SECOND DIVISION. (Continued.) (continued 4)

§ 102.5.

Bridging the Gulf from the Side of Dialectics.―After Abælard’s condemnation theological dialectics came more and more to be associated with the church doctrine and to approach more or less nearly to a friendly alliance with mysticism. Hugo’s writings did much to bring this about. The following are the most important Schoolmen of this tendency. The Englishman Robert Pulleyn, teacher at Oxford and Paris, afterwards cardinal and papal chancellor at Rome, who died about A.D. 1150. His chief work is Sententiarum Ll. VIII. Though very famous in its day, it was soon cast into the shade by the Lombard’s work. Petrus [Peter] Lombardus [Lombard], born at Novara in Lombardy, a scholar of Abælard, but powerfully influenced by St. Bernard and Hugo St. Victor, was Bishop of Paris from A.D. 1159 till his death in A.D. 1164. He published a dogmatic treatise under the title of Sententiarum Ll. IV.; of which Bk. 1 treated of God, Bk. 2 of Creatures, Bk. 3 of Redemption, Bk. 4 of the Sacraments and the Last Things. For centuries this was the textbook in theological seminaries and won for its author the designation of Magister Sententiarum. He himself compared this gift laid on the altar of the church to the widow’s mite, but the book attained a place of supreme importance in mediæval theology, had innumerable commentaries written on it and was officially authorized as the theological textbook by the Lateran Council of A.D. 1215. It is indeed a well arranged collection of the doctrinal deliverances of the Fathers, in which apparent contradictions are dialectically resolved, with great skill, and wrought up together into an articulate system, but from want of independence and occasional indecision or withholding of any definite opinion, it falls behind Hugo’s Summa and Robert’s Sentences. It had this advantage, however, that it gave freer scope to scholars and teachers, and so was more stimulating as a textbook for academic use. The Lombard’s works include a commentary on the Psalms and Catenæ on the Pauline Epistles. The Frenchman Peter of Poitiers (Pictaviensis), one of the ablest followers of the Lombard, was chancellor of the University of Paris toward the end of the century. He wrote 5 bks. of Sentences or Distinctions, which in form and matter are closely modelled on the work of his master. The most gifted of all the Summists of the 12th century was the German Alanus ab Insulis, born at Lille or Ryssel, lat. Insulæ. After teaching long at Paris, he entered the Cistercian order, and died at an advanced age at Clairvaux in A.D. 1203. A man of extensive erudition and a voluminous writer, he was called Doctor universalis. He wrote an allegorical poem Anticlaudianus, which describes how reason and faith in union with all the virtues restore human nature to perfection. His Regulæ de s. theologia give a short outline of theology and morals in 125 paradoxical sentences which are tersely expounded. A short but able summary of the Christian faith is given in the 5 bks. De arte catholicæ fidei. This work is characterized by the use of a mathematical style of demonstration, like that of the later school of Wolf, and an avoidance of references to patristic authorities, which would have little weight with Mohammedans and heretics. He is thus rather an opponent than a representative of dialectic scholasticism. The Summa quadripartita c. Hæreticos sui temporis ascribed to him was written by another Alanus.

§ 102.6. The Controversy on German Soil.―The provost Gerhoch and his brother, the dean Arno of Reichersberg in Bavaria, were representatives of the school of St. Victor as mediators between dialectics and mysticism. In A.D. 1150 Gerhoch addressed a memorial to Eugenius III., De corrupto ecclesiæ statu, and afterwards he published De investigatione Antichristi. He found the antichrist in the papal schisms of his times, in the ambition and covetousness of popes, in the corruptibility of the curia, in the manifold corruptions of the church, and especially in the spread of a dialectic destructive of all the mysteries of the faith. The controversy in which both of these brothers took most interest was that occasioned by the revival of Adoptionism in consequence of the teaching of French dialecticians, especially Abælard and Gilbert. It led to the formulating of the Christological doctrine in such a form as prepared the way for the later Lutheran theories of the Communicatio idiomatum and the Ubiquitas corporis Christi (§ 141, 9).―In South Germany, conspicuously in the schools of Bamberg, Freisingen, and Salzburg, the dialectic of Abælard, Gilbert, and the Lombard was predominant. Its chief representatives were Folmar of Triefenstein in Franconia and Bishop Eberhard of Bamberg. The controversy arose over the doctrine of the eucharist. Folmar had maintained like Berengar that not the actually glorified body of Christ is present in the sacrament, but only the spiritual substance of His flesh and blood, without muscles, sinews and bones. Against this gross Capernaitic view (John vi. 52, 59) Gerhoch maintained that the eucharistic body is the very resurrection body of Christ, the substance of which is a glorified corporeity without flesh and blood in a carnal sense, without sinews and bones. The bishop of Bamberg took offence at his friend’s bold rejection of the doctrine approved by the church, and so Folmar modified his position to the extent of admitting that there was on the altar not only the true, but also the whole body in the perfection of its human substance, under the form of bread and wine. But nevertheless both he and Abælard adhered to their radical error, a dialectical dismemberment of the two natures of Christ, according to which the divinity and humanity, the Son of God and the Son of man, were two strictly separate existences. Christ, they taught, is according to His humanity Son of God in no other way than a pious man is, i.e. by adoption; but according to His Divine nature He is like the Father omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. In respect of His human nature it must still be said by Him, “My Father is greater than I.” He dwells, however, bodily in heaven, and is shut in by and confined to it. Only His Divine nature can claim Latria or adoratio, worship. Only Dulia, cultus, reverence, such as is due to saints, images, and relics, should be given to His body and blood upon the altar. Gerhoch’s doctrine of the Supper, on the other hand, is summed up in the proposition: He who receives the flesh of the Logos (Caro Verbi) receives also therewith the Logos in His flesh (Verbum carnis). Folmar and Eberhard denounced this as Eutychian heresy. A conference at Bamberg in A.D. 1158, where Gerhoch stood alone as representative of his views, ended by his opponents declaring that he had been convicted of heresy. In A.D. 1162 a Council at Friesach in Carinthia, under the presidency of Archbishop Eberhard of Salzburg, reached the same conclusion.

§ 102.7. Theologians of a Pre-eminently Biblical and Ecclesiastico-Practical Tendency.

Alger of Liège, teacher of the cathedral school there, was one of the most important German theologians in the beginning of the 12th century. He resigned his appointment in A.D. 1121, to spend his last years in the monastery of Clugny, in order to enjoy the company and friendship of its abbot, Peter the Venerable; and there he died about A.D. 1130. The school of Liège, in which he had himself been trained up in the high church Cluniac doctrine there prevalent, flourished greatly during his rule of twenty years. His chief works are De Sacramentis corporis et sanguinis Domini in 3 bks., distinguished by acuteness and lucidity, and a controversial tract on the lines of Radbert against Berengar’s doctrine condemned by the church. In his De misericordia et justitia he treats of church discipline with circumspection, clearness, and decision.

Rupert of Deutz, more than any mediæval scholar before or after, created an enthusiasm for the study of Scripture as the people’s book for all times, the field in which the precious treasure is hid, to be found by any one whose eyes are made sharp by faith. He was a contemporary and fellow countryman of Alger, and died in A.D. 1135. Though he refers to the Hebrew and Greek texts, he cares less for the literal than for the speculative-dogmatic and mystical sense discovered by allegorical exegesis. In his principal work, De trinitate et operilus ejus, he sets forth in 3 bks. the creation work of the Father, in 30 bks. the revealing and redeeming work of the Son, from the fall to the death of Christ, and in the remaining 9 books the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, from the resurrection of Christ to the general resurrection. He maintains in opposition to Anselm (who was afterwards followed by Thomas Aquinas) that Christ would have become incarnate even if men had not sinned (a view which appears in Irenæus, and afterwards in Alexander Hales, Duns Scotus, John Wessel, and others). In regard to the Lord’s Supper he maintained the doctrine of consubstantiation, and he taught like pope Gelasius (§ 58, 2) that the relation of the heavenly and earthly in the eucharist is quite analogous to that of the two natures in Christ.302

The Benedictine Hervæus in the cloister of Bourg-Dieu, who died about A.D. 1150, was distinguished for deep piety and zealous study of Scripture and the fathers. He wrote commentaries on Isaiah and on the Pauline Epistles, the latter of which was ascribed to Anselm and so published among his works.

§ 102.8.

John of Salisbury, Johannes Parvus Sarisberiensis, was a theologian of a thoroughly practical tendency, though a diligent student of Abælard and an able classical scholar, specially familiar with the writings of Cicero. As the trusted friend of Hadrian IV. he was often sent from England on embassies to the pope. In Becket’s struggle against the encroachments of the Crown upon the rights of the church (§ 96, 16) he stood by the primate’s side as his faithful counsellor and fellow soldier, wrote an account of his life and martyrdom, and laboured diligently to secure his canonization. He was made Bishop of Chartres in A.D. 1176, and died there in A.D. 1180. His works, distinguished by singularly wide reading and a pleasing style, are pre-eminently practical. In his Policraticus s. de nugis Curialium et vestigiis Philosophorum he combats the nugæ of the hangers on at court with theological and philosophical weapons in a well balanced system of ecclesiastico-political and philosophico-theological ethics. His Metalogicus in 4 bks. is a polemic against the prostitution of science by the empty formalism of the schoolmen. His 329 Epistles are of immense importance for the literary and scientific history of his times.

Walter of St. Victor, Richard’s successor as prior of that monastery, makes his appearance about A.D. 1130, as the author of a vigorous polemic against dialectic scholasticism, in which he combats especially Christological heresies and spares the idolized Lombard just as little as the condemned Abælard.303 He combats with special eagerness a new heresy springing from Abælard and developed by the Lombard which he styles “Nihilism,” because by denying the independence of the human nature of Christ it teaches that Christ in so far as He is man is not an Aliquid, i.e. an individual.

Innocent III. is deserving of a place here both on account of his rich theological learning and on account of the earnestness and depth of the moral and religious view of life which he presents in his writings. The most celebrated of these are De contemtu mundi and 6 bks. Mysteria evang. legis ac sacramenti Eucharistitæ, and during his pontificate, his epistles and sermons.

