A History of The Inquisition of The Middle Ages Volume II Part 36

When that bold thinker, Marsiglio of Padua, endeavored, for the benefit of his patron, the Emperor Louis, to introduce into Germany the principles of the Roman jurisprudence which had enabled the French monarchs to triumph over their feudatories and to become independent of the Church, he handled the subject of the persecution of heresy in a manner which has led some writers to regard him as an advocate of toleration. This is an error. It is true that he denies all Scriptural or apostolical authority for the temporal punishment of infractions of the divine law, and a.s.serts that Christ alone is the judge thereof, and his punishments are reserved for the next world, but this is only to serve as a premise to his conclusion that the persecution of heresy is a matter of human law, to be ordained and enforced by the secular ruler.

Though the heretic, he argues, sins against the divine law, he is punished for transgressing a human law; the priest has nothing to do with it, except as an expert to determine the commission of the crime, and has no claim upon the consequent confiscations (Defensor. Pacis P.

II. c. ix., x.; P. III. c. ii. Conclus. 3, 30). All this is simply part of his general scheme to exclude the Church from control in secular affairs. Louis was never in a position to give these theories practical effect; they had no influence either on the current of opinion or on the course of events, and are only interesting as an episode in the development of political thought.

[425] Werunsky Excerpta ex Registris Clement. VI. et Innoc. VI., Innsbruck, 1885, pp. 8, 40, 63.--Schmidt, Pabstliche Urkunden und Regesten, Halle, 1886, p. 383.

[426] Boccaccio, Decamerone, Giorn. I--Alberti Argentinens. Chron, ann.

1348-9 (Urstisius, II. 147).--Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann.

1248.--Aventinus, Annal. Boiorum Lib. VII. c. 20.--Grandes Chroniques V.

485-6.--Guillel. Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1348-9.--Froissart, Lib. I. P.

ii. ch. 5.--Meyeri Annal. Flandr. ann. 1349.--Henrici Rebdorff. Chron.

ann. 1347.--Alberti Argent. de Gestis Bertold. (Urstisius, II.

177).--Mascaro, Memorias de Bezes, ann. 1348.--Gesta Treviror. ann.

1349.--Chron. Cornel. Zantfliet (Martene Ampl. Coll. V.

253-4).--Erphurd. Variloq. ann. 1348-9 (Menken. II. 506-7).

Accusations such as were brought against the Jews were no new thing. In 1321 all the lepers throughout Languedoc were burned on the charge that they had been bribed by the Jews to poison the wells. Doubtless torture was employed to obtain the confessions which were freely made. The story went that the King of Granada, finding himself hard pressed by the Christians, gave great sums to leading Jews to effect in this way the desolation of Christendom. The Jews, fearing that they would be suspected, employed the lepers. Four great councils of lepers were held in various parts of Europe, where every lazar-house was represented except two in England; there the attempt was resolved upon, and the poison was distributed. King Philippe le Long was in Poitou at the time; when the news was brought him he returned precipitately to Paris, whence he issued orders for the seizure of all the lepers of the kingdom.

Numbers of them were burned, as well as Jews. At the royal castle of Chinon, near Tours, an immense trench was dug, and filled with blazing wood, where, in a single day, one hundred and sixty Jews were burned.

Many of them, of either s.e.x, sang gayly as though going to a wedding, and leaped into the flames, while mothers cast in their children for fear that they would be taken and baptized by the Christians present.

The royal treasury is said to have acquired one hundred and fifty thousand livres from the property of Jews burned and exiled.--Guillel.

Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1321.--Grandes Chroniques V. 245-51.--Chron.

Cornel. Zantfliet. ann. 1321.

[427] Amalr. Augerii Hist. Pontif. Roman. ann. 1320 Muratori, S. R. I.

III. II. 475.--Johann. S. Victor. Chron. ann. 1320 (Ib. p. 485).--Chron.

Anon. ann. 1330 (Ib. p. 499).--Pet. de Herentals ann. 1320 (Ib. p.

500).--Guillel. Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1320.--Grandes Chroniques, V.

