, the council also prohibited all lectures upon
these (§ 103, 1). This was seen to be a mistake, and so
in A.D. 1225 Honorius III. fixed on the true culprit and
condemned the _De divisione naturæ_ of Erigena (§ 90, 6).
The penalties inflicted did not by any means lead to the
rooting out of the sect. During the whole 13th century it
continued to spread from Paris over all eastern France as
far as Alsace, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, and in
the 14th century reached its highest development in the
pantheistic-libertine doctrines of the Brothers and Sisters
of the Free Spirit (§ 116, 5). We never again meet with the
name of Amalrich, and the sects were never called after him.
2. =David of Dinant= at the same time with Amalrich taught
philosophy and theology in the University of Paris. He
also lived for a long while at the papal court in Rome,
high in favour with Innocent III. as a subtle dialectician.
The Synod of Paris of A.D. 1209, which passed judgment on
the Amalricians, pronounced David a heretic and ordered his
works to be burnt. He avoided personal punishment by flight.
The central point of his system was the assumption of a
single eternal substance without distinctions, from which
God, spirit (νοῦς), and matter (ὕλη) sprang as the three
principles of all later forms of existences (_corpora_,
_animæ_, and _substantiæ æternæ_). God is regarded as the
_primum efficiens_, matter as the _primum suscipiens_, and
spirit as the medium between the two. David’s scholars never
formed a sect and never had any connection apparently with
the followers of Amalrich.
3. =The Ortlibarians= were a sect condemned by Innocent III.,
followers of a certain Ortlieb of Strassburg about A.D. 1212.
They held the world to be without beginning. They looked
upon Jesus as the son of Joseph and Mary, sinless like all
other children, but raised to be son of God only through
illumination from the doctrines of their sect, which had
existed from the earliest times. They admitted the gospel
story of Christ’s life, sufferings, and resurrection, not,
however, in a literal but only in a moral and mystical
acceptation. The consecrated host was but common bread,
and in it was the body of the Lord. A Jew entering their
sect needed not to be baptized, and fellowship with them
was sufficient to secure salvation. There is no resurrection
of the flesh; man’s spirit alone is immortal. After the
last judgment, which will come when pope and emperor are
converted to their views and all opposition is overcome,
the world will last for ever, and men will be born and die
just as now. They professed a strictly ascetic life, and
many of them fasted every second day.
§ 108.5. =Apocalyptic Heretics.=--The Cistercian abbot =Joachim
of Floris=, who died in A.D. 1202, with his notions of the so
called “_Everlasting Gospel_,” as a reformer and as one inclined
to apocalyptic prophecy, followed in the footsteps of Hildegard
of Bingen and Elizabeth of Schönau (§ 107, 1). His prophetic
views spread among the Franciscans and were long unchallenged.
In A.D. 1254 the University of Paris, warning against the begging
monks (§ 103, 3), got Alexander IV. to condemn these views as set
forth in commentaries on Isaiah and Jeremiah ascribed to Joachim,
but now found to be spurious. Preger doubts but, Reuter maintains
the genuineness of the three tracts grouped under the title of
the _Evangelium æternum_. The main points in his theory seem
to have been these: There are three ages, that of the Father
in the O.T., of the Son in the N.T., and of the Holy Spirit in
the approaching fulness of the kingdom of God on earth. Of the
apostles, Peter is representative of the first age, Paul of the
second, and John of the third. They may also be characterized as
the age of the laity, the clergy, and the monks, and compared in
respect of light with the stars, the moon, and the sun. The first
six periods of the N.T. age are divided (after the pattern of
the forty-two generations of Matt. i. and the forty-two months
or 1260 days of Rev. xi. 2, 3) into forty-two shorter periods of
thirty years each, so that the sixth period closes with A.D. 1260,
and then shall dawn the Sabbath period of the New Covenant as the
age of the Holy Spirit. This will be preceded by a short reign
of antichrist as a punishment for the corruptions of the church
and clergy. By the labours of the monks, however, the church is
at last purified and brought forth triumphant, and the life of
holy contemplation becomes universal. The germs of antichrist
were evidently supposed to lie in the Hohenstaufen empire of
Frederick I. and Henry VI. The commentaries on Isaiah and
Jeremiah went so far as to point to the person of Frederick II.
as that of the antichrist.
§ 108.6. =Ghibelline Joachites= in Italy, mostly recruited
from the Franciscans, sided with the emperor against the pope
and adopted apocalyptic views to suit their politics, and
regarded the papacy as the precursor of antichrist. One of
their chiefs, Oliva, who died in A.D. 1297, wrote a _Postilla
super Apoc._, in which he denounced the Roman church of his
day as the Great Whore of Babylon, and his scholar Ubertino of
Casale saw in the beast that rose out of the sea (Rev. xiii.)
a prophetic picture of the papacy.--In Germany these views
spread among the Dominicans during the 13th century, especially
in Swabia. The movement was headed by one Arnold. who wrote an
_Epistola de correctione ecclesiæ_ about A.D. 1246. He finds in
Innocent IV. the antichrist and in Frederick II. the executioner
of the Divine judgment and the inauguration of the reformation.
Frederick’s death, which followed soon after in A.D. 1250, and
the catastrophe of A.D. 1268 (§ 96, 20), must have put an end
to the whole movement.