§ 102.9. Humanist Philosophers.―While Abælard was striving to prove Christianity the religion of reason, and for this was condemned by the church, his contemporary Bernard Sylvester, teacher of the school of Chartres, a famous nursery of classical studies, was seeking to shake himself free of any reference to theology and the church. Satisfied with Platonism as a genuinely spiritual religion, and feeling therefore no personal need of the church and its consolations, he carefully avoided any allusion to its dogmas, and so remained in high repute as a teacher and writer. His treatise, De mundi universitates. Megacosmus et Microcosmus, in dialogue form discussing in a dilettante, philosophizing style natural phenomena, half poetry, half prose, was highly popular in its day. It fared very differently with his accomplished and like-minded scholar William of Conches. The vehemence with which he declared himself a Catholic Christian and not a heathen Academic aroused suspicion. Though in his Philosophia mundi, sometimes erroneously attributed to Honorius of Autun, he studiously sought to avoid any contradiction of the biblical and ecclesiastical theory of the world, he could not help in his discussion of the origin of man characterizing the literal interpretation of the Scripture history of creation as peasant faith. The book fell into the hands of the abbot William of Thierry, who accused its author to St. Bernard. The opposition soon attained to such dimensions that he was obliged to publish a formal recantation and in a new edition to remove everything objectionable.

§ 103. The Thirteenth Century.

Scholasticism took a new departure in the beginning of the 13th century, and by the middle of the century it reached its climax. Material for its development was found in the works of Aristotle and his Moslem expositors, and this was skilfully used by highly gifted members of the Franciscan and Dominican orders so that all opposition to the scholastic philosophy was successfully overborne. The Franciscans Alexander of Hales and Bonaventura stand side by side with the brilliant Dominican teachers Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas. As reformers of the scholastic philosophy from different points of view we meet with Raimund Lull and Roger Bacon. There were also numerous representatives of this simple biblical and practical tendency devoted to Scripture study and the pursuit of the Christian life; and during this period we find the first developments of German mysticism properly so called.

§ 103.1. The Writings of Aristotle and his Arabic Interpreters.―Till the end of the 12th century Aristotle was known in the Christian West only through Porphyry and Boëthius. This philosophy, however, from the 9th century was diligently studied in Arabic translations of the original text (§ 72) by Moslem scholars of Bagdad and Cordova, who wrote expositions and made original contributions to science. The most distinguished of these, besides the logicians Alkindi in the 9th, and Alfarabi in the 10th century, were the supernaturalistic Avicenna of Bokhara, † A.D. 1037 Algazel of Bagdad, inclined to mysticism or sufism, † A.D. 1111, and the pantheistic-naturalistic Averroes of Cordova, † A.D. 1198. The Moors and Spanish Jews were also devoted students of the peripatetic philosophy. The most famous of these was Maimonides, † A.D. 1204, who wrote the rationalistic work More Nebochim. On the decay of Arabic philosophy in Spain, Spanish Jews introduced the study of Aristotle into France. Dissatisfied with Latin translations from the Arabic, they began in A.D. 1220 to make translations directly from the Greek. Suspicions were now aroused against the new gospel of philosophy. At a Synod in Paris A.D. 1209 (§ 108, 4) the physical writings of Aristotle were condemned and lecturing on them forbidden. This prohibition was renewed in A.D. 1215 by the papal legate and the metaphysics included. But no prohibition of the church could arrest the scientific ardour of that age. In A.D. 1231 the definitive prohibition was reduced to a measure determining the time to be devoted to such studies, and in A.D. 1254 we find the university prescribing the number of hours during which Aristotle’s physics and metaphysics should be taught. Some decades later the church itself declared that no one should obtain the degree of master who was not familiar with Aristotle, “the precursor of Christ in natural things as John Baptist was in the things of grace.” This change was brought about by the belief that not Aristotle but Erigena was the author of all the pantheistic heresies of the age (§§ 90, 7; 108, 4), and also by the need felt by the Franciscans and Dominicans for using Aristotelian methods of proof in defence of the doctrine of the church. Philosophy, however, was now regarded by all theologians as only the handmaid of theology. Even in the 11th century Petrus [Peter] Damiani had indicated the mutual relation of the sciences thus: Debet velut ancilla dominæ quodam famulatus obsequio subservire, ne si præcedit, oberret.304

§ 103.2. On account of their characteristic tendencies Avicenna was most popular with the Schoolmen and after him Algazel, while Averroes, though carefully studied and secretly followed by some, was generally regarded with suspicion and aversion. Among his secret admirers was Simon of Tournay, about A.D. 1200, who boasted of being able with equal ease to prove the falseness and the truth of the church doctrines, and declared that Moses, Christ, and Mohammed were the three greatest deceivers the world had ever seen. The Parisian scholars ascribed to Averroes the Theory of a twofold Truth. A positive religion was required to meet the religious needs of the multitude, but the philosopher might reach and maintain the truth independently of any revealed religion. In the Christian West he put this doctrine in a less offensive form by saying that one and the same affirmation might be theologically true and philosophically false, and vice versa. Behind this, philosophical scepticism as well as theological unbelief sought shelter. Its chief opponents were Thomas Aquinas and Raimund Lull, while at a later time Duns Scotus and the Scotists were inclined more or less to favour it.

§ 103.3. The Appearance of the Mendicant Orders.―The Dominican and Franciscan orders competed with one another in a show of zeal for the maintenance of the orthodox doctrine, and each endeavoured to secure the theological chairs in the University of Paris, the principal seat of learning in those days. They were vigorously opposed by the university corporation, and especially by the Parisian doctor William of St. Amour, who characterized them in his tract De periculis novissimorum temporum of A.D. 1255 as the precursors of antichrist. But he was answered by learned members of the orders, Albert the Great, Aquinas, and Bonaventura, and finally, in A.D. 1257, all opposition on the part of the university was checked by papal authority and royal command. The Augustinians, too, won a seat in the University of Paris in A.D. 1261.―The learned monks gave themselves with enthusiasm to the new science and applied all their scientific gains to polemical and apologetical purposes. They diligently conserved all that the earlier Fathers down to Gregory the Great had written in exposition of the doctrine and all that the later Fathers down to Hugo St. Victor and Peter the Lombard had written in its defence. But what had been simply expressed before was now arranged under elaborate scientific categories. The Summists of the previous century supplied abundant material for the work. Their Summæ sententiarum, especially that of the Lombard, became the theme of innumerable commentaries, but besides these, comprehensive original works were written. These were no longer to be described as Summæ sententiarum, but assumed with right the title of Summæ theologiæ or theologicæ.

§ 103.4. Distinguished Franciscan Schoolmen.―Alexander of Hales, trained in the English cloister of Hales, doctor irrefragabilis, was the most famous teacher of theology in Paris, where in A.D. 1222 he entered the Seraphic Order. He died in A.D. 1245. As the first church theologian who, without the excessive hair-splitting of later scholastics, applied the forms of the peripatetic philosophy to the scientific elaboration of the doctrinal system of the church, he was honoured by his grateful order with the title of Monarcha theologorum, and is still regarded as the first scholastic in the strict sense of the word. His Summa theologica, published at Nuremberg in A.D. 1482 in 4 folio vols. was accepted by his successors as the model of scientific method and arrangement. The first two vols. treat of God and His Work, the Creature; the third, of the Redeemer and His Work; the fourth, of the Sacraments of the O. and N.T. The conclusion, which is not extant, treated of Præmia salutis per futuram gloriam. Each of these divisions was subdivided into a great number of Quæstiones, these again into Membra, and these often into Articuli. The question at the head of the section was followed by several answers affirmative and negative, some of which were entitled Auctoritates (quotations from Scripture, the Fathers, and the teachers of the church), some Rationes (dictates of the Greek, Arabian, and Jewish philosophers), and finally, his own conclusion. Among the authorities of later times, Hugo’s dogmatic works (§ 102, 4) occupy with him the highest place, but he seems to have had no appreciation of his mystical speculations.―His most celebrated disciple John Fidanza, better known as Bonaventura, had a strong tendency to mysticism. Born at Bagnarea in the district of Florence in A.D. 1221, he became teacher of theology in Paris in A.D. 1253, general of his order in A.D. 1257, was made Cardinal-bishop of Ostia by Gregory X. in A.D. 1273, and in the following year was a member of the Lyons Council, at which the question of the reunion of the churches was discussed (§ 67, 4). He took an active part in the proceedings of that council, but died before its close in A.D. 1274. His aged teacher Alexander had named him a Verus Israelita, in quo Adam non peccasse videtur. Later Franciscans regarded him as the noblest embodiment of the idea of the Seraphic Order next to its founder, and celebrated the angelic purity of his personality by the title doctor seraphicus. Sixtus IV. canonized him in A.D. 1482, and Sixtus V. edited his works in 8 fol. vols. in A.D. 1588, and gave him in A.D. 1587 the sixth place in the rank of Doctores ecclesiæ as the greatest church teacher of the West. Like Hugo, he combined the mystical and doctrinal sides of theology, but like Richard St. Victor inclined more to the mystical. His greatest dogmatic work is his commentary in 2 vols. fol. on the Lombard. His able treatise, De reductione artium ad theologiam, shows how theology holds the highest place among all the sciences. In his Breviloquium he seeks briefly but with great expenditure of learning to prove that the church doctrine is in accordance with the teachings of reason. In the Centiloquium, consisting of 100 sections, he treats summarily of the doctrines of Sin, Grace, and Salvation. In the Pharetra he gives a collection of the chief authorities for the conclusions reached in the two previously named works. The most celebrated of his mystical treatises are the Diætæ salutis, describing the nine days’ journey (diætæ) in which the soul passes from the abyss of sin to the blessedness of heaven, and the Itinerarium mentis in Deum, in which he describes as a threefold way to the knowledge of God a theologia symbolica (=extra nos), propria (=intra nos) and mystica (=supra nos), the last and highest of which alone leads to the beatific vision of God.

