ORIGIN OF THE ROMISH INQUISITION.
Persecution of the Paulicians--Albigenses--Their sufferings in
Languedoc--In England, Spain, France--Counts Raymond and
Roger--Massacre of their People--Dominic, founder of the
Inquisition.
Intolerance seems essential to the office of a priest; as no sooner was
this character assumed by Christian pastors, than they commenced
persecution against those who disputed their claims. Hence originated
the Inquisition. Its operations have ever been directed against all who
differed from the ruling prelates, even when making their appeal to the
Holy Scriptures. And such there were from the time of the apostles.
Among the earliest of those who were put to death by professing
Christians were the Paulicians.
These people are thought to have been so called from Paul, a preacher,
of the Armenian church, in the seventh century; but some consider
Constantine of Samosata their founder, about A.D. 660. He received from
a pious deacon, who had escaped from captivity among the Mohammedans, a
copy of the New Testament. This he esteemed as a precious gift; and,
finding the instruction of the Scriptures different from the prevailing
superstitions, he formed a system of theology for himself from the
sacred oracles. Constantine devoted himself to the work of the ministry,
assuming the name of Sylvanus, a companion of the apostle Paul. His
colleagues in preaching were called Timothy, Titus, and Tychicus; and
six of their churches were named after those to whom Paul had addressed
his Epistles. They rejected human traditions in religion, the worship of
the Virgin Mary, of images, and of the cross. They abolished the lofty
titles of the priesthood, and instituted pastors, with perfect equality,
and without robes to distinguish them from the people. In Asia Minor
they increased greatly, and the Greek emperors persecuted them
grievously. An officer named Simeon was sent, as an inquisitor, to seek
Sylvanus, and he was apprehended, with some of his followers, at
Colonia. As the price of liberty, they were required _to stone their
pastor!_ One only among them, Justus, was found sufficiently base; and
he murdered thus his faithful teacher, who fell a martyr for Christ,
after having laboured for twenty-seven years, diffusing the doctrine of
the Gospel. Justus aggravated his guilt by betraying his brethren; while
Simeon, observing the grace of God in the joyful sufferers, embraced the
Gospel, forsook the world, preached the faith, and died also a martyr
for Jesus.
From the Paulicians arose, as it is believed, a branch of the celebrated
Christian confessors, the Valdenses, or Waldenses. Dr. Haweis,
therefore, says of them, “At the close of the seventh century we see
the first traces of a small but precious body, afterwards named
Valdenses, which some suppose a branch of the Paulicians. Retiring from
the insolence and oppressions of the Romish clergy, and disgusted with
their vices, they sought a hiding-place in the secluded valleys of the
Pais de Vaud, embosomed by the Alps, and removed from the observation of
their persecutors, where they might enjoy purer worship and communion
with God.”
These Paulicians increased, and scriptural knowledge was eagerly sought
by several persons, who became eminent preachers in the southern parts
of France, in Savoy, in Piedmont, and in the contiguous districts of
Germany. Their followers were called after their teachers, or by various
contemptuous appellations, taken from their peculiar customs or
principles. Some were _Petrobrusians_, from Peter de Bruys, who, after
twenty years’ labour, became a martyr for Christ; _Henricians_, from
Henry, a disciple and colleague of Peter; _Albigenses_, from the city of
Albi, where they were condemned in a council; _Cathari_, or Puritans,
from their seeking the purity of Christian doctrine; and _Waldenses_,
from Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyons, in France. This great man
procured translations of several parts of the Scriptures, and commenced
his ministry, having relinquished his trade, about A.D. 1180, especially
in France and Lombardy. The converts of these zealous men became very
numerous; and they soon attracted the notice of the papal court in this
century.
Egbert, a German abbot, says of them, “They are increased to great
multitudes throughout all countries. In Germany, we call them _Cathari_;
in Flanders, they call them _Pipples_; in France, _Tisserands_
(weavers), because many of them are of that occupation.”
Among these people many churches were formed, with intelligent and
devout pastors of their own choosing. The _Cathari_, especially in
Piedmont, formed separate societies, which were screened, in a great
measure, from the popish prelates, by the retired seclusion of their
habitations in the valleys, from which they were called _Valdenses_.
These people were regarded with jealousy by the prelates, and their
enemies commonly accused them of grievous errors; but it is well known
that they were slandered, and that, while they rejected the claims and
idolatries of the Romish priesthood, they generally held the essentials
of the Gospel, as they derived their principles from the Scriptures.
