It is interesting to trace the genealogy of these doctrines. They came to Italy and France, by way of
the Crusaders, from a sect called the Bogomiles in Bulgaria; in 1167, when the Cathari held a
council near Toulouse, Bulgarian delegates attended. The Bogomiles, in turn, were the result of a
fusion of Manichæans and Paulicians. The Paulicians were an Armenian sect who rejected infant
baptism, purgatory, the invocation of saints, and the Trinity; they spread gradually into Thrace,
and thence into Bulgaria. The Paulicians were followers of Marcion (ca. A.D. 150), who
considered himself to be following Saint Paul in rejecting the Jewish elements in Christianity, and
who had some affinity with the Gnostics without being one of them.
The only other popular heresy that I shall consider is that of the Waldenses. These were the
followers of Peter Waldo, an enthusiast who, in 1170, started a "crusade" for observance of the
law of Christ. He gave all his goods to the poor, and founded a society called the "Poor Men of
Lyons," who practised poverty and a strictly virtuous life. At first they had papal approval, but
they inveighed somewhat too forcibly against the immorality of the clergy, and were condemned
by the Council of Verona in 1184. Thereupon they decided that every good man is competent to
preach and expound the Scriptures; they appointed their own ministers, and dispensed with the
services of the Catholic priesthood. They spread to Lombardy, and to Bohemia, where they paved
the way for the Hussites. In the Albigensian persecution, which affected them also, many fled to
Piedmont; it was their persecution in Piedmont in Milton's time that occasioned his sonnet
"Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints." They survive to this day in remote Alpine valleys and in
the United States.
All this heresy alarmed the Church, and vigorous measures were taken to suppress it. Innocent III
considered that heretics deserved death, being guilty of treason to Christ. He called upon the King
of France to embark upon a Crusade against the Albigenses, which was done in 1209. It was
conducted with incredible ferocity; after the taking of Carcassonne, especially, there was an
appalling massacre. The ferreting out of heresy had been the business of the bishops, but it
became too onerous to be performed by men who had other duties, and in 1233 Gregory IX
founded the Inquisition, to take over this part of the work of the episcopate. After 1254, those
accused by the Inquisition were not allowed counsel. If condemned, their property