unreasonable to contend, that his wild opinions had no existence in the West of Europe; or even to dispute their perpetuation through parties of Paulicians, who, from time to time, may have migrated into Sicily or Italy. It is indeed unquestionable, that such was the case; and it is not impossible, that they may have formed, even after their dispersion throughout Europe, a distinct and characteristic sect. But it would be absurd to ascribe to their influence the formation of sects, of which the leading principles were wholly distinct, if not entirely at variance, with those of the Asiatics. Even in the dawn of returning knowledge, the faintest glimmerings of reason were sufficient to light the mind to the detection of papal delinquency, of the aberrations of the Church and its ministers. It required not a star from the East to indicate, even in those dark times, how distinct were the principles of the Church from the precepts of the Gospel; or to contrast the deformities of the Clergy with the purity of their heavenly Master. Such incongruities obtrude themselves perhaps the most forcibly upon illiterate minds, and excite the deepest disgust in the simplest conscience. It is to this cause, that the heresies of those early ages may most confidently be traced-they may indeed have been infected, in a greater or less degree, with some of the notions of the Paulician colonists—but that assuredly was not the source from which they flowed.

The Vaudois.

As we have been careful to distinguish the Catharists, who may have been semi-Manichæan, from the other sects of reformers who were scattered throughout Europe, so we must again consider the Vaudois or Waldenses as a separate race among these latter, that we may not fall into the error of Mosheim, who ascribes the origin of that sect to an individual named Waldus. Peter Waldus, or Waldensis, a native of Lyons, was a layman and a merchant; but, notwithstanding the avocations of a secular life, he had studied the real character of his church with attention, followed by shame. Stung by the spectacle of so much impurity*, he abandoned his profession, distributed his wealth among the poor, and formed an association for the diffusion of scriptural truth. He commenced his ministry about the year 1180. Having previously caused several parts of the Scriptures to be translated into the vulgar tongue, he expounded them with great effect to an attentive body of disciples, both in France and Lombardy. In the course of his exertions he probably visited the valleys of Piedmont; and there he found a people of congenial spirits. They were called Vaudois or Waldenses (Men of the Valleys); and as the preaching of Peter may probably have confirmed their opinions, and cemented their discipline, he acquired and deserved his surname by his residence among them. At the same time, their connexion with Peter and his real Lyonnese disciples established a notion of their identity; and the Vaudois, in return for the title which they had bestowed, received the

*It is said that the worship of the Host, which was first enforced about this time," was the particular superstition which awakened the indignation of Peter Waldus. If, indeed, that practice was generally established in 1180, there remained little for Innocent to add to the sanctity of the sacrament thirty-five years afterwards. There is no mention of it in the ancient canonical books of the church,-those of Alcuin, Amularius, Walfridus, and Micrologus. There is proof, however, that it existed in France, both at Paris and at Tours, a century at least before Innocent III. In Germany there is also evidence of its previous existence. But in the Roman church it does not appear to have been established before the pontificate of Boniface VIII. See Pagi, Vit. Innoc. III. ad finem.

reciprocal appellation of Leonists: such, at least, appears the most probable among many varying accounts*.

There are some who believe the Vaudois to have enjoyed the uninterrupted integrity of the faith even from the apostolic ages; others suppose them to have been disciples of Claudius Turin, the evangelical prelate of the ninth century. At least, it may be pronounced with great certainty, that they had been long in existence before the visit of the Lyonnese reformer. A Dominican, named Rainer Saccho, who was first a member and afterwards a persecutor of their communion, described them, in a treatise which he wrote against them, to the following purpose: There is no sect so dangerous as the Leonists, for three reasons: first, it is the most ancient, some say as old as Sylvester, others as the apostles themselves. Secondly, it is very generally disseminated: there is no country where it has not gained some footing. Thirdly, while other sects are profane and blasphemous, this retains the utmost show of piety; they live justly before men, and believe nothing respecting God which is not good; only they blaspheme against the Roman church and the clergy, and thus gain many followers't. The author of this passage lived about the middle of the following century; and if the sect against which he was writing had really originated from the preaching of Peter some eighty years before, the Dominican would scarcely have conceded to it the claim of high and unascertained antiquity. Again, St. Bernard in one place admits, in substance, that there is a sect, which calls itself after no man's name, which pretends to be in the direct line of apostolical succession; and which, rustic and unlearned though it is, contends that the church is wrong, and that itself alone is right. It must derive (he subjoins) its origin from the devil; since there is no other extraction which we can assign to it.'