§ 108.7. =Revolutionary Reformers.=
1. The =Petrobrusians=, whose founder, =Peter of Bruys=,
was a pupil of Abælard and a priest in the south of France,
repudiated the outward or visible church and sought the
true or invisible church in the hearts of believers. He
insisted on the destruction of churches and sanctuaries
because God could be worshipped in a stable or tavern, burnt
crucifixes in the cooking stove, eagerly opposed celibacy,
mass, and infant baptism, and after a twenty years’ career
perished at the stake about A.D. 1126 at the hands of a
raging mob. One of Peter’s companions, =Henry of Lausanne=,
whose fiery eloquence had been influential in inciting to
reform, succeeded to the leadership of the Petrobrusians,
who from him were called =Henricians=. St. Bernard succeeded
in winning many of them back. Henry was condemned to
imprisonment for life, and died in A.D. 1149.
2. =Arnold of Brescia=, who died in A.D. 1155, a preacher
of great moral and religious earnestness, addressed himself
to attack the worldliness of the church and the papacy.
Except in maintaining that sacraments dispensed by unworthy
priests have no efficacy, he does not seem to have deviated
from the church doctrine. Officiating as reader in his
native town, his bishop complained of him as a heretic
to the second Lateran Council of A.D. 1139. His views
were condemned, and he himself was banished and enjoined
to observe perpetual silence. He now went to his teacher
Abælard in France. Here St. Bernard accused him at the synod
convened against Abælard at Sens in A.D. 1141 (§ 102, 2) as
“the armour-bearer” of this “Goliath-heretic,” and obtained
the condemnation of both. He was then excommunicated
by Innocent II. and imprisoned in a cloister. Arnold,
however, escaped to Switzerland, where he lived and taught
undisturbed in Zürich for some years, till Bishop Hermann
of Constance, at the instigation of the Saint of Clairvaux,
threatened him with imprisonment or exile. He was now taken
under the protection of Guido de Castella, Abælard’s friend
and patron, and accompanied him to Bohemia and Moravia.
On Guido’s elevation as Cœlestine II. to the papal chair
in A.D. 1143, Arnold returned to his native land. From
A.D. 1146 we find him in Rome at the head of the agitation
for political and ecclesiastical freedom. For further
details of his history, see § 96, 13, 14. A party of
so-called Arnoldists occupied itself long after his death
with the carrying out of his ecclesiastico-political ideal.
§ 108.8.
3. The so called =Pastorelles= were roused to revolution by
the miseries following the crusades. An impulse was given
to the sect by the news of the imprisonment of St. Louis
(§ 94, 6). A Cistercian =Magister Jacob= from Hungary
appeared in A.D. 1251 with the announcement that he had
seen the Mother of God, who gave him a letter calling upon
the pastors to rescue the Holy Sepulchre. Those who have
heard the Christmas message are called of God to undertake
the great work which neither the corrupt hierarchy nor the
proud, ambitious nobles were able to perform; but before
them, the poor shepherds, the sea will open a way, so that
they may hasten with dry feet to the release of king Louis.
His fanatical harangues soon gathered immense crowds of
common people around him, estimated at about 100,000 men.
But instead of going to the Holy Land, they first gave
vent to their wrath against the clergy, monks, and Jews
at home by murdering, plundering, and ill treating them
in all manner of ways. The queen-mother Blanca, favourable
at first, now used all her power against them. Jacob was
slain at Bourges, his troops scattered, and their leaders
executed.
4. In the =Apostolic Brothers= we have a blending of Arnoldist
and Joachist tendencies. Their founder, =Gerhard Segarelli=,
an artisan of Parma, was moved about A.D. 1260 by the sight
of a picture of the apostles in their poverty to go about
preaching repentance and calling on the church to return to
apostolic simplicity. He did not question the doctrine of
the church. Only when Honorius in A.D. 1286 and Nicholas IV.
in A.D. 1290 took measures against them did they openly
oppose the papacy and denounce the Roman church as the
apocalyptic Babylon. Segarelli was seized in A.D. 1294
and perished in the flames with many of his followers in
A.D. 1300. =Fra Dolcino=, a younger priest, now took the
leadership, and roused great enthusiasm by his preaching
against the Roman antichrist. He bravely held his ground
with 2,000 followers for two years in the recesses of the
mountains, but was reduced at last in A.D. 1307 by hunger,
and died like his predecessor at the stake. He distinguished
four stages in the historical development of the kingdom
of God on earth. The first two are those of the Father
and the Son in the O.T. and the N.T. The third begins
with Constantine’s establishment of the Christian empire,
advanced by the Benedictine rule and the reforms of the
Franciscans and Dominicans, but afterwards falling into
decay. The fourth era of complete restoration of the
apostolic life is inaugurated by Segarelli and Dolcino.
A new chief sent of God will rule the church in peace, and
the Holy Spirit will never leave the restored communion of
His saints. Remnants of the sect were long in existence in
France and Germany, where they united with the Fraticelli
and Beghards. Even in A.D. 1374 we find a synod at Narbonne
threatening them with the severest punishments.
§ 108.9. =Reforming Enthusiasts.=
1. A certain =Tanchelm= about A.D. 1115 preached in the
Netherlands against the corruptions of the church. He
claimed like honour with Christ as being assisted by the
same Spirit, is said to have betrothed himself to the
Virgin Mary, and to have been killed at last in A.D. 1124
by a priest.
