View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages Part 38

[729] Mr Malthus observes on this that I "have overlooked the distinction between the reigns of Edw. III. and Henry VIII. (perhaps a misprint for VI.), with regard to the state of the labouring cla.s.ses.

The two periods appear to have been essentially different in this respect." Principles of Political Economy, p. 293, 1st edit. He conceives that the earnings of the labourer in corn were unusually low in the latter years of Edward III., which appears to have been effected by the statute of labourers (25 E. III.), immediately after the great pestilence of 1350, though that mortality ought, in the natural course of things, to have considerably raised the real wages of labour. The result of his researches is that, in the reign of Edward III., the labourer could not purchase half a peck of wheat with a day's labour; from that of Richard II. to the middle of that of Henry VI., he could purchase nearly a peck; and from thence to the end of the century, nearly two pecks. At the time when the pa.s.sage in the text was written [1816], the labourer could rarely have purchased more than a peck with a day's labour, and frequently a good deal less. In some parts of England this is the case at present [1846]; but in many counties the real wages of agricultural labourers are considerably higher than at that time, though not by any means so high as, according to Malthus himself, they were in the latter half of the fifteenth century. The excessive fluctuations in the price of corn, even taking averages of a long term of years, which we find through the middle ages, and indeed much later, account more than any other a.s.signable cause for those in real wages of labour, which do not regulate themselves very promptly by that standard, especially when coercive measures are adopted to restrain them.

[730] See these rates more at length in Eden's State of the Poor, vol.

i. p. 32, &c.

[731] In the Archaeologia, vol. xviii. p. 281, we have a bailiffs account of expenses in 1387, where it appears that a ploughman had sixpence a week, and five shillings a year, with an allowance of diet; which seems to have been only pottage. These wages are certainly not more than fifteen shillings a week in present value [1816]; which, though materially above the average rate of agricultural labour, is less so than some of the statutes would lead us to expect. Other facts may be found of a similar nature.

[732] See that singular book, Piers Plowman's Vision, p. 145 (Whitaker's edition), for the different modes of living before and after harvest.

The pa.s.sage may be found in Ellis's Specimens, vol. i. p. 151.

[733] Fortescue's Difference between Abs. and Lim. Monarchy, p. 19. The pa.s.sages in Fortescue, which bear on his favourite theme, the liberty and consequent happiness of the English, are very important, and triumphantly refute those superficial writers who would make us believe that they were a set of beggarly slaves.

[734] Besides the books to which I have occasionally referred, Mr.

Ellis's Specimens of English Poetry, vol. i. chap. 13, contain a short digression, but from well-selected materials, on the private life of the English in the middling and lower ranks about the fifteenth century. [I leave the foregoing pages with little alteration, but they may probably contain expressions which I would not now adopt. 1850.]

[735] Besides the German historians, see Du Cange, v. Ganerbium, for the confederacies in the empire, and Hermandatum for those in Castile. These appear to have been merely voluntary a.s.sociations, and perhaps directed as much towards the prevention of robbery, as of what is strictly called private war. But no man can easily distinguish offensive war from robbery except by its scale; and where this was so considerably reduced, the two modes of injury almost coincide. In Aragon, there was a distinct inst.i.tution for the maintenance of peace, the kingdom being divided into unions or juntas, with a chief officer, called Suprajunctarius, at their head. Du Cange, v. Juncta.

[736] Henault, Abrege Chronol. a l'an. 1255. The inst.i.tutions of Louis IX. and his successors relating to police form a part, though rather a smaller part than we should expect from the t.i.tle, of an immense work, replete with miscellaneous information, by Delamare, Traite de la Police, 4 vols. in folio. A sketch of them may be found in Velly, t. v.

p. 349, t. xviii. p. 437.

[737] Velly, t. v. p. 162, where this incident is told in an interesting manner from William de Nangis. Boulainvilliers has taken an extraordinary view of the king's behaviour. Hist. de l'Ancien Gouvernement, t. ii. p. 26. In his eyes princes and plebeians were made to be the slaves of a feudal aristocracy.

