again subdivided into two parts the first and second as may be seen since the fourth Century It was needful at the entrance of this Discourse to give the Reader this short Draught of the Countries that went under the Name of Gallia to give him an Idea of that part of them where we intend to shew him the Continuation of that Church which gave birth to the Albigenses and furnished the West with Witnesses of so great weight against the Corruptions of the Romish Party and indeed though the Visi-Gothes who cut off these Provinces from the Roman Empire and afterwards the French who destroyed the Visi-Gothes in the time of Clovis made very great Changes in this Division of Gallia Narbonensis and Aquitain yet we may exactly observe that the Church of these Provinces hath well nigh always made a distinct Body by her Synods and Canons It is a matter of Difficulty precisely to fix the first Rise of these Churches I own that some Greek Fathers have believ'd that St. Luke and Crescens Disciples of St. Paul did preach the Gospel in Gallia but that which engaged them in this Opinion seems of little or no solidity And the Galatia mention'd by St. Paul in the second of Timothy doth not signify Gallia but a Province of the lesser Asia as the learned Petavius acknowledgeth Others have believed that St. Paul himself preached the Gospel in these Provinces as he passed through them in his way to Spain where the fourth Century took it for granted that he preached the Gospel but neither doth this seem grounded upon sufficient Authority and we do not find that the antient Authors of these Countries did ever maintain any such thing Should we indeed as to this Point give credit to the most part of the Romish Legends to which Baronius in his Annals pays too great a Deference it would be an easy matter to give to the most part of these Churches a most august Original We might suppose that St. Peter and St. Paul were the Founders of them by the Ministry of their Disciples or that Clement Bishop of Rome sent them thither almost immediately after the Martyrdom of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul They tell us that Paul was the first Bishop of Narbon Saturninus of Tholouse Martialis of Limoges Frontinus of Perigueux Vincentius of Daeqs Georgius of Puy Eutropius of Xaintes Much like as for some Ages since in most of the other Churches of France they suppose that the first Bishops were sent them by the same Apostles or by their first Successors But we meet with nothing but Falsities in these pretended Traditions and it is impossible to reconcile them with what Sulpicius Severus and Gregorius Turonensis tell us concerning the Rise of Christian Religion among the Gauls The former of these distinctly assures us that Gaule never had any Martyrs before the Empire of Aurelius Son of Antoninus Hist lib. 2. Sub Aurelio Antonini filio Persecutio quinta agitata ac tunc primum inter Gallias Martyria visa serius trans Alpes Dei Religione suscepta The fifth Persecution was carried on under Antonine's Son and then first were Martyrdoms seen among the Gauls the Divine Religion having been later entertained beyond the Alps. This single Period of Severus gives Sentence against all those pretended Martyrs wherewith the Churches of France have fill'd their Breviaries The latter tells us plainly that it was not till the Empire of Decius about the year 250 that the City of Tholouse had for her first Bishop Saturninus who was sent from Rome in company of six others into the Country of the Gauls to preach the Gospel to wit Gatian at Tours Trophimus at Arles Paul at Narbon Dionysius at Paris Austremoine at Clermont and Martialis at Limoges This is that which is clearly proved from the Acts of the Martyrdom of St. Saturninus cited by Gregory Bishop of Tours These Testimonies of two antient Authors the one of the 5 th Century and the other more antient viz. the same who wrote the Martyrdom of St. Saturninus have made such an Impression upon some of the Learnedest Men of the Roman Communion viz. upon Bosquet Bishop of Montpellier Sirmond and Launoy the famous Doctor of the Faculty of Paris as to make them with Scorn reject those Legends which ascribe more antient Founders to these Churches notwithstanding that they are the greatest Ornament of the Breviaries of the Gallican Church and that they cannot lose their Credit without shaking the belief of abundance of Miracles and the Authority of a great number of Devotions And indeed what reason is there to own a Tradition for authentick which we scarcely find back'd with any Witness for the space of above 700 years Besides don't we know that it was the Dispute about Precedency between the Churches in the 8 th and 9 th Century and which we find lasted till the 12 th that engaged the several Parties to devise this great Antiquity and boldly change that which before had been the current Belief of their Churches because it did not answer their Pretensions nor comport with their Vanity to substitute instead thereof fabulous Originals under whose shelter they might maintain a Dispute with more advantage against those that were on even ground with them But however it be difficult to fix the certain Original of these Churches for the Gothick Liturgy which was used in these Provinces assures us that St. Saturninus came from Smyrna from whence it should seem that the first Founders of the Churches of Lions and Vienna came likewise yet thus much we may assert that the Gospel soon took deep root there My Design is not to refute here what the Authors of the Legends have inserted in their fabulous Relations concerning the Establishment of the Christian Religion in these Provinces and the Character of the Piety of those first Founders of Christianity of their Precepts and of their Miracles Indeed there is reason to deplore either the boundless Impudence of the Pastors of the Roman Communion in obtruding such palpable Falsities or the prodigious Stupidity of the People of that Church who feed themselves with Stories more fabulous than those of Amadis of Gaul and make them the Subject of their Devotion We read in the Life of St. Martialis that after the Saint had converted Limoges he there consecrated Churches to the Honour of Jesus Christ of the H. Virgin and St. Stephen whose Cousin he was We read that he raised to Life the Priests of the Idol whom God had struck dead with a Clap of Thunder for their poisoning St. Martialis and that after their Resurrection he converted them We find that he admitted to the Vow of Virginity a Person called Valeria who some time after having had her Head cut off by order of the Duke of Guienne whose Courtship she had slighted immediately took up her Head and carried it to St. Martialis as he was saying Mass We find him there going to Rome to give an account to
out of Paradise and by a Virgin we have found eternal Life 12. That he did not believe we ought to have recourse to the Intercession of Saints can be invincibly demonstrated from hence because he did not believe that the Faithful should see the Face of God before the Day of Judgment lib. 5. c. 3. 13. He plainly asserts that the Apostolical Succession is of no Consideration without the Truth of Doctrine Lib. 4. c. 43. so far was he from making it a bar to hinder Believers from examining the Doctrine propounded to them 14. He maintains that the Gates of Heaven were open'd to Jesus Christ because of the Assumption of his Flesh so far was he from believing that his glorified Body could penetrate Bodies Lib. 3. c. 18. lib. 4. c. 66. He asserts that Jesus Christ at his being born opened the Blessed Virgin 's Womb lib. 4. c. 66. which the Church of Rome condemns for divers Reasons And for as much as he holds the Holy Ghost to be the Food of Life lib. 4. c. 75. accordingly he maintains c. 2. lib. 5. that our Bodies are nourished by the Creatures of God received in the Eucharist and that they receive growth by them He distinctly asserts that the Sacrament of the Eucharist as to its Substance consists of Bread and Wine which are the Creatures of God which he receives as Oblations of a different kind from the Sacrifices of the old Testament and indeed in case he had otherwise conceived the matter he would have favoured the Opinion of the Gnosticks who pretending that the Work of the Creation was not the Work of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ could never have lighted upon a more comfortable Doctrine than that of Transubstantiation by means of which the Nature of Bread and Wine would be destroyed by Jesus Christ in the Sacrament and nothing left but the Accidents that is to say meer Fantomes without any thing of Reality L. 4. c. 34 57. In like manner we find him asserting lib. 5. c. 33. that what Jesus Christ gave to his Disciples in the Cup was the Generation or Product of the Vine 15. We see clearly from what Eusebius has preserved of St. Irenaeus that the Variety in observing a Fast before Easter was very great and that there was no Law of the Apostles or of Jesus Christ injoining it every one using it according to his own free Will and Devotion We find also that whatsoever Respect St. Irenaeus had for the Church of Rome he was no more inclined to be led by her sole Authority than St. Polycarp was whom he much commends and if he considered her as an Apostolick Church yet he never attributed to her any Authority over the other Flocks of the Lord. I will not dissemble that St. Irenaeus seems somewhat at a loss about the state of Believers after Death but to this it is sufficient to say 1. That we find in St. Irenaeus an Abridgment of the Faith almost in the same form that we find it in the Apostles Creed as it is called 2. That if we do not agree to all the Opinions of St. Irenaeus about the State of Souls after Death 't is certain that the Doctors of the Church of Rome do at least reject as many Articles as we do yea and more too From what I have said we may however perceive what was the State of the Christian Religion in Gaul a little after the middle of the second Century which is the time wherein St. Irenaeus lived and flourished I wish I could produce for the following Century as Authentick a Witness concerning the State of the Churches in this part of Gaul but indeed though there were diverse famous Writers whose Works are cited by St. Jerome yet there is in a manner nothing of them left to us I know there are some who believe that Victorinus was Bishop of Poictiers in the third Century but this is not found true for it is certain that he was Bishop of Passau Patavionensis and not Pictaviensis so that we must proceed to those who can inform us of the State of this part of Gaul during the fourth Century CHAP. III. The Faith of Gallia Aquitanica and Narbonensis in the Fourth Century ST Hilary Bishop of Poictiers a famous Confessor in the Persecution which the Arians stirr'd up against the Orthodox can afford us much Light concerning the State and Faith of these Diocesses This great Man was married as he who published his Works at Paris owns after the famous Baptista Mantuanus observing that the Law for the Celibacy of the Clergy was not yet introduced and that before that time as St. Jerom expresseth it they rather made choice of married Persons than unmarried because the former were judged more proper for the Functions of the Holy Ministry But this is not the only Article wherein he differ'd from Popery as well as the Church of Aquitain 1. He counts the Canonical Books as we do and plainly holds them for Apocryphal which we reject as we find in the Preface to his Commentary upon the Book of Psalms 2. He lays it down for an Error and piece of Impiety to look upon the Scripture as imperfect in Psalm 118. Lit. Vau. 3. He asserts that Ignorance is not capable of excusing Men seeing the Scripture is proposed to us as the Rule of our Faith and Manners Non habet veniam ignoratio voluntatis quia sub scientiae facultate nescire repudiatae magis quam non repertae scientiae est reatus Ob id enim longe à Peccatoribus salus quia non exquisierint Justificationes Dei Nam utique non ob aliud consignatae literis manent quam ut ad universorum scientiam notionemque defluerent Ignorance of the Divine Will gives no Excuse because to be ignorant when we may learn makes us guilty of rejecting Knowledg rather than missing of it For therefore is Salvation far from Sinners because they search not after that which justifies before God and which indeed is for no other reason preserv'd in Writing but that it might be derived to the Knowledg and Understanding of all This is a Stile and these are Maxims very different from those of the Church of Rome 4. He affirms that we are to be ignorant of whatsoever the Scripture doth not teach us and after having asserted that it is the Character of Hereticks to conceal the Holy Scripture fol. 204. he maintains that it is another Mark of Heresy to believe beyond what the Gospel teacheth us Tu qui ultra Evangelium sapis necesse est ut aliis alibi arcanorum doctrinis cognitionem Paterni nominis adeptus sis Thou who art wise beyond the Gospel it must needs be that thou hast elsewhere by other secret Doctrines attained the Knowledg of God the Father fol. 132. 5. He asserts that it was the Will of God that the Scripture should be plain and clear Quantae enim potuit Dominus verborum simplicitate
be wholly uncertain Gregorius Turonensis who often mentions him as his Friend never gives him any other Title but that of Priest However it be it appears by his Writings that he was very far from Popery in these following Articles 1. He never in the Life of St. Martin attributes to that holy Man that upon any occasion he prayed to the Saints for the working of his Miracles This we may see in his Relation of St. Martin's raising a Child to Life 2. He looks upon all Bishops as the Vicars of St. Peter accordingly he saith to the Bishop of Metz Apparet Petri vos meruisse vices It appears you have deserved to be St. Peter's Vicar 3. We meet with nothing more commonly in the Epitaphs which he made than this Notion that deceased Believers are in Heaven from such Expressions as these Hunc tenet ulna Dei Inter Apostolicos credimus esse choros Non hanc flere decet quam Paradisus habet Accordingly also he maintains that Abraham's Bosom is the Heavenly Glory Lastly It appears from an Exposition he hath made on the Apostles Creed that he owned no Doctrines besides those contained in that ancient Formulary as Articles of his Faith because he makes no mention at all of those new Articles which the Church of Rome hath added to that Creed and which she imposeth on her People as another part of that which makes the Object of Faith It cannot be denied but that the Spirit of Superstition had already made a considerable Progress in all places we meet with an illustrious Example thereof in the Diocess of Marseilles which joined to Gallia Narbonensis The People there began to render a religious Worship to Images whereupon Serenus the Bishop of Marseilles was forced to follow the Method of St. Epiphanius in breaking the Images to pieces which drew upon him the Censures of Gregory I. who exhorts him to erect them again though he commends him for having opposed himself to their Adoration and exhorts him carefully to instruct the People to prevent their falling again into Idolatry And it is natural to conclude that this Excess of the People met with the same Checks in many other places CHAP. VII The State of the Diocesses of Aquitain and Narbon in the Seventh Century I am come to the Seventh Century of which I have two pieces of great Authority to produce The first concerns the Purity of these Diocesses in regard to their Faith There was a Council held at Toledo in the Year 633 whereat Silva Bishop of Narbon assisted in the Name of the Bishops of Gallia Narbonensis and they began the Synod with a Confession of Faith which shews beyond all Controversy that nothing was look'd upon by them as an Article of Faith that was not received for such in the Creed of the ancient Christians for there was not so much as one Word to be found there of all those Articles which the Church of Rome imposeth upon those of her Communion as an Addition to the primitive Faith The second regards the Practice of the publick Acts of Religion and that is the Gothick Liturgy which of a long time was used in these Diocesses wherefore to make a fuller Discovery of the Religion of these Provinces it will be of Importance to make some Remarks upon this Liturgy which was in use there It is not probable that all the Parts of it are of equal Antiquity as may be seen by the Office of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin in Soul and Body which was rejected in France as a thing uncertain towards the end of the 9 th Century according to the Testimony of Vsuardus One may make the same Judgment of divers other Offices which are found in this Gothick Liturgy the Barbarism which appears in all its parts sufficiently shows its Age In the mean time such as it is it does not want the Marks of a considerable Purity which it seems obliged Gregory VII to abolish and suppress it with all his Might 1. We find in it the Recital of the Apostles Creed as the only Profession of Faith which the Churches of these Provinces required of those who would be Partakers of her Communion 2. We don't find in it any Prayer address'd to Saints It supposeth all along from one end to the other that the Saints pray in general for the Church and on this Ground it is that therein they desire God to have regard to their Prayers and to receive their Intercession their Suffrages and so forth There is no greater stress laid upon the Power of the Blessed Virgin with God than on that of the Patriarchs and Apostles yea of the Anchorets and Virgins True it is that there is a solemn Commemoration of divers Saints but it may easily be perceived that it is only done out of a Design to glorify God by representing to themselves their Examples and forming or disposing themselves to imitate them This is done in the Office of St. Forrestus and Ferucio We find divers Confessions to God before the Liturgy but none at all made to Angels to the Blessed Virgin or Saints as at this day is done in the Romish Mass 3. We find there no particular Distinction for the Bishop of Rome only that the Bishop of the City of Rome is called the first of Bishops Mabillon in his Preface triumphs because of this Title but he is extreamly out in his account for hath the first Bishop any Jurisdiction over the second the second over the third We find there the Prayer for the Feast of St. Peter but with a Clause which Mabillon owns to be found in all the ancient Missals and is struck out of the Roman Liturgy in order to extend the Papal Monarchy over all the Earth We do not find therein the least Foot-step of Prayers for the Pope which shews that the Decree of the Council of Vaison wherein it was ordained that Prayers should be made to God for the Bishop of Rome was not observed throughout Gaul yea what is more the same Liturgy gives the Title of Head of the Church to St. Paul as well as to St. Peter We find therein no Adoration of the Cross on Good-Friday 4. We find therein an Office for St. Saturninus Bishop of Tholouse who is looked upon as come from the Eastern Parts in the place of St. Peter which shews that all the Bishops of France considered themselves as the Vicars of St. Peter as well as the Bishop of Rome Si quidem ipse Pontifex tuus ab Orientis partibus in urbem Tolosatium destinatus Roma Garonae invicem Petri tui tam Cathedram quam Martyrium consummavit For this your Bishop being sent from the East to Tholouse instead of Rome has now upon the Garonne filled the Chair and consummated the Martyrdom of your Peter 5. We find therein that the Confession of St. Peter was the Foundation of the Church and the Festival of his Chair is
