§ 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.
CHAPTER III
THE SEED
We are now in a position to study more closely the documents from which an estimate may be formed of the beliefs and practices of those whom the Church exerted its full strength to destroy. Our task is not a simple one, because, as already stated, there was not one heresy, but many, and we are dependent for our knowledge of their tenets almost entirely upon their enemies whose odium theologicum discounts their trustworthiness.