The hand of Providence

by J. H. Ward

Chivalry was the religion of the heart, in a rude and untutored age. It had the effect of infusing more of humanity and generous principle into the operations of war than the ancient nations had any conception of. Hence we seldom or never hear in modern times of such scenes of unmingled atrocity, such deadly treachery, such extensive and cold-blooded massacres as we so frequently read of in ancient pagan or papal history.

At the close of the Crusades a great change commenced in society. The minstrels, who with harps had gone about singing ballads, commemorating deeds of heroism and adventure, now changed their theme and sang songs of a very different character. Amid shouts of laughter they went through the land, wagging their heads, and slyly winking their eyes, and singing derisive songs about the amours of the priests, who in turn were not slow to denounce the minstrels as lewd blasphemers and atheists.

While the young were singing, the old were thinking; while the gay were carried away with romance and chivalry, the grave and reflecting were falling into heresy.

About A. D. 1100, Peter Waldo, a wealthy citizen of Lyons, became convinced of the corruptions of Rome. He, probably aided by others, translated the scriptures into Provencal French. Thus, to him the world is indebted for the first translation of the Bible into a modern tongue. Waldo could not long remain in Lyons. He fled into Germany and afterwards settled in Bohemia, where he died about A. D. 1179. He was the instrument of spreading those liberal ideas in Bohemia, of which John Huss and Jerome of Prague became in after times worthy representatives. At the time of his death it is said that Waldo had five hundred thousand followers.

Already, A. D. 1134, Peter de Brueys had been burned at Languedoc for denying infant baptism. Already the valleys of Piedmont were full of Waldenses, who denounced the greed of the popes and the intermingling of bishops in bloodshed and war. At this juncture Innocent III., ascended the pontifical throne. Here was a state of things which, as he considered, demanded immediate attention. The methods to which he resorted for the suppression and extinction of heretics, as misbelievers were called, have made his name forever infamous.

Innocent well knew that the greed and the corruptions of the clergy had made them unpopular with the people. He therefore established the mendicant orders of priests, more commonly known under the names of Franciscans and Dominicans. Vowed to poverty and living on alms, they lived and moved among the masses, and yet were held sacred. The accusations and dissipation of luxury so forcibly urged against the regular clergy, were altogether inapplicable to these half-starved wandering fanatics. Once more for a time the popes had gained possession of the ear of the masses.

At this time Southern France was the garden of reform. Here the eloquence of Abelard, the patriotism of Arnold and the statesmanship of Frederick wielded a mighty influence. Like seeds falling into good ground, they brought forth much fruit. Already Arnold had been burned at the stake and his ashes thrown on the waves of the Tiber. He has thus become the heritage, as it were, of every nation whose shores are washed by the tides of the sea. Seven centuries have rolled by since then, yet the memory of Arnold of Brescia is ever green; the principles for which he lived and died are now incorporated in every constitutional government on the globe.

In no land were his principles more prevalent than in Southern France, and on it Innocent determined to vent his rage. In looking around for a suitable pretext that would rouse the masses and excite them to religious frenzy, he soon discovered the object for which he sought. It was Raymond, earl of Toulouse, who had so far turned Mahometan that he had no less than three wives in emulation of his Saracen neighbors beyond the Pyrenees. An investigation of the domestic life of Raymond, would have shown it to have been far more honorable than that of the popes, themselves. Raymond was therefore arrested on the charge of heresy, of harboring heretics and placing offices of trust in the hands of worthy Jews. His subjects were indignant, for Raymond, it would seem, was a wise and good ruler and much loved by his people.

In the disputes that ensued the pope's ambassador was accidentally killed. Innocent considered this a sufficient reason for sending into the earl's dominion an army of nearly five hundred thousand men. There was no alternative for the earl but to submit. He surrendered up his strong places, and even acknowledged the justice of his punishment. He was publicly stripped naked to the waist, and, with a rope around his neck, led to the altar of the cathedral and there scourged.

But the humiliation and scourging of the earl was not sufficient to satisfy the soldiery. They had come for blood and plunder, and blood and plunder they must have. Then followed such a scene of horror as tongue or pen cannot describe. The army was officered by Roman and French prelates. Bishops were its generals and an archdeacon its engineer. The pope's ambassador was the commander-in-chief, who, when asked by a subordinate officer at the battle of Beziers, how the Catholics might be distinguished from the misbelievers and saved, replied: "Kill them all, God will know His own in the resurrection." In the church of St. Mary Magdalene, seven thousand persons were massacred. In the city twenty thousand more were slaughtered. The place was then fired and left as a monument of priestly vengeance.