who upon several Attaques maintained the Interest of Truth against Paschasius and his Followers it will be our Business to represent how far these Disputes were serviceable in hindring the Opinions of Paschasius from getting the upper-hand in the Diocesses of Aquitain and Narbon and how this prepar'd their Minds for a Separation from the Church of Rome Never was any Man so often condemned as Berengarius never was any Man more back'd than he nor ever did any Man give more trouble to those who endeavour'd to crush him than he did An Author of the 12 th Century hath writ a Book Concerning Berengarius 's manifold Condemnation and Mabillon hath taken care to collect the Names and the Times of all those Assemblies wherein he was condemned but withal we may assert that the Reasons and Authorities he produc'd gave his Enemies a terrible deal of Trouble His Adversaries have employ'd their utmost Efforts to abolish the Memory of his Works but a sufficient part of them have been preserv'd by their own care to enable us to judg of the Injustice of their Calumnies against him and of the Purity of his Faith in the Matter of the Eucharist And for as much as he was of considerable use to the Albigenses in their opposing of the Doctrine of the Carnal Presence which the Faction of Paschasius and his Followers endeavoured to introduce and establish under the shelter and favour of that gross Ignorance which reigned at this time I suppose I may affirm that his Works whereof Lanfrank hath given us an Extract were of no small Service to oblige those who undertook his Defence to separate themselves from the Communion of the Pope or rather to hinder him from subjecting them to his Yoak seeing it was at this very time that the Popes began to make them selves Masters of the Churches of the West It will be of great moment to prove that the Popes had not as yet made themselves absolute Masters of this Part of the Church which was always careful to maintain its Rights against their Encroachments and Usurpations My intent therefore is to employ the following Chapter upon this Subject before I proceed to enquire how the Faith was preserved in these Diocesses in the next Age when they refused to submit themselves to the Authority of the Popes of Rome CHAP. XII That these Diocesses continued independent of the Popes until the Beginning of the Twelfth Century I Acknowledg that were the business to be decided by the modern Pretensions of the Popes of Rome to the Empire of all the Churches of the World and in particular to a Patriarchate over all the Churches of the West we should be forced to own that they had been subject to them ever since the time that the Gospel was first preached in Gaul in both these respects They have made it their business to persuade Mankind that the whole World is but the Pope's Parish and that more particularly the Churches of the West which have been founded by their Ancestors who sent them the first Preachers of the Gospel do belong to their Patriarchate as if these Envoys of the antient Popes in their Endeavours to propagate the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the World had design'd to establish the Papal Empire over all the New Conquests that they acquired to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ But notwithstanding all these new-found Claims and Pretensions of the Popes we can prove that nothing can be imagin'd more vain or more destitute of any Ground or Foundation than they are For it is not true that those Churches which have received the Gospel from another are therefore subject to it as we can demonstratively evince by the Examples of the Churches of Vienna and Lions which were founded by Persons sent from the Churches of Asia upon which account it was that St. Irenaeus sent them a Relation of the Persecution they suffered Neither is it true that the antient Popes how careful soever otherwise they might be to promote their own Authority did ever pretend to be the Patriarchs of all the West or of Gaul in particular This is a Truth we can unanswerably prove by the Testimony of the first Council of Nice which assigns no other Jurisdiction to the Pope save that which he enjoyed in those which Rufinus calls the Suburbicarian Regions and which the Learned Men of the Church of Rome at present own to have been comprehended within the ten Provinces of Italy to which the Papal Ordination did belong as we see it was under Honorius and which were distinguish'd from the Diocess of Italy properly so called that is to say the seven Provinces which constituted the Diocess of Milan This Canon therefore looks upon it as a thing not to be questioned that Gaul was a Diocess distinct from that of the Popes having its Authority within it self governed by its own Synods without having the Ordination of its Clergy the Determination of its Affairs or the Authority of its Assemblies subjected to the Pope's Authority as their Superiour If we had not this Canon of the first Council of Nice which distinctly determines the Pope's Diocess yet would it be very easy to prove it by other Arguments such as these 1. We find that the Churches of Gaul convocated a Synod upon the contest about Easter towards the end of the 2 d Century without receiving any Orders from Pope Victor for so doing 2. We find that when the Donatists were condemned by the Pope they desired the Emperor that they might be judged by the Bishops of Gaul and accordingly we find that Marinus Bishop of Arles presided in the great Council of Arles in the year 314 at which were present 83 Bishops twenty One of Italy eleven of Spain eleven of Africa five of Britain and thirty five of Gaul Since the Council of Nice we find the Churches of Gaul governing themselves with the same Independency under the Conduct of their several Metropolitans We are to observe in general that these Churches had their peculiar Code of Canons made by themselves and that these Canons continued to have the force of a Law till the 8 th Century when their Discipline began to receive a great Alteration by the cares of Bonifacius Bishop of Mentz and his Successors This is amply proved by Justel in the Preface to his Collection of the antient Canons Now it is visible that a Church which had its particular Rules could not be dependent on the Pope whose Diocess had its own particular Rules and Canons We can truly affirm that the Bishops of Gaul were so far from acknowledging the Pope as their Patriarch that his Name was not so much as ever recited in the Churches of Gaul till the year 529 as may be clearly collected from the Council of Vaison where it was first determin'd that the Pope should be mention'd in their publick Prayers And indeed if we enquire into the constant Conduct of the Bishops of Gaul throughout
REMARKS UPON The Ecclesiastical History OF THE Antient Churches OF THE ALBIGENSES By PETER ALLIX D. D. Treasurer of the Church of Sarum IMPRIMATUR August 3. 1691. Z. Isham R. P. D. Henrico Episc Lond. Ã Sacris LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCXCII TO THE QUEEN May it please your Majesty THIS Defence of the Albigenses the Antient and Illustrious Confessors who some Ages ago enlightned the Southern Parts of France is laid down at your Majesty's Feet for Your Protection as well as their Successors do now fly into your Dominions for Relief That Charity which moves your Majesty to protect them by your Gracious Favour and support them by your Royal Bounty makes me presume to offer this Historical Apology to your Sacred Majesty Their Faith was in most things the same with that which our Reformers taught in opposition to the Church of Rome and after all the Endeavours that have been used to blacken them by the most horrid Calumnies as well as to destroy them by the cruellest Inquisitions and Croisades the Innocency of their Lives and the Exemplariness of their Deaths makes them to be justly gloried in as the true Authors of the Reformation It was from them that this Church now so happy in your Majesty receiv'd the first Beams of that heavenly Light which it now enjoys and which it of late maintained with such vast Advantages that it is deservedly esteemed the chief Body as well as the justest Glory of the whole Reformation The Persecutions of those earliest Restorers of the Doctrine of Jesus Chirst drove them out of their Country and forced many to fly into this Kingdom for shelter who brought with them the first Seeds of those Truths which have since yielded so plentiful an Encrease There is nothing in this History that will either strike or charm Those true Disciples of their crucified Master were considerable for nothing but the Purity of their Doctrine the Innocency of their Lives and the Patience as well as the Constancy of their Sufferings But the Glories of this World which surround your Majesty do not darken or lessen in your Esteem these distinguishing Characters of the Religion of Christ our Saviour and of those his Suffering Members in whose Afflictions you are pleased to take so great a share that you do very much diminish their own sense of them and make them so much the easier by those vast Supports you give them May that God who has raised up your Majesty to support Religion and protect its Confessors in their lowest Circumstances and who has so miraculously preserved and prospered the King and your Majesty in Opposition to the Enemies and Persecutors of his Truth still pour down the richest of his Blessings upon your Majesties May You perfect what You have so gloriously begun May You be Long Great and Happy here and infinitely Greater and Happier for ever These are the daily Wishes and most earnest Prayers of May it please your Majesty Your Majesties most Dutiful most Faithful and most Obedient Subject PETER ALLIX THE PREFACE IT was no hard matter for us to justify the Waldenses from the Accusation of Schism which the Bishop of Meaux thought fit to charge upon them for by shewing the Antiquity Purity and Succession of those Churches I have made it appear that what the Bishop calls Schism ought in Justice to be look'd upon as a vigorous Opposition to the false Worship and Usurpations of the Romish Faction and by consequence that there is no more reason to call the Waldenses Schismaticks because of their refusing Subjection to the Pope and rejecting the Errors of the Church of Rome than there is to call the Church of England Schismatical for the same Reasons But it is so long since the heads of the Church of Rome have founded their Design of an Universal Monarchy and so have fitted their Stile to their Pretensions that it is now become a very familiar thing with them to treat those as Rebels and Schismaticks who will not submit to their Authority so that we need not wonder if they who have espoused the Interest of the Church of Rome and who defend her against the Protestants do boldly charge those with Schism against whom they write without giving themselves the trouble of proving their Charge Nay perhaps we are to think our selves obliged to the Bishop of Meaux who raising himself a little above the common Method of the Doctors of his own Communion has limited himself to accuse the Waldenses of Schism only whereas he might with as much reason have charg'd them with Heresy if he had followed the Writers of Controversy of his own Party or the Legends of the Saints of his Communion For it is certain that the Writers of Controversy in the Church of Rome and those who have writ the Lives of those Inquisitors that have been canoniz'd have never look'd upon the Waldenses as any other than Manichees so thorowly rooted is the Spirit of Calumny in the Members of that Church the Character of Father of Lies being very necessary to support that of Murtherer honourably whereof they have been in Possession so very long I cannot tell whether the Bishop of Meaux has forgiven himself for his Tenderness towards the Waldenses whom he only treats as Schismaticks For seeing one Day informs another and that thus Men come to refine their Notions to the utmost who knows but the Bishop who when he writ his Book of Variations had only obscurely hinted that to accuse the Pope of being Antichrist was a Character of Manicheism who knows I say but that now he sees so clearly that the Waldenses have formally declared that the Pope is Antichrist he will not a-new make them Manichees once more the better to accommodate himself with the Maxims of his New System If he should not do it himself to avoid the shame of being guilty of a Variation at least it 's very obvious to believe that some of those who are engaged with him in the same Cause will not fail of taking that Course and therefore I am glad I have prevented him by showing that the Waldenses were no Manichees though they took the Pope to be Antichrist Be it as it will I hope it will not be harder for us to justify the Albigenses from the Accusations brought against them by the Bishop of Meaux He uses his utmost Endeavours to maintain a most abominable Calumny raised by his Predecessors and strives by representing the Albigenses as a People who had revived the Errors of the Manichees to make them equally odious to those of the Church of Rome and the Protestants of France whom his Violence together with that of his Colleagues have forc'd to take upon them the external Profession of Popery The Jews built the Tombs of those Prophets whom their Fathers slew process of Time having cur'd them of their Fury that enrag'd their Forefathers against the Ambassadors of Heaven