§ 103.5. Distinguished Dominican Schoolmen.―(1)Albert the Great, the oldest son of a knight of Bollstadt, born in A.D. 1193, at Laningen in Swabia, sent in A.D. 1212, because too weak for a military career, to the University of Padua, where he devoted himself for ten years to the diligent study of Aristotle, entered then the Dominican order, and at Bologna pursued with equal diligence the study of theology in a six years’ course. He afterwards taught the regular curriculum of the liberal arts at Cologne and in the cloisters of his order in other German cities; and after taking his doctor’s degree at Paris, he taught theology at Cologne with such success that the Cologne school, owing to the crowds attracted to his lectures, grew to the dimensions of a university. In A.D. 1254 he became provincial of his order in Germany, was compelled in A.D. 1260 by papal command to accept the bishopric of Regensburg, but returned to Cologne in A.D. 1262 to resume teaching, and died there in A.D. 1280, in his 87th year. His amazing acquirements in philosophical, theological, cabalistic, and natural science won for him the surname of the Great, and the title of doctor universalis. Since the time of Aristotle and Theophrastus there had been no investigator in natural science like him. Traces of mysticism may be discovered in his treatise Paradisus animæ, and in his commentary on the Areopagite. Indeed from his school proceeded the greatest master of speculative mysticism (§ 114, 1). His chief work in natural science is the Summa de Creaturis, the fantastic and superstitious character of which may be seen from the titles of its several books: De virtutibus herbarum, lapidum, et animalium, De mirabilibus mundi, and De secretis mulierum. He wrote three books of commentaries on the Lombard, and two books of an independent system of dogmatics, the Summa theologica. The latter treatise, which closely follows the work of Alexander of Hales, is incomplete.305

§ 103.6. The greatest and most influential of all the Schoolmen was the Doctor angelicus, Thomas Aquinas. Born in A.D. 1227, son of a count of Aquino, at his father’s castle of Roccasicca, in Calabria, he entered against his parents’ will as a novice into the Dominican monastery at Naples. Removed for safety to France, he was followed by his brothers and taken back, but two years later he effected his escape with the aid of the order, and was placed under Albert at Cologne. Afterwards he taught for two years at Cologne, and was then sent to win his doctor’s degree at Paris in A.D. 1252. There he began along with his intimate friend Bonaventura his brilliant career. It was not until A.D. 1257, after the opposition of the university to the mendicant orders had been overcome, that the two friends obtained the degree of doctor. Urban IV. recalled him to Italy in A.D. 1261, where he taught successively in Rome, Bologna, Pisa, and Naples. Ordered by Gregory to take part in the discussions on union at the Lyons Council, he died suddenly in A.D. 1274, soon after his return to Naples, probably from poison at the hand of his countryman Charles of Anjou, in order that he might not appear at the council to accuse him of tyranny. John XXII. canonized him in A.D. 1323, and Pius V. gave him the fifth place among the Latin doctores ecclesiæ.―Thomas was probably the most profound thinker of the century, and was at the same time admired as a popular preacher. He had an intense veneration for Augustine, an enthusiastic appreciation of the church doctrine and the philosophy which are approved and enjoined by this great Father. He had also a vein of genuine mysticism, and was distinguished for warm and deep piety. He was the first to give the papal hierarchical system of Gregory and Innocent a regular place in dogmatics. His Summa philosophiæ contra Gentiles, is a Christian philosophy of religion, of which the first three books treat of those religious truths which human reason of itself may recognise, while the fourth book treats of those which, because transcending reason though not contrary to it, i.e. doctrines of the incarnation and the trinity, can be known only by Divine revelation. He wrote two books of commentaries on the Lombard. By far the most important work of the Middle Ages is his Summa theologica, in three vols., in which he gives ample space to ethical questions. His polemic against the Greeks is found in the section in which he defines and proves the primacy of the pope, basing his arguments on ancient and modern fictions and forgeries (§ 96, 23), which he, ignorant of Greek and deriving his knowledge of antiquity wholly from Gratian’s decree, accepted bona fide as genuine. His chief exegetical work is the Catena aurea on the Gospels and Pauline Epistles, translated into English by Dr. Pusey, in 8 vols., Oxf., 1841, ff. In commenting on Aristotle Thomas, unlike Albert, neglected the treatises on natural science in favour of those on politics.―The Dominican order, proud of having in it the greatest philosopher and theologian of the age, made the doctrine of Thomas in respect of form and matter the authorized standard among all its members (§ 113, 2), and branded every departure from it as a betrayal not only of the order but also of the church and Christianity. The other monkish orders, too, especially the Augustinians, Cistercians, and Carmelites, recognised the authority of the Angelical doctor. Only the Franciscans, moved by envy and jealousy, ignored him and kept to Alexander and Bonaventura, until the close of the century, when, in Duns Scotus (§ 113, 1), they obtained a brilliant teacher within their own ranks, whom they proudly thought would prove a fair rival in fame to the great Dominican teacher.306

§ 103.7. Reformers of the Scholastic Method.―Raimund Lull, a Catalonian nobleman of Majorca, born in A.D. 1234, roused from a worldly life by visions, gave himself to fight for Christ against the infidels with the weapons of the Spirit. Learning Arabic from a Saracen slave, he passed through a full course of scholastic training in theology and entered the Franciscan order. Constrained in the prosecution of his mission to seek a simpler method of proof than that afforded by scholasticism, he succeeded by the help of visions in discovering one by which as he and his followers, the Lullists, thought, the deepest truths of all human sciences could be made plain to the untutored human reason. He called it the Ars Magna, and devoted his whole life to its elaboration in theory and practice. Representing fundamental ideas and their relations to the objects of thought by letters and figures, he drew conclusions from their various combinations. In his missionary travels in North Africa (§ 93, 16) he used his art in his disputations with the Saracen scholars, and died in A.D. 1315 in consequence of ill treatment received there, in his 81st year. Of his writings in Latin, Catalonian, and Arabic, numbering it is said more than a thousand, 282 were known in A.D. 1721 to Salzinger of Mainz, but only 45 were included in his edition of the collected works.

§ 103.8. Roger Bacon, an English monk, contemporary with Lull, worked out his reform in a sounder manner by going back to the original sources and thus obtaining deliverance from the accumulated errors of later times. He appealed on matters of natural science not to corrupt translations but to the original works of Aristotle, and on matters of theology, not to the Lombard but to the Greek New Testament. He prosecuted his studies laboriously in mathematics and the Greek language. Roger was called by his friends Doctor mirabilis or profundus. He was a prodigy of learning for his age, more in the department of physics than in those of philosophy and theology. He was regarded, however, by his own order as a heretic, and imprisoned as a trafficker in the black arts. Born in A.D. 1214 at Ilchester, he took his degree of doctor of theology at Paris, entered the Franciscan order, and became a resident at Oxford. Besides diligent study of languages, which secured him perfect command of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic, he busied himself with researches and experiments in physics (especially optics), chemistry, and astronomy. He made several important discoveries, e.g. the principle of refraction, magnifying glasses, the defects of the calendar, etc., while he also succeeded in making a combustible material which may be regarded as the precursor of gunpowder. He maintained the possibility of ships and land vehicles being propelled most rapidly without sails, and without the labour of men or animals. Yet he was a child of his age, and believed in the philosopher’s stone, in astrology, and alchemy. Thoroughly convinced of the defects of scholasticism, he spoke of Albert the Great and Aquinas as boys who taught before they learnt, and especially reproached them with their ignorance of Greek. With an amount of brag that smacks of the empiric he professed to be able to teach Hebrew in three days and Greek in the same time, and to give a full course of geometry in seven days. With fearless severity he lashed the corruptions of the clergy and the monks. Only one among his companions seems to have regarded Roger, notwithstanding all his faults, as a truly great man. That was Clement IV. who, as papal legate in England, had made his acquaintance, and as pope liberated him from prison. To him Roger dedicated his Opus majus s. de emendandis scientiis. At a later period the general of the Franciscan order, with the approval of Nicholas IV., had him again cast into prison, and only after that pope’s death was he liberated through the intercession of his friends. He died soon after in A.D. 1291.307

§ 103.9. Theologians of a Biblical and Practical Tendency.

Cæsarius of Heisterbach near Bonn was a monk, then prior and master of the novices of the Cistercian monastery there. He died in A.D. 1230. His Dialogus magnus visionum et miraculorum in 12 bks., one of the best specimens of the finest culture and learning of the Middle Ages, in the form of conversation with the novices, gives an admirable and complete sketch of the morals and manners of the times illustrated from the history and legends of the monks, clergy, and people.

His younger contemporary the Dominican William Peraldus (Perault), in his Summa virtutum and Summa vitiorum, presents a summary of ethics with illustrations from life in France. He died about A.D. 1250, as bishop of Lyons.

Hugo of St. Caro (St. Cher, a suburb of Vienne), a Dominican and cardinal who died in A.D. 1263, gives evidence of careful Bible study in his Postilla in univ. Biblia juxta quadrupl. sensum (a commentary accompanying the text) and his Concordantiæ Bibliorum (on the Vulgate). To him we are indebted for our division of the Scriptures into chapters. At the request of his order he undertook a correction of the Vulgate from the old MSS.

Robert of Sorbon in Champagne, who died in A.D. 1274, was confessor of St. Louis and teacher of theology at Paris. He urged upon his pupils the duty of careful study of the Bible. In A.D. 1250 he founded the Sorbonne at Paris, originally a seminary for the education and support of the poorer clergy who aspired to the highest attainments in theology. Its fame became so great that it rose to the rank of a full theological faculty, and down to its overthrow in the French Revolution it continued to be the highest tribunal in France for all matters pertaining to religion and the church.

Raimund Martini, Dominican at Barcelona, who died after A.D. 1284, was unweariedly engaged in the conversion of Jews and Mohammedans. He spoke Hebrew and Arabic as fluently as Latin, and wrote Pugio fidei contra Mauros et Judæos.308

§ 103.10. Precursors of the German Speculative Mystics.―David of Augsburg, teacher of theology and master of the novices in the Franciscan monastery at Augsburg, deserves to be named first, as one who largely anticipated the style of speculative mysticism that flourished in the following century (§ 114). His writings, partly in Latin, partly in German, are merely ascetic directories and treatises of a contemplative mystical order, distinguished by deep spirituality and earnest, humble piety. The German works especially are models of a beautiful rhythmical style, worthy of ranking with the finest creations of any century. He is author of the important tract, De hæresi pauperum de Lugduno, in which the pious mystic shows himself in the less pleasing guise of a relentless inquisitor and heresy hunter.―A brilliant and skilful allegory, The Daughter of Zion, the human soul, who, having become a daughter of Babylon, went forth to see the heavenly King, and under the guidance of the virgins Faith, Hope, Love, Wisdom, and Prayer attained unto this end, was first written in Latin prose; but afterwards towards the close of the 13th century a free rendering of it in more than 4,000 verses was published by the Franciscan Lamprecht of Regensburg. Its mysticism is like that of St. Bernard and Hugo St. Victor.―In speculative power and originality the Dominican Theodorich of Freiburg, Meister Dietrich, a pupil of Albert the Great, far excelled all the mystics of this century. About A.D. 1280 he was reader at Treves, afterwards prior at Würzburg, took his master’s degree and taught at Paris, A.D. 1285-1289. About A.D. 1320, however, along with Meister Eckhart (§ 114, 1), he fell under suspicion of heresy, and nothing further is known of him. Among his still unpublished writings, mostly on natural and religious philosophy, the most important is the book De beatifica visione Dei per essentiam, which marks him out as a precursor of the Eckhart speculation.―On Female Mystics, see § 107.