2. A Frenchman, =Eon de Stella= of Brittany, hearing in
a church the words “_per =Eum= qui venturus est judicare
vivos et mortuos_,” and understanding it of his own name,
went through the country preaching, prophesying, and working
miracles. He secured many followers, and when persecuted,
fled to the woods. He denied the Divine institution of
the hierarchy, denounced the Roman church as false because
of the wicked lives of the priests, rejected the doctrine
of a resurrection of the body, denied that marriage was
a sacrament, and regarded the communication of the Spirit
by imposition of hands the only true baptism. In A.D. 1148
troops were sent against him, and he and many of his
followers were taken prisoners. His adherents were burnt,
but Eon was brought before a synod at Rheims, where he
answered the question of the pope Eugenius III., “Who art
thou?” by saying _Is qui venturus est_, etc. He was then
pronounced deranged and delivered over to the custody of
the archbishop.
§ 108.10. =The Waldensians.=
1. =Their Origin.=--A citizen of Lyons, named Valdez
(Valdesius, Waldus, the Christian name of Peter, given
to him first 120 years later, is quite unsupported), who
had become rich by the practice of usury, an occupation
condemned by the church, was about A.D. 1173 deeply
impressed by reading the legend of St. Alexius, and was
in his spiritual anxiety directed by a theologian to the
words of Christ to the rich young ruler in Matthew xix. 21.
Making over to his wife only his landed property, and
distributing all the rest of his possessions among the
poor, and then, for further instruction in regard to the
imitation of Christ required of him, having applied himself
to the study of the gospels, the Psalter, and other biblical
books, and a selection of classical passages translated for
his use by two friendly priests out of the writings of the
Fathers into the Romance dialect, he founded in A.D. 1177,
in company with certain men and women, who were prepared
like himself to abandon the world and all its goods,
a society for preaching the gospel among the people. In
accordance with the Lord’s command to the seventy disciples
(Luke x. 1-4), they went forth two and two in apostolic
costume, in woollen penitential garments, without staff
or scrip, their feet protected with merely wooden sandals
(_sabatas, sabots_), preaching repentance, and proclaiming
the gospel message of salvation throughout the land, in
order to bring back again among the people the Christian
life in its purity and simplicity. The Archbishop of
Lyons prohibited their preaching; but they referred to
Acts v. 29, and appealed, praying for a confirmation of
their association, to the Third Lateran Council of A.D. 1179,
under Alexander III., which, however, scornfully dismissed
their appeal. As they nevertheless still continued to preach,
Pope Lucius III., at the Council of Verona, in A.D. 1184,
laid them under the ban. They had hitherto no intention
of offering any sort of opposition to the doctrine,
worship, or constitution of the Catholic church. Even the
Catholic authorities did not so much take offence at what
they preached but rather only at this, that they without
ecclesiastical call and authority had assumed the function
of preaching. Innocent III., also, admitted the imprudence
of his predecessor, and favoured the plan of a Waldensian
who had left his brethren to transform the association of
the _Pauperes de Lugduno_ into the monastic-like lay union
of _Pauperes Catholici_, to which in A.D. 1208 he assigned
the duties of preaching, expounding Scripture, and holding
meetings for edification under episcopal supervision. But
this concession came too late. Since the church had itself
broken off the fetters which had previously bound them to
the traditional faith of the Catholic church, the Leonists
had gone too far upon the path of evangelical freedom to
be satisfied with any such terms. Innocent now renewed the
ban against them at the Fourth Lateran Council of A.D. 1215.
Of the later life and work of the founder we know with
certainty only this, that he made extensive journeys in
the interests of his cause. Even during his lifetime (he
died probably about A.D. 1217) the members (_socii_) of
the society (_Societas Valdesiana_) founded by him had
spread themselves in great numbers over the whole of the
south of France, the east of Spain, the north of Italy,
and the south of Germany, and had even crossed the Channel
into England. They were named, in accordance with their
fundamental principle, as well as from the starting
point of their apostolic mission, _Pauperes de Lugduno_
or _Leonistæ_=from Lyons, also from the covering of
their feet, _Sabatati_; but they styled themselves among
one another _fratres_ and _sorores_, and their adherents
among the people _amici_ and _amicæ_; while the Catholic
polemical writers, who for a similar class among the
Cathari had employed the distinctive terms _Perfecti_
and _Credentes_, made use of these designations in
treating of the Waldensians. The latter continue “in
the world,” that is, in the exercise of their family
duties, and the discharge of civil obligations, and all
the positions and entanglements connected therewith;
while the former devoted themselves to a celibate life,
to absolute poverty, to incessant preaching from place to
place, and to unconditional refusal of all oathtaking, and
a literal acceptance of all the precepts of the Sermon on
the Mount, involving the rejection of any sort of fixed
residence, and on the basis of Luke x. 7, 8, any handiwork
that would earn for them the necessaries of life. They
had their own _ministri_ for the administration of the
sacraments; but these were elected only _ad tempus_,
namely once a year, simply for the discharge of that duty.
At the head of the whole community down to his death stood
the founder himself. He led the entire movement, received
new members into the _societas_, and chose and ordained
the _ministri_.--The two most important sources for the
primitive history of the Waldensian movement, mutually
supplementing one another, are, the _Chronicon Laudunense_
of an unnamed canon of Laon in the _Mon. Germ. Scrr._
xxvi. 447, and the tract _De Septem Donis Spir. S._ of the
inquisitor Stephen de Borbone, who died A.D. 1261, which is
given in full in _de la Marche, Anecdotes historiques_, etc.,
Paris, 1877.
§ 108.11.