pretended to confirm them by Confessions which the Cruelty of their Tortures have forced from them Neither is it only in this Work of his that St. Irenaeus informs us what in his time was the Faith of these Churches planted in Gaul for he hath left us five Books and Eusebius has preserved for us some Epistles of that ancient Bishop altogether refulgent with the Purity of the Faith delivered by the Apostles 1. St. Irenaeus gives us this for one Character of the Gnosticks that they embraced Doctrines which were not to be found in the Writings of the Prophets or the Apostles Lib. 1. cap. 1. p. 33. And 't is with the same Spirit that he attributes to Hereticks the accusing of the Scripture for being unintelligible without the Help of Tradition whereas he maintains that that which had been preached was committed to Writing by the special Will of God to the end it might be the Ground and Pillar of our Faith Lib. 3. c. 1 2. And that it is to make the Apostles Hypocrites to suppose that they taught some things in publick and others in private whence it appears clearly that when he makes use of Tradition he only does it with respect to those scriptural Doctrines which the Hereticks opposed and whereof they pretended that the Apostles had left the contrary to those that succeeded them Lib. 3. c. 2. 'T is upon this occasion that he alledgeth the Testimony of the Church of Rome founded by the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul as of one that was most known Ad hanc enim Ecclesiam saith he propter potentiorem Principalitatem necesse est omnem convenire Ecclesiam hoc est eos qui sunt undique fideles in quo semper ab his qui sunt undique conservata est ea quae est ab Apostolis Traditio For to this Church because of its more powerful Superiority it behoves the whole Church to come that is the Believers of all Parts for as much as therein the Tradition from the Apostles has always peen preserved by the Believers of all parts It is apparent that whatsoever Design he may have had to raise the Authority of the Church of Rome he makes no other use of it than to make out that it was impossible those Doctrines which the Hereticks gave out for Apostolical should be really so seeing they were unknown to a Church which had had the Apostles and their Successors for her Guides more especially seeing that Church was placed in the very Seat of the Empire which continually drew to Rome a vast number of Believers from all the different places of the Empire from whence they brought not along with them a different Tradition from that which they found in the Bosom of the Church of Rome That St. Irenaeus had no other aim but this is owned by F. Quesnel in his Notes upon the tenth Epistle of St. Leo pag. 809. And this appears evidently because after all that Esteem which he had for the Church of Rome he was not afraid to write to her Bishop very censuring Letters upon the account of his having excommunicated the Churches of Asia that celebrated Easter the fourteenth of the Moon of March as also because he continued in the Communion of those Churches of Asia without being concerned at the Excommunication of the Pope of Rome 2. He reduces the whole Faith of Christians throughout the World to that which we call the Apostles Creed without mentioning so much as a Word of those Doctrines which the Church of Rome has superadded to it pretending to confirm them by Tradition Lib. 1. c. 2. 3. He maintains the Scriptures to be both clear and perfect Lib. 2. c. 47. 4. He rejects the Doctrines which the Hereticks grounded upon the Explication of some Parables maintaining that nothing ought to be established but upon clear and evident places of Scripture Lib. 2. c. 46. 5. It appears by his Writings that Penance at that time was publick without dispensing with Women that were overtaken with the Sins of Uncleanness by which means being exposed to extream Confusion it made some of them abjure Christianity Lib. 1. c. 9. 6. He makes it appear that Caelibat was not yet known in Asia whence these first Christians of the Gauls derived their Original which is acknowledged by the Fevardentius Lib. 1. c. 9. 7. He assigns to the Marcosians the custom of anointing those they received into their Communion with Balm Opobalsamo which shews that at that time extream Unction was not known And we may make the same Observation from his imputing to other Hereticks the anointing of Persons at the Point of Death with Oil and Water Lib. 1. c. 18. 8. He attributes to the Gnosticks the Imitation of the Heathens because they had the Images of Jesus Christ Lib. 1. c. 24. which makes it evident that the Christians had no Images much less that they gave to them any religious Worship And indeed we find him reasoning lib. 2. c. 6. after such a manner as shews that the Christians were yet in full Possession of a Right to reproach the Heathens with all those Absurdities that arise from the Use of Images The same may also be gathered from lib. 2. c. 42. where he divides the Law into two Tables in a manner very different from that of the Doctors of the Roman Church and altogether conformable to the Judgment of Josephus and other Jewish Doctors 9. He makes it appear that he knew nothing of the Separability of Accidents from their Subjects which is the sole Support of Transubstantiation lib. 2. c. 14. 10. He in plain terms â—ejects the Invocation of Angels instead thereof recommending that of our Saviour Jesus Christ lib. 2. c. 57. 11. He asserts that the Blessed Virgin had unseasonable Motions intempestivam festinationem John 2.3 so far was he from believing her wholly free from Sin lib. 2. c. 18. This shews that when he saith cap. 33. Quod alligavit Virgo Eva per incredulitatem hoc Virgo Maria solvit per fidem What the Virgin Eve bound up by her Unbelief that the Virgin Mary set free by her Faith he doth not own the Virgin for the Person that saved Men but his meaning is like that of Hesychius who said speaking of the Women to whom Jesus Christ appeared after his Resurrection Invenêre enim saith he mulieres quod olim amisere per Evam lucrum invenit ea quae damni occasionem praebuerat For the Women found what formerly they lost by Eve she found the Gain who had been an occasion of the Loss T. 15. B. P. p. 823. col 1. And this is the sense likewise of that other Passage of St. Irenaeus which we find lib. 5. c. 19. for though he calls the Virgin Eve's Advocate it plainly appears that he meant nothing else but what is express'd by St. Chrysostom in Ps 44. T. 3. p. 221. Virgo nos Paradiso expulit per Virginem vitam aternam invenimus A Virgin drove us
dead Bodies to be unclean as if Christians still lived under the Law Whereas Vigilantius blamed the Custom of honouring them in the Churches because it was a piece of Superstition in a Place dedicated to religious Worship to bestow any Veneration upon Creatures though the most holy and most excellent that might be St. Jerom is forced to prevaricate upon this Charge his way of defending this matter is such as would never please the Palat of the Church of Rome Nos autem non dico Martyrum reliquias sed ne Solem quidem Lunam non Angelos non Archangelos non Cherubin non Seraphim omne nomen quod nominatur in praesenti saeculo in futuro colimus adoramus ne serviamus Creaturae potius quam Creatori qui est Benedictus in saecula Honoramus autem reliquias Martyrum ut cum cujus sunt Martyres adoremus honoramus servos ut honor servorum redundet ad Dominum qui ait qui vos suscipit me suscipit Ergo Petri Pauli immundae sunt Reliquiae ergo Moysi corpusculum immundum erit quod juxta Hebraicam veritatem ab ipso sepultum est Domino quotiescunque Apostolorum Prophetarum omnium Martyrum Basilicas ingredimur toties Idolorum templa veneramur accensique ante tumulos eorum cerei Idololatriae insignia sunt But we neither worship nor adore I do not say the Relicks of Martyrs but not so much as the Sun and Moon c. nor any Name that is named in this World or in that which is to come lest we should serve the Creature rather than God who is blessed for ever But we honour the Relicks of the Martyrs in worshipping him whose they are we honour the Servants that their Honour may redound to the Lord who saith He that receives you receives me What are the Relicks then of Peter and Paul unclean Is the Body of Moses unclean which according to the Hebrew Truth was buried by the Lord himself and as often as we enter the Churches of the Apostles Prophets and Martyrs do we worship the Temples of Idols and shall we say that the Tapers which burn before their Monuments are the Marks of Idolatry What a fine Application doth St. Jerom make here of that Passage He that receives you receives me and how solid an Answer doth he return to a solid Objection when he tells us We honour the Servants in worshipping him whose they are What a Consequence is this Is there any other Honour due to Relicks besides that of being interred Was not this the Custom used to the Christians of old before the time of Constantius It is well enough seen that the good Father skips over the Difficulty and under a general Protestation of worshipping nothing but God he endeavours to shelter a Custom which had been introduced after the Emperor Constantius's time that is to say about 60 Years before Vigilantius blamed the Custom which but a little before had been introduced of lighting Tapers before the Tombs of Martyrs and passing the Night by them in Prayer wherein he followed the Maxims of the Council of Elvira held under the Empire of Constantine about 90 Years before After what manner doth St. Jerom refute these Complaints of Vigilantius he tells us of the Presence of the Angels at the Grave of Jesus Christ he relies upon the Example of the Apostles who buried the Body of St. Stephen He produceth the Custom of Daniel and the Apostles who spent the Night in Prayer and all this without doubt extreamly to the purpose and the Protestants are much in the wrong to prefer the Opinions of Vigilantius to such solid Reasonings as these But it may be replied That St. Jerom disputed only slightly and for Argument's sake in his Epistle to Riparius not having then seen the Writing of Vigilantius and therefore handled the matter only as a Declaimer This indeed is the best Excuse that can be alledged to make the Reader digest the furious Transports and Invectives of this famous Monk who treats Vigilantius no otherwise than as another Julian the Apostate and seems very willing to have had him destroyed by the Law mentioned in the 13 th of Deuteronomy And after all this St. Jerom is the same in his Book against Vigilantius which follows this Epistle After a Preface which out-does all the Monsters that either the Scripture or Fables speak of he begins thus Exortus est subito Vigilantius seu verius Dormitantius qui immundo spiritu pugnet contra Christi spiritum Martyrum neget sepulcra veneranda damnandas dicat esse Vigilias nunquam nisi in Pascha Alleluja cantandum continentiam Haeresin Pudicitiam Libidinis seminarium quomodo Euphorbus in Pythagora renatus esse perhibetur sic in isto Joviniani mens prava surrexit ut in illo in hoc Diaboli respondere cogamur insidiis Here is suddenly started up one Vigilantius or rather Dormitantius who with an unclean Spirit fights against the Spirit of Christ and denies that any Veneration ought to be given to the Sepulchres of Martyrs condemns the Watchings at them affirms that Alleluja's ought to be sung at no time except Easter calls Continence Heresy and Chastity the Nursery of Lust so that as Euphorbus was said to be born again in Pythagoras in like manner in him seems to be revived Jovinianus's Wickedness in whom as we were forced to oppose our selves against the Wiles of the Devil so likewise are we now equally obliged to oppose this Man's Errors What Ciceronian Eloquence is this What a strange Account of things is here But there is something worse behind see what Stories he tells of Jovinian Ecclesiae Authoritate damnatus inter Phasides aves carnes suillas non tam emisit spiritum quam eructavit iste Caupo Callaguritanus in perversum propter nomen viculi mutus Quintilianus Miscet aquam vino de pristino artificio suae venena perfidiae Catholicae fidei sociare conatur impugnare virginitatem odisse pudicitiam in convivio saecularium contra sanctorum Azemia proclamare dum inter phialas philosophatur ad placentas liguriens Psalmorum modulatione mulcetur ut tantum inter Epulas David Idithum Asaph filiorum Core cantica audire dignetur Surely the good St. Jerom did not think of what he said so extreamly was he transported with an inconsiderate Zeal for Celibacy but however this Zeal of his had a reasonable Motive Prohnefas said he This is the first Heresy of Vigilantius he would have it allowed to Ministers to marry whereas in the ten Provinces subject to the Pope in the seventeen Provinces of the Jurisdiction of Ephesus and in the five Provinces of Egypt they followed a contrary Custom This without doubt was a crying Heresy and yet it appears from the Decretal of Pope to Hymerius Bishop of Tarracona that it had made so little Impression upon the Minds of Men that Innocent I. was fain to write
we are dead the Prayer of any one for another cannot be heard Probably also he might be too rigid in refusing to enter into the Churches of the Apostles and Martyrs to signify his Aversion to the Superstition which then began to be introduc'd as St. Austin complains De moribus Eccles cap. 34. 1. But it is false that because Vigilantius found fault with the Adoration of Relicks therefore St. Jerom maintain'd the same to be lawful he was so far from that that he upbraids Vigilantius with calumniating the Church by this his Accusation Quis O insanum caput aliquando Martyres adoravit Quis hominem putavit Deum Who ever O foolish Man adored the Martyrs Who ever took a Man to be God It is evident that St. Jerom takes Adoration to be an Act due to God alone and which he does not divide in two sorts as the Church of Rome does at this day which indeed makes three different sorts of it 2. It is false that St. Jerom maintains that the Church prayed to Saints whereof Vigilantius accuseth those against whom he had writ He agrees with Vigilantius that the Saints ought not to be prayed to even as Friends to Christ and Intercessors with God Ne ut Amici quidem Dei comprecatores ad Deum Is it not manifest that the Bishop of Meaux abuses the World when he quotes St. Jerom in favour of the Church of Rome which prays to Saints on both these accounts which are so expresly rejected by St. Jerom and when he upbraids the Protestants for following of Vigilantius in an Article which St. Jerom owns as well as he and the whole Church at that time But to speak the truth The whole of Vigilantius his Crime consists 1 st In that he was willing to bring the Discipline of the Council of Elvira in force again which was assembled at the beginning of the 4 th Century the Constitutions whereof were undervalued towards the end of the same Age after the Christian Religion began to bear down all its Opposers under the Reign of Constantine and his Children 2 ly Because he attributes to the Church some Customs which were not all of them authorized though they were already generally received and maintained by the Ignorant and Superstitious sort of People 3 ly Because he opposed some Customs as general which were capable of being explained in a tolerable Sense But indeed at the bottom St. Jerom and Vigilantius were very well agreed upon the Point we condemn in the Church of Rome neither do we find that the Church to which Vigilantius did belong did ever except against him Thus it is evident that the Protestants may look upon Vigilantius as a zealous Defender of the Christian Purity and one of those who oppos'd themselves against Superstition in its first rise CHAP. V. The State of the Churches of Aquitain and Narbon in the Fifth Century THis Age furnisheth us with several considerable Witnesses St. Jerom whom the Bishop of Meaux has endeavour'd to represent as our Antagonist is the first of them He saith speaking of Exuperius Bishop of Tholouse that this holy Bishop carried the Eucharist in a Wicker-Basket a way by no means agreeable to the Custom of the Church of Rome where it is accompanied with quite different Ceremonies 1 st Because it is made the Object of Adoration and that in the very Streets 2 ly Because People dare not touch the least Crumb of it as being persuaded that the Body of Jesus Christ which is in the Host multiplies according to the number of the Crumbs into which the Host may be broken 3 ly Because by this means it might come to be trod under foot or lost upon which a thousand Inconveniencies must follow It is worth observing here concerning this Custom of carrying the Eucharist about which was in use in the 2 d Century as appears from the Writings of Justin Martyr that it differ'd very much from what we find in the Romish Church since the 12 th Century For indeed since that time Rome has taken great care to obtain Laws whereby all that walk in the Streets whether Jews Heathens or Christians might be compelled to adore what she looks upon as her God But we find nothing like this in any Law of the Emperors or Christian Princes in favour of the Adoration of the Eucharist The 2 d Witness whom we may consult about the State of these Diocesses is Sulpitius Severus Monk of Primuliacum in Guienne And since he wrote at a time when the Zeal for that kind of Life did transport the best Men we need not wonder that he hath inserted so many Fables in the Books we have of his though setting those aside nothing was finer in that Age than his Writings But after all it is certain that notwithstanding all this leaven of a Monastick Spirit we find many Characters of a very pure Divinity in his Books this will appear from the following Observations whence it is obvious to conclude that he was not engaged in Popish Maxims 1. He maintains That it was Jesus Christ that wrestled with Jacob which Passage the Doctors of the Church of Rome corrupt to have an occasion thence to conclude that a meer Angel had blessed Jacob Pridie saith he quam inter se fratres convenirent Dominus humanâ specie assumptâ colluctatus cum Jacob refertur Et cum adversus Dominum praevaluisset tamen non esse mortalem non ignoravit benedici sibi ab eo flagitabat The day before the Brothers met the Lord is said to have wrestled with Jacob in a humane Form and though he prevailed against the Lord yet he knew him not to be mortal and desired to be blessed by him 2. He owns the second Commandment and distinguisheth it from the first Non erunt tibi Dii alieni praeter me Non facies tibi Idolum Thou shalt have no other Gods but me Thou shalt not make to thy self a Graven Image Neither doth he split the last Command into two as the Church of Rome does at present for he concludes the Decalogue in this Manner Non falsum testimonium dices adversus Proximum tuum Non concupisces quidquam Proximi tui Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy Neighbour Thou shalt not covet any any thing that is thy Neighbours 3. He was so little persuaded that the Name of Catholick was a solid Character of the true Church that he confesses that Arianism had infected all the World See how he expresseth himself Eoque his certaminibus processum ut istiusmodi piaculis orbis terrarum implicaretur nam Italiam Illyricum atque Orientem Valens Vrsacius caeterique quorum nomina edidimus infecerant And these Contests proceeded so far that the whole World became involv'd in this Wickedness for Valens and Vrsacius with the rest whose Names we have mentioned had infected Italy Illyricum and the East 4. He minded the Pope's Power of suppressing Heresy so little that he
