prayers, to the sale of indulgences, &c.1 | cardinal, and then expelled the Manichæans are better omitted than enumerated parti- from his kingdom.3 But he soon after cularly. For there is no need of proof that changed his mind; and it is certain that in this century religion was made to consist this sect continued to inhabit Bosnia, Serchiefly in mimic shows and trifling.2 via, and the adjacent provinces, till the end of the century. The Waldenses collected CHAPTER V. HISTORY OF HERESIES. 1. NEITHER the edicts of the pontiffs and emperors nor the vigilance and cruelty of the Inquisitors, could prevent the ancient sects from still lurking in many places, or even new sects from starting up. We have already seen the Franciscans waging war against the Romish church. In Bosnia and the neighbouring countries the Manichæans or Paulicians, the same as those called Cathari in Italy, organised their societies without molestation. Stephen Thomascus indeed, the king of Bosnia, abjured the heresy of the Manichæans, received baptism from John Carvaialus a Romish 1 The popes now caused indulgences to be preached in all the provinces. The ordinary price was five ducats: They promised to apply the money to a Turkish war; but they often expended it in wars against their Christian enemies, in enriching their family connexions, and supporting their voluptuous extravagance. Neither intelligent princes nor the clergy looked upon this sale of indulgences with approbation. They accordingly made ordinances of various kinds against it. For instance, the council of Soissons in the year 1456 say: "Prohibemus quibuscunque quæstionibus ne in hac provincia, prætextu indulgentiarum, prædicant verbum Dei-aut nihil in suo sermone quæstuosum exponant." In the council of Constance A.D. 1476, the clergy complained of the sale of indulgences as a grievance, and said of it: "Absurda et piarum aurium offensiva, in cancellis, verbum Dei evangelisando committunt." And they enacted, "ut deinceps quæstores ad ambones ecclesiarum non admittantur-et omnes debent quartam partem rectoribus et plebanis solvere." And in Harzheim's Concilia, tom. v. Suppl. p. 945, it is said of these venders of indulgences: "Tales collectores emunt et mercantur collecturas ab ecclesiis, x. xiii. libris denariorum, et per annum xl. 1. accumulant-multo ampliores pecunias colligunt; facinora et scandala committunt, bibunt, noctu ludunt, blasphemant, in tabernas per noctes integras turpiter consumentes, quod ad Dei honorem fideles porrexerunt."-- Schl. 2 To elucidate this by a single example, I adduce the following from the Anecdotes Ecclésiastiques, Amsterd. 1771, 8vo, ad ann. 1499. Among the statutes of the cathedral church of Toul, there is an article with the title Sepelitur Halleluia. It is well known that during the seasons of fasting, Halleluia, as being an expression of joy, was not sung in the ancient church. Hence to honour this Halleluia, which in time of the fasts was as it were dead, a solemn funeral was instituted. On the Saturday night before Septuagesima Sunday, children carried through the chancel a kind of coffin to represent the dead Halleluia. The coffin was attended by the cross, incense, and holy water. The children wept and howled all the way to the cloister, where the grave was prepared. A custom equally ridiculous was introduced into a cathedral church near Paris. On the same day a boy of the choir brought into the church a top (toupie) around which was written Halleluia in golden letters. And when the hour arrived that Halleluia was sung for the last time, the boy took a whip in his hand and whipped the top along the floor of the church quite out of the house. And this was called the Halleluia whip, fouetter l'Alleluia. 80 trifling was the character of the church ceremonies of that age, that they could even profane the churches by the plays of children.Schl. friends and adherents in various countries of Europe, in lower Germany, and particularly in the territories of Brandenburg, Pomerania, Mecklenburg, and Thuringia. Yet it appears from unpublished documents that very many of them were seized by the Inquisitors, and delivered over to the secular authorities to be burned." 