2. =Their Divisions.=--One of the oldest, most important,
and most reliable sources of information regarding the
affairs of the old Waldensians was first published by
Preger in 1875, in his _Beiträge z. Gesch. d. Waldensier
im MA._, namely, an epistle embodied by the “_anonymous
writer of Passau_” in his heretic catalogue, from the
“Poor Men of Italy” to their fellow believers in Germany,
_ad Leonistas in Alamannia_, in which they give a report of
the proceedings at a convention held at Bergamo in A.D. 1218,
with the deputies from “_the ultramontane_,” that is, the
French, “Poor Men.” On the basis of this communication
Preger has contested the view that the “Poor Men of Italy”
were the Waldensians, and traces their origin rather to
the working men’s association of the _Humiliati_ that
had already sprung up in the eleventh century (§ 98, 7),
which having even before this, by adopting Arnoldist ideas,
become estranged from the Catholic church, came also into
connection with Valdez, appropriated many of his opinions,
and then entered into fraternal relations with the French
Waldesians. This theory, as also no less the explanations
connected therewith of the constitutional and doctrinal
differences of the two parties, has been proved by Carl
Müller in his _Die Waldensier u. ihre einzelne Gruppen
bis Auf d. 14. Jhd._ to be in many particulars untenable,
and he has shown that the Waldensian origin of “the Poor
Men of Lombardy” is witnessed to even by this epistle.
The results of his researches are in the main as follows:
The movement set on foot in A.D. 1177 by Valdez of Lyons
in the direction of an apostolic walk and conversation was
transplanted at a very early period into northern Italy,
and found there a favourable reception, especially in the
ranks of the Humiliati. These, too, as well as Valdez, in
A.D. 1179, approached Alexander III. with the prayer to
authorize their entering on such a vocation, but were also
immediately repulsed, attached themselves then to the “Poor
Men of Lyons,” submitting to the monarchical rule of their
founder, and along with them, in A.D. 1184, fell under the
papal ban. Yet among the Lombards a strong craving after
greater independence and freedom soon found expression,
which asserted itself most decidedly in the claim to the
right of their own independent choice and ordination of
lifelong organs of government for their society, as well
as for priestly services, which, however, Valdez, fearing
a dissolution of the whole society from the granting of
such partial independence, answered with a decided refusal.
With equal decision did he insist upon the disbanding of
those workmen’s associations for common production, which
the Lombards, as formerly the Humiliati, formed from the
laymen belonging to them, and forbade them even engaging
in any handicraft which they had hitherto pursued alongside
of their spiritual vocations, as inconsistent with the
apostolic life according to the prescriptions of Christ in
Luke x. Thus it came about, in consequence of the unyielding
temper of both parties, that there was a formal split; for
the Lombards appointed their own independent _præpositus_,
who, just like their _ministri_ charged with the conduct
of worship, held office for life. In the course of the year
the split widened through the adoption of other divergences
on the part of the Lombards. Yet after the death of the
founder, about A.D. 1217 they entered upon negotiations
about a reunion, which found a hearty response also among
the French. By means of epistolary explanations a basis
for union in regard to those questions which had occasioned
the separation had already been attained unto. The French
granted to the Lombards independent election and ordination
of their ministers for church government and worship, and
allowed the appointment to be for life, while they also
agreed to the continuance of their workmen’s associations.
In May, A.D. 1218, six brethren from the two parties were
at Bergamo appointed to draw up definite terms of peace,
and to secure a verbal explanation of other less important
differences, which was also accomplished without difficulty.
The whole peace negotiations, however, were ultimately
shattered over two questions, which first came to the front
during the verbal explanations: (i.) Over the question of
the felicity of the deceased founder, which the Lombards
were disposed to affirm only conditionally, _i.e._ in case
he had been penitent before his death for the sins of which
he had been guilty through his intolerant treatment of them,
while the French would have it affirmed unconditionally;
and (ii.) over the controversy about the validity of the
dispensation of the sacrament of the altar by an unworthy
person. On both sides they were thoroughly agreed in
saying that not the priest, but the omnipotence of God,
changed bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper into the body
and blood of Christ. But while the French drew from this
the conclusion that even an unworthy and wicked priest
could truly and effectually administer the sacrament, the
Italians persisted in the contrary opinion, and quoted
Scripture and the writings of the Fathers to prove the
correctness of their views.
§ 108.12.
3. =Attempts at Catholicizing.=--On the origin, character,
and task of the _Pauperes Catholici_ referred to above,
the epistles of Pope Innocent III. regarding them afford
us pretty accurate and detailed information. The first
impulse toward their formation was given by a disputation
with the French Waldensians held by Bishop Diego of Osma
at Pamiers in A.D. 1206, by means of which he succeeded,
aided by the powerful co-operation of his companion
St. Dominic, in persuading a number of the heretics to
return to the obedience of the Catholic church. Among
those converted on that occasion was the Spaniard Durandus
of Osca (Huesca), who now laid before the pope the plan
of forming from among the converted Waldensians a society
of Catholic Poor Men under the oversight of the bishops,
which, by appropriating and carrying out all the fundamental
principles of the Waldensian system--apostolic poverty,
apostolic dress, apostolic life, and apostolic vocation,
according to Luke x.--would not only paralyse or outbid
the ministry of the heretical Poor Men among the people,
but would also open up the way for their own return and
attachment again to the church. The pope approved of his
plan, and confirmed the union founded by him in A.D. 1208.