[738] Velly, t. viii. p. 132.

[739] Id. xviii. p. 437.

[740] Fleury, 3me Discours sur l'Hist. Eccles.

[741] The most authentic account of the Paulicians is found in a little treatise of Petrus Siculus, who lived about 870, under Basil the Macedonian. He had been employed on an emba.s.sy to Tephrica, the princ.i.p.al town of these heretics, so that he might easily be well informed; and, though he is sufficiently bigoted, I do not see any reason to question the general truth of his testimony, especially as it tallies so well with what we learn of the predecessors and successors of the Paulicians. They had rejected several of the Manichean doctrines, those, I believe, which were borrowed from the Oriental, Gnostic, and Cabbalistic philosophy of emanation; and therefore readily condemned Manes, prothumos anathematizousi Maneta. But they retained his capital errors, so far as regarded the principle of dualism, which he had taken from Zerdusht's religion, and the consequences he had derived from it.

Petrus Siculus enumerates six Paulician heresies. 1. They maintained the existence of two deities, the one evil, and the creator of this world; the other good, called pater epouranios, the author of that which is to come. 2. They refused to worship the Virgin, and a.s.serted that Christ brought his body from heaven. 3. They rejected the Lord's Supper. 4. And the adoration of the cross. 5. They denied the authority of the Old Testament, but admitted the New, except the epistles of St. Peter, and, perhaps, the Apocalypse. 6. They did not acknowledge the order of priests.

There seems every reason to suppose that the Paulicians, notwithstanding their mistakes, were endowed with sincere and zealous piety, and studious of the Scriptures. A Paulician woman asked a young man if he had read the Gospels: he replied that laymen were not permitted to do so, but only the clergy: ouk exestin hemin tois kosmikois ousi tauta anaginoskein, ei me tois hiereusi monois. p. 57. A curious proof that the Scriptures were already forbidden in the Greek church, which I am inclined to believe, notwithstanding the leniency with which Protestant writers have treated it, was always more corrupt and more intolerant than the Latin.

[742] Gibbon, c. 54. This chapter of the historian of the Decline and Fall upon the Paulicians appears to be accurate, as well as luminous, and is at least far superior to any modern work on the subject.

[743] It is generally agreed, that the Manicheans from Bulgaria did not penetrate into the west of Europe before the year 1000; and they seem to have been in small numbers till about 1140. We find them, however, early in the eleventh century. Under the reign of Robert in 1007 several heretics were burned at Orleans for tenets which are represented as Manichean. Velly, t. ii. p. 307. These are said to have been imported from Italy; and the heresy began to strike root in that country about the same time. Muratori, Dissert. 60 (Antichita Italiane, t. iii. p.

304). The Italian Manicheans were generally called Paterini, the meaning of which word has never been explained. We find few traces of them in France at this time; but about the beginning of the twelfth century, Guibert, bishop of Soissons, describes the heretics of that city, who denied the reality of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and rejected the sacraments. Hist. Litteraire de la France, t. x. p. 451.

Before the middle of that age, the Cathari, Henricians, Petrobussians, and others appear, and the new opinions attracted universal notice. Some of these sectaries, however, were not Manicheans. Mosheim, vol. iii. p.

116.

The acts of the inquisition of Toulouse, published by Limborch, from an ancient ma.n.u.script, contain many additional proofs that the Albigenses held the Manichean doctrine. Limborch himself will guide the reader to the princ.i.p.al pa.s.sages, p. 30. In fact, the proof of Manicheism among the heretics of the twelfth century is so strong (for I have confined myself to those of Languedoc, and could easily have brought other testimony as to the Cathari), that I should never have thought of arguing the point, but for the confidence of some modern ecclesiastical writers.--What can we think of one who says, "It was not unusual to stigmatize new sects with the odious name of Manichees, though I _know no evidence_ that there were any real remains of that ancient sect in the twelfth century"? Milner's History of the Church, vol. iii. p. 380.