But if neither in our Tribulations we bless God nor redeem our Sins by good Works we shall so long abide in that Purgatory till all our lesser Sins be consumed like Wood Hay and Stubble But some body may say What matter is it how long I stay there so I may but at last pass through into eternal Life Let no Man say so most dear Brethren for as much as this Purgatory Fire is more painful than any thing that can be thought seen or felt in this World And seeing it is writ of the Day of Judgment that it shall be one Day how can any one know whether he may be Days Months or even Years in passing through it 3. In his 12 th Homily he exhorts the People not to go out of the Church on Sundays before the Celebration of the Eucharist and makes the Prayers of the Priest to appear ridiculous when there are no Communicants to receive To whom saith he shall the Priest say Sursum corda But we are especially to observe that when he presses the Greatness of the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Adoration due to the Sacrament he says never a Word of what some Popish Orator would represent to us on the like Occasion 4. In the 20 th Homily he exhorts the Country People to read the Scriptures and removes all Excuses which they might make to avoid this Duty with as much Earnestness as those of the Church of Rome express'd when they would disswade their Auditors from the reading of it 5. The 38 th Homily is a Collection of several places of Scripture treating of the means by which Remission of Sins is granted to us He reckons up there twelve several means where we are to take notice 1 st That he doth not speak one Word of confessing to a Priest nor of the Power God hath bestowed on them to pardon Sins as Judges which at present is the great and only mean to obtain the Pardon of Sin those other whereof St. Caesarius speaks being of no use without the Pardon 's pronounced by the Priest in the Tribunal of Confession That which is here peculiar is that tho he has said a very great deal about the Efficacy of Contrition for the Remission of Sins in his 29 th Homily he has not been able to avoid the cautè lege of the Romish Censors as we may see in the Bibliotheca Patrum of the Paris Edition 2 dly We are to observe that whereas the Church of Rome pretends to find the Sacrament of Extreme Unction and Auricular Confession in the 5 th Chapter of St. James's Epistle Caesarius discovers nothing there but the Christian Duty of praying one for another proceeding from the Charity we owe to our Neighbour Ruricius was Bishop of Limoges from the Year 535. in which he assisted at the first Council of Auvergne He assisted also at the 4 th Council of Orleans in 541. and at the 5 th in 549. We have nothing left us of this Prelate save his two Books of Epistles though even there we can inform our selves about several very important Matters which demonstrate what the Faith was that was then received and imbraced in Aquitain 1. He takes for granted that dying Persons are immediately taken up into Heaven so far is he from mentioning Purgatory See in what manner he comforts Namacius and Ceraunia for the Loss of their Son Indeed you have reason to take a great deal of Comfort from the Will of Christ since untimely Death was his Lot that he has been pleased to take him away in that State to which he pronounceth the Kingdom of Heaven to belong that at the same time you might have a Patron instead of a Son and leave off deploring him as lost whom you see the Lord hath taken to himself And in another place Wherefore let your Faith wipe off your Tears since we believe that those who are dear to us do not lose their Life but change it they leave this World full of Sorrows and hasten to the Region of the Blessed and take their leave of this painful Pilgrimage that they may arrive at the Land of Rest 2. He supposeth Abraham's Bosom and Heaven to be the same thing when he brings in a young Woman that enjoyed the Glory of Heaven speaking after this manner Wherefore my loving Parents rather bewail your own Sins and seriously think of redeeming your own Crimes that if you love me in Christ you may be thought worthy to be admited into the Patriarch's Bosom where the Lord acording to the Purity of my Innocence and his great Kindness has placed me c. 3. He exhorts a Lady of his Acquaintance to the reading of Holy Scripture when he sent her a Painter But saith he you ought to look for more perfect and great Instruments in those Divine Writings from whence these are taken if ever you desire to perfect what you have begun or attain what is promised you If you thus seek the Lord will give you both Knowledg and Strength to understand what you read and keep what you understand St. Ferreolus Bishop of Vzez must not be forgot by us he was chosen in the Year 553. and died in 581. We find in the Rule that he writ for Monks that he setled in his Diocess an uncommon Strain of Piety 1. We do not find him to demand the Approbation of this his Rule at Rome as has been done for some Ages since He sends to the Bishop of Die to desire his Advice and afterwards published it with the Approbation only of that Bishop without troubling himself about any other Authority 2. He orders his Monks to work with their Hands that they might not be chargeable to the Publick as all the Orders of Mendicants are at this time 3. He receives none but such as are come to Mens Estate and will have them tried before they be admitted whereas St. Bennet ordained that those whom their Parents had presented to a Monastery should from their Infancy be received and abide there 4. He will have the great Employment of the Monks to be the reading of the Psalms which he will have them go through every Week 5. He will have them on Anniversary Days of the Martyrdom of the Saints to read the Acts of their Martyrdom for a worthy Celebration of the Memory of their Passion but not a Word of incouraging the Monks to offer up Prayers to them on these solemn Days 6. Above all he requires of every Monk daily to read the Scripture and not to dispense with it upon any Pretence or because of any other Business whatsoever Fortunatus was born in Italy but coming into France in the Year 575. he stayed there in the Service of St. Radegunda and was ordained Priest at Poictiers where he lived in great Reputation till the end of that Century Some will have him to have been raised to the Episcopal Dignity in the same City but this appears to
account he calls it the Truth of the Heavenly Sacrament We have a like Expression of Baptism alluding to the Passage of the Red-Sea in one of St. Augustin's Homilies upon Nicodemus's coming to Jesus Christ related by Paulus Diaconus In inventione S. Crucis and 't is the same we find also in several Passages of St. Caesarius We find that the word Transformation has perfectly charm'd him We therefore Lord keeping these Institutes and Precepts do most humbly beseech thee that thou wouldst be pleased to receive bless and sanctify this Sacrifice that it may be to us a true Eucharist in thy own and Son's Name and of the Holy Ghost that so there may be a Transformation of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ thy only Begotten c. And in a Marginal Note he observes that the same Word is made use of in this Liturgy That it may please thee to send down thy Holy Spirit upon these Solemnities that it may be to us a true Eucharist in thy own and Son's Name and of the Holy Ghost for a Transformation of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ thy only Begotten that it may bestow upon us who eat it eternal Life and the everlasting Kingdom to those that shall drink it And also That thy Blessing may come down upon this Bread and Wine for the Transformation of thy Holy Spirit that blessing thou may'st bless them and sanctifying thou may'st sanctify them c. And the like in other Missals as antient as this which he observes also in his Preface But this after all signifies nothing else but the Change which the Holy Ghost produceth in making the Elements after Consecration to become the Sacrament of the Body of Jesus Christ This is that which our Authors have fully justified by an infinite number of Examples borrowed from Baptism and other things consecrated by Prayer Boethius in his Books De consolatione Philosophiae saith Conversi in malitiam humanam quoque amisêre naturam Evenit ergo ut quem transformatum vitiis videas hominem existimare non possis Being turn'd into Malice they at the same time lose humane Nature So that if you see one transformed by Vice you cannot look upon him as a Man And Ratramnus in his Book of the Body and Blood of our Lord saith That Jesus Christ in former times could change the Manna and Water out of the Rock in the Wilderness into his Flesh and Blood the same Ratramnus that oppos'd Paschasius who was the first Publisher of the Doctrine of a real Change We find there the Notion of Vertere and convertere in carnem Beseeching that he who then changed the Water into Wine would be pleased now to change the Wine of our Oblations into his Blood And again Let us entreat him that he who as at this day by his Son turned the Species of Water into Wine would be pleased in like manner to change the Oblations and Prayers of us all into a Divine Sacrifice and to accept them as he did accept the Offering of Abel the Just and the Sacrifice of Abraham his Patriarch But the appearance of this seeming Difficulty we find in the following Leaf Besides that it is ridiculous to suppose the real Change of the Prayers of Believers into the Body and Blood of our Saviviour which is suppos'd of the Oblations We meet with an Expression which seems somewhat strange O Jesu Christ who in the Evening of the World wast made an Evening-Sacrifice on the Cross vouchsafe to us that we may become new Sepulchres for thy Body Tho indeed these Expressions plainly shew that they are only intended for the prefiguring the Death of Christ according to the Notion of Rabanus Maurus We find there frequently that the Sacrament is said to be a Remedy for the Body and an Expiation for the Soul but this doth no more suppose the carnal Presence or the Expiation which is the fruit of a Propitiatory Sacrifice than that which we find in the Roman Order in blessing a Grave that it may be a saving Remedy to the Party resting in it for the Redemption of his Soul In the same Liturgy they say to God Do thou therefore so come down into the present Oblation that it may afford Healing unto the Living and Refreshment unto those who are Dead But this regards only the Presence of Vertue as in the Roman Order they beg of God that he would afford his Presence and Majesty in Baptism There is mention likewise made of the Immolation of the Body of Jesus Christ but this is only said by way of Resemblance as St. Augustin explains it in his 23 d Epistle to Bonifacius for in other places this Liturgy speaks of Bread offered up There is also mention made of a Sacrifice But 1 st He gives that Name to the Eucharist which every-where throughout this Liturgy is termed a Sacrifice of Praises and Thanksgivings 2 ly It compares the Sacrifice with that of Melchizedeck wherein every one knows there was nothing of Transubstantiation This is that which Rabanus explains Lib. 1. de instit clericor cap. 31. Mabillon particularly triumphs when he takes notice of a Passage which is found in the 78 th Office He offer'd up himself first to thee a Sacrifice and first taught himself to be offer'd These words offer'd up himself seem to him to be applicable to the Act of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist but he must not take it ill if we tell him that it is not true that he then offer'd up any Sacrifice the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ consisting only in his Death on the Cross the Eucharist where he had only his Death before his Eyes was only the Memorial of his Sacrifice his Offering consisting only in his Death If he did offer up himself in the Eucharist then was he already dead which is a Notion attributed to Gregory Nissen but is refuted by the Divines of the Church of Rome as impertinent Some it may be will imagine that the Authors of the Gothick Liturgy take away all Equivocation when they say Let us receive that in the Wine which flow'd from thee on the Cross But indeed here we have reason to admire how far strong Prejudices will carry Men so as even to hinder common Sense from acting for really there can be no Notion more opposite to Transubstantiation since this Notion represents the State in which Christ was given to us that is a State of Death which is contrary to the Popish Notions by which they believe him alive in the Eucharist Besides it is absolutely false that Jesus Christ did after his Resurrection retake the same Blood which he lost on the Cross The Church of Rome pretends that she hath it in her keeping and it is shown in I don't know how many places This Expression is well known to be St. Augustin's whose Doctrine is vastly opposite to that of Transubstantiation as De
judging but with a necessity of believing which form the Apostle himself delivered saying Quench not the Spirit despise not Prophecies try all things hold fast what is good abstain from every Appearance of Evil. Which is absolutely false if an infallible Principle has continued in the Church whether in the Person of the Pope or in Councils or that we must of Necessity explain Scripture according to the Sense of the Fathers as the Church of Rome has defined 2. We see with what force he maintains the Canons of the Gallican Church against the Contempt which some cast upon them because they had been made without the Pope's Concurrence 3. We do not find that in his time they applied to the Blessed Virgin the Words of the first Promise by reading Ipsa tuum conteret caput She shall bruise thy Head for he reads Ipse tuum He shall bruise c. when he disputes against Felix Bishop of Vrgel 4. He maintains in the same place that the Notion of a Peoples being without Sin who yet confess themselves to be Sinners out of Humility is pure Pelagianism That if this is the Property of humble Saints why then doth John the Apostle say If we say that we have no Sin we deceive our selves and the Truth is not in us but if we confess our Sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our Sins Who if like you he had been inclined to have not mean but great Thoughts of himself he had whereof he might glory because he lay in the Bosom of his Lord and was beloved of him above the rest of his Disciples James the Apostle also saith In many things we offend all which if any shall imagine not to be spoke in Truth but by way of Humility let him know that therein he follows Pelagius 5. He plainly declares that our Communion in the Sacrament is the same with that of the Believers of old when he applies that Passage of the 1 st to the Corinthians chap. 10. ver 1 and 2. of the drinking of the Holy Ghost and maintains in these terms that there is no other Difference between the Believers of the Old and New Testament but this That the great Sacraments of Salvation which are wrought by the Mediator for us and for them save us as being already past but them as yet to come because we believe and hold what is past they believed and held what was to come they held them only in their Minds as Figures of future things but we in an open Profession Vows and Declaration of things past under the Signification of sensible Sacraments as those two who carried one Cluster of Grapes upon a Staff did indifferently do the same Work only that the one of them had it behind his Back and the other before his Face I should be obliged to transcribe his whole Book against Pictures and Images if I should go about to extract all that it contains in Opposition to the Opinions of the Church of Rome It will be sufficient for us to observe that the Romish Index Expurgatorius hath forbid this Book as well as the rest till its Errors be expunged and indeed it did deserve no less for it maintains according to the Doctrine of St. Augustin that we ought not to adore any Image of God but only that which is God himself even his eternal Son and that it is a piece of Folly and Sacriledg to vouchsafe any Worship to Images and to call them Holy as the second Council of Nice had done He refutes the Excuse of the Council of Trent which only considers those as Idolaters that attribute something of Divinity to the Image He maintains it to be mere Paganism to have Images for any other use than that of a Memorial and at the same time asserts that Images are of as little Use and Advantage as the Picture of a Mower or of some Hero in Armour can advantage a Mower or Souldier who looks upon those Pictures In a Word he speaks exactly like a true Iconoclast for after he had said that it was impossible any longer to bear with the Abuses against which he had taken Pen in hand he adds From whence we may plainly infer that if Hezekiah a Godly and Religious King brake the brazen Serpent made by God's express Command because the mistaken Multitude began to worship it as an Idol for which his Piety was very much commended much more religiously may and ought the Images of the Saints they themselves approving it be broken and ground to Pouder which were never set up by God's Command but are absolutely human Inventions But besides this there are four other Articles which are as disrelishing to the Church of Rome as these 1. He maintains that there is no other Mediator between God and Men save Jesus Christ God and Man which he proves by the Authority of St. Augustin de Civ Dei l. 9. c. 15. 2. He looks upon those as worthy to be anathematized and excommunicated from the Church of God who should undertake to dedicate a Church to the most excellent of Saints or Angels If any of us saith he should make a Temple of Wood or Stone to any though the most excellent of Saints we ought for doing that to be anathematized from the Truth of Christ and from the Church of God because by so doing we should give that Worship to the Creature which is only due to the Creator 3. Having given a Relation of the manner how the Faithful gathered up the Bones of St. Polycarp and interr'd them in a place where they intended to meet and celebrate his Memory to encourage Believers to imitate the constancy of that Martyr he declares that all manner of Worship or Honour done to them over and above this is unlawful religious Worship being due to God alone 4. He proves that his Judgment concerning these Points is founded upon the Example of the antient Doctors up-their Opinions and upon the Book of the Sacraments of the Church of Rome that it was the ground of the antient Doctors of the Church who rejected the Worship which the Arians gave to Jesus Christ as idolatrous tho they owned him to be no more than a Man The Reader needs not take much pains to apprehend why Rome thought fit to condemn these Books of Agobardus tho he may be at a loss how it comes to pass that notwithstanding all this he is at this day held for a Saint and publickly ador'd at Lions under the Name of St. Agobo This is a Riddle which has strangly perplexed the Learned Jesuit Theophilus Raynaldus as well as le Cointe in his Annals of the Church of France But he is not the only Person that has oppos'd the Belief and Worship of the Church of Rome and is publickly ador'd by her I have another Author to produce who gives us so clear an Idea of the belief of this Diocess wherein he was born