The undertaking of Durandus seems to have been from the
first not altogether without success in the direction
intended. At least we find that Bernard Primus was
encouraged one and a half years later to found a second
similar society on essentially the same basis, which
Innocent III. approved and confirmed. This later association
was distinguished from the earlier only in this, that it
allowed its members, besides their itinerant preaching
and pastoral work, to engage also in their own handicraft.
We are now led, by this difference, to the conclusion that,
as the institution of Durandus issued from the bosom of the
French Waldensians, that of Bernard had its origin among
the groups of the Poor Men of Lombardy. This supposition
is further confirmed when we observe that the latter, in
drawing up its Catholic confession of faith, expressly
abjures the formerly cherished conviction of the inefficacy
of sacramental actions performed by unworthy priests.
But the reason why both these unions, notwithstanding
papal approval and support, failed to exert any permanent
influence is to be sought pre-eminently in this, that,
tainted as their reputation was with the memory of their
former heresy, they were soon far outrun and overshadowed
by the two great mendicant orders, which wrought with
ampler means and appliances in the same direction.
§ 108.13.
4. =The French Societies.=--What these found fault with
in the Catholic church was, not its dogmatics, to which,
with the single exception of the doctrine of purgatory
and all therewith connected, indulgence, masses for souls,
foundations, alms, and works of piety on behalf of the dead,
they firmly adhered; nor yet its liturgical institutions,
which, with the exception of masses for souls, they left
untouched; nor yet its hierarchical constitutions _per
se_, for they transferred its leading principles into
their own organization: but it was simply this, that its
clergy had become guilty of the deadly sin of assuming and
exercising the apostolic prerogative without undertaking
the obligations of apostolic poverty, the apostolic life,
and the apostolic vocation, which alone warranted such
assumption. But as they thus, nevertheless, firmly adhered
to the Catholic principle of the validity of a sacrament
administered even by an unworthy person, if only he had
authority for doing so from the church, they could allow
themselves, and specially their lay adherents, to take
part in all Catholic services and acts of worship, without
regarding themselves or their followers as under obligation
to yield obedience to the pope and the bishops, or to
recognise their spiritual jurisdiction, authority to
inflict punishment, and right of arbitrary legislation
in regard to fasts, festivals, impediments to marriage,
etc.--As to the organization of the society, it is now
perfectly clear that there was a threefold division of
offices: bishops, presbyters, and deacons. Reception into
the _Societas Fratrum_ was consummated by the imparting
of the ordination of deacon. This, however, was preceded
by a longer or shorter novitiate, _i.e._ a period of trial
and preparation for the apostolic vocation of preaching.
The entrance into this novitiate (_conversio_) required
the surrender of all property for the benefit of the poor,
and on the part of those already married the abandonment
of every form of marital relationship; and on reception
into the brotherhood the vow of obedience to the superiors
was exacted, as well as a vow of celibacy and chastity.--To
the bishop, who as such was also called _minister_ and
_major_ or _majoralis_, belonged the right to administer
the sacraments of penance and ordination, as well as the
consecration of the eucharistic elements; he might preach
wherever he chose, and he assigned to presbyters and deacons
their spheres of labour. The presbyters, in addition to
preaching, also heard confessions, imposed penance, and
granted absolution, but did not administer the punishments
imposed, for this was the exclusive function of the
bishop.--The deacons were only to preach, but not to
hear confession, and their special duty consisted in
collecting contributions for the support of the brethren.
That also women, on the basis of Titus ii. 3, 4, were
admitted into these societies is an undoubted fact. Their
position was essentially the same as that of the deacons;
but the number of preaching sisters continued always
relatively small.--After the death of the founder the
society once a year chose from among the existing bishops
two _rectores_, who now together administered that supreme
government and high priesthood which had previously been
exercised by the founder alone. It was, however, by-and-by
found desirable to revert to the older monarchical
constitution, but all through the 13th century this
office was held only by a yearly tenure. The retiring
bishops, however, received for life the rank and title
of _major_. But even over the rector stood the _commune_
or _congregatio_; _i.e._ the general chapter assembled
once or twice in the year, in which the brethren of all
the three orders had a seat and vote. The obligation
to wear the apostolic dress, persistence in which would
have in a very short time thrown all the brethren into
the Moloch arms of the Inquisition, was abandoned soon
after the erection of that tribunal in A.D. 1232.--The
lay adherents attracted by the preaching and pastoral
activity of the brethren, the so-called _Amici, Fautores,
Receptatores_, were not organized as exclusive and
independent communities, because their continued
participation in the services and sacraments of the
Catholic church was regarded as permissible. On the
other hand, they maintained, as far as possible, regular
intercourse with the brethren, who in various styles of
dress visited them secretly, preached to them, exhorted
and instructed them, prayed with them and said grace at
their tables, heard their confessions, imposed penances
and granted absolution, uttering the formula of absolution,
however, not in the language of an absolute judicial
proclamation, but as a supplication and fervent desire.
