THE SOIL
§ 1. GALATIAN
In order to understand the situation, political and ecclesiastical, in
Southern France we must bear in mind that the Gauls of the West and the
Galatae of the East were of the same stock, and that each branch, though
several nations intervened, retained unimpaired its racial
characteristics. Galli, Galatae, Keltae are but different forms of the
same word. Livy would speak of Gauls in the East; Polybius of Galatians
in the West. The Gauls were a warm-hearted people, but unstable in their
friendships, impetuous and courageous in war, but unable to wear down a
foe by stubborn endurance. As Cæsar noticed: "sunt in consiliis capiendis
mobiles, et novis plerumque rebus student;" an opinion endorsed in modern
times by one of their own nation--Thierry: "Une bravoure personnelle que
rien n'égale chez les peuples anciens--un esprit franc, impétueux, ouvert
à toutes les impressions, éminemment intelligent--mais, à côté de cela,
une mobilité extrême, point de constance, une répugnance marquée aux
idées de discipline et d'ordre." To these traits may be added vivid
imagination, a fondness for song and poetry, a love of nature so intimate
that allegory became reality.
Gaul had become one of the perpetual conquests of Rome and had submitted
to its governmental system, but nothing could eradicate its racial
peculiarities. The Gaul was an individualist, the Roman an imperialist,
and hence the Gaul might be conquered, but never destroyed. Now this
imperialism which the Church took over from the State was developed
vigorously and rapidly under Pope Gregory VII and his successors, and the
insistence of it aroused a corresponding reaction in Gaulish nationalism.
The Church had condemned Nominalism as inimical to Catholic unity, and
had adopted the opposite scholastic theory of Realism as most agreeable
to the theory of the Holy Roman Empire. This theory, however, now
declared to be a dogma of the Catholic faith, struck at the root of
national and individual independence. Such an independence France had
constantly shewn, and it may be traced not only to the racial antipathy
between Gaul and Pelagian, but to the fact that Western Gaul had never
lost touch with its Eastern kin. Its Christianity from the earliest times
was on Eastern rather than Western lines. Its monasticism was of the
Oriental type. The letter which the Christians of Gaul in A.D. 177,
describing the sufferings and deaths of the martyrs in the persecution,
sent to "the brethren in Asia and Phrygia, having the same faith and hope
of redemption with us," can only be explained on the assumption that they
were of the same kith and kin. In fact, one of the martyrs, Alexander,
was a Phrygian.[13] The Gallican Liturgy was Eastern (Ephesian), not
Western.
§ 2. SLAVONIC
The spirit of independence which pervaded Southern France would be
strengthened by its constant communication with Slavonia, for the Slavs,
according to Procopius, had the same national characteristics. "They are
not ruled by one man, but from the most ancient times have been under a
democracy. In favourable and unfavourable situations all their affairs
are placed before a common council." The "'Times' History of the World"
says: "The Slavs are characterised by a vivacity, a warmth, a mobility, a
petulance, an exuberance not always found in the same degree among even
the people of the South. Among the Slavs of purer blood these
characteristics have marked their political life with a mobile,
inconstant and anarchical spirit.... The distinguishing faculty of the
race is a certain flexibility and elasticity of temperament and character
which render it adaptable to the reception and the reproduction of all
sorts of diverse ideas." This likeness of temperament would naturally
draw two nations together and account for the readiness with which the
Gallican mind absorbed Slavonic propaganda.
§ 3. NATIVE
The country had been early converted to Christianity, and the dominant
form of Christianity was now Roman. But when we speak of a country being
"converted" in the Middle Ages, we must regard the statement with
considerable qualifications. Conversions were often political
conveniences, rather than personal convictions. The people followed their
chiefs, accepted the Church's ministrations and attended her services,
but knew next to nothing of Christian truth. In France two things
contributed to this ignorance: (_a_) the official language of the Church
being different from that of the people; (_b_) the slackness and refusal
of the Church in providing services and sermons in a language which the
people understood.
