Precursors to Religious Inquisitions: Anti-Heretical Efforts to 1184

Chapter 2 Precursors to Religious Inquisitions: Anti-heretical Efforts to 1184

Michael Frassetto

1 Introduction

As the 11th century dawned, secular and religious leaders across medieval Europe faced the sudden and dramatic rise of popular heresy, a phenomenon that the lay and clerical elite had not had to face in more than half a millen- nium.1 Although the great church councils and the Christian Roman emperors

1 The origins and nature of the first medieval heretics has long been a subject of some debate, even if that debate has largely been settled with a consensus emerging that the first heretics emerged independently of each other and without influence from the Bogomils and devel- oped little in terms of sophisticated doctrines before the mid-12th century. R.I. Moore, The Origins of European Dissent, rev. ed. (Oxford, 1985) remains the most important and influen- tial work in support of the indigenous origins of heresy. Moore has refined his views in the years following publication of Origins, most recently in The War on Heresy (Cambridge, MA, 2012). See also Heinrich Fichtenau, Heretics and Scholars in the High Middle Ages, 1000–1200, trans. Denise Kaiser (University Park, PA: 1998); Raffaello Morghen, “Problèmes sur l’origine de l’hérésie au Moyen Age,” Revue historique 336 (1966): 1–16; J.B. Russell, Dissent and Reform in the Early Middle Ages (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1965); Brian Stock, The Implications of Literacy: Written Language and Models of Interpretation in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centu- ries (Princeton, 1987), 92–240. The consensus view has been challenged, on the one hand, by Mark Pegg, The Corruption of Angels: The Great Inquisition, 1245–1246 (Oxford, 2001), who rejects the influence of the Bogomils on Western heresy even in the 13th century and denies that the so-called Cathars taught a dualist form of Christianity. The prevailing view has also been challenged by those who argue for Bogomil influence as early as the year 1000, including Michael Frassetto, “The Sermons of Ademar of Chabannes and the Letter of Heribert: New Sources Concerning the Origins of Medieval Heresy,” Revue bénédictine 109 (1999): 324–340; Bernard Hamilton, “Bogomil Influences on Western Heresy,” in Heresy and the Persecuting Society: Essays on the Work of R.I. Moore, (ed.) Michael Frassetto (Leiden, 2006), 93–114; Claire Taylor, “The Letter of Heribert of Périgord as a Source for Dualist Heresy in the Society of early Eleventh Century Aquitaine,” Journal of Medieval History 26 (2001): 313–349; and, most recently, Daniel Callahan, “Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar of Chabannes,” in Where Heaven and Earth Meet: Essays on Medieval Europe in Honor of Daniel F. Callahan, (eds.) Michael Frassetto, Matthew Gabriele, and John D. Hosler (Leiden: 2014), 178–226, esp. 182–208. See also the earlier work by Antoine Dondaine, “L’Origine de l’hérésie médiévale,” Rivista di storia della chiesa in Italia 6 (1952): 43–78, and for a general overview that presents both sides of the debate, see Malcolm Lambert, Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from

42 Frassetto of late antiquity repeatedly addressed the issue of religious unorthodoxy, they provided only limited guidance to their medieval successors in the matter of addressing heresy and heretics.2 Nor did the early medieval compilers of canon law offer substantial instruction on the detection and trial of religious dis- sidents; indeed, even the great canonists of the 11th and 12th centuries barely dealt with the matter of heresy in their codifications of church law and did not introduce any new methods for the investigation and prosecution of heresy.3 Ecclesiastical leaders of the 11th and 12th centuries found some help, however, from scriptural and patristic sources. St. Paul, in his letter to Titus (3:10), de- clared that a heretic should be rejected after the first and second warning, and the Church Fathers, notably St. Augustine (354–430), provided substantial dis- cussions of heretics and heresy. Indeed, Augustine discussed Manichaeism at great length and compiled a treatise describing a vast number of heresies, and offered a strategy for dealing with heresies by calling on the Roman emperor to use coercion against them. Although very important sources for addressing later heresy, even these sources were of limited value in that they lacked any juridical foundation for practical dealing with heresy and, in Augustine’s case, was limited by his sense that worldly authority shared the defects of fallen humankind. As a consequence of this limited set of precedents, ecclesiastical leaders and, to a lesser degree, their secular counterparts were forced to de- velop new strategies to respond to the growing challenge of religious dissent,

the Gregorian Reform to the Reformation, 3rd ed. (Oxford: 2002), 3–40; and for the question of origins and development of heresy and response to it see the collection Heresy and the Persecuting Society: Essays on the Work of R.I. Moore cited above. 2 Bernard Hamilton, The Medieval Inquisition (New York, 1981), 22, notes that “the Church was singularly ill equipped to deal with heresy” when it appeared around the year 1000. For discussion of the early history of the persecution of heresy and its influence on the development of inquisitions in the 13th century, see Henri Maisonneuve, Études sur les origins de l’inquisition (Paris: 1960), 29–91. See also Edward Peters, Inquisition (Philadelphia: 1988), 11–40, especially for developments in law and their influence on inquisitorial practice. Peters’ work also offers a valuable introduction to the history and historiography of inquisition. Ju- lian Havet, “L’hérésie et le bras séculier au Moyen Âge jusqu’au treizième siècle,” Bibliothèque de l’école des chartes 41 (1880): 490–498, discusses Roman imperial legislation and its lack of influence on the early Middle Ages. 3 R.I. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Power and Deviance in Western Europe, 950–1250 (Oxford, 1987), 23–24. Lea, Inquisition, 218, notes that Burchard of Worms’s collection “made no reference to heretical opinions or their punishment save a couple of regula- tions from the forgotten Council of Elvira.” Peters, Inquisition, 45, notes that the collections of Burchard, Ivo of Chartres, and Anslem of Lucca did provide definition of heresy but these collections had no authority outside of their dioceses. Hamilton, Medieval Inquisition, 28–29, explains that only as the 12th century progressed did canon lawyers address the matter of heresy and that they drew both from canon law and the laws of Justinian.