Egbert, the abbot, says of them, “They are armed with all those passages
of Holy Scripture, which, in any degree, seem to favour their views:
with these they know how to defend themselves, and to oppose the
Catholic truth, though they mistake entirely the true sense of
Scripture, which cannot be discovered without great judgment.”
Evervinus, an abbot in Cologne, in a letter to Bernard, the most famous
priest of the church of Rome of his time, called _St. Bernard_, says,
A.D. 1140, “There have been lately some heretics discovered among us,
near Cologne, though some of them have, with satisfaction, returned
again to the church. One of their bishops and his companions openly
opposed us in the assembly of the clergy and laity, in the presence of
the archbishop of Cologne and of many of the nobility, defending their
heresy by the words of Christ and his apostles. Finding that they made
no impression, they desired that a day might be appointed for them, on
which they might bring their teachers to a conference, promising to
return to the church, provided they found their masters unable to answer
the arguments of their opponents, but that otherwise they would rather
die than depart from their judgment. Upon this declaration, having been
admonished to repent for three days, they were seized by the people in
the excess of zeal, and _burnt to death_; and what is very amazing, they
came to the stake, and bore the pain, not only with patience, but even
with joy! Were I with you, father, I should be glad to ask you, how
these members of Satan could persist in their heresy with such courage
and constancy as is scarcely to be found in the most religious believers
in Christianity.”
St. Bernard himself was a violent persecutor, yet he says of them, “If
you ask them of their faith, nothing can be more Christian; if you
observe their conversation, nothing can be more blameless; and what they
speak they prove by deeds.” Claudius, archbishop of Turin, writes,
“Their heresy excepted, they generally live a purer life than other
Christians.” Cassini, a Franciscan friar, says, “That ALL THE ERRORS of
these Waldenses consisted in this, that they denied the church of Rome
to be the HOLY MOTHER-CHURCH, AND WOULD NOT OBEY HER TRADITIONS!”
Thuanus, a Catholic historian, says they are charged with holding, “That
the church of Rome, because it renounced the true faith of Christ, WAS
THE WHORE OF BABYLON, and the barren tree which Christ himself cursed
and commanded to be plucked up; that, consequently, NO OBEDIENCE WAS TO
BE PAID TO THE POPE, or to the bishops who maintain her errors; that a
monastic life was the sink and dungeon of the church; that the orders of
the priesthood were marks of the great beast mentioned in the
Revelation; that the fire of purgatory, the solemn mass, the
consecration days of churches, the worship of saints, and propitiation
for the dead, were devices of Satan.”
Exemplary as were their morals, and scriptural as were their principles,
thus testified by their enemies, cruel persecution was carried on
against these dissenters; and the inquisitors, sent by the Pope to
search for and to destroy them, brought multitudes to suffer as martyrs
for Christ. Some, we have seen, fell victims at Cologne, while others
escaped from the power of their enemies. They found, however, the
intolerance of popery where-ever they went. This will be illustrated by
one fact in English history of that period. Thirty of these persecuted
Germans sought an asylum in England, and settled as a church near
Oxford, A.D. 1159, but they were apprehended by order of the clergy.
Their pastor, Gerard, was a man of learning; and he professed that they
believed the doctrines of the apostles, though they disbelieved in
purgatory, prayers for the dead, and the invocation of saints. But they
were condemned in an ecclesiastical council, and delivered to the
magistrates to be punished. The king, Henry II., at the instigation of
the ruling clergy, ordered them to be branded on the forehead with a
red-hot iron; to be whipped through the streets of Oxford; and, having
their clothes cut short at their girdles, to be turned into the open
country. None being allowed to afford them shelter, they perished with
cold and hunger!
Dr. Milner, in his valuable “Church History,” in recording this fact
concerning these earliest dissenters from popery, who were put to death
in England, makes this natural reflection:--“What darkness must at that
time have filled this island! A wise and sagacious king, a renowned
university, the whole body of the clergy and laity, all united in
expelling Christ from their coasts! Driven, most probably, from home by
the rage of persecution, they had brought the light and power of the
Gospel with them into England. Brief as is the account of them, it is
evident they were the martyrs of Christ.”
