The Albigensian Heresy

GALA

East; Polybius of Galatians in the West. The Gauls were a warm-hearted people, but unstable in their friendships, impetuous and courageous in war, but unable to wear down a foe by stubborn endurance. As C?sar noticed: "sunt in consiliis capiendis mobiles, et novis plerumque rebus student;" an opinion endorsed in modern times by one of their own nation-Thierry: "Une bravoure personnelle

ned Nominalism as inimical to Catholic unity, and had adopted the opposite scholastic theory of Realism as most agreeable to the theory of the Holy Roman Empire. This theory, however, now declared to be a dogma of the Catholic faith, struck at the root of national and individual independence. Such an independence France had constantly shewn, and it may be traced not only to the racial antipathy between Gaul and Pelagian, but to the fact that Western Gaul had never lost touch with its Eastern kin. Its Christianity from

SLAV

ced before a common council." The "'Times' History of the World" says: "The Slavs are characterised by a vivacity, a warmth, a mobility, a petulance, an exuberance not always found in the same degree among even the people of the South. Among the Slavs of purer blood these characteristics have marked their political life with a mobile, inconstant and anarchical spiri

NA

Conversions were often political conveniences, rather than personal convictions. The people followed their chiefs, accepted the Church's ministrations and attended her services, but knew next to nothing of Christian truth. In France two

ying Sententiae or opinions of the Fathers. They contended that prayers in an unknown tongue did not profit. They knew by heart large portions of Holy Scripture[14] and readily quoted it in their discussions with the Church. The Catharists also had composed a little work called "Perpendiculum Scientiarum," or "Plummet of Knowledge" (cf. Is. xxviii. 17), consisting of passages of Scripture whereby Catholicism might be easily and readily tested. Not until the eleventh century do we come across in the West any translation into the vulgar tongue by the Church, and then only of Legends of Saints in the dialect of Rouen. In Southern France the vernacular which ultimately emerged was known as Langue D'Oc, and sometimes Proven?al. "In its rise Proven?al literature stands completely by itself, and in its development it long continued to be {23} absolutely original. This literature took a poetic form, and this poetry, unlike classical poetry, is rhymed." No class of

CULAR

ld be provoked every day at the sight of others in enjoyment of their ancestral lands. Moreover, the break-up of Charlemagne's vast kingdom threw great power into the hands of the Dukes and Counts. In their own domains they were practically autocrats. The only check upon their sovereignty came from the Church, whose Bishops and Abbots were often able to protect themselves by their own routiers or by ecclesiastical penalties, such as excommunication. But the lords countered this by thrusting their own

COMM

he non-productive Church was constantly sending it out. Trade with foreign countries created in commercial and industrial circles a sense of independence, and their enlarged outlook gave birth to a religious tolerance favourable to doctrines other than, or in addition to, those of Catholicism. Thus Peter Waldo, the merchant of Lyons, was moved to devote his wealth to disseminate the Word of God as freely as he disposed of his merchandise. These goods had to be made, and the actual m

LITE

nes that were both flexible and compact, and their wealth supported their officers. Clerks could copy out their pamphlets, and their colporteurs or travellers could distribute them. At the beginning of the thirteenth century the Marquis of Montferrand, in Auvergne, just before his death, burnt a great quantity of books, especially those of Albigensian propaganda, which he had been collecting for forty years. (Stephen de Belleville, 85.) The Proven?al, Arnauld, was a most prolific writer, and sol

AND SPIRIT

al 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 r

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 {29} to mar it with an oath. They possessed no money, and were support

Χριστο?, το?? κατ? τ?ν ?σ?αν κα? Φρυγ?αν τ?ν α?τ?ν τ?? ?πολυτρ?σ

w an ignorant rustic who could re

saltationes, obsceni motus seu choreae fiunt ... dicuntur amatoria car

l breviarium pro divinis officiis, aut horas beatae Mariae aliquis ex devotione habere velit. Sed ne praemi

losophy of History,

sus, "Works,"

, which was destroyed by Simon de Montfort. The date usually assigned to the founding of Cordes, viz. 1222, is wrong. See "Records

essor of Peter de Bruis, wrote a book which Peter Venerabilis

o 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, teach