The Lives of the Saints, Volume III (of 16): March. Baring-Gould Sabine

recourse to his intercession when he was in France, before returning to England.

      His relics were dispersed at the French Revolution, but his tomb, a very interesting specimen of Gallo-Roman art, is preserved in the Louvre. The Society of Antiquaries at Soissons has made many attempts to recover it for the cathedral at Soissons, but hitherto in vain.

B. PETER OF CASTELNAU, MK. M(A.D. 1209.)

      [Benedictine Martyrology, and Saussaye in his Gallican Martyrology. Authorities: – William of Puis-Laurent, and other contemporary historians of the Albigensian war, and the letters of Innocent III.]

      The name of the Albigenses probably arose from the condemnation of these heretics at the council of Albi, under the presidence of Gerard, bishop of that diocese, in the year 1176.

      Under the name was included that vast body of heretics which agreed on certain fundamental dogmas, but differed on minor particulars, as they borrowed more or less from Christianity. They inhabited the Duchy of Narbonne, the Marquisate of Toulouse, and the southern portion of the Duchy of Aquitaine, mixed with Catholics in some parts, in other parts comprising the entire population.

      Before their condemnation by the Council, they had been known as Cathari, Patareni or Populicians, a corruption of Paulicians; and were a branch of that great Manichæan inroad which entered Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Bohemia, where the name Cathari was corrupted into Ketzer, and which spread from Northern Italy into the southern provinces of France, where Manichæism completely displaced Christianity over a wide area, and gained a head and strength it was unable to acquire elsewhere.

      The fundamental principle of the new Manichæans, from which, as from a centre, the different sects radiated, was a Dualism of Good and Evil Principles equally matched, the Evil Principle, the origin of the visible creation; the Good Principle, the author of that which is invisible. This opposition of matter and spirit constituted the basis of their moral systems. These systems were diverse; some, regarding everything natural and carnal as pertaining to the Evil Principle, abstained from meat, cheese, and eggs, from marriage, and from whatever employment attached them to the earth; whilst others, regarding the soul as so distinct from the body as to be incapable of being soiled or affected by the actions of the fleshy envelope, gave themselves up to the grossest licentiousness. Into the theology of these new Manichæans, contact with Christianity had introduced the person of Christ, but in their scheme He occupied no necessary place. He was held to be subject to God, and to have had but a phantom body; He neither suffered, died, nor rose again, except in appearance. But in opposition to this Docetism, John de Lugio taught that Christ had a real body; and some of the Cathari – the late Albigenses – held that the true body was born of Mary and Joseph, and proceeded from the Evil Principle, and that this body died on the Cross, but that the spiritual and good Christ was by no means to be confused with the historical Christ of the Gospels.9

      With the doctrines specially professed by the Albigenses it is possible for any one, who chooses, to become thoroughly acquainted, as there is abundant material from which the requisite information can be drawn. Such are the decrees of councils condemning categorically their errors; the bulls of popes and imperial ordinances denouncing them; the letters of Innocent III.; the statutes of Raymond, Count of Toulouse; the controversial treatises written against the heretics, taking each of their doctrines in order, to refute them; and lastly, the valuable transactions of the Inquisition at Toulouse, published by Limborch, containing a great number of cases, the interrogations, and confessions, and sentences; the archives of the Inquisition at Carcassonne, portions of which are published in Vaissette, and the Inquisitorial formulary of questions put to Albigenses as to their faith, in Ricchinus.

      The doctrines peculiar to the Albigenses were these: – There were two Creators, the good God, who was the author of the New Testament, and who made the world of good spirits; and the bad God, who was the author of the Old Testament, and Creator of the visible world, and of the evil spirits.10 This latter God they called a liar, because he told the first man: "The day thou eatest of the tree thou shalt surely die," and man did not die the same day that he broke the commandment; they also called him a murderer because he slew Pharaoh and his host, and the inhabitants of the Plain. This bad God was either a fallen angel,11 or the Son of the chief God and Creator, who had two sons, Christ and Satan.12 Others held that the good God had two wives, Colla and Coliba, by whom he begat many sons and daughters.13 Others, that the men made by the good God were good, but that through union with women, whom they derived from the Evil Principle, they fell.14 The creation of men was veiled in the following myth by some of the Albigenses. The devil made men out of clay, and bade God send into them souls. God answered, that men thus constructed would be too strong, "They would dethrone me." Whereupon Satan made man of the foam of the sea; and God said, "That is good, he is a mixture of strength and fragility." And he sent a soul into the man thus made.15 Generally the Albigenses held that there were two Christs; one bad, who was born in Bethlehem of Mary, and who was crucified; and another good, who had a phantom body and was purely spiritual, and who appeared on earth in the body of the Apostle Paul. The good Christ neither ate nor drank, but the bad Christ, the Son of Mary, lived as do other men, and had for concubine, Mary Magdalene.16

      The Trinity was naturally rejected by the Albigenses, as incompatible with their Dualism. They also rejected the Old Testament as the work of the Evil Principle; and regarded Moses, the Prophet, and even John the Baptist, as possessed with evil demons.17

      With regard to the future, some of the Albigenses taught that the souls of men were the fallen angels condemned to spend seven lives in human bodies. Others denied the existence of the soul altogether.18 With such disbelief in the immortality of the soul, or such notion of its being an angel in a state of purgation, the resurrection of the body, Purgatory and Hell were rejected; and with them, prayer for the dead and invocation of saints – for how pray for a soul which is annihilated, or how invoke an apostate angel?19

      The idea of a visible Church, and the necessity of sacraments, could not be entertained with such a creed; and the Albigenses repudiated baptism, communion, and other rites. Marriage they denounced as fornication, and they condemned intercourse between man and woman as sin in the higher ranks of the elect.20 Others, however, said that fornication was no sin.21 But this refers to the lower order of the faithful.