in France and Germany he might be look'd upon as the Apostolical Vicar and so by his means the Decrees of the Apostolical See might be made known to the Bishops and on the other hand that any Matters of importance might by him be communicated to the Apostolick See and that all Affairs of moment and difficulty might by his Suggestion be recommended to the Apostolick See to be cleared and determined Whereupon the Emperor demanded of the Bishops what Answer they designed to return to these Apostolical Letters who answer'd to this effect That saving the Right and Priviledges of each Metropolitan according to the sacred Canons and the Decrees of the Popes of the See of Rome promulg'd from the said sacred Canons they would obey the Apostolical Commands of Pope John And when the Emperor and the Apostolical Legats had done their utmost Endeavours to perswade the Bishops to an absolute Answer that they would obey without reserve in accepting of Ansegisus for their Primate as the Pope had written yet could they never draw from them any other Answer Then the Emperor commanded a Chair to be set above all the Bishops of his Cisalpine Kingdom next to John Bishop of Tusculanum who sat at his Right-hand and commanded Ansegisus to take place of all the Bishops that had been ordained before him and to sit down in that Chair the Archbishop of Rheims protesting against it in the hearing of them all as a thing directly contrary to the sacred Canons In like manner the day before the Ides of July the same Letter concerning the Primacy of Ansegisus was read a second time at the Emperor's Command and the Bishops Answer demanded thereupon Whereupon the Archbishops answered severally for themselves That as their Predecessors had been regularly obedient to his Predecessors so would they be to his Decrees So likewise at the Command of the Apostolical Legats that the Bishops should meet the 17 th day before the Kalends of August the Emperor entred the Synod at nine a Clock in the Morning being accompanied by the Apostolical Legates and all took their Places as before Then Johannes Aretinus read a certain Paper which had neither Reason nor Authority Afterwards Odo Bishop of Beauvais read some Articles set down by the Apostolical Legats and by Ansegisus and Odo without the Knowledg of the Synod between containing nothing to the purpose and besides void of all Reason and Authority which for that reason are not here added And then again a Motion was made concerning the Primacy of Ansegisus who after all could obtain no more this last time than he did at the first day of the Synod From which account it is most evident that notwithstanding all the pains Charles the Bald took to oblige the Pope whose Friendship he had occasion for and whose Ambition he maintain'd by trampling upon the Ecclesiastical Laws and the Rights of the Prelats of France yet the Bishops continued firm in their Judgments and would not suffer themselves to be enslaved as the Pope would fain have had them This hapned in the year 876. In particular we may justly observe concerning these Parts where the Albigenses have appear'd with the greatest lustre 1 st That the greatest part of these Diocesses being rent off from the Empire after the year 409 when Alaric made Tholouse the Seat of the Kingdom of the Visi-Goths it continued so divided till it was again reduc'd under the Power of the French by Clovis in the year of our Lord 507. 2 dly That since that time we find that these parts of France have been almost always united with the Churches of Spain as appears from the Subscriptions of the Synods held in Spain 3 dly That they were never to speak properly re-united with the Body of the Churches of France till the Reign of the Emperor Charlemain 4 thly That the Power of the Popes in France hath been so very inconsiderable that a Legat of the Pope having undertaken to consecrate a Chappel in Anjou by the Duke's Order but without consent of the Bishop Radulphus Glaber who relates this History could not forbear exclaiming against this Encroachment Baronius on the other hand storms against Glaber but the one of them writ what those of his time thought and spoke concerning it whereas the other gave himself entirely up to the Power of Prejudice and followed the Design he had undertaken of accommodating antient History with the Interest of the Court of Rome on which he had his Dependance But we are especially to observe that the Popes never began to exercise their absolute Power there till they had setled their Legats in those Parts and had brought all Causes to be tried at their Tribunal Thus Paschal II. appointed Girard Bishop of Angoulesm to be his Vicar in the Provinces of Bourges Bourdeaux Tours and Britain in the year 1107 as appears by the Commission granted by Paschal II. to Girard Bishop of Angoulesm published by D' Achery Thus the Legantine Power in the Diocess of Ausch was given after the year 1102 to William Archbishop of Ausch as De Marca shews on the Council of Clermont What I have just now observed is so certain that Mezeray hath publickly own'd it in his Chronological Abridgment From the time of the 8 th Century the Popes found ways to lessen the Power of Metropolitans by obliging them by the Decree of a Council held at Mentz by St. Boniface which forced them to receive the Pallium at Rome and to subject themselves and be canonically obedient in all Points to the Church of Rome which Profession was afterwards changed into an Oath of Fidelity under Gregory VII They also attributed to themselves excluding all others the Power of annulling the Spiritual Marriage which a Bishop contracts with his Church and to give him the liberty to espouse another They had extended their Patriarchal Jurisdiction all over the West by obliging the Bishops to take Confirmation from them for which they paid certain Dues which in process of time were changed into what they call Annates and by taking cognizance of those things which belonged to the Bishops only Nay what is more they had in a manner wholly abolished the Provincial Councils in taking away their Soveraignty by nulling of their Decrees so that these Assemblies were at last wholly left off as useless because they afforded nothing to those who assisted at them save the Displeasure of frequently seeing their Determinations made void at Rome without once hearing their Reasons Gregory VII established it for a Rule of Common Right that no Body should dare to condemn any Person who had appeal'd to the Holy See But they never made a greater Breach upon the Liberties of the Gallican Church than when they introduced this Opinion that no Council could be assembled without their Authority and when after several Attempts to establish perpetual Vicars in Gaul they found the way of having their Legats received there To this purpose they
first made use of a Canon of the Council of Sardica which gave them Power to send Legats into the Provinces to examine the Processes and the Depositions of any Bishops in Cases where any complaint was made After that they had thus accustomed the French Bishops to admit their Legats in this Case they by little and little gain'd another Point when the Princes were weak which was to send some amongst them without any Complaint or Appeal at all and at last after they had submitted to the Yoak Alexander II. established it as a Rule that the Pope ought to have the Government and Administration of all Churches Of these Legats some had a whole Kingdom under their Jurisdiction others some part only they came thither with full Power to depose Bishops yea the Metropolitan himself when ever they pleased to assemble the Councils of their District and to preside therein with the Metropolitan but taking place of him to make Canons to send the Decision of those Matters to the Pope to which the Bishops would not give their Consent as likewise all the Acts of the Council whereof he disposed at his Will and Pleasure And it is to be observed that their Suffrages outweigh'd those of all the Bishops together and that oftentimes by their simple Authority they judg'd and determin'd the Causes of the Elections of Bishops of Benefices of the Excommunications of Lay-men and the like Insomuch that these Assemblies which before were so Sacred and so Soveraign for the supporting and maintaining of Discipline having no Power any longer were to speak properly rather Councils to authorize and ratify the Will and Pleasure of the Pope than any lawful or free Councils So that it was not till the Papacy of Alexander II. and Gregory VII that the Churches of Aquitain saw themselves in danger of losing their Liberty by submitting to the Papal Yoak as well as the rest of the French Churches We are now to see how they avoided this Yoak which was thus imposed upon them in some measure CHAP. XIII Of the Opposition that was made by a Part of these Churches to the Attempts of the Popes and of their Separation from the Communion of Rome before Peter Waldo IT is difficult precisely to set down the Year wherein a considerable Part of these Diocesses rejected the Power of the Pope's Legats and lowdly condemned the Errors which they would have introduced under the Name of Councils which the Popes had so often assembled against Berengarius But we have great reason to conclude that it happened under Gregory VII when he undertook to oblige the Bishops of France to swear an Oath of Fidelity to him in much a like Form as Vassals swear to the Lords of the Fee for in reality it is the very same this strange Piece of Novelty which at one Blow destroy'd all the Rights of the Church excited both Pastors and People to defend their Liberties and to reject this imperious Yoak Then it was also that he endeavour'd to change the Common Service of the Church by striking out all that was not agreeable to the Roman Service which was very proper to inflame the Minds of the People and make them more watchful for the Preservation of the Doctrine and Ceremonies of Religion which they had received from their Ancestors For instance It is certain that in the 11 th Century they changed the Collects which concern'd the Prayer for the Dead We have an Example of it that was inserted in the Decretal of Gregory IX 'T is an Answer of Innocent III. to John de Beauxmains Archbishop of Lions who at that time was retired in the Abby of Clairvaux It contains the Question which that Archbishop who was the Persecutor and Condemner of Peter Waldo propounds to Innocent III. together with the Pope's Answer Your Brothership has enquir'd why there was a Change made in the Service of Saint Leo so that whereas the antient Books express the Prayer thus Grant to us Lord that this Offering may be of advantage to the Soul of thy Servant Leo in the modern Books it is exprest thus Grant to us O Lord we beseech thee that by the Intercession of St. Leo this Offering may be of advantage to us To which we answer saith the Pope That since the Authority of Scripture assures us that he doth an Injury to a Martyr who prays for a Martyr we are by a Parity of Reason to judg the same of other Saints because they need not our Prayers as being perfectly happy and enjoying all things according to their Wishes but it is we rather that stand in need of their Prayers who being miserable are in continuable trouble by reason of the Evils that surround us Wherefore such Expressions as these That such an Offering may be of advantage to this or that Saint for their Glory and Honour which we meet with in most Prayers are thus to be understood That it may conduce to this end that he may be more and more glorified by the Faithful here on Earth Though most suppose it a thing not unworthy of the Saints to assert that their Glory is continually encreased until the Day of Judgment and therefore that the Church may in the mean time lawfully wish for the encrease of their Glorification But whether in this Point that Distinction may take place which teacheth us that of those who are dead some are very good others very bad others indifferently good and others indifferently bad and therefore whether the Suffrages of Believers in the Church for the very good are Thanksgiving for the very bad Comforts to the Living for those who are indifferently good Expiations and for the indifferently bad Propitiations I leave to your Prudence to enquire Moreover the Popes Nicholas II and his Successors undertook to defend the Celibacy of the Clergy by which means a great many Pastors were depriv'd of the Functions of their Ministry which obliged also a vast number of them to separate themselves from the Communion of the Pope whose Creatures after the Decree was past for authorizng Celibacy look'd upon the married Clergy to be no more than simple Lay-men not to mention now that the Multiplicity of Schisms and Anti-popes had reduc'd most of the Diocesses of France into a strange Confusion some holding for one Pope others for another But though we cannot assign the precise Epocha of the beginning of this couragious Opposition to the See of Rome which had no other Original but the just Defence of their Liberties and the Desire of preserving their antient Truths yet thus much seems to be certain as far as we can gather from the poor Remainder of Records which the Barbarity of the Inquisitors hath suffer'd to come down to us 1. That this publick Opposition against the Efforts of Popery was made about the beginning of the 12 th Century 2. That without great Ignorance both in History and Chronology it cannot be supposed that the Albigenses were the Disciples of
