§ 14. ALAN DE INSULIS
At the third Lateran Council was present Alan, Bishop of Antissiodorensis, otherwise known as Alan de Insulis, Alan the Great, Alan the Universal Doctor. He was born A.D. 1114 at Lille in Flanders, although others, e.g. Demster, identify De Insulis with Mona (Man or Anglesea). As a boy he entered Clairvaux under Bernard, and in A.D. 1151 was made a Bishop. In A.D. 1183, by command, he wrote a work in four books, dedicated to "his most beloved lord, William, by the grace of God Count of Montpelier." The title of the work is, "De Fide Catholica contra haereticos sui temporis praesertim Albigenses." The Albigenses, however, are not mentioned by name throughout the work. The second book is entitled, "Contra Waldenses," in which he says: "The Waldenses are so called from their heresiarch, Waldus, who, of his own will (suo spiritu ductus), not sent by God, started a new sect, presuming forsooth to preach without the authority of a Bishop, without the inspiration of God, without learning. They assert that no one should be obeyed but God only (which is explained by what he states later—that it was their opinion that obedience should be given to good prelates only and to the imitators of the Apostles). Neither office nor Order avails anything for consecrating or blessing, for binding or loosing. Where a priest is not available, confession may be made to a layman. On no account must one take an oath. On no account must a man be killed." Alan charged them with holding Docetic views of our Lord, and with declaring that the Virgin Mary was created in heaven and had no father or mother.
Bernard, the Praemonstratensian, Abbot of Fontcaud, wrote in A.D. 1190 a book "against the sect of the Waldenses," but adds nothing to our knowledge. Nor does Bonacursus, writing later in the same year, except some gross and preposterous distortion of their belief on the monthly motions of the moon, and the statement that they held that Christ was not equal to the Father.
Ten years later Ermengard wrote a tract,[41] also entitled "Against the sect of the Waldenses," but they are not named in it, and those whom he attacks are not the original or genuine Waldenses, for he charges them with (1) Dualistic opinions; (2) teaching that the law of Moses was given by the Prince of evil spirits; (3) Docetic views; (4) stating that in "Hoc est corpus meum," "hoc does not refer to the bread which He (our Lord) held in His hands and blessed and brake and distributed to His disciples, but to His Body which was performing all these things.... And there are some heretics who believe that by hearing the word of God they eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood." He gives an interesting account of the Consolamentum, but this will be described later.