Though this writer was by no means learned enough for the task he undertook, he could not be ignorant of facts related by Mosheim and other common historians.

I will only add, in order to obviate cavilling, that I use the word Albigenses for the Manichean sects, without pretending to a.s.sert that their doctrines prevailed more in the neighbourhood of Albi than elsewhere. The main position is, that a large part of the Languedocian heretics against whom the crusade was directed had imbibed the Paulician opinions. If any one chooses rather to call them Catharists, it will not be material.

[744] M. Paris, p. 267. (A.D. 1223.) Circa dies istos, haeretici Albigenses const.i.tuerunt sibi Antipapam in finibus Bulgarorum, Croatiae et Dalmatiae, nomine Bartholomaeum, &c. We are a.s.sured by good authorities that Bosnia was full of Manicheans and Arians as late as the middle of the fifteenth century. aeneas Sylvius, p. 407; Sponda.n.u.s, ad an. 1460; Mosheim.

[745] There has been so prevalent a disposition among English divines to vindicate not only the morals and sincerity, but the orthodoxy of these Albigenses, that I deem it necessary to confirm what I have said in the text by some authorities, especially as few readers have it in their power to examine this very obscure subject. Petrus Monachus, a Cistercian monk, who wrote a history of the crusades against the Albigenses, gives an account of the tenets maintained by the different heretical sects. Many of them a.s.serted two principles or creative beings: a good one for things invisible, an evil one for things visible; the former author of the New Testament, the latter of the Old. Novum Testamentum benigno deo, vetus vero maligno attribuebant; et illud omnin repudiabant, praeter quasdam auctoritates, quae de Veteri Testamento Novo sunt insertae, quas ob Novi reverentiam Testamenti recipere dignum aestimabant. A vast number of strange errors are imputed to them, most of which are not mentioned by Ala.n.u.s, a more dispa.s.sionate writer. Du Chesne, Scriptores Francorum, t. v. p. 556. This Ala.n.u.s de Insulis, whose treatise against heretics, written about 1200, was published by Ma.s.son at Lyons, in 1612, has left, I think, conclusive evidence of the Manicheism of the Albigenses. He states their argument upon every disputed point as fairly as possible, though his refutation is of course more at length. It appears that great discrepancies of opinion existed among these heretics, but the general tenor of their doctrines is evidently Manichean. Aiunt haeretici temporis nostri quod duo sunt principia rerum, principium lucis et principium tenebrarum, &c.

This opinion, strange as we may think it, was supported by Scriptural texts; so insufficient is a mere acquaintance with the sacred writings to secure unlearned and prejudiced minds from the wildest perversions of their meaning! Some denied the reality of Christ's body; others his being the Son of G.o.d; many the resurrection of the body; some even of a future state. They a.s.serted in general the Mosaic law to have proceeded from the devil, proving this by the crimes committed during its dispensation, and by the words of St. Paul, "the law entered that sin might abound." They rejected infant baptism, but were divided as to the reason; some saying that infants could not sin, and did not need baptism; others, that they could not be saved without faith, and consequently that it was useless. They held sin after baptism to be irremissible. It does not appear that they rejected either of the sacraments. They laid great stress upon the imposition of hands, which seems to have been their distinctive rite.

One circ.u.mstance, which both Ala.n.u.s and Robertus Monachus mention, and which other authorities confirm, is their division into two cla.s.ses; the Perfect, and the Credentes, or Consolati, both of which appellations are used. The former abstained from animal food, and from marriage, and led in every respect an austere life. The latter were a kind of lay brethren, living in a secular manner. This distinction is thoroughly Manichean, and leaves no doubt as to the origin of the Albigenses. See Beausobre, Hist. du Manicheisme, t. ii. p. 762 and 777. This candid writer represents the early Manicheans as a harmless and austere set of enthusiasts, exactly what the Paulicians and Albigenses appear to have been in succeeding ages. As many calumnies were vented against one as the other.

