Mediæval Heresy & the Inquisition

by Arthur Stanley Turberville

[32] Döllinger, vol. ii, pp. 3, 83-4.

[33] Ibid., p. 4; Schmidt, vol. ii, p. 84.

[34] Schmidt, ibid.

[35] Döllinger, vol. ii, pp. 30-4, 56. This was a survival of the Marcionite heresy. The continuity of the same fundamental types of heresy which had vexed the early Church into the Middle Ages is remarkable.

[36] Döllinger, vol. ii, pp. 30 et seq., 56; mainly from Acta inquisitionis Carcassonensis contra Albigenses, 1308-9.

[37] Ibid., vol. ii, p. 33. See also E. Vacandard, The Inquisition, a Critical and Historical Study of the Coercive Powers of the Church (trans. by B. L. Conway, 1908), pp. 90-4.

[38] Döllinger, vol. ii, pp. 25, 44. Catholic churches were the dwellings of evil spirits. Satan’s first home on earth had been the temple of Jerusalem, ibid., p. 45. Whenever one of their children by some chance was baptized in a Catholic church, they washed off the taint with dirty water.

[39] See Vacandard, pp. 73-6. Also Douais, Documents, vol. ii, p. 94. ‘Audivit dictum Petrum Garcia(m) dicentem quod non erat missa celebrata in ecclesia usque ad tempus beati Sylvestri; nec ecclesia habuerat possessiones usque ad illud tempus; et quod ecclesia deficiet citra xx annos; et quod missa nostra nihil valet; et quod omnes praedicatores crucis sunt homicide; et quod crux quam illi praedicatores dant nihil aliud est nisi parum de pella super humerum; idem cordula cum qua ligantur capilli.’

[40] Douais, Documents, vol. ii, pp. 250-1, 263, 291, where the ceremony is described in confessions before inquisitors.

[41] Douais, Documents, vol. ii, p. 100. ‘Dixit etiam idem Petrus quod si teneret illum Deum qui de mille hominibus ab eo factis unum salvaret et omnes alios damnaret, ipsum dirumperet et dilaceraret unguibus et dentibus tanquam perfidum et reputaret ipsum esse falsum et perfidum, et spueret in faciem ejus, addens “de gutta cadet ipse.”’ Such language, which is typical of many Catharan utterances, is simply that of a saeva indignatio, aroused by the ascription to the Deity of the cruelty and injustice which conscience reprobates in human beings.