The _Amici_ were allowed to make their Easter confession
and observance of the Supper at the Catholic service. The
brethren had of course also an independent celebration
of the Lord’s Supper, which occurred only once a year,
on Maundy Thursday, but was confined as a rule to the
brothers and sisters there assembled. The profound
acquaintance with Holy Scripture, especially the New
Testament, not only among the preaching “brothers,” but
also among their “friends,” many of whom knew by heart
a large portion of the New Testament, was the subject of
general remark and the occasion of astonishment. Besides
Holy Scripture, the selection of patristic passages used
by Valdez and the _Moralia_ of Gregory the Great were in
high repute as means of instruction and edification.--The
systematic efforts put forth from A.D. 1232 for the
uprooting and extirpating of heresy wrought effectually
among the French Waldensian “brethren” and “friends.” The
remnants of them that survived the persecution were driven
farther and farther into the remotest valleys of the western
and eastern spurs of the Cottian Alps, into Dauphiné
and Provence on the French side, and into Piedmont on
the Italian side.--The most important sources are: _Adv.
Valdens. sectam_, of Bernard Abbot of Fonscalidus, who
died in A.D. 1193; _Doctrina de Moda Procedendi a Hæret._
of the Inquisition at Carcassone and Toulouse of A.D. 1280;
the _consultatio_ of Arch. Peter Amelius of Narbonne and
the provincial synods held under him in A.D. 1243, 1244;
and the recently published _Practica Inquisition._ of the
inquisitor Bernard Guidonis of A.D. 1321.--Continuation,
§ 119, 9A.
§ 108.14.
A representation of the origin and character of the old
Waldensian movement completely different from that given
in the sources mentioned and used in the preceding sections,
especially in reference to the French societies, has
been current since the middle of the 16th century in the
modern Waldensian tradition, and by means of falsified or
misunderstood documents has been repeated by most Protestant
historians down to and including U. Hahn. The investigations
of Dieckhoff and Herzog first demolished for ever those
fabulous creations of Waldensian mythology, though more
recent Waldensian writers, _e.g._ Hudry-Ménos, but not
Comba, seek still tenaciously to assert their truth.
According to these traditions, long before the days of
Waldus of Lyons there were Waldensian, _i.e._ Vallensian
communities in the valleys of Piedmont, the “Israel of
the Alps,” the bearers of pure gospel truth, whose origin
was to be traced back at least to Claudius of Turin, while
others fondly carried it back to the Apostle Paul, who on
his journey to Spain (Rom. xv. 24) may have also visited
the Piedmontese valleys. It was to them that Peter of
Lyons owed his spiritual awakening and his surname of
Waldus, _i.e._ the Waldensian. For proof of this assertion
we are referred to a pretty copious manuscript literature
said to be old Waldensian, written in a peculiar Romance
dialect, deposited in the libraries of Geneva, Dublin,
Cambridge, Zürich, Grenoble, and Paris. Upon close and
unprejudiced examination of these literary pieces, of
which the oldest portion cannot possibly claim an earlier
date than the beginning of the 14th century, it has become
quite apparent that these, in so far as they are not
fabrications or interpolations, do not afford the least
grounds for justifying those Waldensian fantasies. This
view is further corroborated by the fact, that the most
careful and thorough investigator in this department, Carl
Müller, confidently maintains the conviction and shows
the basis on which it rests, “that the whole so-called
Waldensian literature of the pre-Hussite period has been
without exception derived from Catholic and not from
Waldensian sources.” The falsifications in this reputed
old Waldensian group of writings referred to, by means
of interpolation, omission, and alteration in the tracts
belonging to that collection, as well as the forging
of new writings, and that simply for the purpose of
vindicating for their society the mythical fame of
a primitive, independent, and ever pure evangelical
church, first found place after the Protestantizing
of the Romance or Piedmontese Waldensians, and were
thereafter successfully turned to account _bona_ or
_mala fide_ by their historians, Perrin, Leger, Muston,
Monastier, etc. In the _Nobla laiczon_ (=_lectio_),
_e.g._ a religious doctrinal poem, in the statement of
_vv._ 6, 7, that since the origin of the New Testament
writings 1,400 years had passed (mil e 4 cent anz) the
figure 4 was erased, so that it might appear to be an
ascertained fact that in A.D. 1100, seventy years before
the appearance of Waldus, there were already Waldensian
communities in existence. But when, in A.D. 1862, the
Morland manuscripts, which had been lost for 200 years,
were again discovered in Cambridge library, there was
found among them a copy of the _Nobla laiczon_, in which
before the word _cent_ an erasure was observable, in
which the outlines of the loop of the Arabic numeral 4
were still clearly discernible. In another piece contained
in this collection the passage referred to was quoted
as “mil e CCCC anz.” Hussite writings translated from
the Bohemian were also palmed off as genuine Waldensian
works of the earlier centuries, and were in addition
provided with the corresponding date. A manuscript of the
New Testament at Zürich was assigned to the 12th century;
but on more careful scrutiny it was shown that the writer
must have had before him the Greek Testament of Erasmus.
But the most glaring case of falsification is seen in
the “Waldensian Confession of Faith,” first adduced by
Perrin as evidence of the faith of the old Waldensians,
to which a later hand had ascribed as the date of its
composition the year 1120. It copies almost word for
word the utterances of Bucer as given in Morel’s report
of his negotiations with that divine and Œcolampadius.
In this way a new stamp has been put upon the doctrinal
articles of the old Waldensians.[320]
§ 108.15.
