§ 109. The Church against the Protesters.The church was by no means indifferent to the spread of those heresies of the 11th and 12th centuries, which called in question its own very existence. Even in the 11th century she called in the aid of the stake as a type of the fire of hell that would consume the heretics, and against this only one voice, that of Bishop Wazo of Liège (†A.D.1048), was raised. In the 12th century protesting voices were more numerous: Peter the Venerable (§98, 1), Rupert of Deutz, St. Hildegard, St. Bernard, declared sword and fire no fit weapons for conversion. St. Bernard showed by his own example how by loving entreaty and friendly instruction more might be done than by awakening a fanatical enthusiasm for martyrdom. But hangmen and stakes were more easily produced than St. Bernards, of whom the 12th and 13th centuries had by no means a superabundance. By-and-by Dominic sent out his disciples to teach and convert heretics by preaching and disputation; as long as they confined themselves to these methods they were not without success. But even they soon found it more congenial or more effective to fight the heretics with tortures and the stake rather than with discussion and discourse. The Albigensian crusade and the tribunal of the Inquisition erected in connection therewith at last overpowered the protesters and drove the remnants of their sects into hiding. In the administration of punishment the church made no distinction between the various sects; all were alike who were at war with the church.
The church was by no means indifferent to the spread of those heresies of the 11th and 12th centuries, which called in question its own very existence. Even in the 11th century she called in the aid of the stake as a type of the fire of hell that would consume the heretics, and against this only one voice, that of Bishop Wazo of Liège (†A.D.1048), was raised. In the 12th century protesting voices were more numerous: Peter the Venerable (§98, 1), Rupert of Deutz, St. Hildegard, St. Bernard, declared sword and fire no fit weapons for conversion. St. Bernard showed by his own example how by loving entreaty and friendly instruction more might be done than by awakening a fanatical enthusiasm for martyrdom. But hangmen and stakes were more easily produced than St. Bernards, of whom the 12th and 13th centuries had by no means a superabundance. By-and-by Dominic sent out his disciples to teach and convert heretics by preaching and disputation; as long as they confined themselves to these methods they were not without success. But even they soon found it more congenial or more effective to fight the heretics with tortures and the stake rather than with discussion and discourse. The Albigensian crusade and the tribunal of the Inquisition erected in connection therewith at last overpowered the protesters and drove the remnants of their sects into hiding. In the administration of punishment the church made no distinction between the various sects; all were alike who were at war with the church.
§ 109.1.The Albigensian Crusade,A.D.1209-1229.—Toward the end of the 12th century sects abounded in the south of France. Innocent III. regarded them as worse than the Saracens, and inA.D.1203 sent a legate, Peter of Castelnau, with full powers to secure their extermination. But Peter was murdered inA.D.1208, and suspicion fell on Raymond IV., Count of Toulouse. A crusade under Simon de Montfort was now summoned against the sectaries, who as mainly inhabiting the district of Albigeois were now calledAlbigensians. A twenty years’ war was carried on with mad fanaticism and cruelty on both sides, in which guilty and innocent, men, women, and children were ruthlessly slain.At the sack of Beziers with 20,000 inhabitants the papal legate cried, “Slay all, the Lord will know how to seek out and save His own.”321§ 109.2.The Inquisition.—Every one screening a heretic forfeited lands, goods, and office; a house in which such a one was discovered was levelled to the ground; all citizens had to communicate thrice a year, and every second year to renew their oath of attachment to the church, and to refuse all help in sickness to those suspected of heresy, etc. The bishops not showing themselves zealous enough in enforcing these laws, Gregory IX. inA.D.1232 founded the Tribunal of the Inquisition, and placed it in the hands of the Dominicans.These asDomini canessubjected to the most cruel tortures all on whom the suspicion of heresy fell, and all the resolute were handed over to the civil authorities, who readily undertook their execution.322—Continuation §117, 2.§ 109.3.Conrad of Marburg and the Stedingers.—The first Inquisitor of Germany, the DominicanConrad of Marburg, also known as the severe confessor of St. Elizabeth (§105, 3), after a three years’ career of cruelty was put to death by certain of the nobles inA.D.1233.Et sic, say the Annals of Worms,divino auxilio liberata est Teutonia ab isto judicio enormi et inaudito. He was enrolled by Gregory IX. among the martyrs. Perhaps wrongly he has been blamed for Gregory’s crusade ofA.D.1234 against theStedingers. These were Frisians of Oldenburg who revolted against the oppression of nobles and priests, refused socage and tithes, and screened Albigensian heretics. The first crusade failed; the second succeeded and plundered, murdered, and burned on every hand. Thousands of the unhappy peasants were slain, neither women nor children were spared, and all prisoners were sent to the stake as heretics.
§ 109.1.The Albigensian Crusade,A.D.1209-1229.—Toward the end of the 12th century sects abounded in the south of France. Innocent III. regarded them as worse than the Saracens, and inA.D.1203 sent a legate, Peter of Castelnau, with full powers to secure their extermination. But Peter was murdered inA.D.1208, and suspicion fell on Raymond IV., Count of Toulouse. A crusade under Simon de Montfort was now summoned against the sectaries, who as mainly inhabiting the district of Albigeois were now calledAlbigensians. A twenty years’ war was carried on with mad fanaticism and cruelty on both sides, in which guilty and innocent, men, women, and children were ruthlessly slain.At the sack of Beziers with 20,000 inhabitants the papal legate cried, “Slay all, the Lord will know how to seek out and save His own.”321
§ 109.2.The Inquisition.—Every one screening a heretic forfeited lands, goods, and office; a house in which such a one was discovered was levelled to the ground; all citizens had to communicate thrice a year, and every second year to renew their oath of attachment to the church, and to refuse all help in sickness to those suspected of heresy, etc. The bishops not showing themselves zealous enough in enforcing these laws, Gregory IX. inA.D.1232 founded the Tribunal of the Inquisition, and placed it in the hands of the Dominicans.These asDomini canessubjected to the most cruel tortures all on whom the suspicion of heresy fell, and all the resolute were handed over to the civil authorities, who readily undertook their execution.322—Continuation §117, 2.
§ 109.3.Conrad of Marburg and the Stedingers.—The first Inquisitor of Germany, the DominicanConrad of Marburg, also known as the severe confessor of St. Elizabeth (§105, 3), after a three years’ career of cruelty was put to death by certain of the nobles inA.D.1233.Et sic, say the Annals of Worms,divino auxilio liberata est Teutonia ab isto judicio enormi et inaudito. He was enrolled by Gregory IX. among the martyrs. Perhaps wrongly he has been blamed for Gregory’s crusade ofA.D.1234 against theStedingers. These were Frisians of Oldenburg who revolted against the oppression of nobles and priests, refused socage and tithes, and screened Albigensian heretics. The first crusade failed; the second succeeded and plundered, murdered, and burned on every hand. Thousands of the unhappy peasants were slain, neither women nor children were spared, and all prisoners were sent to the stake as heretics.