Papal vengeance was threatened against all whom the prelates regarded as
heretics; and, A.D. 1163, in the synod of Tours, it was commanded to all
bishops and priests in Languedoc, whose capital was Thoulouse, “to take
care, and to forbid, under pain of excommunication, every person from
presuming to give reception, or the least assistance to the followers
of this heresy, _which first began in the country of Thoulouse_,
whenever they shall be discovered. As many of them as can be found, let
them be imprisoned by the Catholic princes, and punished with the
forfeiture of all their substance.”
In like manner, Pope Alexander III., A.D. 1179, issued an edict, which
expresses his mind thus:--“Because in Gascony, Albi, in the parts of
Thoulouse, and other regions, _the accursed perverseness of the
heretics_, Cathari, or Patrenas, or Publicans, or distinguished by
sundry names, has so prevailed: We therefore SUBJECT TO A CURSE, both
themselves and their defenders and harbourers; and, _under a curse, we
prohibit all persons from admitting them into their houses, or receiving
them upon their lands, or cherishing them, or exercising any trade with
them_. But if any die in their sin, _let them not receive Christian
burial_, under pretence of any privilege granted by us, or any other
pretext whatever!”
Some of the Waldenses having escaped to Arragon, in Spain, King
Ildefonsus, A.D. 1194, issued an edict, by which he banished them from
his kingdom, and all his dominions, as enemies of the cross of Christ,
profaners of the Christian religion, and public enemies, adding, “If
any, from this day, shall presume to receive into their houses the
aforesaid Waldenses, or other heretics, or to hear their abominable
preachings, or to give them food, let him know that he shall incur the
indignation of Almighty God and ours, and without appeal be punished as
though guilty of high treason. However, we give these wicked wretches
liberty till the day after All Saints (though it may seem contrary to
justice and reason), by which they must be gone from our dominions; but
afterwards they shall be plundered, whipped, and beaten, and treated
with all manner of disgrace and severity.”
Pope Innocent III., about A.D. 1198, having just ascended the pontifical
throne, deputed two monks of Citeaux, Guido and Regnier, to proceed to
Narbonne, as inquisitors, to search after and punish heretics; and in
the following year, Peter of Castelnau was added to that mission, with
increased authority. They promised indulgences to all who afforded them
aid against the heretics; and they succeeded in this office, but
rendered themselves hated for their bigotry and cruelty, wherever they
carried on their antichristian work. They were assisted greatly by the
services of a body of preaching friars, under their leader, Dominic.
Francis, another zealous monk, with a numerous company of disciples, was
deputed by the Pope to contend against the heretics in Italy; and these
two leaders became the founders, about A.D. 1200, of the famous, but
opposed orders of friars, called, after them, _Dominicans_ and
_Franciscans_.
Castelnau projected the extension of his mission into the territories of
Thoulouse, A.D. 1207; but the prince refused his sanction to this
invasion, for such a purpose, and the haughty priest excommunicated
Raymond. This audacious act received the express sanction of the Pope,
but it led to contests; and one of the friends of Raymond, provoked by
the insulting denunciations of the agent of the pontiff, struck him with
his poniard, and killed him.
Innocent, incensed to fury by the murder of Castelnau, seized the
occasion to prosecute the designs of his cruel bigotry, and summoned the
counts, barons, and knights of the four provinces of the southern parts
of France, to invade the territories of Count Raymond, authorising them
to seize the property of the heretics. As the same indulgences were
promised to those engaging in this war, as had been assured to the
crusaders against the Saracens in the Holy Land, an army of _fifty
thousand_ cross-bearers was soon assembled, and placed for service,
during the period of forty days, under the direction of Arnald Almeric,
abbot of Citeaux. The Pope gave directions regarding this crusade:--“We
counsel you, with the apostle Paul, to employ guile with regard to the
count; for in this case it ought to be called prudence. We must attack
separately, those who are separated from unity. Leave, for a time, the
count of Thoulouse, employing towards him a wise dissimulation, that the
other heretics may the more easily be defeated, and that afterwards we
may crush him, when he shall be left alone.”
