intended exclusively for the use of the persecutors themselves: the Annals of the Inquisitions of Toulouse and Carcassonne are among the most important, and they were surely never meant by their authors to meet any other eyes than those of their fellows and successors in the Holy Office. The polemical compositions of Magister Alanus, (close of the twelfth century,) Stephen de Bellavilla, (middle of the thirteenth century,) Eckbert of Schonau, (close of the twelfth century,) were intended for the sole use of the Clergy: even the historical works of Peter of Vaux-Cernay, (A.D. 1218,) and William de Puy-Laurens, (A.D. 1272,) were also at first written in Latin, and of course destined for those only who could read that language. Indeed, at that period there existed no reading public, except in the South of France itself, and no language of modern origin was used for literary purposes, except the Provençal; so that it could not be the purpose of the ecclesiastical writers to mislead their readers. Some of those above mentioned are credulous in the extreme; but there is apparently less intentional perversion of historical truth than we see among Roman Catholic historians, since the development of the several modern languages, the discovery of printing, and the impulse of the Reformation have brought a reflecting public into existence. The most elaborate work against the Cathari is that written about the year 1190, by Moneta, a Dominican and Inquisitor of Cremona: it was the result of his long experience, and intended to direct his brethren in their interrogations, and in their discussions with heretics. Moneta quotes the writings of some of the principal Catharic Doctors, and his detailed and laboured refutations throughout five books are ample proof of the real existence of the doctrines he combats.

A treatise, composed in the Provençal dialect by the Troubadour, Pierre Raimond, of Toulouse, against the errors of the Arians, as he called them, would have been a high authority on this subject; but it has been unfortunately lost. We still possess eight hundred lines of another orthodox Provençal poet, Isarn, on the conversion of an heretical teacher, Sicard. It is a foolish and violent production, but leaves no room for doubt that the sectaries against whom it was directed, asserted the unlawfulness of marriage, the transmigration of souls, the creation of the material world by a malignant Deity, and the other doctrines generally attributed to them. The poetical History of the Crusade against the Albigenses, by a contemporary, William of Tudela, printed for the first time by Fauriel, in 1837, from the only remaining manuscript, is, in many respects, the most remarkable memorial of its times. The author is a partisan of the Count of Toulouse: he is an ardent adversary of the Crusaders, and expresses the most lively indignation at the outrages perpetrated upon the population of the South; yet

Recantations of certain Dualists.

5

he never intimates that the doctrinal views of the Albigenses had been either misrepresented or exaggerated. Passing from those grave witnesses to another kind of evidence, it seems incontestable that, both in France and Germany, a popular method of detecting faith in the metempsychosis was the summoning suspected persons to put to death a chicken, or some other domestic animal: those who refused to do so were self-convicted, without any further form of trial. This summary test was put in practice by the suite of the Emperor Henry III., spending his Christmas at Goslar in 1052, and it was afterwards adopted by the Inquisition in Languedoc. It evidently would have been utterly useless, unless there really existed some superstitious repugnance to putting animals to death.

The only known literary relic of the Albigenses is a manuscript in the library of the Palais des Arts at Lyons. It consists of a translation of the New Testament, in a Provençal dialect closely related to the Spanish, and a liturgical Appendix. A most interesting description of the former, and extracts from it, collated with corresponding passages of the old Waldensian version, are to be found in the contributions of Professor Reuss to the Strasburg Review. Nothing, it seems, in this translation would suggest the heterodoxy of its authors: that it should contain the apocryphal Epistle to the Laodiceans, will surprise no one who is acquainted with the unsettled state of opinion in the medieval Church with respect to this Epistle. It is the appended Ritual which betrays the Catharic origin of the manuscript, and that more by its formulas for certain religious acts, than by any positive doctrinal statements. It interprets, however, Jude 23 in a dualistic sense, and applies a series of passages to the baptism of the Spirit in such a way as tacitly to exclude water baptism. The loss of the writings of those Cathari who remained faithful to the sect, is in some measure compensated by the information obtained through others. who reconciled themselves with the Church of Rome. Bonacursus of Milan, who addressed a tract against heresy to the people of that city about the year 1190, had himself been a zealous preacher of the doctrines he now refuted. Ermengaud, Abbot of Saint Gilles, who wrote a short and purely biblical refutation of Dualism towards the close of the twelfth, or beginning of the thirteenth, century, had also been an heretical leader. Reinerius Sacchoni had been seventeen years a teacher among the Italian branch of the Cathari before he became their persecutor; and his famous Summa,* written in 1250, is so little intended for the laity, that he exposes the principal points of the

