for simplicity of worship and poverty of life, much like other wandering preachers; a few
decades later, a rich merchant from Lyon named Waldo gave up his worldly goods and
embarked on an apostolic life of preaching and poverty. Both ran afoul of ecclesiastical
authorities when their personal ideals led them to denounce clerical immorality, question
the church’s accumulation of property, and challenge the efficacy of sacraments
performed by a wealthy and corrupt clergy.
Even more numerous were the Cathars, or Albigensi-ans, who believed in the
existence of two equal and eternal divine powers. Their dualist theory opposed spirit,
goodness, and light to matter, evil, and darkness and replaced the Catholic version of
sacred history with an elaborate mythology of cosmic struggle between the forces of
good and evil. It may be that the Cathar heresy owed its success less to the inherent
drama of its theology than to the heroic asceticism of its leaders. Whatever the reason, the
Cathars attracted many adherents in southern France and northern Italy and even
developed an ecclesiastical structure that rivaled the Catholic church in such regions as
Languedoc until it was smashed by crusaders and inquisitors.
The triumph of orthodoxy in the 13th century owed something to the elaboration of
ecclesiastical structures and the calculated application of force, but even more to the
proliferation of opportunities for the faithful to take an active part in religious life. The
spread of the mendicant orders meant more, better, and longer sermons for laity to hear.
Prolonged or repeated elevation of the host during the Mass, the use of monstrances to
display the consecrated eucharist, and the introduction of Corpus Christi processions all
served to satisfy the laity’s fervent desire to see the body of Christ, made present by the
priest’s words and the miracle of Transubstantiation. Urban parishes paraded the relics of
their saints in annual processions; villagers followed their priests each spring as they
blessed the fields.
In addition to more or less passive attendance at Mass, sermons, and processions, the
laity formed religious guilds or confraternities, thousands of which were founded in the
late Middle Ages. Every village had its confraternity, and each city had several; there
were thirteen confraterni-ties in Aix-en-Provence by 1400, and thirty in Dijon by the end
of the 15th century. These pious associations were an important source of charity: they
fed the hungry, clothed the poor, dowered young women, visited the sick, and buried the
dead. Confraternities staged religious processions or performances on major festivals and
met for private devotions. At their weekly or monthly meetings, the members heard Mass
or listened to sermons. They also performed devotional exercises—prayer, the singing of
hymns, penitential flagellation—according to the bent of the group. Confraternities thus
provided an institutional framework within which laypeople could appropriate such
monastic practices as flagellation and meditative prayer. Not all of their activities were
equally edifying. The Confraternity of the Madonna of Le Puy, founded in 1182 by a
carpenter, was intended to be a devout militia that would preserve the peace and defend
the faith against heretics; but it had to be suppressed when it turned its arms against some
of the local barons. Councils at Avignon (1326) and Lavaur (1368) condemned
confraternities for engaging in acts of brigandage. A more common though less serious
problem was simple rowdiness. Confraternities typically spent substantial sums on wine
for their annual feast, and what was supposed to be a celebration of Christian brotherhood
could degenerate into a drunken brawl or raucous gallop through the forest.
The Encyclopedia 1413