Raymond and his nephew, Roger, count of Beziers, waited upon Arnald, to
avert the impending storm; but to no purpose. Raymond submitted to the
terrible power, and joined the army that was marching against his own
subjects and those of his nephew; but he first performed the dreadful
penance appointed for him on account of the murder of Castelnau. He was
made to swear upon the host, as the body of Christ, and upon the relics
of the saints, that he would _obey the Pope_, and the holy Roman church,
and pursue the Albigenses, _with fire and sword_, till they were
extirpated. Having taken this oath, he was ordered _to strip himself
naked, from head to foot_, with only a linen cloth around his waist; the
legate threw a priest’s stole round his neck, and leading him by it into
the church, nine times round the pretended martyr’s grave, he inflicted
the discipline of the church upon the naked shoulders of the humbled
prince. He then granted him absolution, on his taking another oath,
inviolably to maintain all the rights, privileges, immunities, and
liberties of the church and the clergy!
Count Roger offered terms of reconciliation; but the legate rejected his
proposals, and intimated that no mercy would be shown to him. The city
of Beziers was taken; and the inhabitants, who had crowded into the
churches, were barbarously massacred; so that _seven thousand_ corpses
were said to have been found in the church of St. Magdalen. Some were
desirous of sparing the Catholics who might be among the heretics, and
they applied to the legate for that purpose; but, in a rage, he replied,
“_Kill them all; the Lord knoweth them that are His!_”
Beziers contained a population of about _fifteen thousand_; and Arnald,
in his report to the Pope, acknowledged that so many were massacred! But
as multitudes, especially women and children, from the surrounding
country, had sought a refuge there, in hope of security against the
invading army, and none were spared, historians of fidelity reckon that
_sixty thousand_ were then murdered by the agents of the Pope, and the
city was then burnt to ashes!
Count Roger had escaped to Carcassonne, which was next besieged, as he
had shut himself up with the inhabitants in that city; but he offered to
capitulate. Dissimulation was practised, as enjoined by the Pope; so
that the prince, with three hundred knights, were admitted to confer
with Arnald, who, with the leaders of the army, had given a solemn oath
for their safety; but having them now in his power, he perfidiously
arrested them, delivering them over to the general of the army, Simon de
Montfort. The citizens, however, made their escape, during the night,
and fled to other provinces; but a few of them being captured, _four
hundred_ of the captives were burned alive, and _fifty_ more were
hanged, by Simon de Montfort, under the direction of Arnald, as legate
of the Pope. The noble Count Roger was thrown into prison, and soon died
by violence, as acknowledged by the Pope.
It would be impossible to detail the sufferings of the poor Albigenses,
under Simon de Montfort. With an army of cross-bearers, A.D. 1210, he
took several strong castles, and hanged the inhabitants and refugees on
gibbets. He selected more than a hundred of the people of Brom, _tore
out their eyes, and cut off their noses_, and sent them, under the
guidance of a one-eyed man, to Cabaret, to terrify the inhabitants by
their example. In the following year, he stormed La Vaur, and destroyed
the inhabitants by fire and sword. He hanged Almeric, the governor, lord
of Montreal, and then massacred _eighty_ of the chief citizens. His
sister, Girarda, the lady of the castle, by order of the count, was
thrown into a pit, and covered with stones. He afterwards collected all
the heretics in the castle, and burned them, with rejoicing. He took
possession of the castle of Cassero, which surrendered; but “the
pilgrims, seizing nearly _sixty heretics, burned them with infinite
joy_,” as testified by the Catholic historian, Petrus Pallensis. At
Castris de Termis they put Raymond, the governor, into prison, where he
died shortly; and, in one large fire, they burned his wife, his sister,
and his daughter, with some other noble ladies, whom they could not
prevail upon to return to the profession of the church of Rome. Thus
they were sacrificed to papal bigotry, as faithful martyrs for Christ!
What adds to the revolting character of these murders was, as usual, the
bishops and priests present in the army, in their pontifical habits, who
expressed their satisfaction in witnessing the carnage, by singing _Veni
Creator_!