Thus

A manuscript of this work, found in Bavaria, and published by the Jesuit Gretscr in 1613, contains a great deal of additional matter, by an anonymous author, who does not distinguish his interpolations from the original. This edition is generally quoted under the title, "Pseudo-Reinerius."

heretical theology, without attempting to refute them. Even simple recantations have been handed down from those ages, bearing the stamp of sincerity: thus Durand of Huesca, a contemporary of Ermengaud, had disbelieved in the Trinity, and in the real humanity of Christ. Our information about the dualistic heretics is complete enough to enable us to ascertain the characteristics of the different schools into which they were divided, the phases through which their theology passed at different times and in different countries, and the arguments, whether taken from reason or Scripture, which they were in the habit of putting forward; and it is impossible not to feel that we have before us real phenomena in the history of the human mind, and earnest attempts to fasten upon the Bible a false view of the divine conduct and of human nature. Thus we are told, they pleaded the tempter's offer of the kingdoms of the world to Jesus, (Matt. iv. 9,) and the expressions, "Prince of this world," (John xiv. 30,) "My kingdom is not of this world," (John xviii. 36,) as proofs that Satan was really lord of this creation. When Jesus speaks in another place of plants which his Heavenly Father had not planted, (Matt. xv. 13,) it is clear to them that there must be a second creator. The two masters are radically opposed, (Matt. vi. 24,) and must therefore be both eternal. When it is said, "Ye are of your father the devil," (John viii. 44,) they understand it literally and materially. In the same way, they found means to establish a perpetual and profound contrast between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New. The former, said they, began His work by chaos and darkness; while the latter is light, and "in Him is no darkness at all." The former created man, male and female; while "in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female." The God of the Old Testament says, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman;" the God of the New Testament reconciles all things to Himself. The one curses, and the other blesses. The one repents of what He has made; the other is the author of nothing but what is good and perfect. (Gen. i. 2; 1 John i. 5; Gen. i. 27; Gal. iii. 28; Gen. iii. 15; Col. i. 20; Gen. vi. 7; James i. 17.) The God of the Old Testament puts His creatures in the way of temptation; He often betrays a forgetfulness which is inconsistent with omniscience, and is repeatedly cruel and vindictive.

Contemporaneous writers, synods, and tribunals, not only distinguish between the Waldenses, or orthodox sectaries, and the Cathari, but tell us that both parties were engaged in continual controversy with each other. Stephen de Bellavilla says that the Waldenses called the Cathari "demons." It appears that some ignorant Priests used even to put the Vaudois forward to dispute with the Manichæans, because they were conscious of their own incapacity to do so. The remains of Waldensian literature still in our hands enable us to substantiate the fact