IV. The Church and the People.

§ 104. Public Worship and Art.

Public worship had for a long time been popularly regarded as a performance fraught with magical power. The ignorant character of the priests led to frequent setting aside of preaching as something unessential, so that the service became purely liturgical. But now popes and synods urged the importance of rearing a race of learned priests, and the carefully prepared and eloquent sermons of Franciscans and Dominicans found great acceptance with the people. The Schoolmen gave to the doctrine of the sacraments its scientific form. The veneration of saints, relics, and images became more and more the central point of worship. Besides ecclesiastical architecture, which reached its highest development in the 13th century, the other arts began to be laid under contribution to beautify the ceremonial, the dresses of the celebrants, and the inner parts of the buildings.

§ 104.1. The Liturgy and the Sermon.―The Roman Liturgy was universally adopted except in Spain. When it was proposed at the Synod of Toledo in A.D. 1088 to set aside the old Mozarabic liturgy (§ 88, 1), the people rose against the proposal, and the ordeals of combat and fire decided in favour of retaining the old service. From that time both liturgies were used side by side. The Slavic ritual was abandoned in Moravia and Bohemia in the 10th century. The language of the church services everywhere was and continued to be the Latin. The quickening of the monkish orders in the 11th century, especially the Cluniacs and Cistercians, but more particularly the rise of the Franciscans and Dominicans in the 13th century, gave a great impulse to preaching. Almost all the great monks and schoolmen were popular preachers. The crowds that flocked around them as they preached in the vernacular were enormous. Even in the regular services the preaching was generally in the language of the people, but quotations from Scripture and the Fathers, as a mark of respect, were made in Latin and then translated. Sermons addressed to the clergy and before academic audiences were always in Latin.―As a preacher of repentance and of the crusades, Fulco of Neuilly, † A.D. 1202, regarded by the people as a saint and a miracle worker, had a wonderful reputation (§ 94, 4). Of all mediæval preachers, however, none can be compared for depth, spirituality, and popular eloquence with the Franciscan Berthold of Regensburg, pupil and friend of David of Augsburg (§ 103, 10), one of the most powerful preachers in the German tongue that ever lived. He died in A.D. 1272. He wandered from town to town preaching to crowds, often numbering 100,000 men, of the grace of God in Christ, against the abuse of indulgences and false trust in saints, and the idea of the meritoriousness of pilgrimages, etc. His sermons are of great value as illustrations of the strength and richness of the old German language. Roger Bacon too (§ 103, 8), usually so chary of praise, eulogises Frater Bertholdus Alemannus as a preacher worth more than the two mendicant orders together.

§ 104.2. Definition and Number of the Sacraments (§§ 58; 70, 2).―Radbert acknowledged only two: Baptism including confirmation, and the Lord’s Supper. Rabanus Maurus by separately enumerating the bread and the cup, and counting confirmation as well as baptism, made four. Hugo St. Victor again held them to be an indefinite number. But he distinguished three kinds: those on which salvation depends, Baptism, Confirmation, and the Supper; those not necessary and forming important aids to salvation, sprinkling with holy water, confession, extreme unction, marriage, etc.; those necessary for particular callings, the ordination of priests, sacred vestments. Yet he prepared the way for the final ecclesiastical conception of the sacraments, by placing its Elementa Corporalia under the threefold category as divinam gratiam ex similitudine repræsentantia, ex institutione significantia, and ex consecratione continentia. Peter the Lombard took practically the same view, but fixed the number of the Sacraments at seven: Baptism, Confirmation (§ 35, 4), the Supper, Penance, Extreme Unction, Marriage, and Ordination (§ 45, 1). This number was first officially sanctioned by the Florentine Council of A.D. 1439 (§ 67, 6). Alexander of Hales gave a special rank to Baptism and the Supper, as alone instituted by Christ, while Aquinas gave this rank to all the seven. All the ecclesiastical consecrations and benedictions were distinguished from the sacraments as Sacramentalia.―The Schoolmen distinguished the sacraments of the O.T., as ex opera operante, i.e. efficacious only through faith in a coming Redeemer, from the sacraments of the N.T. as ex opera operato, i.e. as efficacious by mere receiving without the exercise of positive faith on the part of all who had not committed a mortal sin. Against old sectaries (§§ 41, 3; 63, 1) and new (§§ 108, 7, 12) the scholastic divines maintained that even unworthy and unbelieving priests could validly dispense the sacraments, if only there was the intentio to administer it in the form prescribed by the church.309

§ 104.3. The Sacrament of the Altar.―At the fourth Lateran Council of A.D. 1215 the doctrine of Transubstantiation was finally accepted (§ 101, 2). The fear lest any of the blood of the Lord should be spilt led to the withholding from the 12th century of the cup from the laity, and its being given only to the priests. If not the cause, then the consequence, of this was that the priests were regarded as the only full and perfect partakers of the Lord’s table. Kings at their coronation and at the approach of death were sometimes by special favour allowed to partake of the cup. The withdrawal of the cup from the laity was dogmatically justified, specially by Alex. of Hales, by the doctrine of concomitantia, i.e. that in the body the blood was contained. Fear of losing any fragment also led to the substitution of wafers, the host, for the bread that should be broken.―A consecrated host is kept in the Tabernaculum, a niche in the wall on the right of the high altar, in the so-called liburium or Sanctissimum, i.e. a gold or silver casket, often ornamented with rich jewels. It is taken forth, touched only by the priests, and exhibited to the kneeling people during the service and in solemn processions.

§ 104.4. Penance.―Gratian’s decree (§ 99, 5) left it to the individual believer’s decision whether the sinner could be reconciled to God by heart penitence without confession. But in accordance also with the teaching of the Lombard, confession of mortal sins (Gal. v. 19 ff. and Cor. v. 9 f.), or, in case that could not be, the desire at heart to make it, was declared indispensable. The forgiveness of sins was still, however, regarded as God’s exclusive prerogative, and the priest could bind and loose only in regard to the fellowship of the church and the enjoyment of the sacraments. Before him, however, Hugo St. Victor had begun to transcend these limits; for he, distinguishing between the guilt and the punishment of the sinner, ascribed indeed to God alone the absolution from the guilt of sin on the ground of sincere repentance, but ascribed to the exercise of the priestly function, the absolution from the punishment of eternal death, in accordance with Matthew xviii. 18 and John xx. 23. Richard St. Victor held that the punishment of eternal death, which all mortal sins as well as venial sins entail, can be commuted into temporal punishment by priestly absolution, atoned for by penances imposed by the priests, e.g. prayers, fastings, alms, etc.; whereas without such satisfaction they can be atoned for only by the pains of purgatory (§ 61, 4). Innocent III., at the fourth Lateran Council of A.D. 1215, had the obligation of confession of all sins raised into a dogma, and obliged all believers under threat of excommunication to make confession at least once a year, as preparation for the Easter communion. The Provincial Synod at Toulouse in A.D. 1229 (§ 109, 2) insisted on compulsory confession and communion three times a year, at Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. The three penitential requirements, enforced first by Hildebert of Tours, and adopted by the Lombard, Contritio cordis, Confessio oris, and Satisfactio operis continued henceforth in force. But Hugo’s and Richard’s theory of absolution displaced not only that of the Lombard, but, by an extension of the sacerdotal idea to the absolution of the sinner from guilt, led to the introduction of a full-blown theory of indulgence (§ 106, 2). As the ground of the scientific construction given it by the Schoolmen of the 13th century, especially by Aquinas, the Catholic Church doctrine of penance received its final shape at the Council of Florence in A.D. 1439. Penance as the fourth sacrament consists of hearty repentance, auricular confession, and satisfaction; it takes form in the words of absolution, Ego te absolvo; and it is efficacious for the forgiveness of sins. Any breach of the secrecy of the confessional was visited by the fourth Lateran Council with excommunication, deposition, and lifelong confinement in a monastery. The exaction of a confessional fee, especially at the Easter confession, appears as an increment of the priest’s income in many mediæval documents. Its prohibition by several councils was caused by its simoniacal abuse. By the introduction of confessors, separate from the local clergy, the custom fell more and more into disuse.

§ 104.5. Extreme Unction.―Although as early as A.D. 416 Innocent I. had described anointing of the sick with holy oil (Mark vi. 13; Jas. v. 14) as a Genus Sacramenti (§ 61, 3), extreme unction as a sacrament made little progress till the 9th century. The Synod of Chalons in A.D. 813 calls it quite generally a means of grace for the weak of soul and body. The Lombard was the first to give it the fifth place among the seven sacraments as Unctio extrema and Sacramentum exeuntium, ascribing to it Peccatorum remissio et corporalis infirmitatio alleviatus. Original sin being atoned for by baptism, and actual sins by penance, Albert the Great and Aquinas describe it as the purifying from the Reliquiæ peccatorum which even after baptism and penance hinder the soul from entering into its perfect rest. Bodily healing is only a secondary aim, and is given only if thereby the primary end of spiritual healing is not hindered. It was long debated whether, in case of recovery, it should be repeated when death were found approaching, and it was at last declared to be admissible. The Council of Trent defines Extreme Unction as Sacr. pœnitentiæ totius vitæ consummativum. The form of its administration was finally determined to be the anointing of eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and hands, as well as (except in women) the feet and loins, with holy oil, consecrated by the bishop on Maundy Thursday. Confession and communion precede anointing. The three together constitute the Viaticum of the soul in its last journey. After receiving extreme unction recipients are forbidden again to touch the ground with their bare feet or to have marital intercourse.