your Country in Sheeps Clothing being indeed a ravenous Wolf But according to the Hint given by our Lord we know him by his Fruits The Churches are without People People without Priests Priests without due Reverence and lastly Christians without Christ The Churches of Christ are looked upon as Synagogues the Sanctuary of God is denied to be holy Sacraments are no longer esteemed sacred holy Feasts are deprived of festival Solemnities Men die in their Sins Souls are frequently snatch'd away to appear before the terrible Tribunal who are neither reconciled by Repentance nor armed with the sacred Communion The Life of Christ is denied to Christian Infants by refusing them the Grace of Baptism nor are they suffered to draw near unto Salvation though our Saviour tenderly cries on their Behalf Suffer little Children to come unto me This Man is not of God who acts and speaks things so contrary to God and yet alas he is listned to by many and has a People that believe him O most unhappy People at the Voice of an Heretick all the Voices of the Prophets and Apostles are silenced who from one Spirit of Truth have declared that the Church is to be called by the Faith of Christ out of all the Nations of the World So that the Divine Oracles have deceived us the Eyes and Souls of all Men are deluded who see the same thing fulfilled which they read before to have been foretold which Truth though it be most manifest to all he alone by an astonishing and altogether Judaical Blindness either sees not or else is sorry to see it fulfilled and at the same time by I know not what Diabolical Art perswades the foolish and senseless People not to believe their own Eyes in a thing that is so manifest and that those that went before have deceived those that come after have been deceived that the whole World even after the shedding of Christ's Blood shall be lost and that all the Riches of the Mercies of God and the Grace of the Universe are devoted upon those alone whom he deceives Pope Eugenius finding things in this Posture names Albericus Bishop of Ostia for his Legat to the People of Tholouse and to the Count of St. Gilles Baronius in his Annals gives us an Account of this Henry the Disciple of Peter de Bruys and his Death in the Year 1147 which seems to be very exact because St. Bernard writ to the Count of St. Gilles to exhort him to drive Henry out of his Country where he preached his Doctrine very freely But the Earl died in the Holy Land having been poisoned there as it was said by the Queen Wherefore in the Year 1147 Henry suffered Martyrdom at the Sollicitation of St. Bernard Abbot of Clairvaux by the Cruelty of Albericus Bishop of Ostia Cardinal and Legate of Pope Eugenius II at Tholouse where he caused him to be burnt after they had brought him thither loaden with Irons Baronius sets down with great Care whatever he thought might blemish the Reputation of the Martyr He relates all that St. Bernard wrote against him to Aldephonsus Earl of St. Gilles He quotes St. Bernard who calls Henry an Apostate Monk and accuseth him of having made use of the great Talents he had in Preaching as a means to get Money to spend at Gaming and upon his Lusts He says that Henry was a Man defiled with Adulteries who for his frequent Crimes durst not appear in several Parts of France and Germany and who by Consequence was not to be indured in the Territories of the Count of St. Gilles but yet he doth not lay any thing of Manicheism to his Charge no more than Peter de Clugny and St. Bernard Nay Baronius does more for he formally distinguisheth him from those Hereticks whom St. Bernard opposed under the Name of Apostolicks in his 66 th Homily upon the Canticles How then could the Bishop of Meaux make a Manichee of him Perhaps the loose Life whereof St. Bernard accuseth him may be a Character of it But not to undervalue the Vanity of this loose Accusation without any Proof and proceeding from a sworn and cruel Enemy which was quite overthrown by the couragious Martyrdom of Henry At this rate the Clergy of the Church of Rome who were so generally guilty of Sodomy that St. Peter Damian writ a Book intituled Gomorrhaeus must have been Manichees and upon the same Ground Johannes Cremensis a Cardinal the Pope's Legate in England for abolishing the Marriage of the Priests must likewise have been a Manichee for the English Historians say that this Holy Cardinal having assembled a Synod at Westminster wherein he represented to the Priests that it was the worst of Crimes to rise from a Whore to consecrate the Body of Jesus Christ was himself surprized in Bed with a common Whore the same Day that he had said Mass Upon this Account also the Legats of Anacletus the Competitor of Eugenius II must have been Manichees for they are taxed with carrying Women along with them in Mens Habits probably to avoid the Inconvenience that Johannes Cremensis fell into in England for want of taking this Care before-hand They charge Henry with the same Heresies which they attributed to Peter de Bruys so that what I have already said concerning the Heresies of the Petrobusians I need not repeat here Baronius adds I confess that Henry had superadded to these Heresies this Proposition Additis irrideri Deum Canticis Ecclesiasticis That the Singing in Churches was but a mocking of God And accordingly Peter de Clugny refutes this pretended Heresy with a great deal of Earnestness But if I may speak my Opinion in this matter neither did this Proposition contain any great Crime For 1 st Singing in general was owned by Isidore as an Innovation It was about 70 Years before that the Popes had abolished the ancient Liturgies to substitute the Roman Liturgy The Gothick Liturgy which was used in the Diocess of Languedock and other neighbouring Diocesses which at that time depended on the Kings of Spain had been suppressed because it was not over-favourable to the Opinions of the Church of Rome 2 dly They had at the same time introduced a sort of riming Verses which they call Proses so ridiculous so foolish and so full of Novelties both as to the Worship of Saints and as to the fabulous Stories they contained that it was very difficult for those who looked for Wisdom in their Prayers not to take them for Profanations The Hymn composed by King Robert in Honour of Queen Constantia may give us an hint what sort of things they were O Constantia Martyrum c. And now let any one judg whether Henry was a Manichee because he condemned this sort of Profanations This also is what hath been owned by Mezeray in his Chronological Abridgment of the History of France printed at Amsterdam in 1673 where upon the Year 1163 he saith That there were two sorts of Hereticks
Feuardentius if he hath not out done him Why should any Man therefore think strange that the Church of Rome and her Adorers should take the same course against the Albigenses which she practis'd in our days and which she hath not yet left because she believ'd it would not fail of certain Success so prodigious is the Stupidity of the People of her Communion And truly the Managers for the Church of Rome were no less diligent to employ these devilish Artifices against the Albigenses than against us Here are some Instances of it for it is impossible to relate all I begin with some of the more general Articles 1. They accused them of Novelty sometimes supposing them to have been only known since the time of Peter de Bruis or of Henry his Disciple though the contrary be evident from the History of this Church as we have set it down and by the Publick Liturgy which the Papists themselves have published not long since 2. They accused them of being the Disciples of Peter Waldo and from thence rais'd this Accusation that they were only a Company of Lay-men without either Ministry or right to administer the Sacraments whereas it is certain that they had a lawful Ministry and indeed a thousand times more lawful than that of the Church of Rome 3. They accused them in general of being Manichees perhaps because formerly the Priscillianists who were a Branch of the Manichees had had a Party in that Province or near it as Philastrius tells us and of whom some were scattered through Languedock after the year 1010 though indeed the Albigenses disputed against them and solidly confuted them as we are informed by William Puylaurens 4. They endeavour'd to make them own the Opinions and Crimes that were proper to the Manichees by producing false Witnesses to convict them thereof We have an illustrious Example of this in the History of the Earls of Tholouse William Catel Counsellor for the King in the Parliament of Tholouse tells us that two Hereticks whereof the one was called Raymond the other Bennet having appear'd before the Pope's Legate it was witness'd against them that they had been heard to preach that there were two Gods the one good and the other evil that Priests could not consecrate the Holy Host that married Persons could not be saved if they had to do with their Wives that Baptism is not necessary to Infants and many other Heresies which they would never acknowledg notwithstanding all the Witnesses that appear'd against them but said they were false Witnesses and that they believed what the Catholick Religion engageth us to believe But notwithstanding these their solemn Protestations they further object against them all the Consequences of Manicheism as natural Inferences from the former Opinions of which they pretended that they had convicted them by Witnesses This probably was the rise of those fine Controversies we find in Alanus Magnus and other Polemical Writers who copied him 5. They have been charged with forswearing themselves before a Court of Justice without scruple though at the same time they are accused for maintaining that every Lie is a mortal Sin This is done by Alanus who falls upon them very heavily upon that account 6. They are accused of being Arians though Alanus distinguisheth them and that the Popish Priests ought rather to be accused of favouring Manicheism and Arianism than the Albigenses who subtilly disputed against these Heresies But it will be easy to refute these Calumnies by the Conference of Montreal in the year 1206 related by the Monk of Vaux Cernay It was offer'd to the Bishops by the Albigenses under certain Conditions That there should be Moderators appointed on both sides Men of Authority able to hinder any Tumult or Sedition Also that the Place where the Conference was to be might be free and safe for all those that should assist at it Moreover that the Subjects to be disputed upon should be agreed to by joint consent and not to be quitted till they were wholly discuss'd and that those that could not maintain their Opinions by the Word of God should be look'd upon as overcome The Bishops and Monks accepted of all these Conditions The Place they agreed upon was Montreal near Carcasson in the year 1206 the Moderators agreed on on both sides were B. of Villeneufve and B. of Auxerre for the Bishops and for the Albigenses R. de Bot and Anthony Riviere Arnoldus Hot the Pastor of the Albigenses accompanied with those that were thought fit for this Action appear'd first at the Place and Time assigned and afterwards came the Bishop of Ozma and the Monk Dominic a Spaniard with two of the Pope's Legats Peter Castel and Radulphus de Lust Abbot of Candets P. Bertrand Prior of Anterive as also the Prior of Palat and several other Priests and Monks The Theses propounded by Arnoldus were That the Mass and Transubstantiation were the Invention of Men and not the Ordinance of Jesus Christ or his Apostles That the Church of Rome was not the Spouse of Christ but the Church of Confusion drunk with the Blood of the Martyrs That the Polity of the Church of Rome was neither good nor holy nor established by Jesus Christ Arnaud sent these Propositions to the Bishop who demanded a Fortnight to prepare his Answer which was granted At the Day appointed the Bishop fail'd not to appear with a large Writing whereupon Arnaud Hot desired leave to be heard upon the Spot extempore declaring that he would answer all the Particulars contained in the said Writing desiring the Auditors not to be tired if he took up some time in answering so long a Discourse they promised he should be heard with Attention and Patience without the least Interruption He discoursed at several Hours for four days together with so much Admiration of the Assistants and Dexterity on his Part that all the Bishops Abbots Monks and Priests could have been willing to have been farther off for he deduced his Answer according to the several Points laid down in that Writing with so much Order and Perspicuity that he made his Auditors perceive that though the Bishop had writ much yet he had concluded nothing that could be made use of to the Advantage of the Church of Rome against these Propositions This done Arnaud demanded that since the Bishops and he stood ingaged to one another at the beginning of their Conference to prove their Assertions by the Word of God alone the Bishops and Priests might be commanded to prove the Authority of the Mass as it was sung in Churches piece by piece that it was instituted by the Son of God and sung in the same manner by his Apostles beginng at the Introit as they call it to the Ite missa est but the Bishops could not prove that any of those Parts had been instituted for that Purpose by Christ or by his Apostles Here it was that the Bishops were covered with Shame and Regret for Arnaud
had reduced them to the single Canon which they pretended was the best Piece of the Mass where he proved that the Holy Supper of the Lord was not the Mass saying that if the Mass were the Lord's Supper there would be all after Consecration that there was before in the Lord's Supper Whereas said he in your Mass there is no Bread for by Transubstantiation the Bread vanisheth wherefore the Mass being without Bread cannot be the Supper of the Lord wherein all know there is Bread Jesus Christ brake Bread Saint Paul brake Bread the Priest breaks the Body not Bread therefore the Priest neither doth what Jesus Christ nor what St. Paul did As Arnaud was about to proceed in these Antitheses between the Lord's Supper and the Mass to prove that it was neither of Christ's nor of the Apostles Institution the Monks Bishops Legats and Priests thought fit to withdraw themselves being resolved to hear no more for fear they might fix Impressions on those that were by which might extreamly shake their Belief of the Mass The Monk of Vaux Cernay indeavoured to render this Action suspected in saying that when these heretical Judges perceived the Weakness of their Cause and the Misfortune of ingaging in such a Dispute they refused to pronounce any Judgment concerning it as likewise to restore us our own Writings for fear adds he they might come to be published but restored the Hereticks theirs But how could two of the Pope's Legats and so many Bishops Abbots Monks and Priests suffer themselves to be drawn into a Place there to be thus abused and trick'd The Monk himself saith in the same place that the Heads of the Hereticks came to meet with the Catholicks at the Castle of Montreal to dispute with them the Catholicks therefore were in Possession of the Castle there could be therefore no Opportunity of foul Play nor of any such Violence neither was it necessary that the Moderators should pronounce their Judgment in a Case of Dispute seeing they hold that no other Judgment is necessary but that of the Pope who cannot err Besides how could this Monk know that the Albigenses were overcome seeing that no Sentence was given Perrin could have given us a faithful Extract of this Conference because himself observes that it had been brought to him from the Albigenses by Mr. Rafur Minister of the Church of Montreal in an old Manuscript From whence though he doth not express it in so many Words I judg that he reduced the Points in Question between the Albigenses and the Church of Rome to six Articles I. Article The Doctrines which they asserted in opposition to the Church of Rome were That the Church of Rome was not the Holy Church nor the Spouse of Christ but that it was a Church which had drunk in the Doctrine of Devils the Whore of Babylon which St. John describes in the Revelations the Mother of Fornications and Abominations covered with the Blood of the Saints II. That the Mass was neither instituted by Christ nor his Apostles but a humane Invention III. That the Prayers of the Living are unprofitable for the Dead IV. That the Purgatory maintained in the Church of Rome is no better than a human Invention to satisfy the Avarice of the Priests V. That the Saints ought not to be prayed unto VI. That Transubstantiation is a human Invention and erroneous Doctrine and that the worshipping of the Bread is manifest Idolatry That therefore it was necessary to separate from the Church of Rome in which the contrary was said and taught because one cannot assist at the Mass without partaking of the Idolatry there practised nor expect Salvation by any other means than by Jesus Christ nor transfer to Creatures the Honour which is due to the Creator nor say concerning the Bread that it is God and worship it as such without incurring the Pain of eternal Damnation because Idolaters shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven For all these things therefore which they asserted they have been hated and persecuted to Death This Account of the Conference of Montreal which I have copied from Perrin is enough in my Judgment fully to refute any Scruple that might remain in the Mind of a Reader who reads in Roger Hoveden the Letters of Peter Cardinal of St. Chrysogon writ in the Year 1178 which testify that the Manichees of Tholouse had been convicted by the Confession which many of them had made of the greatest part of the Articles of that Heresy It is very visible that it was upon the Authority of these Letters or upon some Informations of this Nature that Alanus who was born at Lisle in Flanders and who had spent the greatest part of his time at the University of Paris has built his Catalogue of the Heresies which he refutes in his Treatise against the Albigenses whereof I have given an Extract in the foregoing Chapter So that it is necessary to suppose one of these three things Either that the Earl Raymond of Tholouse and those whom he protected were really Manichees as they are accused to be by the Pope's Legats by the Bishops and by Peter of Vaux Cernay who sets down this Accusation and the forced Confessions of the Albigenses who own themselves to be Manichees or that the Albigenses who were the Disciples of Peter de Bruys and of Henry that were no Manichees had gone over to that Sect towards the End of the 12 th Century and afterwards again become Petrobusians and Henricians at the Beginning of the 13 th as it plainly appears they then were from the Conference of Montreal where they freely proposed their Opinions intirely opposite to Manicheism or that the Legats and Monks that persecuted them with Fire and Sword were great Impostors in taking Advantage against them from some Confessions extorted from Manichees who were here and there scattered in those Diocesses and which they made use of to animate the People of the Roman Communion and to ingage the Princes and Bishops of all places to exterminate without Mercy a sort of People who utterly subverted all the Rules of Morality which is the Band of Society and all the Principles of both natural and Christian Religion CHAP. XVIII Reflections on the Convictions of Manicheism which were said to be proved upon the Albigenses ONE of the most plausible Objections that can be made against the Purity of the Faith of the Albigenses is the Testimony of the Inquisitors who have filled their Trials with plain Confessions which several Albigenses judged and condemned by them have made of sundry Errors of the Manichees I shall produce an Extract of the Acts of the Inquisition of Tholouse which are in the Hands of Mr. Wetstein Bookseller at Amsterdam as it was sent me out of Holland and which was made by a Man of great Reputation The Albigenses saith he held some Opinions in common with the Vaudois as That to a Christian all Oaths are unlawful that the Confession of Sins made