Between the middle of the eighth and ninth centuries Latin was the
language only of the learned and officials; the mass of the people ceased
to understand it. Latin was sacrosanct, and to address God in any other
language was profane. Hence the Church lost its spiritual hold upon the
masses. "The hungry sheep looked up and were not fed." So serious was the
situation that Charlemagne summoned five Councils at five different
places, the most Southern being Arles, and ordered the Bishops to use the
vulgar tongue in the instruction of their flocks. From this it is clear
that the Bishops and Clergy were bilingual, but deliberately abstained
from adopting in their pastoral work a language which their people could
understand; even the Bible was a closed book. The heretics, on the
contrary, were most zealous in supplying this want, particularly the
Waldenses. Not only did they translate the whole of the New Testament and
parts of the Old, but added notes embodying Sententiae or opinions of the
Fathers. They contended that prayers in an unknown tongue did not profit.
They knew by heart large portions of Holy Scripture[14] and readily
quoted it in their discussions with the Church. The Catharists also had
composed a little work called "Perpendiculum Scientiarum," or "Plummet of
Knowledge" (cf. Is. xxviii. 17), consisting of passages of Scripture
whereby Catholicism might be easily and readily tested. Not until the
eleventh century do we come across in the West any translation into the
vulgar tongue by the Church, and then only of Legends of Saints in the
dialect of Rouen. In Southern France the vernacular which ultimately
emerged was known as Langue D'Oc, and sometimes Provençal. "In its rise
Provençal literature stands completely by itself, and in its development
it long continued to be absolutely original. This literature took a
poetic form, and this poetry, unlike classical poetry, is rhymed." No
class of literature is more easily remembered than rhymed verse in common
speech. The results of it, therefore, need not cause us surprise. It
produced a sense of unity, of comradeship. Latin might be the language of
the Church, but this was the language of the people. Its growth created a
cleavage between Church and people, which the former sought to bridge by
giving the latter accounts of miracles and legends in verse and prose in
the Romance language, and by permitting them to sing songs of their own
composition--and not necessarily sacred or even modest songs--in the
Churches.[15] But the experiment or concession only served to secularize
religion, and turned the services into amusements. Nor was it in accord
with the real policy of Catholicism which was to prevent the people
generally from forming their own opinions of Christianity by an
independent study of the Scriptures--a policy which to the Gallican
temperament would be particularly odious and exasperating.[16]
§ 4. SECULAR ELEMENTS
Secular causes also account for the growing unpopularity of the Church.
On the one hand the seigneurs resented the increasing wealth and land
encroachments of Bishops and Abbots. "In the eleventh century the fear of
the approaching final judgment and the belief in the speedy dissolution
of the world spread throughout all Europe. Some bestowed the whole of
their possessions on the Church."[17] But when the donors recovered from
their alarm, they regretted their sacrifice, and their descendants would
be provoked every day at the sight of others in enjoyment of their
ancestral lands. Moreover, the break-up of Charlemagne's vast kingdom
threw great power into the hands of the Dukes and Counts. In their own
domains they were practically autocrats. The only check upon their
sovereignty came from the Church, whose Bishops and Abbots were often
able to protect themselves by their own routiers or by ecclesiastical
penalties, such as excommunication. But the lords countered this by
thrusting their own nominees, often their own relations, into the most
powerful and lucrative offices of the Church, or by keeping them vacant
and appropriating their revenues. A semblance of legality was thrown over
this practice by the fact that "the Bishoprics being secular fiefs, their
occupants were bound to the performance of feudal service," and the
investiture into the temporalities of the office belonged to the
sovereign. Thus the freedom of the Church in the election and appointment
of her officers was curtailed.
§ 5. COMMERCE
On the other hand, the increase of commercial prosperity broke down the
feudal system. The merchants took advantage of the poverty of the Counts
through constant wars by obtaining in exchange for loans certain
privileges which, by charter, settled into the inalienable rights of the
ville franche. They built for themselves fortified houses in the towns,
and from them laughed to scorn the threats of the seigneurs. Their
enterprise was constantly bringing money into the country: the
non-productive Church was constantly sending it out. Trade with foreign
countries created in commercial and industrial circles a sense of
independence, and their enlarged outlook gave birth to a religious
tolerance favourable to doctrines other than, or in addition to, those of
Catholicism. Thus Peter Waldo, the merchant of Lyons, was moved to devote
his wealth to disseminate the Word of God as freely as he disposed of his
merchandise. These goods had to be made, and the actual manufacturers,
especially the weavers, shared in the general prosperity and imbibed this
freedom of thought. Erasmus' great wish, that the weaver might warble the
Scriptures at his loom,[18] was anticipated by three centuries by the
Albigenses, and especially by the Waldenses. So widely did heresy spread
among these textile workers that heretic and tesserand became synonymous.