245-6.--Cronaca di Firenze ann. 1335 (Baluz. et Mansi IV.

114).--Villani, Lib. XI. c. 23.--Lami, Antichita Toscane, p. 617.

Venturino was acquitted of the charge of heresy, but his free speech offended the pope; he was forbidden to preach or hear confessions, and was sentenced to live in retirement at Frisacca, in the mountains of Ricondona (Villani l. c.). He died in 1346, at Smyrna, whither he had gone as a missionary. He had preached with wonderful success in all the countries of Europe, including Spain, England, and Greece. His face, when preaching, shone with celestial light, and his miracles were numerous (Raynald. ann. 1346, No. 70).

[428] Erphurdian. Variloq. ann. 1349.--Chron. Magdeburgens. ann. 1348 (Meibom. Rer. German. II. 342).--Alberti Argentinens. Chron. ann.

1349.--Closener's Chronik (Chron. der deutschen Stadte, VIII. 105 sqq.).--Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1348--Hermann. Corneri Chron. ann.

1350.--Guillel. Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1349.--Grandes Chroniques, V.

492-3.--Froissart, Liv. I. P. II. ch. 5.--Gesta Treviror. ann.

1349.--Meyeri Annal. Flandriae ann. 1349.--Chron. aegid. Li Muisis (De Smet, Corp. Chron. Flandr. II. 349-51).--Henr. Rebdorff. Annal. ann.

1347.

[429] Alberti Argentinens. Chron. ann. 1349.--Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug.

ann. 1348.

[430] Von der Hardt. T. III. pp. 95-105.

[431] Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1348.--Hartzheim IV. 471-2.--Meyeri Ann. Flandr. ann. 1349.

[432] Raynald, ann. 1353, No. 26, 27.--Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann.

1356.--Naucleri Chron. ann. 1356.--Hartzheim IV. 483.

[433] Mosheim de Beghardis, pp. 333-4.

[434] Mosheim de Beghardis, pp. 335-7.--Chron. Magdeburg. (Leibnitii Scriptt. R. Brunsv. III. 749).--Herm. Korneri Chron. (Eccard. II.

1113).--Cat. Praedic. Prov. Saxon. (Martene Ampl. Coll. VI.

344).--Bohmer, Regest. Karl IV. No. 4761.

[435] Mosheim de Beghardis pp. 343-55.

[436] Mosheim de Beghardis pp. 356-62.--Mosheim suggests that the distinction between the houses of the Beghards and the Beguines probably arose from the former being larger and situated in the cities, the latter smaller, more numerous, and scattered among the towns and villages.

[437] Chron. Magdeburg. (Leibnitii S. R. Brunsv. III. 749).--Herm.

Corneri Chron. (Eccard. Corp. Hist. III. 1113-4).--Raynald. ann. 1372, No. 34.--Ripoll II. 275.--Mosheim de Beghardis pp. 380-3.

[438] Mosheim de Beghardis pp. 368-74, 378-9.--Bohmer, Regest. Karl. IV.

No. 4761.

[439] Mosheim de Beghardis pp. 364-66.--Martini Append. ad Mosheim pp.

541-2.

[440] Cat. Praedic. Prov. Saxon. (Martene Ampl. Coll. VI. 344).--Raynald.

ann. 1372, No. 33, 34.--Mosheim de Beghardis pp. 388-92.--Martini Append. ad Mosheim pp. 647-8.

[441] Martene Thesaur. II. 960-1.--Chron. Cornel. Zantfliet (Martene Ampl. Coll. V. 293, 301-2).--Raynald. ann. 1372, No. 33.--Meyeri Annal.

Flandriae ann. 1373.--Mag. Chron. Belgic. ann. 1374.--Trithem. Chron.

Hirsaug. ann. 1374.--P. de Herentals Vit. Gregor. XI. ann. 1375 (Muratori S. R. I. III. ii. 674-5).

[442] Mosheim de Beghardis pp. 394-8.--Haupt, Zeitschrift fur K.G. 1885, pp. 525-6, 553-4, 563-4.--Haemmerlin Glosa quarumd. Bullar. per Beghardos impetratar. (Basil. 1497, c. 4 sqq.).