2. The Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit, or the Beghards and Schwestriones, as they were called in Germany, or Turlupins as in France, that is, persons whose mystical views had thrown them into a species of frenzy, did not cease from wandering in disguise over certain parts of France, Germany, and the Netherlands, and especially of Swabia and Switzerland, beguiling the minds of the people. few of their teachers escaped the eyes and the hands of the Inquisitors. Upon the Yet 3 See Raph. Volaterranus, Comment. Urbanus, lib. viii. fol. 289, &c.; Eneas Sylvius, De Statu Europæ sub Frederico III. cap. x. in Freher's Scriptores Rer. German. tom. ii. p. 104, &c. This The proffer of indulgences to those who hunted down heretics contributed much to this. Boniface VIII. had already promised an indulgence to every one who should deliver over a heretic to the Inquisition; and he ordained that this should be considered as equally meritorious with a crusade to the Holy Land. ordinance was renewed by the council of Pavia. See Harduin, Concilia, tom. viii. p, 1013, &c. So the provincial council of Constance A.D. 1483, promised indulgences to all those who should lend their personal aid against the heresies of Wickliffe and Huss. See Harzheim's Concilia German. tom. v. p. 546.- Schl. 5 Felix Malleolus or Hämmerlein in his Descriptio Lollhardorum, which is subjoined to his book Contra Validos Mendicantes, Opp. signat. c. ii. a. has drawn up a catalogue, though an imperfect one, of the Beghards burned in Switzerland and the adjacent countries during this century. This Felix in his books against the Beghards and Lollhards (either intentionally or being deceived by the ambiguity of the terms), has confounded the three classes of persons on whom the appellation of Beghards or Lollhards was usually bestowed-namely (1) the Tertiaries of the more rigid Franciscans, (2) the Brethren of the Free Spirit, and (3) the Cellite Brethren or Alexians. The same error occurs in countless other writers. [See also Harzheim's Concil. German. tom. v. p. 464, where there is an ordinance of the provincial council of Constance, A.D. 1463, and another A.D. 1476, against the Lulhards and Begutta and especially the Tertiarii. Here doubtless belongs what John Nieder states in his Formicarium, lib. iii.:-"Fuit Fratricellus seu Beghardus secularis, qui in eremo austeram vitam vixit, et durissimam regulam tenuita Constantino episcopo captus per inquisitorem judicio seculari traditus et incineratus fuit. Alius fuit, qui velut Beghardus infra Rhenumtandem Vienna in Pictaviensi diœcesi incineratus est. Dicebat, 'Christum in se, et se in Christo esse. Currit in partibus Suevim, inter personas utriusque sexus, seculares et ecclesiasticas, hæresis et hypocrisis tam enormis, ut eam ad plenum exprimere non audeam. Omnia licere; non jejunant, occulte laborant in festis ecclesiæ; ceremonias omnes, tanquam animalium hominum, spernunt; virginitatem-superstitiones esse; pro minimo ducunt, non obedire papæ aut pastoribus aliis. Sacerdos quidam feminis persuasit, verecundiam 2 3. In Italy, the new sect of the White Brethren or the Brethren in White (Fratres Albati seu Candidi) produced no little excitement among the people. Near the beginning of the century a certain unknown priest descended from the Alps, clad in a white garment, with an immense number of people of both sexes in his train, all clothed like their leader in white linen; whence their name of the White Brethren.3 This multitude marched through various provinces, following a cross borne by the breaking out of the religious war in Bohe- also called Adamites, because they wished mia between the Hussites and the adherents to follow the example of Adam in his state of the pontiffs in the year 1418, a company of innocence. The ignominious name of of these piously-infatuated people, of whom Beghards, or as the Bohemians pronounced one John was the leader, went into Bohe- it Picards, which was the appropriate demia; and they held their secret meetings signation of this little company, was afterfirst at Prague, afterwards in other places, wards transferred by their enemies to all and lastly in a certain island. It was one those Hussites and Bohemians who conof the tenets of this sect, as has been already tended with the Romish church; for these stated, that those instincts of nature, bash- as is well known were called by the comfulness and modesty, indicate a mind not mon people the Picard Brethren. duly purified and not yet brought back to the divine nature whence it originated; and that those only are perfect and in close union with God who are unmoved by the sight of naked bodies, and who can associate with persons of a different sex in a state of nudity or with no clothing, after the manner of our first parents before their apostacy. Hence these Beghards who, by a slight change in the pronunciation