At Cordes a nominal factory was set up, but in reality a theological
school for instruction in Catharism.[19]
§ 6. LITERATURE
Although it suited the purpose of the Church to regard them as "unlearned
and ignorant men," it was from the people that the Provençal literature
emanated. The bourgeoisie encouraged poetry and art. The industrial
classes turned in contempt from the stupid and impossible stories of
saints to a personal study of the Scriptures and their patristic
explanations. The Poor Men of Lyons were poor in spirit, not in pocket.
Business ability and training enabled them to organize their movement on
lines that were both flexible and compact, and their wealth supported
their officers. Clerks could copy out their pamphlets, and their
colporteurs or travellers could distribute them. At the beginning of the
thirteenth century the Marquis of Montferrand, in Auvergne, just before
his death, burnt a great quantity of books, especially those of
Albigensian propaganda, which he had been collecting for forty years.
(Stephen de Belleville, 85.) The Provençal, Arnauld, was a most prolific
writer, and sold or gave to the Catholics little books deriding the
saints of the Church. Moneta de Cremona, in his great work against the
Albigenses, declares that he drew his information of their doctrines from
their own writings, and quotes largely from a teacher called Tetricus, a
dialectician and interpreter of the Bible. Tetricus was probably that
William who was Canon of Nevers, returned to Toulouse in 1201, under the
name of Theodoric, and was held in great esteem by the Albigenses for his
knowledge.[20]
§ 7. MORAL AND SPIRITUAL ELEMENTS
But of all the causes of the unpopularity of the Church the unworthy
lives of the clergy was the most potent, the evidence for which comes
less from the accusations of the heretics than from the confessions of
the Church itself. To allow immodest songs, composed by the people, to be
sung in Church is sufficiently significant of the low standard of the
clerical mind; but instances are given of the clergy themselves composing
these songs. Agobard, Bishop of Lyons, found there a service-book
compiled by an assistant Bishop (_chorepiscopus_) so indecent that he
could not read it without a blush. The decrees of Councils throw a strong
light upon the luxurious and worldly lives of Bishops and Clergy--their
costly clothes, painted saddles and gold-mounted reins, joining in games
of chance, their habit of swearing, and allowing others to swear at them
without reproof, welcoming to their tables strolling players, hearing
Mattins in bed, being frivolous when saying the Offices, excommunicating
persons wrongfully, simony, tolerating clerical concubinage, dispensing
with banns, celebrating secret marriages, quashing wills. These are not
the slanders of heretics, but the testimony of the Church in formal
assembly. The Pope, Innocent III, is equally scandalized. Writing of the
Archbishop of Narbonne and its clergy, he exclaims: "Blind! dumb dogs
that cannot bark! Simoniacs who sell justice, absolve the rich and
condemn the poor! They do not keep even the laws of the Church. They
accumulate benefices and entrust the priesthood and ecclesiastical
dignities to unworthy priests and illiterate children. Hence the
insolence of the heretics; hence the contempt of nobles and people for
God and His Church. In this region prelates are the laughing stock of the
laity. And the cause of all the evil is the Archbishop of Narbonne. He
knows no other god than money. His heart is a bank. During the ten years
he has been in office he has never once visited his Province, not even
his own Diocese. He took five hundred golden pennies for consecrating the
Bishop of Maguelonne, and when we asked him to raise subsidies for the
Christians in the East he refused. When a Church falls vacant, he
refrains from nominating an incumbent, and appropriates the income. For
the same reason he has reduced by half the number of canons (eighteen)
and kept the archdeaconries vacant. In his Diocese monks and canons
regular have renounced their Order and married wives; they have become
money-lenders, lawyers, jugglers and doctors." Even Papal Legates, sent
to combat heresy, conformed to the same luxurious mode of life, and
called down upon themselves the severe reproofs of Bishop Diego and Prior
Dominic. Gaucelin Faidit wrote a play, called "The Heresy of the
Priests," in which he flung back upon the Clergy the charges which they
brought against the Cathari. It was acted with much applause before
Boniface, Marquis of Montferrat, the friend of Raymond VI, Count of
Toulouse (A.D. 1193-1202). Nor, indeed, could it be expected that those
who shewed themselves so indifferent to the sacredness of their calling
would do other than encourage violations of their prerogatives by the
powers of this world. The Counts, therefore, according to Godfrey's
Chronicle, handed over Churches to stupid persons or to their own
relations, and that simoniacally. Such people shew themselves to be
hirelings, shearing the sheep and not attending to their infirmities,
and--what is worse--encouraging in sin those whom they ought to correct.