5. =The Lombard-German Branch.=--In regard to the Lombards
themselves, since the epistle of Bergamo we have only
scanty reports, and these are found in the treatise of
Monata, of 1240, _Adv. Catharos et Valdenses_, and in
the _Summa de Catharis et Leonistis_ of the Dominican
inquisitor Rainerius Sacchoni, of 1250. We have ampler
accounts, however, from their German mission-field, which
had already extended so far as to stretch from the Rhine
provinces into Austria. From the time of the unsuccessful
endeavours at Bergamo to effect a union between the two
principal groups, there was, so far as we are aware, no
further intercourse between the two. On the other hand,
the German Waldensians during the 13th and 14th centuries
maintained a pretty regular communication with their
Italian brethren.--In general, too, the Lombards continued,
along with their German offspring, to hold firmly by the
fundamental tenets of the primitive Waldensian faith. Their
preaching brothers and sisters were also called in Germany
_Meister_ (_magistri_) and _Meïsterinnen_, the men also
_Apostles_ and _Twelve-Apostles_, or, since also there,
next to preaching, they had as their most essential and
important spiritual function the administration of the
sacrament of penance, _Beichtiger_ (_bihter_), confessors.
The view that had been already so vigorously maintained
at Bergamo, that a priest guilty of mortal sin, and
such in their eyes were all Catholic priests, could not
efficaciously administer any sacrament, led them naturally
to assume a much freer attitude toward the Catholic church,
which summed itself up in the radical principle, that
everything connected with that church which cannot be shown
from the New Testament to have been expressly taught and
enjoined by Christ or His apostles, is to be set aside as
an unevangelical human addition. This position however was
insisted upon by them less in criticism and confutation of
the church doctrine than in opposition to the practices of
the church as a whole. In consequence of this criticism,
they, transcending far the mere negations of the French,
rejected not only all church festivals, beyond the simple
Sunday festival, not only all processions and pilgrimages,
all ceremonies, candles, incense, holy water, images,
liturgical dress and cloths, all consecrations and blessing
of churches, bells, burying grounds, candles, ashes, palms,
robes, salt, water, etc., but also the centre and climax
of all Catholic worship, the mass; not only of purgatory
and everything in church practice that had sprung from it,
not only ban and interdict, but also invocation of saints,
image and relic worship, etc. Yet all the masters did
not go equally far in this negative direction. Especially
during the second half of the 13th century a remarkable
reaction set in against the severity and exclusiveness
of that negation, because increasing persecution obliged
them to withdraw into secrecy as much as possible with
their confession and their specifically Waldensian forms
of worship, or to suspend their services altogether, and
indeed, to save themselves from the suspicion of heresy,
to allow to themselves and their lay adherents liberty
to engage in the services of the Catholic church, and to
submit to the indispensable demands of the church, such
as the attendance at mass, making confession, and taking
the communion at Easter. They held indeed firmly by the
principle, _Quod sacerdos in mortali peccato sacramentum
non possit conficere_, but they comforted themselves by
the assurance already expressed at Bergamo, that the Lord
Himself directly gives to the worthy communicant who, in
case of need, receives the sacrament from the hand of an
unworthy priest, what by him cannot be communicated, for
the transubstantiation is effected not _in manu indigne
conficientis_, but _in ore digne sumentis_. Thus during
the times of oppression they kept their own observance of
the supper quite in abeyance, the dispensation of which
was not among them, as among the French, restricted to
the masters; but on this account they laid all the greater
weight on the necessity of confession to their own clergy as
those who could alone give absolution. Also the prohibition
of all oaths as well as bloodshedding, therefore also of
military service, and the acceptance of magisterial and
judicial offices, was strictly adhered to.--A peculiar
adaptation of the Roman Catholic tradition of the baptism
and donation of Constantine, which seems to have found
no acceptance among the French, became a favourite legend
among all the Lombard and German Waldensians. According
to it the ancient church had existed for three hundred
years in apostolic humility, simplicity, and poverty.
But when the Roman bishop Sylvester was endowed by the
emperor Constantine the Great with such superabundance of
worldly might, riches, and honour, the period of general
decline from the apostolic pattern set in. Only one of
his fellow clergy protested, and was, when all enticements
and threatenings proved of no avail, driven away along
with his adherents. The latter increased and spread
by-and-by over the earth. After a violent persecution,
which had almost cut off all of them, Peter Waldus made
his appearance with his companion, John of Lyons, as
the restorer of the apostolic life and calling, etc. To
this there was subsequently attached another legend. The
brethren had previously based their right to discharge
all priestly functions with the greatest confidence simply
on their apostolic life, and so they could not conceal
from themselves at a later period the fact that the want
of continued apostolic succession, on which the Catholic
church rested the claims of their priests, would place the
Waldensian masters very much in the shade as compared with
the Catholics. They began, therefore, not only to claim that
their founder Waldus had been previously a Roman presbyter,
but also to devise the fable of a bishop or even a cardinal
of the Romish church, through whose favour that defect had
been overcome.--Continuation, § 119, 9.
§ 108.16.