The long battle as to the Manicheism of the Albigensian sectaries has been renewed since the publication of this work, by Dr. Maitland on one side, and Mr. Faber and Dr. Gilly on the other; and it is not likely to reach a termination; being conducted by one party with far less regard to the weight of evidence than to the bearing it may have on the theological hypotheses of the writers. I have seen no reason for altering what is said in the text.

The chief strength of the argument seems to me to lie in the independent testimonies as to the Manicheism of the Paulicians, in Petrus Siculus and Photius, on the one hand, and as to that of the Languedocian heretics in the Latin writers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries on the other; the connexion of the two sects through Bulgaria being established by history, but the latter cla.s.s of writers being unacquainted with the former. It is certain that the probability of general truth in these concurrent testimonies is greatly enhanced by their independence. And it will be found that those who deny any tinge of Manicheism in the Albigenses, are equally confident as to the orthodoxy of the Paulicians. [1848.]

[746] The contemporary writers seem uniformly to represent Waldo as the founder of the Waldenses; and I am not aware that they refer the locality of that sect to the valleys of Piedmont, between Exiles and Pignerol (see Leger's map), which have so long been distinguished as the native country of the Vaudois. In the acts of the Inquisition, we find Waldenses, sive pauperes de Lugduno, used as equivalent terms; and it can hardly be doubted that the poor men of Lyons were the disciples of Waldo. Ala.n.u.s, the second book of whose treatise against heretics is an attack upon the Waldenses, expressly derives them from Waldo. Petrus Monachus does the same. These seem strong authorities, as it is not easy to perceive what advantage they could derive from misrepresentation. It has been however a position zealously maintained by some modern writers of respectable name, that the people of the valleys had preserved a pure faith for several ages before the appearance of Waldo. I have read what is advanced on this head by Leger (Histoire des Eglises Vaudoises) and by Allix (Remarks on the Ecclesiastical History of the Churches of Piedmont), but without finding any sufficient proof for this supposition, which nevertheless is not to be rejected as absolutely improbable. Their best argument is deduced from an ancient poem called La n.o.ble Loicon, an original ma.n.u.script of which is in the public library of Cambridge, and another in that of Geneva. This poem is alleged to bear date in 1100, more than half a century before the appearance of Waldo. But the lines that contain the date are loosely expressed, and may very well suit with any epoch before the termination of the twelfth century.

Ben ha mil et cent ans compli entierament, Che fu scritta loro que sen al derier temp.

Eleven hundred years are now gone and past, Since thus it was written; These times are the last.

See Literature of Europe in 15th, 16th, and 17th Centuries, chap. 1, -- 33.

I have found however a pa.s.sage in a late work, which remarkably ill.u.s.trates the antiquity of Alpine protestantism, if we may depend on the date it a.s.signs to the quotation. Mr. Planta's History of Switzerland, p. 93, 4to. edit., contains the following note:--"A curious pa.s.sage, singularly descriptive of the character of the Swiss, has lately been discovered in a MS. chronicle of the Abbey of Corvey, which appears to have been written about the beginning of the twelfth century.

Religionem nostram, et omnium Latinae ecclesiae Christianorum fidem, laici ex Suavia, Suicia, et Bavaria humiliare voluerunt; homines seducti ab antiqua progenie simplicium hominum, qui Alpes et viciniam habitant, et semper amant antiqua. In Suaviam, Bavariam et Italiam borealem saepe intrant illorum (ex Suicia) mercatores, qui biblia edisc.u.n.t memoriter, et ritus ecclesiae aversantur, quos credunt esse novos. Nolunt imagines venerari, reliquias sanctorum aversantur, olera comedunt, rar masticantes carnem, alii nunquam. Appellamus eos idcirc Manichaeos.