At the same time we must admit that the direct historical evidence is not sufficient to prove the apostolical descent of the Vaudois §. Alcuin, the tutor of Charlemagne, may have complained that auricular confession was not practised in the churches of Languedoc and the Alps in his time.' Claudius of Turin may have presided over a reformed and Christian diocese. Somewhat later (in 945), Atto, Bishop of Verceil, may have lamented that there were some in his diocese who held the divine services in derision.' And lastly, at the Synod of Arras, in 1025, it may have been deplored, that certain persons, coming from the borders of Italy, had introduced heretical doctrines,'-and such as the Waldenses, indeed, professed. It still appears that the name is not mentioned in any writing before the twelfth century; and there is no direct specific evidence of the previous existence of the sect. Nevertheless, as its origin was confessedly immemorial in the thirteenth century, and as there has not,

*There are some who derive the surname of Peter from some town or hamlet in the vicinity of Lyons; others contend that he never personally preached among the Vaudois of Piedmont.

Bibliotheca Patrum, apud Lenfant, Guerre des Hussites, liv. ii., sect. v.

Quære ab illis suæ sectæ auctorem, neminem dabit. Quæ hæresis non ex hominibus habuit proprium hæresiarcham? Manichæi Manem habuere principem et præceptorem, Sabelliani Sabellium, &c. Ita omnes ceteræ hujusmodi pestes singulæ singulos magistros homines habuisse noscuntur, a quibus originem simul duxere et nomen. Quo nomine istos titulove vocabis? Nullo; quoniam non est ab homine illorum hæresis,....sed magis et absque dubio per immissionem et fraudem dæmoniorum, &c. Sermo super Cant. lxvi, ad init.

§ We refer to Mr. Gilly's well-known work on this subject.

A city situated beween Turin and Milan.

perhaps, existed in the history of heresy any other sect to which some origin has not been expressly ascribed, we have just reason to infer the very high antiquity of the Vaudois.

Many will think it more important to learn their doctrines, than to speculate on their origin. On almost all material points they were those of the Reformation. In their discipline they endeavoured to attain the rigid simplicity of the primitive Christians, and in that endeavour, perhaps, they exceeded it; for while they maintained and imitated the divine institution of the three orders in the priesthood, they also reduced their clergy to the temporal condition of the apostles themselves; they denied them all worldly possessions, and while they obliged them to be poor and industrious, they compelled them to be illiterate also.

The persecution of Peter Waldensis, and the dispersion of his followers, occasioned, as in so many similar instances, the dissemination of the opinions; and, notwithstanding some partial sufferings which were inflicted in Picardy by Philippe Auguste, they were a numerous and flourishing sect at the conclusion of the twelfth century. They were often confounded in name with the Vaudois, in crime and calamity with the Catharists and Petrobrussians, and other adversaries of Papacy.

But of these various descriptions, such as were found in France during the pontificate of Innocent, were known by the general

name of Albigeois or Albigenses. A city in Lan- The Albigeois. guedoc, named Albit, which was peculiarly prolific

of heresy, is usually supposed to have given a common designation to these numerous forms of error. Such, very briefly described, were the factions which distracted the church on the accession of Innocent III. It now remains to observe the measures which he adopted to repress them. And let us first inquire to what extent he might plead the previous practice of the church.