Historians scarcely know how to speak of these enormities. Sismondi
states, that “hundreds of villages had seen all their inhabitants
massacred with a blind fury, and without the crusaders giving themselves
the trouble to examine whether they contained a single heretic. We
cannot tell what credit to give to the numbers assigned for the armies
of the cross, nor whether we may believe that, in the course of a single
year, five hundred thousand men were poured into Languedoc.” But this we
certainly know, that armies, much superior in numbers, and much inferior
in discipline, to those which were employed in other wars, had arrived
for seven or eight successive years; that they entered this country
without pay, and without magazines; that they provided for all their
necessities with the sword; that they considered it as their right to
live at the expense of the country; and that all the harvests of the
peasants, all the provisions and merchandise of the citizens, were on
every occasion seized with a rapacious hand, and divided among the
crusaders. No calculation can ascertain, with any degree of precision,
the dissipation of wealth, or the destruction of human life, which were
the consequences of the crusade against the Albigenses. “There was
scarcely a peasant who did not reckon in his family some unhappy one cut
off by the sword of Montfort’s soldiers. More than three quarters of the
knights and landed proprietors had been spoiled of their castles and
fiefs, to gratify some of the French soldiers--some of Simon de
Montfort’s creatures. Thus spoiled, they were named _Faidits_, and had
the favour granted them of remaining in the country, provided they were
neither heretics nor excommunicated, nor suspected of having given an
asylum to those who were so; but they were never to be permitted to
enter a walled city, nor to enjoy the honour of mounting a war-horse.
Every species of injustice, all kinds of affronts, persecutions of every
name, had been heaped on the heads of the unhappy Languedocians, under
the general name of Albigenses.”
So truly horrible was this bloody work, that a native of Thoulouse, a
_poet_ and a _Catholic_, who witnessed this crusade against the
Albigenses, afterwards delivered the following denunciation against
Antichrist:--“I know I shall be censured if I write against Rome, that
sink of all evil; but I cannot hold my peace. It is no wonder that the
world lies in wickedness. It is you, treacherous Rome, who have sown
confusion and war. By the baits of thy delusive pardons, thou deliverest
up the French nobility to persecution, and dost establish thy throne in
the bottomless pit. Heaven will remember thy pilgrimage to Avignon, and
the murders thou committest there. In what book hast thou read that it
was thy duty to exterminate Christians? Like an enraged beast, thou
devourest both great and small. Rome, your head and whole body is
arraigned for having committed that horrible murder at Beziers. Under
the appearance of a lamb, with an air of modesty and simplicity, you are
inwardly a wily serpent and a ravenous wolf. Rome, I comfort myself in
the assurance that thy power will decay, and thou wilt soon be no more.
If thy dominion is not destroyed, the world will be overthrown!”
Dominic witnessed many of these sad outrages and dreadful slaughters;
and he proceeded, as the chief inquisitor, to search out the number and
quality of the alleged heretics, to excite the princes and prelates to
extirpate them, and so to fulfil his commission from the Pope. His
success he fully reported to Rome; and formed a plan of a regular Court
of Inquisition. In this he was aided by a nobleman, with whom he had
resided at Thoulouse; for having been seduced by that zealous monk to
the Catholic faith, he devoted his mansion and his other property to the
service of that father. Dominic submitted his scheme to the papal
legate, Arnald, by whom it was highly approved; and that abbot appointed
him inquisitor-general in Gallia Narbonensis, about A.D. 1208; and he
was confirmed in that office, in the fourth Lateran Council, A.D. 1215,
at which Dominic was present, and greatly honoured by the Pope on
account of his exploits against the Albigenses.
Dominic was a native of Spain, of the noble family of Gusman. His mother
dreamed, before his birth, that she was delivered of a whelp carrying a
lighted torch in his mouth; that he alarmed the world by his barking,
and set it on fire by his torch. These were interpreted of his
preaching, by which he terrified the people, and of his dreadful
Inquisition. His promotion was the consequence of his fiery zeal and
activity; and his priestly domination will appear from a few passages in
his imposition of penance on a reclaimed heretic, as follow:--
“Brother Dominic, the least of preachers, to all Christ’s faithful
people, to whom these presents shall come, greeting in the Lord:--
“By the authority of the Cistertian abbot, who hath appointed us to
this office, we have reconciled the bearer of these presents, P.
Rogerius, converted by God’s blessing from the heretical sect, charging
and requiring him, by the oath which he hath taken, that three Sundays,
or three festival days, he be led by a priest, naked from his shoulders
down to his drawers, from the coming into the town unto the church
doors, being whipped all the way!” Most rigorous rules for the whole of
his life, and total separation from his wife, were also imposed on him,
on pain of excommunication!
Dominic founded sixty monasteries, in different provinces, forming the
centres of so many courts of inquisition; and he died, A.D. 1221,
esteemed as an extraordinary character; so that he was canonised, A.D.
1234, by Pope Gregory IX. The Dominicans were called _Jacobins_ in
France, and _Black Friars_ in England.