Horum quidam ab Hungaria ad eos convenerunt, &c." It is a pity that the quotation has been broken off, as it might have ill.u.s.trated the connexion of the Bulgarians with these sectaries.

[747] The Waldenses were always considered as much less erroneous in their tenets than the Albigenses, or Manicheans. Erant praeterea alii haeretici, says Robert Monachus in the pa.s.sage above quoted, qui Waldenses dicebantur, a quodam Waldio nomine Lugdunensi. Hi quidem mali erant, sed comparatione aliorum haereticorum longe minus perversi; in multis enim n.o.bisc.u.m conveniebant, in quibusdam dissentiebant. The only faults he seems to impute to them are the denial of the lawfulness of oaths and capital punishment, and the wearing wooden shoes. By this peculiarity of wooden sandals (sabots) they got the name of Sabbatati or Insabbatati. (Du Cange.) William du Puy, another historian of the same time, makes a similar distinction. Erant quidam Ariani, quidam Manichaei, quidam etiam Waldenses sive Lugdunenses, qui licet inter se dissidentes, omnes tamen in animarum perniciem contra fidem Catholicam conspirabant; et illi quidem Waldenses contra alios acutissime disputant. Du Chesne, t. v. p. 666. Ala.n.u.s, in his second book, where he treats of the Waldenses, charges them princ.i.p.ally with disregarding the authority of the church and preaching without a regular mission. It is evident however from the acts of the Inquisition, that they denied the existence of purgatory; and I should suppose that, even at that time, they had thrown off most of the popish system of doctrine, which is so nearly connected with clerical wealth and power. The difference made in these records between the Waldenses and the Manichean sects shows that the imputations cast upon the latter were not indiscriminate calumnies. See Limborch, p. 201 and 228.

The History of Languedoc, by Vaissette and Vich, contains a very good account of the sectaries in that country; but I have not immediate access to the book. I believe that proof will be found of the distinction between the Waldenses and Albigenses in t. iii. p. 446. But I am satisfied that no one who has looked at the original authorities will dispute the proposition. These Benedictine historians represent the Henricians, an early set of reformers, condemned by the council of Lombez, in 1165, as Manichees. Mosheim considers them as of the Vaudois school. They appeared some time before Waldo.

[748] The general testimony of their enemies to the purity of morals among the Languedocian and Lyonese sectaries is abundantly sufficient.

One Regnier, who had lived among them, and became afterwards an inquisitor, does them justice in this respect. See Turner's History of England for several other proofs of this. It must be confessed that the Catharists are not free from the imputation of promiscuous licentiousness. But whether this was a mere calumny, or partly founded upon truth, I cannot determine. Their prototypes, the ancient Gnostics, are said to have been divided into two parties, the austere and the relaxed; both condemning marriage for opposite reasons. Ala.n.u.s, in the book above quoted, seems to have taken up several vulgar prejudices against the Cathari. He gives an etymology of their name a catto; quia osculantur posteriora catti; in cujus specie, ut aiunt, appareret iis Lucifer, p. 146. This notable charge was brought afterwards against the Templars.

As to the Waldenses, their innocence is out of all doubt. No book can be written in a more edifying manner than La n.o.ble Loicon, of which large extracts are given by Leger, in his Histoire des Eglises Vaudoises. Four lines are quoted by Voltaire (Hist. Universelle, c. 69), as a specimen of the Provencal language, though they belong rather to the patois of the valleys. But as he has not copied them rightly, and as they ill.u.s.trate the subject of this note, I shall repeat them here from Leger, p. 28.

Que sel se troba alcun bon que vollia amar Dio e temer Jeshu Xrist, Que non vollia maudire, ni jura, ni mentir, Ni avoutrar, ni aucire, ni penre de l'autruy, Ni venjar se de li sio ennemie, Illi dison quel es Vaudes e degne de murir.