      The faithful were divided into two orders: the higher, or "perfect," who wore a black dress, abstained from marriage, the eating of flesh, eggs, and cheese; and the "believers," who gave free scope to their lusts, and whose salvation was due to a certain ceremony being performed over them by one of the "perfect," which was called the "consolation." If one of the perfect ate the least morsel of meat or cheese or egg, he sinned mortally, and all who had been consoled by him fell at the same time out of a state of grace, and it was necessary for them to be re-consoled; and even those who were saved fell out of heaven for the sins of him who had consoled them. The sacrament of consolation was performed by one of the "perfect" laying his hands upon one of the "believers," who repeated a Pater Noster; and such act placed the "believer" in a state of grace from which he could only fall by the fall of his consoler. This ceremony was performed at the point of death.

      The ceremony of reception is thus described by Peter of Vaux-Cernaix: —

      "When any one went over to the heretics, he who received him said, 'Friend, if you wish to be one of us, it behoves you to renounce the whole faith that is held by the Roman Church.' He must answer, 'I renounce.' 'Then receive the Holy Spirit from the good men,' and then he breathes seven times in his face. Also he says to him, 'You must renounce that cross which the priest made on you in baptism, on your breast, and on your shoulders, and on your head, with oil and chrism.' He must answer,

9

The best account of the Manichæan tenets of the medæval heretics is in Hahn: Geschichte der Ketzer, vol. i.; the texts are given in notes, upon which he bases his opinion. See also Gieseler's Ecclesiastical Hist., 3rd division, chap. vii.; but Gieseler is less full and impartial than Hahn.

10

"Hæreticus ponit duo principia, diabolum dicens creatorem omnium visibilium." Pet. Vallium Sarnaii, apud Bouquet xix. p. 5. Reiner in Max. Bibl. xxv. p. 263. "Quorum finis est Manichæorum induere sectam et duos fateri Deos, quorum malignus, ut procaciter mentiuntur, creavit omnia visibilia." – Lucas Tudens. xvi., p. 240.

11

"Sathanam magnum Luciferum qui propter elevationem et nequitiam suam de throno bonorum cecidit angelorum, creatorem cœli et terræ, omniumque rerum visibilium et invisiblium, spirituum malorum creatorem et principem et Deum esse profitebantur ipsumque legem Moysi dedisse asseverant." – Chron. Gonfredi in Bouquet xii., p. 448.

12

"Erant alii hæretici qui dicebant quod unus est Creator; sed habuit filios, Christum et diabolum." Petr. Vall. Sarn. apud Bouquet xix. p. 5.

13

Petr. Vall. Sarn. ib., c. 2.

14

Ibid., p. 5.

15

Arch. Inquisit. Carcass. in Vaissette iii., p. 435.

16

"Dicebant in secreto suo, quod Christus ille qui natus est in Bethleem, terrestori et visibili, et in Hierusalem crucifixus, malus fuit; et quod Maria Magdalena fuit ejus concubina, et ipsa fuit muiler in adulterio deprehensa, de qua legitur in Evangelio. Bonus enim Christus … nunquam comedit vel bibit, nec veram carnem assumpsit, nec unquam fuit in hoc mundo nisi spiritualiter in corpore Pauli." Petr. Vall. Sarn. apud Bouquet xix. p. 5 "Quod Dei filius non assumpsit in beata et de beata Virgine carnem veram, sed fantasticam." Reg. Inquisit. Carcass. apud Vaissette ii. p. 372.

17

Petr. Vall. Sarn. ib. xix. p. 5; Reiner, in Mar. Bibl. xxv. p. 263; Lucas Tudens. ib. p. 241; Acta Conc. Lumbar. Bouquet xiv. p. 438.

18

Petr. Vall. Sarn. ib. p. 5, 6. "Dicunt quod anima hominis non est nisi purus sanguis," Reg. Inq. Carcass. Vaissette p. 327.

19

Lucas Tud. in Max. Bibl. xxv. De altera vita, p. 193-212.

20

Reiner, in Max. Bibl. xxv. p. 263. Petr. Vall. Sarn. apud Bouquet xix. p. 5, etc. "Sacrum matrimonium meretricium esse, nec aliquem in ipso salvari posse prædicabant, filios et filias generando."

21

"Dicunt quod simplex fornicatio non est peccatum aliquod." Reg. Inq. Carcass. Vaissette iii. p. 371.