§ 104.6. The Sacrament of Marriage (§ 89, 4).―When marriage came generally to be regarded as a sacrament in the proper sense, the laws of marriage were reconstructed and the administration of them committed to the church. It had long been insisted upon by the church with ever-increasing decidedness, that the priestly benediction must precede the marriage ceremonial, and that bridal communion must accompany the civil action. Hence marriage had to be performed in the immediate vicinity of a church, ante ostium ecclesiæ. As another than the father often gave away the bride, this position of sponsor was claimed by the church for the priest. Marriage thus lost its civil character, and the priest came to be regarded as performing it in his official capacity not in name of the family, but in name of the church. Christian marriage in the early times required only mutual consent of parties (§ 39, 1), but the Council of Trent demanded a solemn agreement between bride and bridegroom before the officiating priest and two or three witnesses. In order to determine more exactly hindrances to marriage (§ 61, 2) it was made a law at the second Lateran Council in A.D. 1139, and confirmed at the fourth in A.D. 1215, that the parties proposing to marry should be proclaimed in church. To each part of the sacrament the character indelibilis is ascribed, and so divorce was absolutely forbidden, even in the case of adultery (in spite of Matt. v. 32 and xix. 9), though separatio a mensa et toro was allowed. Innocent III. in A.D. 1215 reduced the prohibited degrees from the seventh to the fourth in the line of blood relationship (§ 61, 2).

§ 104.7. New Festivals.―The worship of Mary (§ 57, 2) received an impulse from the institution of the Feast of the Birth of Mary on 8th of September. To this was added in the south of France in the 12th century, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on the 8th December. Radbert (§ 91, 4) by his doctrine of Sanctificatio in utero gave basis to the theory of the Virgin’s freedom from original sin in her conception and bearing. Anselm of Canterbury, however, taught in Cur Deus Homo? ii. 16, that Mary was conceived and born in sin, and that she like all others had sinned in Adam. Certain canons of Lyons, in A.D. 1140, revived Radbert’s theory, but raised the Sanctif. in utero into the Immaculata conceptio. St. Bernard protested against the doctrine and the festival; sinless conception is a prerogative of the Redeemer alone. Mary like us all was conceived in sin, but was sanctified before the birth by Divine power, so that her whole life was faultless; if one imagines that Mary’s sinless conception of her Son had her own sinless conception as a necessary presupposition, this would need to be carried back ad infinitum, and to festivals of Immaculate Conceptions there would be no end. This view of a Sanctificatio in utero, with repudiation of the Conceptio immaculata, was also maintained by Alex. of Hales, Bonaventura, Albert the Great, and Aquinas. The feast of the Conception, with the predicate “immaculate” dropped, gradually came to be universally observed. The Franciscans adopted it in this limited sense at Pisa, in A.D. 1263, but when, beginning with Duns Scotus (§§ 113, 112), the doctrine of the immaculate conception came to be regarded as a distinctive dogma of the order, the Dominicans felt called upon to offer it their most strenuous opposition.310 (Continuation, § 112, 4.)―To the feast of All Saints, on 1st November, the Cluniacs added in A.D. 998, the feast of All Souls on 2nd November, for intercession of believers on behalf of the salvation of souls in purgatory. In the 12th century the Feast of the Trinity was introduced on the Sunday after Pentecost. Out of the transubstantiation doctrine arose the Corpus Christi Festival, on the Thursday after Trinity. A pious nun of Liège, Juliana, in A.D. 1261, saw in a vision the full moon with a halo around it, and an inward revelation interpreted this phenomenon to indicate that the festal cycle of the church still wanted a festival in honour of the eucharist. Urban IV. gave effect to this suggestion in A.D. 1264, avowedly in consequence of the miracle of the mass of Bolsena. A priest of Bolsena celebrating mass spilt a drop of consecrated wine, which left a blood-red stain on the corporal or pall (§ 60, 5), in the form of a host. The festival did not come into favour till Clement V. renewed its institution at the Council of Vienne, in A.D. 1311. The church, by order of John XXIII. in A.D. 1316, celebrated it by a magnificent procession, in which the liburium was carried with all pomp.

§ 104.8. The Veneration of Saints (§ 88, 4).―The numerous Canonizations, from the 12th century exclusively in the hands of the popes, gave an impulse to saint worship. It was the duty of Advocatus diaboli to try to disprove the reports of virtues and miracles attributed to candidates. The proofs of holiness adduced were generally derived from thoroughly fabulous sources. The introduction of the name of accepted candidates into the canon of the mass gave rise to the term canonization. Beatification was a lower degree of honour, often a preliminary to canonization at a later period. It carried with it the veneration not of the whole church, but of particular churches or districts. The Dominican Jacobus a Voragine, who died in A.D. 1298, in his Legenda aurea afforded a pattern for numerous late legends of the saints. A Parisian theologian who styled it Legenda ferrea, was publicly expelled from his office. The Veneration of Mary, to whom were rendered Hyperdoulia in contradistinction from the Doulia of the saints, not only among the people, but with the most cultured theologians, publicly and privately, literally and figuratively, in prose and poetry, was almost equal to the worship rendered to God, and indeed often overshadowed it. The angel’s salutation (Luke i. 28) was in every prayer. Its frequent repetition led to the use of the Rosary, a rose wreath for the most blessed of women. The great rosary attributed to St. Dominic has fifteen decades, or 150 smaller pearls of Mary, each of which represents an Ave Maria, and after every ten there is a greater Paternoster pearl. The small or common rosary has only five decades of beads of Mary with a Paternoster bead for each decade. Thrice repeated it forms the so-called Psalter of Mary. The first appearance of the rosary in devotion was with the monk Macarius in the 4th century, who took 300 stones in his lap, and after every Paternoster threw one away. The rosary devotion is also practised by Moslems and Buddhists. In cloisters, Saturday was usually dedicated to the Mother of God, and was begun by a special Officium S. Mariæ. May was called the month of Mary.―In the 11th century no further trace is found of the Frankish opposition to Image Worship (§ 92, 1). But this in no way hindered the growth of Relic Worship. Returning crusaders showered on the West innumerable relics, which notwithstanding many sceptics were received generally with superstitious reverence. Castles and estates were often bartered for pretended relics of a distinguished saint, and such treasures were frequently stolen at the risk of life. No story of a trafficker in relics was too absurd to be believed.―Pilgrimages, especially to Rome and Palestine, were no less in esteem among the Western Christians of the 10th century during the Roman pornocracy (§ 96, 1) or the tyranny of the Seljuk dynasty in Palestine (§ 94). The expectation of the approaching end of the world, rather gave them an impulse during this century, which reached its fullest expression in the crusades.―Continuation, § 115, 9.

§ 104.9. The earliest trace of a commemoration of St. Ursula and her 11,000 Virgins is met with in the 10th century. Excavations in the Ager Ursulanus near Cologne in A.D. 1155 led to the discovery of some thousand skeletons, several of them being those of males, with inscribed tablets, one of the fictitious inscriptions referring to an otherwise unknown pope Cyriæus. St. Elizabeth of Schönau (§ 107, 1) at the same time had visions in which the Virgin gave her authentic account of their lives. Ursula, the fair daughter of a British king of the 3rd century, was to have married a pagan prince; she craved three years’ reprieve and got from her father eleven ships, each with an equipment of a thousand virgins, with which she sailed up the Rhine to Basel, and thence with her companions travelled on foot a pilgrimage to Rome. On her return, in accordance with the Divine instruction, Pope Cyriæus accompanied her, whose name was on this account struck out of the list by the offended cardinals; for as Martinus Polonus says, Credebant plerique eum non propter devotionem sed propter obtectamenta virginum papatum dimississe. Near Cologne they met the army of the Huns, by whom they were all massacred, at last even Ursula herself on her persistent refusal to marry the barbaric chief.―In the absence of any historical foundations for this legend, an explanation has been attempted by identifying Ursula with a goddess of the German mythology. An older suggestion is that perhaps an ancient inscription may have given rise to the legend.311

§ 104.10. Hymnology.―The Augustan age of scholasticism was that also of the composition of Latin hymns and sequences (§ 88, 2). The most distinguished sacred poets were Odo of Clugny, king Robert of France (Veni, sancte Spiritus, et emitte), Damiani, Abælard, Hildebert of Tours, St. Bernard, Adam of St. Victor,312 Bonaventura, Aquinas, the Franciscan Thomas of Celano, A.D. 126O (Dies iræ), and Jacopone da Todi, † A.D. 1306 (Stabat mater dolorosa). The latter, an eccentric enthusiast and miracle-working saint, called himself “Stultus propter Christum.” Originally a wealthy advocate, living a life of revel and riot, he was led by the sudden death of his young wife to forsake the world. He courted the world’s scorn in the most literal manner, appearing in the public market bridled like a beast of burden and creeping on all fours, and at another time appearing naked, tarred and feathered at the marriage of a niece. But he glowed with fervent love for the Crucified and a fanatical veneration for the blessed Virgin. He also fearlessly raised his voice against the corruption of the clergy and the papacy, and vigorously denounced the ambition of Boniface VIII. For this he was imprisoned and fed on bread and water. When tauntingly asked, “When wilt thou come out?” he answered in words that were soon fulfilled, “So soon as thou shall come down.” Sacred Poetry in the vernacular was used only in extra-ecclesiastical devotions. The oldest German Easter hymn belongs to the 12th century.313 The Minnesingers of the 13th century composed popular songs of a religious character, especially in praise of Mary; there were also sacred songs for travellers, sailors, soldiers, etc. Heretics separated from the church and its services spread their views by means of hymns. St. Francis wrote Italian hymns, and among his disciples Fra Pacifico, Bonaventura, Thomas of Celano, and Jacopone followed worthily in his footsteps.

§ 104.11. Church Music (§ 88, 2).―The Gregorian Cantus firmus soon fell into disfavour and disuetude. The rarity, costliness, and corruption of the antiphonaries, the difficulty of their notation and of their musical system, and the want of accurately trained singers, combined to bring this about. Singers too had often made arbitrary alterations. Hence alongside of the Cantus firmus there gradually grew up a Discantus or Cantus figuratus, and instead of singing in unison, singing in harmony was introduced. Rules of harmony, concord, and intervals were now elaborated by the monk Hucbald of Rheims about A.D. 900, while the German monk Reginus about A.D. 920 and the abbot Opo of Clugny did much for the theory and practice of music. In place of the intricate Gregorian notation the Tuscan Benedictine Guido of Arezzo, A.D. 1000-1050, introduced the notation that is still used, which made it possible to write the harmony along with the melody, counterpoint, i.e. punctum contra punctum. The discoverer of the measure of the notes was Franco of Cologne about A.D. 1200. The organ was commonly used in churches. The Germans were the greatest masters in its construction and in the playing of it.―Continuation, § 115, 8.