The Distinction confirmed by Waldensian Documents. 7

of their polemical attitude towards Manichæan heretics, and furnish thereby a final proof, if such were needed, of the contemporaneous existence of the latter. The poem called "Lo PAYRE ETERNAL" (MS. Dublin University, printed in Hahn's "Waldenses") seems to be the confession of one who, after trying in vain to find peace and spiritual life among Manichæans, had at last embraced the doctrine of the Waldenses: it dwells especially on the Trinity, the reality of the Incarnation, and the identity of the God of the New and Old Testaments. The "NOBLA LEYCZON," that oldest monument of the faith of the Waldenses, and frequently printed, is pervaded by a strain of indirect controversy on this order of subjects: it proclaims the unity of God, and His creation of the world; it justifies the destruction of Sodom and the judgments inflicted upon the Egyptians, against those who pretended that God made people only to let them perish; it lays stress on the charitable precepts of the Law, on the nine months spent by the Saviour in the Virgin's womb, on His baptism, and on the liberty of the human will. "LI ARTICLES DE LA FE" (MS. Geneva and Dublin, printed by Hahn) is a sort of brief Confession of Faith repeated by the Waldensian Ministers at their ordination. It is very positive about the creation of all things visible and invisible by the Holy Trinity, and on the divine character and holiness of the Law given to Moses, and adds, "It is a deadly sin to affirm that Christ was not born of the Virgin." A remarkable Commentary, in verse, on the Song of Solomon, "CANTICA," (MS. Geneva,) is still more explicit it says, that the true holy Church has to contend with both heretics and bad Catholics; it gives glory to God that many had been called to the true faith from the errors of Egypt and the darkness of heresy,-" las tenebras de li hereges;" it speaks of using the sword of the word against the errors of heretics, and says, that these, "and those whose names ye know," (doubtless the Priests and monks,) are the little foxes that spoil the grapes. "The streets in which the bride seeks her beloved without finding him, are the different sects of heretics; for, as there are streets in a town, so in this world there are different sects and churches of wicked men,"—" gleisas de li malignant." The comparison is carried so far, that the worldly and indifferent are put in the open places of the city, while the heretics, leading a more ascetic life," la vita plus streyta,"-are the narrow streets! The same poem speaks expressly of "the error of those who say that Christ is not a real man, and has not taken real flesh;" it sweetly applies the language of the bride, "My beloved speaks with me, "to that close intercourse with the Saviour which a true faith in His person alone admits of; and it uses the exclamation, "Turn away thine eyes from me," (Cant. vi. 4,) as a text for a protestation against the spirit of proud and unhealthy speculation in which the heretics indulged. The tract "TRIBU

LACIONS," (MS. Dublin, printed in part by Hahn,) written in the thirteenth century, reproaches the Roman Catholics with their cruelty towards others as well as the Vaudois themselves, and shows, from the parable of the tares, that even the bad are not to be exterminated by violence.

The Waldenses appear to have been constantly in contact with the Cathari, to have established themselves frequently in the same regions, and to have shared in the same persecutions; but they increased in numbers, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, in proportion as their fellow-sufferers diminished; and it is remarkable that the French Albigenses, in their adversity, never sought refuge in the strongholds of the Waldenses, but in other countries rather, in Lombardy, in Sicily, and in Illyria.

There exists a natural and, upon the whole, a just prejudice in favour of every cause which has been ennobled by martyrdom; but when we consult the records of religious intolerance, we find innumerable instances of the Roman Catholic, the Socinian, the Jew, and even the Mussulman, sealing their convictions with their blood. Such high resolve is never wholly lost. The martyr for the worst of faiths proves that, for man's inmost being, the claims of religion are paramount to every other; but he does not prove the truth of the particular religion for which he died. With the evidence before us, it is impossible to maintain the orthodoxy of the Albigenses as a body. We can still revere in their persons sufferers for man's dearest and most fundamental liberty,-the right to confess and worship God according to his conscience. They resisted the most impious usurpation that can be perpetrated under heaven,-the attempt of a religious corporation to treat mankind as its chattels, and to impose its faith with the sword, the rack, and the brand. But we cannot believe they made a felicitous use of the liberty they so heroically asserted. The inconsistencies we mentioned, that strike one on the first perusal of the charges against those sectaries, are easily disposed of. Some of them arise from a confounding of Waldenses and Albigenses; others, from the not distinguishing between the extreme asceticism which the latter required of their formally received members or perfects, and the comparative licence allowed to those who were only hearers or disciples. A third source of misunderstanding is the fact that, while the mitigated Dualists of Illyria and Italy (of whom more hereafter) rejected the Old Testament altogether, the absolute Dualists of France and Italy only rejected the historical books, receiving the Prophets, Psalms, Job, Solomon, and the Wisdom of Sirach: this last was in especial favour, because of a passage (xlii. 25) which was understood to confirm their doctrine. Even the party who represented the Prophets as messengers of the evil one, thought that God sometimes constrained them to utter true oracles; and they accounted in this rude way for the