of the name conformably to the harder utterance of the Bohemians, were called Picards, ordinarily went to their prayers and their leader of the sect; and he by a great show religious worship without clothing. For of piety so captivated the people, that numthis precept, so entirely accordant with berless persons of every rank flocked around their religion, was frequently upon their him. He exhorted them to appease the lips: They are not free (that is, not duly wrath of God, inflicted on himself volunrescued from the bonds of the body and tary punishments, recommended a war converted to God) who wear clothing, and against the Turks who were in possession especially breeches. Although these peo- of Palestine, and pretended to have divine ple in their assemblies committed no offence visions. Boniface IX. fearing some plot, against chastity, yet as might be expected ordered the leader of this body to be apprethey fell under the greatest suspicion of hended and committed to the flames. After extreme turpitude and unchastity. And his death the multitude gradually dispersed. John Ziska, the fierce general of the Huss-Whether the man died in innocence or in ites, giving credit to these suspicions, guilt is not ascertained. For some writers of attacked the unhappy company of these the greatest fidelity assert that he was by absurdly religious and delirious people, in the year 1421, slew some of them and wished to commit the rest to the flames. The unhappy men submitted to execution cheerfully in the manner of their intrepid sect, which looked upon death with astonishing indifference.1 These people were abnegandam; coram clericis talibus se denudarunt, sed [See especially Eneas Sylvius, Historia Bohemica, cap. xli.-Schl. 2 The Germans also frequently pronounced the word Beghard, Pyckard. See Menkenius, Scriptores German. tom. ii. p. 1521. 8 Theodoric de Niem tells us that it was from Scotland that this sect came, and that their leader gave himself out for the prophet Elias. Sigonius and Platina inform us that this enthusiast came from France; and that he was clothed in white, carried in his aspect the greatest modesty, and seduced prodigious numbers of people of both sexes and of all ages; that his followers (called penitents), among whom were several cardinals and priests, were clothed in white linen down to their heels, with caps that covered their whole faces except their eyes; that they went in great troops of ten, twenty, and forty thousand persons from one city to another, calling out for mercy and singing hymns; that wherever they came they were received with great hospitality and made innumerable proselytes; that they fasted or lived upon bread and water during the time of their pilgrimage, which continued generally nine or ten days. See Annal. Mediol. ap. Muratori.-Niem, lib. ii. cap. xvi.-Macl. 4 What Mosheim hints but obscurely here is further explained by Sigonius and Platina, who tell us that the pilgrims mentioned in the preceding note stopped at Viterbo, and that Boniface, fearing lest the priest who headed them designed by their assistance to seize upon the pontificate, sent a body of troops thither who apprehended the false prophet, and carried him to Rome where he was burned.-Macl. 554 5. In Germany, and particularly in Thuringia and Lower Saxony, the Flagellants were still troublesome; but they were very different from those earlier Flagellants who 4 3 no means a bad man, and that he was put to death from envy; but others say he was convicted of the most atrocious crimes.1 4. In the year 1411 there was discovered in the Netherlands, and especially at Brus-travelled in regular bands from province to sels, a sect which was projected and pro- province. These new Flagellants rejected pagated by Ægidius Cantor, an illiterate almost all [practical] religion and the exman, and William of Hildenissen, a Car- ternal worship of God, together with the melite, and which was called that of the sacraments, and founded all their hopes Men of Understanding. In this sect there of salvation on faith and flagellation; to were not a few things deservedly reprehen- which perhaps they might add some strange sible, which were derived perhaps in great notions respecting an evil spirit, and some measure from the mystic system. For these other things which are but obscurely stated men professed to have divine visions, denied by the ancient writers. The leader of the that any one can correctly understand the sect in Thuringia and particularly at Sanholy Scriptures unless he is divinely