The sorrowful story of Gerhardt's Mission is told by William of Newbury
and Ranulph de Diceto. It seems strange that a company of thirty German
peasants should have set forth to bring England back to the pure
primitive faith; yet not stranger than that four hundred years earlier,
Boniface the Englishman should have set out to convert Germany from
heathenism. Boniface succeeded; Gerhardt failed. The reason for the
failure, no less than for the success, is hidden in the counsels of Him
who worketh all things according to His own will. The time was not yet.
It was in 1159 that this little company arrived in England, and for
seven years they preached without repression. Gerhardt, their leader,
was the only educated man amongst them, the rest being described as
"rustic and unpolished." Some have termed them Publicani or Paulikians;
whether they really belonged to that body is uncertain. William of
Newbury says they were a sect which came originally from Gascony, and
was scattered over Gaul, Spain, Italy, and Germany. They seem therefore
to have been true descendants of the old Gallican Church--the Church of
Irenaus and Blandina--which we know retained her early purity far longer
than the Church of Rome. Their defence, too, when examined, was that of
Blandina--"I am a Christian, and no evil is done amongst us."
Their preaching was singularly unsuccessful, if the monkish writers are
to be trusted. "They added to their company, during a sojourn of some
time in England, only one girl (_muliercula_), who, as report says, was
fascinated by magic." Perhaps their work was of more value than
appeared on the surface. After seven years of this quiet evangelising,
the King and the clergy interfered. Considered as a "foreign sect,"
they were cited before a council held at Oxford in 1166, the King
stating his desire neither to dismiss them as harmless, nor to punish
them as guilty, without proper investigation.
Gerhardt was the chief spokesman. To the questions asked he replied
that they were Christians, and "revered the doctrine of the Apostles,"
but he expressed abhorrence of certain Romish tenets--_e.g._, Purgatory,
prayers for the dead, and the invocation of saints. He is said to have
shown detestation for the sacraments and for marriage: which, compared
with similar accusations brought against the Albigenses, and their
replies thereto, almost certainly means that he objected to the corrupt
view of these institutions taken by Rome. If Gerhardt denied
consubstantiation, baptismal regeneration, and the sacramental character
of matrimony, the priests were sure to assert that he denied the
sacraments and marriage. The Albigenses were similarly accused, and
almost in the same sentence we are told that they had their wives with
them. When "the Scriptures were urged against them," the Germans
declined disputation. They probably saw that it would be of no avail.
Indeed, what good could be gained by disputing with men who confessed
that they received Scripture only on the authority of the Church (which
they held superior to the Word of God), and who allowed no explanation
of it save their own private interpretation?--who were so illogical as
to urge that the Church existed before the Scriptures as a reason for
her superiority, and so ignorant as to maintain that _pulai adou_
signified the power of Satan! Asked if they would do penance, the
Germans refused: threatened with penalties, they held firm. Their
punishment was terrible. They were, of course, by Rome's cruel fiction
that the Church punishes no man, delivered over to the secular power;
and the sentence upon them was that of branding on the forehead, their
garments being cut down to the girdle, and being turned into the open
fields. Proclamation was made that none should presume to receive them
under his roof, nor "to administer consolation." The sentence was
carried out with even more barbarity than it was issued, for Gerhardt
was twice branded, on forehead and chin, all were scourged, and were
then beaten with rods out of the city. No compassion was shown even to
the women. Not a creature dared to open his door to the "heretics."
Their solitary convert recanted in terror. But the Germans went
patiently and heroically to their death, singing, as they passed on, the
last beatitude--"Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you and persecute
you, and shall say all manner of evil against you, falsely, for My
sake." Their suffering did not last long. It was in the depth of
winter that they were cast out, and they soon lay down in the snow and
yielded up their martyr-souls to God.
According to the monkish chroniclers, not one survived. But one
elaborate argument may be found, by an eminent antiquary (_Archaologia_,
nine 292-309), urging that survivors of this company were probably the
ancestors of a mysterious group entitled "Waldenses," who appear in the
Public Records in after years as tenants, and not improbably vassals, of
the Archbishop of Canterbury. They paid to that See 4 shillings per
annum for waste land; 3 shillings 4 pence for "half a plough of land of
gable;" 5 shillings 4 pence at each of the four principal feasts, with
32 and a half pence in lieu of autumnal labours--_i.e._, mowing,
reaping, etcetera. When the Archbishop was resident on the manor of
Darenth, they had to convey corn for his household, in consideration of
which they received forage from his barns, and a corrody or regular
allowance of food and clothing from a monastery. I am not competent to
judge how far the contention of the writer is valid; but the possibility
of such a thing seemed to warrant the supposition in a tale that one or
two of the company might have escaped the fate which undoubtedly
overtook the majority of the mission.
The story may be found in a condensed form in Milner's Church History,
Three, 459.
Every one of the singular names, as well as prices, and various other
details, has been taken from the Pipe Rolls of Henry Second, from the
first to the twenty-seventh year. All the characters are fictitious
excepting the Royal Family, the Earl and Countess of Oxford, the members
of the Council, Gerhardt himself, and--simply as regards their
existence--Osbert the porter, his wife Anania, and Aliz de Norton, who
are entered on the Pipe Roll as inhabitants of Oxford at this date.
The language spoken at that time, whether French or English, would be
wholly unintelligible to read, if enough of it had come down to us to
make it possible to be written. It seemed best, therefore, to use
ordinary modern English, flavoured with the Oxfordshire dialect, and now
and then varied by antique expressions.