§ 104.12. Ecclesiastical Architecture.―Church building, which the barbarism of the 10th century, and the widespread expectation of the coming end of the world had restrained, flourished during the 11th century in an extraordinary manner. The endeavour to infuse the German spirit into the ancient style of architecture gave rise to the Romance Style of Architecture, which prevailed during the 12th century. It was based upon the structure of the old basilicas, the most important innovation being the introduction of the vaulted in place of the flat wooden roof, which made the interior lighter and heightened the perspective effect. The symbolical and fanciful ornamentation was also richly developed by figures from the plants and animals of Germany, from native legends. Towers were also added as fingers pointing upward, sometimes over the entrance to the middle aisle or at both sides of the entrance, sometimes over the point where the nave and transepts intersected one another, or on both sides of the choir. The finest specimens of this style were the cathedrals of Spires, Mainz, and Worms. But alongside of this appeared the beginnings of the so-called Gothic Architecture, which reached its height in the 13th and 14th centuries. Here the German ideas shook themselves free from the bondage of the old basilica style. Retaining the early ground plan, its pointed arch admitted of development in breadth and height to any extent. The pointed arch was first learnt from the Saracens, but its application to the Gothic architecture was quite original, because it was not as with the Saracens decorative, but constructive. The blank walls were changed into supporting pillars, and became a magnificent framework for the display of ingenious window architecture. A rich stone structure rose upon the cruciform ground plan, and the powerful arches towered up into airy heights. Tall tapering pillars symbolized the heavenward strivings of the soul. The rose window over the portal as the symbol of silence teaches that nothing worldly has a voice there. The gigantic peaked windows send through their beautifully painted glass a richly coloured light full on the vast area. Everything in the structure points upward, and this symbolism is finally expressed in the lofty towers, which lose themselves in giddy heights. The victory over the kingdom of darkness is depicted in the repulsive reptiles, demonic forms, and dragon shapes which are made to bear up the pillars and posts, and to serve as water carriers. The wit of artists has made even bishops and popes perform these menial offices, just as Dante condemned many popes to the infernal regions.314

§ 104.13. The most famous architects were Benedictines. The master builder along with the scholars trained by him formed independent corporations, free from any other jurisdiction. They therefore called themselves “Free Masons,” and erected “Lodges,” where they met for consultation and discussion. From the 13th century these lodges fell more and more into the hands of the laity, and became training schools of architecture. To them we are largely indebted for the development of the Gothic style. Their most celebrated works are the Cologne cathedral and the Strassburg minster. The foundation of the former was laid under Archbishop Conrad of Hochsteden in A.D. 1248; the choir was completed and consecrated in A.D. 1322 (§ 174, 9). Erwin of Steinbach began the building of the Strassburg minster in A.D. 1275.

§ 104.14. Statuary and Painting.―Under the Hohenstaufens statuary, which had been disallowed by the ancient church, rose into favour. Its first great master in Italy was Nicola Pisano, who died in A.D. 1274. Earlier indeed a statuary school had been formed in Saxony, of which no names but great works have come down to us. The goldsmith’s craft and metallurgy were brought into the service of the church by the German artists, and show not only wonderful technical skill, but also high attainment in ideal art. In Painting the Byzantines taught the Italians, and these again the Germans. At the beginning of the 13th century there was a school of painting at Pisa and Siena, claiming St. Luke as its patron, and seeking to impart more life and warmth to the stiff figures of the Byzantines. Their greatest masters were Guido of Siena and Giunta of Pisa, and the Florentine Cimabue, † A.D. 1300. Mosaic painting mostly on a golden ground was in favour in Italy. Painting on glass is first met with in the beginning of the 11th century in the monastery of Tegernsee in Bavaria, and soon spread over Germany and all over Europe.315―Continuation, § 115, 13.

§ 105. National Customs and the National Literature.

It was an age full of the most wonderful contradictions and anomalies in the life of the people, but every phenomenon bore the character of unquestionable power, and the church applied the artificer’s chisel to the unhewn marble block. In club law the most brutal violence prevailed, but bowed itself willingly or unwillingly before the might of an idea. The basest sensuality existed alongside of the most simple self-denial and renunciation of the world, the most wonderful displays of self-forgetting love. The most sacred solemnities were parodied, and then men turned in awful earnest to manifest the profoundest anxiety for their soul’s salvation. Alongside of unmeasured superstition we meet with the boldest freethinking, and out of the midst of widespread ignorance and want of culture there radiated forth great thoughts, profound conceptions, and suggestive anticipations.

§ 105.1. Knighthood and the Peace of God.―Notwithstanding its rude violence there was a deep religious undertone in knighthood, which came out in Spain in the war with the Saracens, and throughout Europe in the crusades. What princes could not do to check savagery was to some extent accomplished by the church by means of the injunction of the Peace of God. In A.D. 1034 the severity of famine in France led to acts of cannibalism and murder, which the bishops and synods severely punished. In A.D. 1041 the bishops of Southern France enjoined the Peace of God, according to which under threat of anathema all feuds were to be suspended from Wednesday evening to Monday morning, as the days of the ascension, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. At a later council at Narbonne in A.D. 1054, Advent to Epiphany, Lent to eight days after Easter, from the Sunday before Ascension to the end of the week of Pentecost, as well as the ember days and the festivals of Mary and the Apostles, were added. Even on other days, churches, cloisters, hospitals, and churchyards, as well as priests, monks, pilgrims, merchants, and agriculturists, in short, all unarmed men, and, by the Council of Clermont, A.D. 1095, even all crusaders, were included in the peace of God. Its healthful influence was felt even outside of France, and at the 3rd Lateran Council in A.D. 1179 Alexander III. raised it to the rank of a universally applicable law of the church.

§ 105.2. Popular Customs.―Superstition resting on old paganism introduced a Christian mythology. In almost all the popular legends the devil bore a leading part, and he was generally represented as a dupe who was cheated out of his bargain in the end. The most sacred things were made the subjects of blasphemous parodies. On Fool’s Festival on New Year’s day in France, mock popes, bishops, and abbots were introduced and all the holy actions mimicked in a blasphemous manner. Of a similar nature was the Festum innocentum (§ 57, 1) enacted by schoolboys at Christmas. Also at Christmas time the so-called Feast of Asses was celebrated. At Rouen dramatic representation of the prophecies of Christ’s birth were given; at Beauvais, the flight into Egypt. This relic of pagan license was opposed by the bishops, but encouraged by the lower clergy. After bishops and councils succeeded in banishing these fooleries from consecrated places they soon ceased to be celebrated. Under the name of Calends, because their gatherings were on the Calends of each month, brotherhoods composed of clerical and lay members sprang up in the beginning of the 13th century throughout Germany and France, devoting themselves to prayer and saying masses for living and deceased members and relatives. This pious purpose was indeed soon forgotten, and the meetings degenerated into riotous carousings.

§ 105.3. Two Royal Saints.―St. Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew II. of Hungary, married in her 14th year to St. Louis IV., Landgrave of Thuringia, was made a widow in her 20th year by the death of her husband in the crusade of Frederick II. in A.D. 1227, and thereafter suffered many privations at the hand of her brother-in-law. Her father confessor inspired her with a fanatical spirit of self denial. She assumed in Marburg the garb of the Franciscan nuns, took the three vows, and retired into a house of mercy, where she submitted to be scourged by her confessor. There she died in her 24th year in A.D. 1231. Her remains are credited with the performance of many miracles. She was canonized by Gregory IX., in A.D. 1235, and in the 14th century the order of Elizabethan nuns was instituted for ministering to the poor and sick.316―St. Hedwig, aunt of Elizabeth, married Henry duke of Silesia, in her 12th year. After discharging her duties of wife, mother, and princess faithfully, she took along with her husband the vow of chastity, and out of the sale of her bridal ornaments built a nunnery at Trebnitz, where she died in A.D. 1243 in her 69th year. Canonized in A.D. 1268, her remains were deposited in the convent church, which became on that account a favourite resort of pilgrims.

§ 105.4. Evidences of Sainthood.

Stigmatization. Soon after St. Francis’ death in A.D. 1226, the legend spread that two years before, during a forty days’ fast in the Apennines, a six-winged seraph imprinted on his body the nail prints of the wounded Saviour. The saint’s humility, it was said, prevented him speaking of the miracle except to those in closest terms of intimacy. The papal bull canonizing the saint, however, issued in A.D. 1228, knows nothing of this wonderful occurrence. What was then told of the great saint was subsequently ascribed to about 100 other ascetics, male and female. Some sceptical critics attributed the phenomenon to an impressionable temperament, others again accounted for all such stories by assuming that they were purely fabulous, or that the marks had been deceitfully made with human hands. Undoubtedly St. Francis had made those wounds upon his own body. That pain should have been felt on certain occasions in the wounds may be accounted for, especially in the case of females, who constituted the great majority of stigmatized individuals, on pathological grounds.

Bilocation. The Catholic Church Lexicon, published in A.D. 1882 (II. 840), maintains that it is a fact universally believed that saints often appeared at the same time at places widely removed from one another. Examples are given from the lives of Anthony of Padua, Francis Xavier, Liguori, etc. This is explained by the supposition that either God gives this power to the saint or sends angels to assume his form in different places.