as the same Chronicle acquaints us We ought naturally to observe that from the Year 1050 wherein Berengarius appeared at Rome where he maintained his Opinions with so much Courage that Leo of Ostia Abbot of Mont-Cassin owns that there was no Body able to oppose him until the Year 1080 in which the Council of Bourdeaux met the Church of Rome could not overthrow Berengarius's Party though she had imployed by turns both Councils and Violence which shows that there were amongst Berengarius's Followers a considerable Party of the Clergy and of those of Aquitain in particular Neither was it only this Difference in Point of Doctrine that strengthned the Berengarian Party but also the Regulations of Pope Nicholas II and his Successors and above all those of Gregory VII in the Council of Rome in 1074 and 1075. We may see the Effect of his prohibiting Matrimony to Priests as Sigebert has recorded it upon the Year 1074. Gregory the Pope saith he at a Synod held by him anathematiz'd all that came into Preferments by Simony and removed all married Priests from their Functions and forbad Laymen to assist at their Masses by not only an unheard-of Precedent but also as several People thought at that time by an inconsiderate Prejudice contrary to the Opinion of the Holy Fathers who have written that the Sacraments used in the Church to wit Baptism Chrism and the Body and Blood of our Lord have the self-same Efficacy by the secret Operation of the Holy Ghost be the Dispensers of them good or bad Wherefore then since they are quickned by the Holy Spirit so that they are neither amplified by the Worthiness of the good Dispensers nor lessened by the Sins of the Wicked whence is this Man that baptizes which thing hath given so great occasion of Scandal that never was the Holy Church rent with a more dangerous Schism at any time by a prevailing Heresy than it is now whilst some act for Righteousness others against it some openly are guilty of Simony others cover the Stain of Covetousness with an honest Name selling that under the Name of Charity which they pretend to give freely as Eusebius saith of the Montanists whilst under the Name of Offerings they more artificially receive Bribes By this means also things are brought to that pass that there are very few that practise Continence whilst some make only an hypocritical Shew of it for Gain and Boasting and others aggravate their Incontinence by forswearing themselves and by multiplied Adulteries Besides upon this occasion Laymen rise up in Rebellion against the Holy Orders of the Church shaking off the Yoak of Ecclesiastical Subjection Laymen prophane Holy Mysteries and dispute about them baptize Infants using the filthy Excrement of the Ears instead of the Holy Oil and Chrism on their Death-Beds they scorn to receive at the Hands of married Priests the Lord's Provision for their last Journey and the usual Service of Church-Burial The Tithes that are assigned to the Priests they consume with Fire and that by one horrid Profanation you may make an Estimate of the rest Laymen have been often seen to trample the Body of our Lord that had been consecrated by married Priests under their Feet and wilfully spill his Blood upon the ground and many such things against the Laws of God and Man are daily committed in the Church By this means also many false Teachers rise in the Church who by their prophane Innovations alienate the Minds of the common People from the Discipline of the Church This therefore was the great occasion that was given to many of the Clergy and People of Aquitain not to entertain any Communion with the Church of Rome or to submit themselves to the Yoak which she was preparing for all the Western Churches I have in my Remarks upon the History of the Churches of Piedmont given an Account of the Rise of the Opinion of those who believed that the Popes Excommunications deprived such as had been duly ordained of all Power to exercise their Functions and did incapacitate them to confer Orders upon other Ministers This was the true Reason that made all that maintained the Principles of the Church of Rome look upon the Bishops Priests and Deacons who had thus renounced the Roman Communion as a Company of Lay-men and to consider their Ordinations as null I need not repeat the same here it being sufficiently confirmed by the Passage of Sigebert which I just now quoted It appears therefore that the Discipline of the Albigenses was the same that had been practised in the Primitive Church They had their Bishops their Priests and their Deacons whom the Church of Rome at first held for Schismaticks and whose Ministry she at last absolutely rejected for the same Reasons that made her consider the Ministry of the Waldenses as null and void We find in Peter the Abbot of Clugny that he reproacheth the Petrobusians for being join'd with Schismaticks whereas they took the Name of Apostolical Men. See how he speaks to them Vos Magistri Errorum caeci duces caecorum faeces Haeresium reliquiae Schismaticorum O you Masters of Errors and blind Leaders of the Blind the Dregs of Hereticks and the Relicks of Schismaticks Who were these Schismaticks but the Berengarians It is manifest that Union with the Church of Rome being become impossible by reason of the Errors she had defined and the Tyranny she had usurped over the State and Church there was even before his time a Separation made of the greatest Part of the Diocesses of Narbon Tholouse Agen and other places and that Peter Bruys and his Disciples were of his Party appears from his 2 d Epistle which is considerable to this purpose In your Parts saith he the People are re-baptized the Churches profaned the Altars overthrown Crosses burnt and Flesh eaten on the very Day of our Saviour's Passion Priests are whip'd Monks imprisoned and forced by Terrors and Torments to marry The Heads of which Contagion you have indeed by the Divine Assistance and the Help of Catholick Princes driven out of your Country but the Members as I have already said remain yet amongst you infected with this deadly Poison as I my self lately perceived By which Passage we find that the same Disorders had happened in those Diocesses which he speaks of that Sigebert had before observed Bouchet in his Annals of Aquitain understands the thing after the same manner where he speaks thus of the Voyage of St. Bernard In the mean time whilst all these things were a doing Godfry Bishop of Chartres and Innocent's Legate in France and St. Bernard who were to employ'd purge the Schismaticks out of Aquitain or to reduce them to the Union of the Church went first to Nantes c. I have shewed how Henry opposed himself to the Abuses and Superstitions which the Church of Rome endeavoured to introduce into these Diocesses But whatever Efforts the Romish Party made use of to overthrow this happy Work
your Duty to drive out the Hereticks from those Places where they rejoice to have found lurking Holes not only by your Preaching but also if need be by armed Force of Lay-men The Council of Tholouse assembled in 1119 where Calixtus II was present gave occasion to these bloody Executions The third Chapter enjoins all Powers to repress the Hereticks and that those that favour them be subject to the same Condemnation In the year 1163 the Council of Tours assembled by Alexander III had ordained that the Bishops of those Provinces where any of them were found should not suffer any one to harbour or shelter them that no Commerce should be held with them about the things of common Conversation and order'd temporal Princes to imprison and condemn them and confiscate their Estates and Goods In the year 1179 the same Pope Alexander III renewed the same Orders forbidding also their being buried in Places set a part for the burial of Papists In 1181 Henry who from Abbot of Clairvaux had been made Bishop of Alby having as Legate gathered together some considerable Forces by his Preaching went to visit them with armed Force but they to avoid the Storm that threatned them pretended to abjure their Errors but no sooner was the Storm blown over but they liv'd as they did before So that the Contagion spread it self through several Provinces on both sides of the Loire and one of their false Apostles called Terric who had hid himself a long time in a Cave at Corbigny in the Diocess of Nevers was taken and burnt and many more suffered the same Punishment in several other places This was that Sweetness of the Church of Rome which the Bishop of Meaux so much boasts of and which she put in practice long before she came to Conferences which served only for a Prelude to the utter ruin of the Albigenses which the Popes had designed long before Accordingly Innocent III as Mezeray tells us in the History of Philip Augustus finding himself unable to reduce the Hereticks of Languedoc who had almost gained that whole Province resolv'd to make an Example of Raymond Earl of Tholouse because he was their chief Favourer and because he had caus'd Peter de Chasteauneuf a Cistertian Monk and the first that ever exercised the Function of Inquisitor to be put to Death He excommunicated the Earl absolved his Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance and gave his Lands to the first that should seize them yet so as without Prejudice to the Right of Soveraignty of the Kings of France Whereupon the Earl was so frighted that being come to Valence to meet with Milo the Pope's Legate he wholly submitted himself to him and gave eight strong Places for ever to the Church of Rome as a Security of his Conversion and the Year following to obtain Absolution he suffered himself to be lash'd with Rods before the Gate of the Church of St. Giles where Peter de Chasteau-Neuf was buried and afterwards to be dragg'd to the Tomb of that Monk by the Legate who put a wooden Yoak about his Neck before twenty Archbishops and an infinite multitude of People after this he took upon him the Croisade and the Year following joined himself with those that took his own Cities and those of his Confederates But it was not his Repentance that ingaged him to endure so dreadful a Disgrace but the Apprehension he had of a terrible Tempest that was just then breaking over his Head for the Pope turning his Torrent of Zeal against the Hereticks which push'd the People on to the Deliverance of the Holy Land had this same Year ordered the Croisade to be preached up against the Albigenses and a great number of Noblemen Bishops and common People had already listed themselves in that Service the King himself furnishing 15000 Men maintained at his own Charges It is worth our taking notice 1 st That Pope Innocent III to encourage the Lords and People to the Holy War granted a Plenary Remission of all their Sins to all those who took up the Badg of the Cross vouchsafing also the Protection of the Holy See to their Persons and Goods as may be seen in his Epistles He absolved the Cities that had sworn to the Earl of Tholouse from their Oath of Allegiance upon that excellent Principle of the Church of Rome That Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks because they do not keep theirs with God or the Church 2 dly That the Earl of Tholouse was not guilty of the Murder of Peter de Chasteau Neuf for we read that Earl Raymond went to meet King Philip to obtain of him Letters of Recommendation from the Pope that he might be fully acquitted of the Murder of the Monk Peter de Chasteau Neuf whereof they had most unjustly obliged him to confess himself guilty only because the said Murder had been committed in his Territories for which the Legate Milo had imposed upon him a most unjust and unheard of Penance From the Court of the King of France he went to Rome where he received Absolution immediately from the Hands of Pope Innocent III this being a Case reserved to him the Pope received him very civilly presented him with a rich Robe and a Ring of great Value and granted him plenary Remission and Absolution from the said Murder declaring that he look'd upon him as sufficiently cleared upon that Account In the Year 1209 the Army of these Cross'd Souldiers which consisted of no less than 500000 Men entred Languedock and attack'd the City of Beziers being one of the strongest Places the Albigenses had took it by Force and put all they found in it to the Sword so that above 60000 Persons were kill'd there as Mezeray informs us There happened one thing very remarkable at the taking of this City which was That the Zeal of these consecrated Souldiers was such that they put to the Sword all the Papists and Romish Clergy that were in the City The Earl of Beziers came out of the City and cast himself at the Feet of the Legate Milo begging his Grace in Behalf of his City of Beziers and intreating him that he would not involve the Innocent in the Punishment of the Guilty which would certainly come to pass in case the City should be taken by Force which would soon be done by such a great and powerful Army that was ready to scale the Walls in every Part round the whole City that it could not be otherwise but that in this Case much Blood would be spilt on both sides which he might prevent That there were in Beziers great Numbers of good Catholicks who would be involved in the same Ruin contrary to the Pope's Intention whose Design was only to chastise the Albigenses That if he did not think fit to spare his Subjects for their own sakes that at least he would be pleased to take pity of his Age and Profession since the Loss would be his who was under Age