[443] Hofler, Prager Concilien, pp. 26-7.--Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann.

1392.--Jundt, Les Amis de Dieu, p. 3.--Haupt, ubi sup. p. 510.

[444] There has recently been discovered at St. Florian, in Austria, an epistle written in 1368 by the Waldenses of Lombardy to some of their German brethren on the occasion of the withdrawal of certain members of the sect, who alleged in justification that the Waldenses were ignorant, that they had no divine authority, and that they were mercenary.

Evidently the local church had appealed to the Lombards as to a central head, for an answer to these accusations, and the reply, together with a rejoinder by one of the apostates, throws valuable light upon the current beliefs of the sectaries. It appears that they carried their origin back to the primitive Church, claiming that their predecessors had opposed the reception of the Donation of Constantine, and that when Silvester refused to reject the perilous gift a voice sounded from heaven, "This day hath poison been spread in the Church of G.o.d." As they were unyielding, they were driven out and persecuted, since when they had preserved the genuine tradition of the Church in obscurity and affliction. They a.s.serted that Peter Waldo had been ordained to the priesthood, and that they possessed full authority, transmitted from G.o.d, but nothing is said as to the apostolical succession, and the apostate, Sigfried, reproaches them with only hearing confessions and sending their disciples to the Catholic churches for the other sacraments. There is no word as to transubstantiation, which must therefore have been an accepted doctrine among them, and their frequent quotations from Augustine and Bernard show that they admitted the authority of the doctors of the Church. They allude to two Franciscans who had recently joined the sect, to a priest who had done so and had been burned, and to a Bishop Bestardi, who, for the same offence, had been summoned to Rome, whence he had never returned.--Comba, Histoire des Vaudois d'Italie, I. 243-55.

[445] Index Error. Waldens. (Mag. Bib. Pat. XIII. 340).--Petri Herp Annal. Francofurt. ann. 1389 (Senckenberg Select. Juris II. 19).--Gudeni Cod. Diplom. III. 598-600.--Serrarii Hist. Mogunt. Lib. v. p.

707.--Hist. Ordin. Carthus. (Martene Ampl. Coll. VI. 214).--Modus examinandi Hsereticos (Mag. Bib. Pat. XIII. 341-2).

John Wasmod subsequently wrote a tract against the Beghards which has been printed by Haupt (Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte, 1885, pp.

567-76). Its chief interest lies in its attributing to the Beghards the tenets of the Waldenses. There is no allusion to pantheism, to union with G.o.d, to refusal of the sacraments, to the denial of h.e.l.l and purgatory. Either he confounds the sects, or else the Waldenses concealed themselves under the guise of Beghards, or else there were among the Beghards a certain number who const.i.tuted a church separate from that of Rome without adopting the distinctive principles of Amaurianism. Wasmod tells us that they do not easily receive applicants, whose obedience they test by making them eat putrid flesh, drink water foul with maggots, etc., at the risk of their lives. One of their strongest arguments is found in the corruption of the Church, which is thus deprived of the power of the keys. Distinctively referable to Beghardism is the a.s.sertion that these heretics are greatly favored and defended by the magistrates of the cities; and not very flattering to Rome is the explanation that the bulls in favor of the Beguines were obtained by the use of money.

[446] Gretseri Prolegom. c. 6 (Mag. Bib. Pat. XIII. 292).--Refutat.

Waldens. (Ib. p. 335).--P. de Pilichdorf. c. 15 (Ib. p.

315).--Wattenbach, Sitzungsberichte der Preuss. Akad. 1886, pp. 49-9, 51.

[447] Wattenbach, op. cit. pp. 49-50, 54-55.--Flac. Illyr. Cat. Test.

Veritatis Lib. XV. pp. 1506, 1524; Lib. XVIII. p. 1803 (Ed. 1608).

[448] W. Preger, Beitrage, pp. 51, 53-4, 68, 72.--P. de Pilichdorf c. 15 (Mag. Bib. Pat. XIII. 315).