§ 105.5. Religious Culture of the People.―Unsuccessful attempts were made by the Hohenstaufens to institute a public school system and compulsory education. Waldensians and such like (§ 108) obtained favour by spreading instruction through vernacular preaching, reading, and singing. The Dominicans took a hint from this. The Council of Toulouse, A.D. 1229 (§ 109, 2), forbade laymen to read the Scriptures, even the Psalter and Breviary, in the vulgar tongue. Summaries of the Scripture history were allowed. Of this sort was the Rhyming Bible in Dutch by Jacob of Maërlant, † A.D. 1291, which gives in rhyme the O.T. history, the Life of Jesus, and the history of the Jews to the destruction of Jerusalem. In the 13th century Rhyming Legends gave in the vernacular the substance of the Latin Martyrologies. The oldest German example in 3 bks. by an unknown author contains 100,000 rhyming lines, on Christ and Mary, the Apostles and the saints in the order of the church year. Still more effectively was information spread among the people during the 11th and subsequent centuries by the performance of Sacred Plays. From simple responsive songs they were developed into regular dramas adapted to the different festivals. Besides historical plays which were called Mysteries=ministeria as representations of the Ministri eccl., there were allegorical and moral plays called Moralities, in which moral truths were personified under the names of the virtues and vices. The numerous pictures, mosaics, and reliefs upon the walls helped greatly to spread instruction among the people.317

§ 105.6. The National Literature (§ 89, 3).―Walter v. d. Vogelweide, † A.D. 1230, sang the praises of the Lord, the Virgin, and the church, and lashed the clerical vices and hierarchical pretensions of his age. The 12th century editor of the pagan Nibelungenlied gave it a slightly Christian gloss. Wolfram of Eschenbach, however, a Christian poet in the highest sense, gave to the pagan legend of Parcival a thoroughly Christian character in the story of the Holy Grail and the Knights of the Round Table of King Arthur. His antipodes as a purely secular poet was Godfrey of Strassburg, whose Tristan and Isolt sets forth a thoroughly sensual picture of carnal love; yet as the sequel of this we have a strongly etherealized rhapsody on Divine love conceived quite in the spirit of St. Francis.―The sprightly songs of the Troubadours of Southern France were often the vehicle of heretical sentiments and gave expression to bitter hatred of the Romish Babylon.318

§ 106. Church Discipline, Indulgences, and Asceticism.

The ban, directed against notorious individual sinners and foes of the church, and the interdict, directed against a whole country, were formidable weapons which rarely failed in accomplishing their purpose. Their foolishly frequent use for political ends by the popes of the 13th century was the first thing that weakened their influence. The penitential discipline of the church, too (§ 104, 4), began to lose its power, when outward works, such as alms, pilgrimages, and especially money fines in the form of indulgences were prescribed as substitutes for it. Various protests against prevailing laxity and formality were made by the Benedictines and by new orders instituted during the 11th century. Strict asceticism with self-laceration and mortification was imposed in many cloisters, and many hermits won high repute for holiness. The example and preaching of earnest monks and recluses did much to produce a revival of religion and awaken a penitential enthusiasm. Not satisfied with mortifying the body by prolonging fasts and watchings, they wounded themselves with severe scourgings and the wearing of sackcloth next the skin, and sometimes also brazen coats of mail, heavy iron chains, girdles with pricks, etc.

§ 106.1. Ban and Interdict.―From the 9th century a distinction was made between Excommunicatio major and minor. The latter, inflicted upon less serious offences against the canon law, merely excluded from participation in the sacrament. The former, called Anathema, directed against hardened sinners with solemn denunciation and the church’s curse, involved exclusion from all ecclesiastical communion and even refusal of Christian burial. Zealots who slew such excommunicated persons were declared by Urban II. not to be murderers. Innocent III., at the 4th Lateran Council A.D. 1215, had all civil rights withdrawn from excommunicates and their goods confiscated. Rulers under the ban were deposed and their subjects released from their oath of allegiance. Bishops exercised the right of putting under ban within their dioceses, and the popes over the whole church.―The Interdict was first recognised as a church institution at the Synod of Limoges in A.D. 1031. While it was in force against any country all bells were silenced, liturgical services were held only with closed doors, penance and the eucharist administered only to the dying, none but priests, mendicant friars, strangers, and children under two years of age received Christian burial, and no one could be married. Rarely could the people endure this long. It was therefore a terrible weapon in the hands of the popes, who not infrequently exercised it effectually in their struggles with the princes of the 12th and 13th centuries.

§ 106.2. Indulgences.―The old German principle of composition (§ 89, 5), and the Gregorian doctrine of purgatory (§ 61, 4), formed the bases on which was reared the ordinance of indulgences. The theory of the monks of St. Victor of the 12th century regarding penitential satisfaction (§ 104, 4), gave an impetus to the development of this institution of the church. It copestone was laid in the 13th century by the formulating of the doctrine of the superabundant merit of Christ and the saints (Thesaurus supererogationis Christi et perfectorum) by Alexander of Hales, Albert the Great, and Aquinas. The members of the body of Christ could suffer and serve one for another, and thus Aquinas thought the merits of one might lessen the purgatorial pains of another. Innocent III., in A.D. 1215, allowed to bishops the right of limiting the pains of purgatory to forty days, but claimed for the pope exclusively the right of giving full indulgence (Indulgentia plenaria). Clement VI. declared that the pope as entrusted with the keys was alone the dispenser of the Thesaurus supererogationis. Strictly indulgence was allowed only to the truly penitent, as an aid to imperfect not a substitute for non-existent satisfaction. This was generally ignored by preachers of indulgences. This was specially the case in the times of the crusaders. Popes also frequently gave indulgences to those who simply visited certain shrines.

§ 106.3. The Church Doctrine of the Hereafter.―All who had perfectly observed every requirement of the penances and sacraments of the church to the close of their lives had the gates of Heaven opened to them. All others passed into the Lower World to suffer either positively=sensus, inexpressible pains of fire, or negatively=damnum, loss of the vision of God. There are four degrees corresponding to four places of punishment. Hell, situated in the midst of the earth, abyssus (Rev. xx. 1), is place and state of eternal punishment for all infidels, apostates, excommunicates, and all who died in mortal sin. The next circle is the purifying fire of Purgatory, or a place of temporary punishment positive or negative for all believing Christians who did not in life fully satisfy the three requirements of the sacrament of penance (§ 104, 4). The Limbus infantum is a side chamber of purgatory, where all unbaptized infants are kept for ever, only deprived of blessedness in consequence of original sin. Then above this is the Limbus Patrum, “Abraham’s bosom,” where the saints of the Old Covenant await the second coming of Christ.

§ 106.4. Flagellation.―From the 8th century discipline was often exercised by means of scourging, administered by the confessor who prescribed it. In the 11th century voluntary Self-Flagellation was frequently practised not only as punishment for one’s own sin, but, after the pattern of Christ and the martyrs, as atonement for sins of others. It originated in Italy, had its great patron in Damiani (§ 97, 4), and was earnestly commended by Bernard, Norbert, Francis, Dominic, etc. It is reported of St. Dominic that he scourged himself thrice every night, first for himself, and then for his living companions, and then for the departed in purgatory. The zealous Franciscan preachers were mainly instrumental in exerting an enthusiasm for self-mortification among the people (§ 98, 4). About A.D. 1225, Anthony of Padua attracted crowds who went about publicly lashing themselves while singing psalms. Followers of Joachim of Floris (§ 108, 5) as Flagellants rushed through all Northern Italy in great numbers during A.D. 1260, preaching the immediate approach of the end of the world.319

§ 107. Female Mystics.

Practical mysticism which concerned itself only with the salvation of the soul, had many representatives among the women of the 12th and 13th centuries. Among them it was specially characterized by the prevalence of ecstatic visions, often deteriorating into manifestations of nervous affections which superstitious people regarded as exhibitions of miraculous power. Examples are found in all countries, but especially in the Netherlands, and the Rhine provinces, in France, Alsace and Switzerland, in Saxony and Thuringia. Those whose visions pointed to the inauguration of reforms are of particular interest to us, as they often had a considerable influence on the subsequent history of the church.

§ 107.1. Two Rhenish Prophetesses of the 12th Century.―St. Hildegard was founder and abbess of a cloister near Bingen on the Rhine, where she died in A.D. 1178 in her 74th year. Grieving over clerical and papal corruptions, she had apocalyptic visions of the antichrist, and travelled far and engaged in an extensive correspondence in appealing for radical reforms. St. Bernard and pope Eugenius III. who visited Treves in A.D. 1147 acknowledged her prophetic vocation, and the people ascribed to her wonderful healing power.―Hildegard’s younger contemporary was the like-minded St. Elizabeth of Schönau, abbess of the neighbouring convent of Schönau, who died in A.D. 1165. Her prophecies were mostly of the apocalyptic-visionary order, and in them with still greater severity she lashed the corruptions of the clergy. She also gave currency to the legend of St. Ursula (§ 104, 9).

§ 107.2. Three Thuringian Prophetesses of the 13th Century.―Mechthild of Magdeburg, after thirty years of Beguine life, wrote in a beautiful rhythmical style in German her “Light of Deity,” setting forth the sweetness of God’s love, the blessedness of glorified saints, the pains of purgatory and hell, and denouncing with great moral earnestness the corruptions of the clergy and the church, and depicting with a poet’s or prophet’s power the coming of the last day. Influenced by the apocalyptic views of Joachim of Floris (§ 108, 5), she also gives expression to a genuinely German patriotism. With her it is a new preaching order that leads to victory against antichrist, and the founder of this order, who meets a martyr’s death in the conflict, is a son of the Roman king. In contrast with Joachim, she thus makes the German empire not a foe but the ally of the church. Mechthild’s prophecies largely influenced Dante, and even her name appears in that of his guide Matilda.―Mechthild of Hackeborn, who died in A.D. 1310, in her Speculum spiritualis gratiæ published her visions of a reformatory and eschatological prophetic order, more subjective and personal than those of the former.―Gertrude the Great, who died in A.D. 1311, is more decidedly a reformer than either of the Mechthilds or any other woman of the Middle Ages. A diligent inquirer into the depths of Scripture, she renounced the veneration usually shown to Mary, the saints, and relics, repudiated all the ideas of her age regarding merits, ceremonial exercises, and indulgences, and in the exercise of simple faith trusted only to the grace of God in Christ. She seems to belong to the 16th rather than to the 13th century. Her visions, too, are more of a spiritual kind.

V. Heretical Opposition to Ecclesiastical Authority.

§ 108. The Protesters against the Church.

Mediæval endeavours after reform, partly proceeded from within the church itself in attempts to restore apostolic purity and simplicity, partly from without on the part of those who despaired of any good coming out of the church, and who therefore warred bitterly against it. Such attempts were often lost amid the vagaries of fanaticism and heresy, which soon threatened the foundation of the social fabric, and often came into collision with the State. Most widely spread and most radical were the numerous dualistic sects of the Cathari. Montanist fanaticism was revived in apocalyptic prophesyings. There were also pantheistic sects, and among the Pasagians a sort of Ebionism reappeared. Another group of sects originated through reformatory endeavours of individual men, who perceiving the utter corruption of the church of their day, sought salvation in a revolutionary overthrow of all ecclesiastical institutions and repudiated often the truth with the error which was the object of their hate. The only protesting church of a thoroughly sensible evangelical sort was that of the Waldensians.