and an obedient Servant of the Pope as having been educated in the Church of Rome in the which he was resolved to live and die That if he was offended that such Persons as were Enemies to the Pope had been tolerated in his Territories that this ought not to be imputed to him because he had no other Subjects but such as his deceased Father had left him and that in this his Minority and during the short time that he had been Master of his Estate he had neither been able by reason of his Incapacity to discern the Evil or to suit a Remedy to it though indeed this was his Intention and that he hoped for the time to come to give all manner of Satisfaction to the Pope and the Church of Rome as became an obedient Son of both The Pope's Legat's Answer was That all his Excuses should be of no Use to him and that he might shift for himself the best he could The Earl of Beziers being returned to the City called the People together and represented to them that after having submitted himself to the Pope's Legate he had interceded for them without being able to obtain any thing but a Pardon upon condition that those who professed the Faith of the Albigenses should abjure their Religion and promise to live according to the Laws of the Church of Rome The Roman Catholicks beseeched them to give way to this extream Violence and not to be the cause of their Death because the Legate was resolved not to pardon one of them except they all unanimously resolved to live under the same Laws To which the Albigenses answered That they would never forsake their Faith for the base Price of this frail Life That they were well assured that God could protect them if it seemed good unto him but withal neither were they ignorant that if he rather chose to be glorified by the Confession of their Faith it would be an exceeding Honour to them to die for Righteousness sake That they had much rather displease the Pope who could only destroy their Bodies than offend God who could destroy Body and Soul together That they detested the Thought of being ashamed of or denying that Faith by which they had learn'd to know Christ and his Righteousness and for fear of eternal Death to imbrace a Religion which intirely takes away the Merit of Jesus Christ and destroys his Righteousness that therefore they might make the best terms for themselves they could without promising any thing that was contrary to the Duty of true Christians As soon as the Roman Catholicks understood this they sent their Bishop to the Legate to beseech him not to comprehend them in the same Punishment with the Albigenses they having always adhered to the Church of Rome and of whom he who was their Bishop had good Knowledg judging also that the rest had not gone so far from the ways of Repentance but that they might be reduced by a Sweetness well becoming the Church which takes no Delight in shedding Blood The Legate being enraged at this with horrible Threats and Oaths protested That except all that were in the Town did acknowledg their Fault and submit themselves to the Church of Rome they should all be put to the Sword without any regard had to Catholicks to Sex or Age but that all should be exposed to Fire and Sword and immediately commanded the City to be summoned to surrender at Discretion which being refused he commanded all the warlike Engines to play and to discharge their Instruments and to cast Stones ordering them at the same time to give a general Assault and to scale the City round so that it was impossible for those within to sustain the shock for being press'd upon by above 100000 Pilgrims they at last saith the Compiler of the Treasure of Histories discomfited those within the City and entring in all at once killed vast numbers of all sorts and afterwards putting Fire to the City they burnt it to Ashes When the Town was taken the Priests Monks and Clerks came in Procession out of the great Church of Beziers called St. Nazari with the Banner Cross and Holy Water bare-headed clothed in their Ecclesiastical Vestments singing Te Deum in token of their rejoicing for the City's being taken and purged of the Albigenses But the Pilgrims who had received an express Order from the Legate to kill all rushed in amongst this Procession cutting off the Heads and Arms of the Priests striving who could do most till they were all cut to pieces These Cruelties exercised upon the City of Beziers upon the Papists themselves yea and upon their very Clergy having opened the Earl of Beziers his Eyes to see that the Pope under the Pretence of Religion had a mind to ruin the Earl of Tholouse his Uncle as well as himself he shut up himself in his City of Carcasson with a Resolution to defend it against the Legate and his Pilgrims The King of Arragon his Kinsman having discoursed with him the Earl plainly declared That he knew this to be the Pope's Design because when he was treating for his Subjects of Beziers he refused to receive his Catholick Subjects into his Favour nay would not so much as spare the Priests who were all cut in pieces in their Sacerdotal Ornaments under the Banner and the Cross that this Example of cruel Impiety joined with what they exercised upon the Village of Carcasson where they had exposed all to Fire and Sword without any Distinction of Age or Sex had fully convinced him that there was no Mercy to be look'd for from the Legate or his Pilgrims and that accordingly he would choose rather to die with his Subjects defending themselves than to be exposed to the Mercy of an inexorable Enemy such as he had found the Legate to be and though there were in the City of Carcasson many of his Subjects of a Belief contrary to that of the Church of Rome yet that they were Persons that had never done any Injury to any one that they had always assisted him in time of need and that for this their good Service he was resolved never to abandon them as they on their Parts had promised him to hazard Life and Estate in his Defence That he hoped that God who is the Reliever of those who are oppressed would assist them against this great Multitude of ill-advised Men who under the Pretence of meriting Heaven had quitted their own Habitations to come and burn pillage ravage and murder in the Habitations of others without either Reason Judgment or Mercy The King of Arragon returned with this Remonstrance to the Legat who assembled a great number of Lords and Prelats to hear what he had to say who declared to them that he had found the Earl of Beziers his Ally extreamly scandalized at their inhuman Proceedings against his Subjects of Beziers and of the Village of Carcasson and that he was fully perswaded seeing they had neither spared
the Roman Catholicks nor the Priests themselves that it was not a Religious War as was pretended but a kind of Robbery under the Colour of Religion That he hoped God would be so favourable to him as to make his Innocence and the just occasion he hath had to defend himself sufficiently known That they must not hope now to have them surrender at Discretion since they had found that there was no other to be expected from them but that of killing all they met with That it had never been found good Policy to drive an Enemy to Despair wherefore if the Legate would be pleased to afford any tolerable Composition to the Earl of Beziers and his Subjects that Mildness would be a better Method to reduce the Albigenses to the Church of Rome than extream Severity and that he ought also to remember that the Earl of Beziers was a young Man and a Roman Catholick who might be very serviceable in reducing his Subjects who had so great Confidence in him to their Obedience to the Church The Legate told the King of Arragon that if he would withdraw a little they would advise what were best to be done The King being called in again the Legate told him That in Consideration of his Intercession he would receive the Earl of Beziers to Mercy and therefore if it seemed good to him he might come forth and eleven with him with his Goods and Baggage but that as for the People that were in the City of Carcasson they should only deliver to his Discretion of which they ought to have a very good Opinion he being the Pope's Legate and that accordingly they should come forth all stark-naked Men Women and Children without Shirts or any other Covering on their Bodies Also that the Earl of Beziers should be delivered into sure Hands and that all his Estate should be surrendred up to the future Lord of his Territories who should be chosen for Conservation of the same The King of Arragon having indeavoured to bring the Legate to easier terms for the young Earl the Legate told him that these Conditions were very favourable and yet what follows is still more infamous The Legate employes a Person of Quality to indeavour to draw the Earl of Beziers out of Carcasson and to bring him to him with Assurance under Oath that he would send him back to his City of Carcasson in case he should not be satisfied with the Legat's Proposals The Count of Beziers upon this Assurance comes to the Legate and represents to him That if he would think fit to treat his Subjects with more Kindness he would easily induce them to comply with his Desire and recal the Albigenses from their Error to the Church That the Terms which had been mentioned to him were shameful and undecent for those who were to keep their Eyes chaste as well as their Thoughts That he knew his People would rather die than see themselves reduced to so scandalous an Ignominy and therefore entreated him to come to easier Terms and that he did not question but to make his Subjects accept of any other more tolerable Conditions The Legate's Answer was That the People of Carcasson might consider what they had to do that he would concern himself no further since the Earl was his Prisoner and should continue so till the City were taken and his Subjects acknowledg their Duty When Simon Earl of Montfort was made General for the Church he was so careful to destroy the Albigenses that he seized upon all the places belonging to Popish Lords that lay convenient for him so that the King of Arragon was forced to complain to the Pope of these his Proceedings in some Letters yet extant to oblige him to make Restitution And for the merciful temper of this renowned Earl take but this one Instance of it After a Siege of six Months the City of Lavaur was taken by Storm and scaling of the Walls and all that were found in it were put to the Sword except fourscore Gentlemen whom the Earl caused to be hanged and strangled and Almericus was hanged on a Gallows higher than the rest The Lady of Lavaur was cast alive into a Pit and there stoned to Death The Conduct of the Pope and the Lateran Council in the year 1215 is worth taking notice of because it was nothing but a Confirmation of all these Proceedings Mezeray gives this Account of it Prince Lewis took upon him the Badg of the Cross to go against the Albigenses and assisted in the Expedition of Languedoc the Earl of Montfort met him at Vienne and the Legate at Valence when he was come to St. Gilles Montfort who accompanied him received Bulls from the Pope who pursuant to the Decree of the Council of Montpellier held some Months before had given him the whole Territory of Tholouse and all the rest he had conquer'd with his cross'd Pilgrims provided he could get Investiture from the King and would pay him the accustomed Homage So that we may say that the Pope nominated him to his Dignity and the King in compliance with the said Nomination conferr'd it upon him From thence Lewis went to Montpellier and then to Beziers where he gave order for the demolishing of the Walls of Narbon and Tholouse In the mean time the Council of Lateran notwithstanding the pitiful Remonstrances of the Earl of Tholouse who was present there in Person with his Son adjudged the Propriety of his Lands to Montfort reserving only the Lands he had in Provence for his Son and 400 Marks of Silver a Year for his own Subsistence and that too upon condition of his being obedient to the Church Afer this Montfort assumed the Title of Earl of Tholouse and came and received his Investiture from the King in the City of Melun I should never have done should I barely mention all the Cruelties and Barbarities which the Romish Party exercised for near twenty Years together by their continual Croisades against a People who were taken to be Hereticks as soon as they found a New Testament in the vulgar Tongue about them I shall conclude this Chapter with setting down the Laws which the King of France enacted in the year 1228 against the Albigenses Wherefore because the Hereticks have now of a long time spread their Poison in your Parts polluting our Mother the Church after several Manners we do in order to their utter Extirpation decree that all Hereticks deviating from the Catholick Faith by what Name soever they are called as soon as they are condemned of Heresy by the Bishop of the Place or by any other Ecclesiastical Person that hath Power to do it be without delay punished Ordaining also and firmly enacting That no Man do presume to harbour or protect the said Hereticks or favour or trust them and that if any one do presume to commit any thing contrary to these Premises he be made incapable of being a Witness or of any Honour whatsoever as also of making a
speaking of the Power of St. Peter saith That the same is also granted to those who imitate him because all those that follow the Foot-steps of St. Peter can also lawfully bind and loose Lastly It is said in Malachy Chap. 2. I will curse your Blessings And in Ezekiel Chap. 13. Wo to those that quicken the dead Souls and who declare those dead that don't die If God say the Hereticks do curse the Blessing of wicked Pastors and declares that the Souls which they pretend to quicken do not live how can he communicate his Grace through their Channel The ninth Heresy is professed by the same Hereticks who maintain that it is neither the Office nor the Order but only the Merit of a good Life which confers the Power of binding and loosing of consecrating and blessing so that this is their Conclusion the Merit of a good and holy Life say they is of greater Efficacy to confer upon any one the Right of consecrating and blessing of binding and loosing than the Order or Office and therefore they have not received any Orders yet they believe themselves to be just and to have the Merits of the Apostles and so they take upon them to bless as the Priests do and say That they can consecrate bind and loose because it is the Merit and not the Office that confers this Power And because they pretend to be the Apostles Vicegerents they say that their Merit gives them this Charge In this it is that they chiefly oppose the Faith of the Church and declare themselves to be Hereticks But they endeavour to defend their Heresy by the Authority of Esicius who saith That the Priests do not bless by their own Authority but only because they represent Jesus Christ and that it is because Christ is in them that they can bestow their plenary Benediction And they say moreover that not only a Priest but every one that hath Christ in himself and represents him in his Life as Moses did has the Power of conferring Blessings The tenth Heresy is likewise taught by the same Hereticks who maintain that the Dispensations or Indulgences which a Bishop grants at the Consecration of a Church or upon any other occasion are not of any Value Their Reason is this Suppose say they that a Man be obliged to a Penance of three Years at the Consecration of a Church and one Bishop releases him of a third part of his Penance a second and third Bishop may do the like and thus for three Half-pence a Man shall be released of this three Years Penance And which is more these sorts of Dispensations are unjust for there is no Proportion between a Half-penny or a Crown and one whole Years Penance The eleventh Heresy is That the Prayers which are made for the Dead by those who are in any mortal Sin are unprofitable For say these Hereticks how can these Prayers do any Service to the Dead since they can do none at all to those who make them Can Prayers which are hurtful to them that make them be of any Advantage to the Person for whom they are designed Item in 3 q. in gravioribus it is said When a Judg is sollicited for his Favour to a Malefactor by any one that he hath no liking to it serves only to incense him so much the more and to make him pronounce a more severe Sentence So in like manner if any Man prays without Devotion it is the same thing as if he desired his own Condemnation for how can any Man whose very Prayer is Sin obtain by that Prayer any good thing for his Neighbour Or how can he whose Prayer deserves nothing at the Hand of God but Punishment pray profitably for another seeing God saith to the Sinner Psalm 49. What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or why dost thou take my Covenant into thy Mouth They call also Reason to their Assistance When a Priest say they celebrates the Mass he being in mortal Sin the Action that he doth is evil and deserves eternal Punishment and by Consequence he cannot merit for another the Pardon of his Sins because it is impossible to merit Good and Evil Reward and Punishment by the self-same Action They quote the Canon-Law also which forbids us to assist at the Mass of a Priest who we are sure keeps a Concubine They prove likewise by another Authority that Men ought not to pray or sing Psalms in the Church as long as they are under mortal Sin The twelfth Heresy is of those who deny Purgatory and who say that it is a meer Invention of the Church to make the People give Alms and Offerings and to be at the charge of pompous Funerals for the Souls of the deceased or other things of that Nature I confess he does not mention the Albigenses by Name and that he confounds these pretended Heresies of the Albigenses with others that are much more hainous and some that were peculiar to some few Monks and that he attributes some of them in particular to the Vaudois as if they had been proper to them only But one may justly imagine that this Monk who compiled this Work from the Writings of other Monks or Doctors of the Church of Rome had his Eye upon the Albigenses because he acquaints us that he follows Alanus and that he copies his Arguments Now we know that Alanus wrote against the Waldenses and Albigenses as the manuscript Titles of his Books inform us though like the Author of the Fortalitium fidei he confounds them in his Treatise with the Arians Manichees and other pernicious Hereticks to render the Waldenses and Albigenses suspected of defending all those Heresies which he opposes It may be thought strange perhaps that this Monk did not imitate Alanus in attributing to the Albigenses the rejecting of Transubstantiation and the Consequents thereof but the Wonder will cease if we consider that he designed hereby to deprive the Jews against whom he disputes of an Advantage which they might reasonably draw from some Christians rejecting that Opinion though they owned Jesus Christ to be the Messiah and the Books of the New Testament to be of Divine Authority at the same time and therefore he rather chose to refute the Arguments against Transubstantiation as coming from the Mouths of the Jews than as Objections made by the Albigenses And indeed except the tenth Argument of the Jews against Transubstantiation which supposes the Christians who teach this Doctrine to be no better than brute Beasts as not having Sense enough to know that Jesus Christ being a Jew by Birth could not by the Circumstances of his Institution of the Eucharist intend any thing but a figurative meaning as opposed to a real and that his Apostles being Jews likewise could not form any other meaning in all this Ceremony but such as was figurative there is scarce any other which this Monk hath not borrowed from the Disputes which the Albigenses and Vaudois have held with those