It appears that, at a Synod held at Orleans, in the year 1017, under the reign of Robert, a number of persons, of no mean condition or character, were accused of heretical opinions. Manicheism was the frightful term, employed to express their delinquency; but it is more probable that their real offence was the adoption of certain mystical notions, proceeding, indeed, from feelings of the most earnest piety, but too spiritual to be tolerated in that age and that church. It is said that they despised all external forms of worship, and rejected the rites, the ceremonies, and even the sacraments of the church; that they valued none save the religion within, -the abstracted contemplation of the Deity, and the internal aspirations of the soul after things celestial. Some philosophical speculations they may also have admitted respecting God, the Trinity, and the human soul, which

* Reiner, the Dominican, already cited, also divides the crimes of the Vaudois into three classes: 1. Their blasphemies against the church, its statutes, and its clergy; 2. Errors touching the sacraments and the saints; 3. Detestation of all honest customs approved by the church; which really means, objections to the administration, the sacraments, and the practices of the Roman Catholic church. Mosheim treats the subject at Cent. xii., p. ii., ch. v. Pierre d'Ailly, in a discourse composed at the Council of Constance, alleges as their principal errors, that they refused temporalities to the priesthood, and asserted that the church of God only lasted till the endowment by Constantine. Then arose the church of Rome, the other being extinct, except in as far as it was perpetuated in themselves.

According to the Histoire Générale de Languedoc, by the Benedictine monks, the term is more accurately derived from Albigesium, the general denomination of Narbonnese Gaul in that century. See Mosh., note on Cent. xiii., p. ii., ch. v., sect, vii.

excited the fears of that generation*, in the same degree that they surpassed its comprehension. Accordingly, they were accused and convicted of heresy; and as they firmly persisted in their errors, and as the king had no repugnance to enforce the sentence, they were finally consigned to the flames.

In this barbarous transaction, which was rather in anticipation of the policy of later ages, than in accordance with that Edicts of Alexander III. of the eleventh, we have found no proof of papal interference; nor, indeed, have we observed any very important pontifical edicts for the extirpation of heresy, earlier than the reign of Alexander III. That Pope, in a council held at Tours in 1163, published a decree to this effect: Whereas a damnable heresy has for some time lifted its head in the parts about Toulouse, and has already spread its infection through Gascony and other provinces, concealing itself like a serpent within its own folds; as soon as its followers shall have been discovered, let no man afford them a refuge on his estates; neither let there be any communication with them in buying or selling; so that, being deprived of the solace of human conversation, they may be compelled to return from error to wisdom†.'

The same pontiff, in the third Lateran Council, held in 1179, published other edicts against the heretics, variously named Cathari, Paterini, Publicani, &c., pursuing them with anathemas, refusal of Christian sepulture, and other spiritual chastisements. But it does not appear that he invoked, on either occasion, the secular arm to his assistance. Nevertheless, without that aid, his power was sufficient to expel Peter Waldensis from his native city, and subsequently to pursue him from Dauphiny to Picardy, and thence to Germany, till he found his final resting-place among the Bohemian mountaineers, the ancestors of Huss and Jerome. The fugitive died in that country about the year 1180.

When the torch of persecution was transmitted to Innocent, the two principal seats of religious disaffection were the valPersecution of the leys of Piedmont and the cities of Languedoc; with Albigeois. this difference, however, that the Vaudois flourished in comparative and perhaps despised security, while the latter, more

Such, at least, is the opinion of Mosheim (Cent. xi., p. ii., ch. v.) The history of this Synod of Orleans is found in Dacherius's Spicilegium Veter. Script. (tom. ii., p. 670, Edit. Paris,) and the charges there alleged (besides the usual calumny of promiscuous prostitution) respect the nativity, the death and resurrection of Christ, and impute a disbelief in the efficacy of baptism, in the change wrought by consecration in the eucha ristical elements, and in the meritoriousness of prayers to martyrs and confessors. In the place of this faith they substituted celestial food," angelic visions,' 'the companionship of God,' &c....and when the prelate sitting in judgment on them laid down the orthodox doctrine respecting some of those points, the heretics replied, 'You may tell such tales as those to men whose wisdom is of this world, and who believe the fictions of carnal men, written on the skins (membranis) of animals. But to us, who have a law inscribed on the inward man by the Holy Spirit, and who have no other wisdom than that which we have learnt from God the creator of all things, you preach superfluous vanities, deviating from real holiness. Wherefore, cease from your discourse, and do what you will with us. Already do we behold our King reigning in the heavens, who exalts us with his right hand to immortal triumphs, and to the joys which are above.' We should recollect that this account (like almost every other in which any heretical opinions are described) comes to us from the pen of an enemy.

