WINMX Assorted Textfiles/Ebooks.tar/Text - Religion - Bernard Gui on the Albigensians.txt

INI File | 2003-12-04 | 4KB | 74 lines

[Protected by-proxy67.anonymizer.com]


Back to Medieval Source Book
Medieval Sourcebook:
Bernard Gui on the Albigensians



An experienced inquisitor describes the Albigensians
It would take too long to describe in detail the manner in which these same
Manichaean heretics preach and teach their followers, but it must be briefly
considered here.
In the first place, they usually say of themselves that they are good
Christians, who do not swear, or lie, or speak evil of others; that they do not
kill any man or animal, nor anything having the breath of life, and that they
hold the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ and his gospel as the apostles taught.
They assert that they occupy the place of the apostles, and that, on account of
the above-mentioned things, they of the Roman Church, namely the prelates,
clerks, and monks, and especially the inquisitors of heresy persecute them and
call them heretics, although they are good men and good Christians, and that
they are persecuted just as Christ and his apostles were by the Pharisees.
Moreover they talk to the laity of the evil lives of the clerks and prelates of
the Roman Church, pointing out and setting forth their pride, cupidity, avarice,
and uncleanness of life, and such other evils as they know. They invoke with
their own interpretation and according to their abilities the authority of the
Gospels and the Epistles against the condition of the prelates, churchmen, and
monks, whom they call Pharisees and false prophets, who say, but do no.
Then they attack and vituperate, in turn, all the sacraments of the Church,
especially the sacrament of the eucharist, saying that it cannot contain the
body of Christ, for had this been as great as the largest mountain Christians
would have entirely consumed it before this. They assert that the host comes
from straw, that it passes through the tails of horses, to wit, when the flour
is cleaned by a sieve (of horse hair); that, moreover, it passes through the
body and comes to a vile end, which, they say, could not happen if God were in
it.
Of baptism, they assert that the water is material and corruptible and is
therefore the creation of the evil power, and cannot sanctify the soul, but that
the churchmen sell this water out of avarice, just as they sell earth for the
burial of the dead, and oil to the sick when they anoint them, and as: they sell
the confession of sins as made to the priests.
Hence they claim that confession made to the priests of, the Roman Church is
useless, and that, since the priests may be sinners, they cannot loose nor bind,
and, being unclean in themselves, cannot make others clean. They assert,
moreover, that the cross of Christ should not be adored or venerated, because,
as they urge, no one would venerate or adore the gallows upon which a father,
relative, or friend had been hung. They urge, further, that they who adore the
cross ought, for similar reasons, to worship all thorns and lances, because as
Christ's body was on the cross during the passion, so was the crown of thorns on
his head and the soldier's lance in his side, They proclaim many other
scandalous things in regard to the sacraments.
Moreover they read from the Gospels and the Epistles in the vulgar tongue,
applying and expounding them in their favor and against the condition of the
Roman Church in a manner which it would take too long to describe in detail; but
all that relates to this subject may be read more fully in the books they have
written and infected, and may be learned from the confessions of such of their
followers as have been converted.
From the Inquisitor's Manual of Bernard Gui [d.1331], early 14th century,
translated in J. H. Robinson, Readings in European History, (Boston: Ginn,
1905), pp. 381-383


This text is part of the Internet Medieval Source Book. The Sourcebook is a
collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts related to medieval and
Byzantine history.
Unless otherwise indicated the specific electronic form of the document is
copyright. Permission is granted for electronic copying, distribution in print
form for educational purposes and personal use. If you do reduplicate the
document, indicate the source. No permission is granted for commercial use.
(c)Paul Halsall Jan 1996 [updated 11/23/96]
[e-mail]