[749] It would be difficult to specify all the dispersed authorities which attest the existence of the sects derived from the Waldenses and Paulicians in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries. Besides Mosheim, who has paid considerable attention to the subject, I would mention some articles in Du Cange which supply gleanings; namely, Beghardi, Bulgari, Lollardi, Paterini, Picardi, Pifli, Populicani.

Upon the subject of the Waldenses and Albigenses generally, I have borrowed some light from Mr. Turner's History of England, vol. ii. p.

377, 393. This learned writer has seen some books that have not fallen into my way; and I am indebted to him for a knowledge of Ala.n.u.s's treatise, which I have since read. At the same time I must observe, that Mr. Turner has not perceived the essential distinction between the two leading sects.

The name of Albigenses does not frequently occur after the middle of the thirteenth century; but the Waldenses, or sects bearing that denomination, were dispersed over Europe. As a term of different reproach was derived from the word Bulgarian, so _vauderie_, or the profession of the Vaudois, was sometimes applied to witchcraft. Thus in the proceedings of the Chambre Brulante at Arras, in 1459, against persons accused of sorcery, their crime is denominated _vauderie_. The fullest account of this remarkable story is found in the Memoirs of Du Clercq, first published in the general collection of Historical Memoirs, t. ix. p. 430, 471. It exhibits a complete parallel to the events that happened in 1682 at Salem in New England. A few obscure persons were accused of _vauderie_, or witchcraft. After their condemnation, which was founded on confessions obtained by torture, and afterwards retracted, an epidemical contagion of superst.i.tious dread was diffused all around. Numbers were arrested, burned alive by order of a tribunal inst.i.tuted for the detection of this offence, or detained in prison; so that no person in Arras thought himself safe. It was believed that many were accused for the sake of their possessions, which were confiscated to the use of the church. At length the duke of Burgundy interfered, and put a stop to the persecutions. The whole narrative in Du Clercq is interesting, as a curious doc.u.ment of the tyranny of bigots, and of the facility with which it is turned to private ends.

To return to the Waldenses: the princ.i.p.al course of their emigration is said to have been into Bohemia, where, in the fifteenth century, the name was borne by one of the seceding sects. By their profession of faith, presented to Ladislaus Posthumus, it appears that they acknowledged the corporal presence in the eucharist, but rejected purgatory and other Romish doctrines. See it in the Fasciculus Rerum expetendarum et fugiendarum, a collection of treatises ill.u.s.trating the origin of the Reformation, originally published at Cologne in 1535, and reprinted at London in 1690.

[750] Opera Innocent III. p. 468, 537. A translation of the Bible had been made by direction of Peter Waldo; but whether this used in Lorrain was the same, does not appear. Metz was full of the Vaudois, as we find by other authorities.

[751] Schilteri Thesaurus Antiq. Teutonicorum.

[752] Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscript. t. xvii. p. 720.

[753] The Anglo-Saxon versions are deserving of particular remark. It has been said that our church maintained the privilege of having part of the daily service in the mother tongue. "Even the ma.s.s itself," says Lappenberg, "was not read entirely in Latin." Hist. of England, vol. i.

p. 202. This, however, is denied by Lingard, whose authority is probably superior. Hist. of Ang.-Sax. Church, i. 307. But he allows that the Epistle and Gospel were read in English, which implies an authorized translation. And we may adopt in a great measure Lappenberg's proposition, which follows the above pa.s.sage: "The numerous versions and paraphrases of the Old and New Testament made those books known to the laity and more familiar to the clergy."

We have seen a little above, that the laity were not permitted by the Greek Church of the ninth century, and probably before, to read the Scriptures, even in the original. This shows how much more honest and pious the Western Church was before she became corrupted by ambition and by the captivating hope of keeping the laity in servitude by means of ignorance. The translation of the four Books of Kings into French has been published in the Collection de Doc.u.mens Inedits, 1841. It is in a northern dialect, but the age seems not satisfactorily ascertained; the close of the eleventh century is the earliest date that can be a.s.signed.