† The original is given by Pagi, Vit. Alexandri III., sect. xlii. He continues to apply to them, according to the ordinary confusion, the name of Waldenses.

That Innocent was very ready to take his turn in this lampadephory appears from several epistles, written to various prelates in the very first year of his pontificate, in which

particularly denominated Albigeois, were rendered more notorious, as well as more dangerous, by the protection publicly afforded them by Raymond VI., Earl of Toulouse *. Against these, therefore, the Pope's earnest and most assiduous efforts were directed; and first, observing that the bishops in those provinces were deficient in true Catholic zeal for the Unity of the Church, he sent, in 1198, two legates into the rebellious districts; but rather, as it would seem, for the purpose of exploring and menacing, than of actually commencing the contest. Presently afterwards, a more numerous commission, the advance of his array, invaded the haunts of heresy, and brought argument and eloquence in support of intimidation. This body again received great additional efficiency from the accession of a Spaniard, named Dominic, a young ecclesiastic, remarkable for the severity of his life, the extent of his learning, the persuasiveness of his manner, and the ardour of his zeal. These qualities, and some successful services, infused a new spirit into the ranks of the orthodox. It would also appear that their exertions were no longer restricted to verbal exhortation and reproof; but that they also aimed to animate the civil authorities in their favour, and to enforce the infliction even of capital punishment, whenever they had influence to do so. This expedition lasted six or seven years; and, at the end of that time, the spiritual missionaries engaged in it were generally known by the title of Inquisitors,-a name, not indeed honourable or innocent even in its origin, but not yet associated with horror and infamy.

Still matters did not proceed with the rapidity desired by the pontiff'; and then the missionaries had recourse to a new and very harmless expedient to accelerate success. They laid aside the pomp and dignity of their train and habits, discharged the unpopular parade of servants and equipage, and continued their preaching with the more imposing pretension of apostolical humility. But neither had this method the result which was hoped from it. At length, in the year 1207, Innocent at once addressed himself to the arms of Philippe Auguste. He easily exhorted that monarch to march into the heretical provinces, and extirpate the spiritual rebels by fire and sword.

About the same time one of his legates or inquisitors, Pierre de Castelnovot (or Chateau-neuf), was assassinated by the populace in the states of Raymond. The act was imputed to the connivance, if not to the direct instigation, of that prince. The Pope immediately launched the bolt of excommunication; and his emissaries, by his command, proceeded to those measures which introduced a new feature into the history of interChristian warfare. They proclaimed a general campaign of all na

he exhorts them to gird themselves for the work of extirpation, and to employ, if necessary, the arms of the princes and of the people. This last suggestion was provident. The popu lace might sometimes be excited to an act of outrage, when the authorities were neutral in the quarrel.

*Limborch, in the first book of his History of the Inquisition (cap. viii.), very clearly shows, both from the 'Sententiæ Inquisitionis Tolositanæ,' and other evidence, that the Vaudois, while they held some opinions in common with the Albigenses, had many more points of difference, in rites as well as in doctrine; for instance, the Manichean errors imputed to the latter are never ascribed to the Vaudois.

Some write the name Castronovo.

Historians differ as to the probability of his guilt; also as to the fact whether the first appeal of Innocent to the court of France preceded or followed the death of his legate. On this point we incline to the former opinion. Respecting the charge against Raymond, there seems to be no clear proof on either side; it is known that he favoured the heretics, and that circumstance might occasion either the crime or the calumny. The latter is, perhaps, the more probable