6. =Relations between the Waldensians and Older and
Contemporary Sects.=--Owing to the extraordinarily lively
and zealous propagandist activity of the sects at the
time of the origin and early development of the Waldensian
movement, there can scarcely be a doubt that the latter,
after it had freed itself from all obligation of obedience
to the pope and bishops, and had been driven out by them,
must at various points have come into close relations with
the other sects which, like it, had risen in rebellion
against the papacy and the hierarchy, and like it had been
persecuted by these. The numerous sect of the Cathari holds
a conspicuous position in this connection. That Waldus and
his companions must have decidedly repudiated the dualistic
principles which all these otherwise greatly diverging
Catharist sects had in common is indeed quite self-evident;
but this by no means prevented them from recognising
and appropriating such particular institutions, forms
of organization or modes of worship, peculiar moral
requirements, etc., practised by them as might seem fitted
to further their own ends. And that this actually was done,
many noticeable points of agreement between the two plainly
indicate. Thus on both sides we find a similar division of
members, the _Perfecti_ and _Credentes_ corresponding to
the _Fratres_ and _Amici_, and the kind of spiritual care
which the former took of the latter, the grace at table
said by the itinerant preachers, the importance attached to
the possession and use of bread that had been blessed by the
brethren, the frequent use by both of the Lord’s Prayer, the
rejection of purgatory and everything connected therewith,
also the prohibition of swearing and of military service,
the refusal of the magisterial _jus gladii_, etc. On the
other hand, however, it is more than probable that at last
the remnants of the Cathari which escaped the Inquisition
in great part had found refuge among the Waldensians in the
valleys of the Cottian Alps, and there became assimilated
and amalgamated with them (§ 119, 9A).--Further, the
assumption that the Lombard Waldensians had first reached
the principle by which they are distinguished from their
French brethren, about the incapacity of unworthy priests
for dispensing the sacraments, from outside influences,
perhaps from the Arnoldists, is raised almost to a certainty
by the statement made by their deputies at Bergamo in
A.D. 1218, that they had even themselves in earlier times
held the opposite view.--Even the pantheistic tendency of
an Amalrich and the Brethren of the New Spirit may have
found entrance among the German Waldensians, and have there
given origin to the sect of the Ortlibarians.
§ 109. THE CHURCH AGAINST THE PROTESTERS.
The church was by no means indifferent to the spread of those
heresies of the 11th and 12th centuries, which called in question
its own very existence. Even in the 11th century she called in the
aid of the stake as a type of the fire of hell that would consume
the heretics, and against this only one voice, that of Bishop Wazo
of Liège († A.D. 1048), was raised. In the 12th century protesting
voices were more numerous: Peter the Venerable (§ 98, 1), Rupert of
Deutz, St. Hildegard, St. Bernard, declared sword and fire no fit
weapons for conversion. St. Bernard showed by his own example how by
loving entreaty and friendly instruction more might be done than by
awakening a fanatical enthusiasm for martyrdom. But hangmen and stakes
were more easily produced than St. Bernards, of whom the 12th and
13th centuries had by no means a superabundance. By-and-by Dominic
sent out his disciples to teach and convert heretics by preaching and
disputation; as long as they confined themselves to these methods they
were not without success. But even they soon found it more congenial
or more effective to fight the heretics with tortures and the stake
rather than with discussion and discourse. The Albigensian crusade
and the tribunal of the Inquisition erected in connection therewith
at last overpowered the protesters and drove the remnants of their
sects into hiding. In the administration of punishment the church
made no distinction between the various sects; all were alike who
were at war with the church.
§ 109.1. =The Albigensian Crusade, A.D. 1209-1229.=--Toward the
end of the 12th century sects abounded in the south of France.
Innocent III. regarded them as worse than the Saracens, and in
A.D. 1203 sent a legate, Peter of Castelnau, with full powers to
secure their extermination. But Peter was murdered in A.D. 1208,
and suspicion fell on Raymond IV., Count of Toulouse. A crusade
under Simon de Montfort was now summoned against the sectaries,
who as mainly inhabiting the district of Albigeois were now
called =Albigensians=. A twenty years’ war was carried on with
mad fanaticism and cruelty on both sides, in which guilty and
innocent, men, women, and children were ruthlessly slain. At
the sack of Beziers with 20,000 inhabitants the papal legate
cried, “Slay all, the Lord will know how to seek out and save
His own.”[321]
§ 109.2. =The Inquisition.=--Every one screening a heretic
forfeited lands, goods, and office; a house in which such a
one was discovered was levelled to the ground; all citizens
had to communicate thrice a year, and every second year to
renew their oath of attachment to the church, and to refuse
all help in sickness to those suspected of heresy, etc. The
bishops not showing themselves zealous enough in enforcing
these laws, Gregory IX. in A.D. 1232 founded the Tribunal of
the Inquisition, and placed it in the hands of the Dominicans.
These as _Domini canes_ subjected to the most cruel tortures all
on whom the suspicion of heresy fell, and all the resolute were
handed over to the civil authorities, who readily undertook their
execution.[322]--Continuation § 117, 2.
§ 109.3. =Conrad of Marburg and the Stedingers.=--The first
Inquisitor of Germany, the Dominican =Conrad of Marburg=, also
known as the severe confessor of St. Elizabeth (§ 105, 3), after
a three years’ career of cruelty was put to death by certain
of the nobles in A.D. 1233. _Et sic_, say the Annals of Worms,
_divino auxilio liberata est Teutonia ab isto judicio enormi
et inaudito_. He was enrolled by Gregory IX. among the martyrs.
Perhaps wrongly he has been blamed for Gregory’s crusade of
A.D. 1234 against the =Stedingers=. These were Frisians of
Oldenburg who revolted against the oppression of nobles and
priests, refused socage and tithes, and screened Albigensian
heretics. The first crusade failed; the second succeeded and
plundered, murdered, and burned on every hand. Thousands of the
unhappy peasants were slain, neither women nor children were
spared, and all prisoners were sent to the stake as heretics.
_THIRD SECTION._
HISTORY OF THE GERMANO-ROMANIC CHURCH IN THE
14TH AND 15TH CENTURIES (A.D. 1294-1517).