The Bishops went about their dioceses exacting illegal taxes and
exchanging procurations for indulgences.
In contrast to all this was the life and character of the Catharists--for
we may dismiss as incapable of proof the charges of extinguished lights,
promiscuous intercourse, etc., which were but a réchauffé of the charges
made against the early Christians. Catharism, which means Puritanism, was
a constant and conspicuous protest to an age and people characterized by
a _joie de vivre_. The asceticism of the "Perfect" in particular went
beyond that of the severest monasticism, for they eschewed meat always,
and not merely at certain times of the year, as well as all food produced
by generation. Their relationship of the sexes was ultra-strict. Their
word was their bond, and their religion forbade them to mar it with an
oath. They possessed no money, and were supported by the community. Their
simplicity and modesty in dress, their frugality, their industry, their
honesty, kindled the respect, even the reverence, of the masses.[21] No
hardships or dangers daunted their missionary ardour. When the Church
attacked the heretics by means other than by fire and sword, she failed
until the Dominicans copied their methods and the Franciscans their
manners.
[13] Οἱ ἐν Βιέννῃ καὶ Λουγδούνῳ τῆς Γαλλίας παροικοῦντες δοῦλοι Χριστοῦ,
τοῖς κατὰ τὴν Ἀσίαν καὶ Φρυγίαν τὴν αὐτὴν τῆς ἀπολυτρώσεως ἡμῖν πίστιν
καὶ ἐλπίδα ἔχουσιν ἀδελφοῖς. (Euseb., H.E., v. 1.)
[14] Reinéri Saccho says he knew an ignorant rustic who could recite the
book of Job word for word.
[15] In sanctorum vigiliis in ecclesiis historicae (= histrionicae)
saltationes, obsceni motus seu choreae fiunt ... dicuntur amatoria
carmina vel cantilenae ibidem (Council of Avignon, Canon xvii, A.D. 1209).
[16] Prohibemus--ne libros Veteris Testamenti aut Novi laici permittantur
habere: nisi forte psalterium vel breviarium pro divinis officiis, aut
horas beatae Mariae aliquis ex devotione habere velit. Sed ne praemissos
libros habeant in vulgari translatos arctissime inhibemus (Council of
Toulouse, Canon XIV, A.D. 1229).
[17] Hegel's "Philosophy of History," Pt. IV, Sect. II.
[18] Paracelsus, "Works," Vol. IV, p. 141.
[19] Prob. in A.D. 1212, when the inhabitants fled to Cordes (then a mere
hunting-box of the Counts of Toulouse) from St. Marcel, which was
destroyed by Simon de Montfort. The date usually assigned to the founding
of Cordes, viz. 1222, is wrong. _See_ "Records of the Académie imperiale
des Sciences, Toulouse," Series 6, Vol. V. For this reference I am
indebted to my friend, Col. de Cordes.
[20] Nearly a century before this (_v. infra_) Henry, the successor of
Peter de Bruis, wrote a book which Peter Venerabilis had seen himself,
setting forth the several heads of the heresy.
[21] Reinéri Saccho, a former Catharist (but not, as he is careful to
point out, a Waldensian) and afterward an Inquisitor, says the heretics
were distinguished by their conduct and conversation: they were sedate,
modest, had no pride in clothes, did not carry on business dishonestly,
did not multiply riches, did not go to taverns, dances, etc.; were
chaste, especially the Leonists, temperate in meat and drink, not given
to anger, always at work, teaching and learning, and therefore prayed
little, went to Church, but only to catch the preacher in his discourse;
precise and moderate in language. A man swam the River Ibis every night
in winter to make one convert.