§ 108.1. The Cathari.―Opposition to hierarchical pretensions led to the spread of sects, especially in Northern Italy and France, from the 11th century. Hidden remnants of Old Manichæan sects got new courage and ventured into the light during the period of the crusades. In France they were called Tisserands, because mostly composed of weavers. In Italy they were called Patareni or Paterini, either from the original meaning of the word, rabble, riff-raff (§ 97, 5), or because they so far adopted the attitude of the Pasaria of Milan, as to offer lay opposition to the local clergy, or because of the frequent use of the Paternoster. Of later origin are the names Publicani and Bulgări, given as opprobrious designations to the Paulicians. The most widely current name of Cathari, from early times a favourite title assumed by rigorist sects (§ 41, 3), had its origin in the East. In France they were called Albigensians, from the province of Albigeois, which was their chief seat in Southern France.―Of the Writings of the Cathari we possess from the end of the 13th century a Provençal translation of the N.T., free from all falsification in favour of their sectarian views. Their tenets are to be learnt only from the polemical writings of their opponents, Alanus ab Insulis (§ 102, 5), the Dominican Joh. Moneta, about A.D. 1240, and Rainerius, Sacchoni, Dominican and inquisitor, about A.D. 1250.

§ 108.2. Besides their opposition to the hierarchy, all these sects had in common a dualistic basis to their theological systems. They held in a more or less extreme form the following doctrines: The good God who is proclaimed in the N.T. created in the beginning the heavenly and invisible world, and peopled it with souls clothed in ethereal bodies. The earthly world, on the other hand, is the work of an evil spirit, who is held up as object of worship in the O.T. Entering the heavenly world he succeeded in seducing some of its inhabitants, whom he, when defeated by the archangel Michael, took with him to earth, and there imprisoned in earthly bodies, so as to make return to their heavenly home impossible. Yet they are capable of redemption, and may, on repentance and submission to purificatory ordinances, be again freed from their earthly bonds and brought home again to heaven. For this redemption the good God sent “the heavenly man” Jesus (1 Cor. xv. 47) to earth in the appearance of man to teach men their heavenly origin and the means of restoration. The Cathari rejected the O.T., but accepted the N.T., which they read in the vernacular. Marriage they regarded as a hindrance to Christian perfection. They treated with contempt water baptism, the Supper, and ordination, as well as all veneration of saints and relics, and tolerated no images, crosses, or altars. Prayer, abstinence, and baptism of the Spirit were regarded as the only means of salvation. Preaching was next to prayer most prominent in their public services. They also laid great stress upon fasting, genuflection, and repetitions of stated formulæ, especially the Lord’s Prayer. Their members were divided into Cregentz (credentes or catechumens) and Bos homes or Bos crestias (boni homines, boni Christiani=perfecti or electi). A lower order of the catechumens were the Auditores. These were received as Credentes after a longer period of training amid various ceremonies and repetition of the Lord’s prayer, etc. The order of the Perfecti was entered by spiritual baptism, the Consolamentum or communication of the Holy Spirit as the promised Comforter, without which no one can enjoy eternal life. Even opponents such as St. Bernard admit that there was great moral earnestness shown by some of them, and many met a martyr’s death with true Christian heroism. Symptoms of decay appeared in the spread among them of antinomian practices. This moral deterioration showed itself as a radical part of this system in the so-called Luciferians or devil worshippers, whose dualism, like that of the Euchites and Bogomils (§ 71), led to the adoption of two Sons of God. Lucifer the elder, wrongly driven from heaven, is the creator and lord of this earthly world, and hence alone worshipped in it. His expulsion (Isa. xiv. 12) is carried out by the younger son, Michael, who will, however, on this account, whenever Lucifer regains heaven, be sent with all his company into eternal punishment. Of an incarnation of God, even of a docetic kind, they know nothing. They regarded Jesus as a false prophet who was crucified on account of the evil he had done.―Catharist sects suspected of Manichæan tendencies were discovered here and there during the 11th century. In the following century their number had increased enormously, and they spread over Lombardy and Southern France, but were also found in Southern Italy, in Germany, Belgium, Spain, and even in England. They had a pope residing in Bulgaria, twelve magistri and seventy-two bishops, each with a Filius major and minor at his side. In A.D. 1167 they were able to muster an œcumenical Catharist Council at Toulouse. Neither clemency nor severity could put them down. St. Bernard prevailed most by the power of his love, and subsequently learned Dominicans had more effect with their preaching and disputations. They found abundant opportunity of displaying their hatred of the papacy during the struggles of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. In spite of terrible persecution, which reached its height in the beginning of the 13th century in the Albigensian crusade (§ 109, 1), remnants of them were found down into the 14th century.

§ 108.3. The small sect of the Pasagians in Lombardy during the 12th century, protesting against the Manichæan depreciation of the O.T. of the Catharists, adopted views of a somewhat Ebionite character. With the exception of sacrifice, they enforced all the old ceremonial observances, even circumcision, and held an Arian or Ebionite theory of the Person of Christ. Their name meaning “passage,” seems to refer to pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and possibly from this a clue to their origin may be obtained.

§ 108.4. Pantheistic Heretics.

Amalrich of Bena taught first philosophy, then theology, at Paris in the end of the 12th century. In A.D. 1204 Innocent III. called him to account for his proposition, Christian in sound, but probably pantheistically intended, that no one could be saved who is not a member in Christ’s body, and obliged him to retract. His death occurred soon after, and some years later we find traces of a pantheistic sect founded on the alleged doctrines of Amalrich vigorously propagated by his disciple William the goldsmith. God had previously appeared as Father incarnate in Abraham, and as Son in Christ, and now henceforth as the Holy Spirit in every believer, who therefore in the same sense as Christ is God. As such, too, he is without sin, and what to others would be sin is not so to him. In the age of the Son the Mosaic law lost its validity, and in that of the Spirit, the sacraments and services of the new covenant. God has always been all in all. We find him in Ovid as well as in Augustine, and the body of Christ is in common bread as well as in the consecrated wafer on the altar. Saint worship is idolatry. There is no resurrection; heaven and hell exist only in the imagination of men. Rome is Babylon, and the pope is antichrist; but to the king of France, after the overthrow of antichrist, shall the kingdoms of the earth be subject, etc. A synod at Paris in A.D. 1209 condemned William and nine priests to be burnt, and four other priests to imprisonment for life, and ordered that Amalrich’s bones should be exhumed and scattered over an open field. Regarding the physical works of Aristotle as the source of this heresy, the council also prohibited all lectures upon these (§ 103, 1). This was seen to be a mistake, and so in A.D. 1225 Honorius III. fixed on the true culprit and condemned the De divisione naturæ of Erigena (§ 90, 6). The penalties inflicted did not by any means lead to the rooting out of the sect. During the whole 13th century it continued to spread from Paris over all eastern France as far as Alsace, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, and in the 14th century reached its highest development in the pantheistic-libertine doctrines of the Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit (§ 116, 5). We never again meet with the name of Amalrich, and the sects were never called after him.

David of Dinant at the same time with Amalrich taught philosophy and theology in the University of Paris. He also lived for a long while at the papal court in Rome, high in favour with Innocent III. as a subtle dialectician. The Synod of Paris of A.D. 1209, which passed judgment on the Amalricians, pronounced David a heretic and ordered his works to be burnt. He avoided personal punishment by flight. The central point of his system was the assumption of a single eternal substance without distinctions, from which God, spirit (νοῦς), and matter (ὕλη) sprang as the three principles of all later forms of existences (corpora, animæ, and substantiæ æternæ). God is regarded as the primum efficiens, matter as the primum suscipiens, and spirit as the medium between the two. David’s scholars never formed a sect and never had any connection apparently with the followers of Amalrich.

The Ortlibarians were a sect condemned by Innocent III., followers of a certain Ortlieb of Strassburg about A.D. 1212. They held the world to be without beginning. They looked upon Jesus as the son of Joseph and Mary, sinless like all other children, but raised to be son of God only through illumination from the doctrines of their sect, which had existed from the earliest times. They admitted the gospel story of Christ’s life, sufferings, and resurrection, not, however, in a literal but only in a moral and mystical acceptation. The consecrated host was but common bread, and in it was the body of the Lord. A Jew entering their sect needed not to be baptized, and fellowship with them was sufficient to secure salvation. There is no resurrection of the flesh; man’s spirit alone is immortal. After the last judgment, which will come when pope and emperor are converted to their views and all opposition is overcome, the world will last for ever, and men will be born and die just as now. They professed a strictly ascetic life, and many of them fasted every second day.

§ 108.5. Apocalyptic Heretics.―The Cistercian abbot Joachim of Floris, who died in A.D. 1202, with his notions of the so called “Everlasting Gospel,” as a reformer and as one inclined to apocalyptic prophecy, followed in the footsteps of Hildegard of Bingen and Elizabeth of Schönau (§ 107, 1). His prophetic views spread among the Franciscans and were long unchallenged. In A.D. 1254 the University of Paris, warning against the begging monks (§ 103, 3), got Alexander IV. to condemn these views as set forth in commentaries on Isaiah and Jeremiah ascribed to Joachim, but now found to be spurious. Preger doubts but, Reuter maintains the genuineness of the three tracts grouped under the title of the Evangelium æternum. The main points in his theory seem to have been these: There are three ages, that of the Father in the O.T., of the Son in the N.T., and of the Holy Spirit in the approaching fulness of the kingdom of God on earth. Of the apostles, Peter is representative of the first age, Paul of the second, and John of the third. They may also be characterized as the age of the laity, the clergy, and the monks, and compared in respect of light with the stars, the moon, and the sun. The first six periods of the N.T. age are divided (after the pattern of the forty-two generations of Matt. i. and the forty-two months or 1260 days of Rev. xi. 2, 3) into forty-two shorter periods of thirty years each, so that the sixth period closes with A.D. 1260, and then shall dawn the Sabbath period of the New Covenant as the age of the Holy Spirit. This will be preceded by a short reign of antichrist as a punishment for the corruptions of the church and clergy. By the labours of the monks, however, the church is at last purified and brought forth triumphant, and the life of holy contemplation becomes universal. The germs of antichrist were evidently supposed to lie in the Hohenstaufen empire of Frederick I. and Henry VI. The commentaries on Isaiah and Jeremiah went so far as to point to the person of Frederick II. as that of the antichrist.