illu- gerhausen was one Conrad Schmidt, who minated, promised a new divine revelation was burned in the year 1414 with many better and more perfect than the Christian, others, by the zcal and industry of Henry taught that the resurrection had taken Schönefeld, a famous Inquisitor at that time place already in the person of Christ, and in Germany. At Quedlinburg, one Nichothat another of the bodies of the dead was las Schaden was committed to the flames. not to be expected, maintained that the At Halberstadt A.D. 1481, Berthold Schade internal man is not defiled by the deeds of was seized, but escaped death it appears by the external, and inculcated that hell itself retracting. And from the records of those will have an end, and that all, both men times a long list might be made out of Flaand devils, will return to God and attain to gellants who were committed to the flames eternal felicity. This sect appears to have in Germany by the Inquisitors. been a branch of the Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit; for they asserted that a new law of the Holy Spirit and of spiritual liberty was about to be promulgated. Yet there were opinions held by its members 3 Excerpta Monachi Pirnensis, in Menkenius, Scripwhich show that they were not entirely tores Rer. German. tom. ii. p. 1521; Chronicon Monaster. in Matthæus, Analecta Veter. Evi, tom. v. p. void of understanding. They inculcated 71; Chronicon Magdeb. in Meibomius, Scriptores Rer. for example-I. that Jesus Christ alone had merited eternal life for the human race, Articles of the Flagellants, which Conrad Schmidt is said to have copied from the manuscript at Walkenried, neither could men acquire for themselves and which were committed to writing by an Inquisitor future bliss by their own deeds; II. that of Bradenborch, A.D. 1411. The following is a concise summary of these articles. All that the Romish church presbyters to whom people confess their teaches respecting the efficacy of the sacraments, puriniquities cannot pardon sins, but that only gatory, prayers for the dead, and the like, are false and Jesus Christ forgives men their sins; III. is contained in the Apostles' Creed, frequently repeats that voluntary penances are not necessary the Lord's prayer and the Ave Maria, and at certain to salvation. Yet these and some other periods lacerates his body with scourging, and thus punishes himself for the sins he commits, will attain tenets, Peter de Alliaco, the bishop of Cam-eternal salvation. [The same thing appears also from bray who broke up this sect, pronounced to be heretical, and commanded William of Hildenissen to abjure.2 1 See Lenfant's Hist. du Concile de Pise, tome 1. p. 102; Poggius, Hist. Florentina, lib. iii. p. 122; Sabellicus, Enneades Rhapsodia Historia, Enneas IX, lib. ix. Opp. tom. ii. p. 839, Basil, 1560, fol. " See the records in Baluze's Miscellanea, tom. ii. p. 277, &c. [The mystical principles of these people are evinced by a passage of these records, in which Ægidius is said to have taught: "Ego sum salvator hominum; per me videbunt Christum, sicut per Christum Patrem,' and also by their coincidence with the Brethren of the Free Spirit, as teaching that the period of the old law was the time of the Father, the period of the new law the time of the Son, and the remaining period that of the Holy Ghost or Elias. Yet it is manifest from these records that William of Hildesheim or Hildenissen, being a man of learning, would have been able to state his tenets more clearly and distinctly.-Schl. German. tom. ii. p. 362, &c. I have before me sixteen vain. On the contrary, whoever believes simply what the fifty Articles of this Flagellant, which were conin Von der Hardt's Acta Concilii Constant. tom. i. par. i. p. 127. In the same Acts (tom. iii. p. 92, &c.) we find a letter of John Gerson addresscd to Vincent Ferrerius, who was much inclined towards the sect of the Flagellants, dated July 9th, 1417. This letter is also in the works of Gerson published by Du Pin, tom ii. par. iv. together with his tract, Contra Sectam Flagellantium.-Schl. [See several of the doctrines of the Flagellants in Gieseler's Lehrbuch, &c. Cunningham's transl. vol. iii. p. 133, &c. He refers to a work by Förstemann, entitled Die Christ. Geisslergesellschaften, Halle, 1828, royal 8vo, as the most recent on this fanatical sect.-R. demned in the council of Constance, and may be seen 4 The records of this transaction were published by Kappius, in his Relatio de Rebus Theologicis Antiquis et Novis, A.D. 1747, p. 475, &c. |