appeared to that age as a continuation or revival of the Manichaean heresy.^762 The connecting link
is the dualistic principle. The old Manichaeans were never quite extirpated with fire and sword,
but continued secretly in Italy and France, waiting for a favorable opportunity to emerge from
obscurity. Nor must we overlook the influence from the East. Paulicians were often transported
under Byzantine standards from Thrace and Bulgaria to the Greek provinces of Italy and Sicily,
and spread the seed of their dualism and docetism and hatred of the ruling church.^763
New Manichaeans were first discovered in Aquitania and Orleans, in 1022, in Arras, 1025,
in Monteforte near Turin, 1030, in Goslar, 1025. They taught a dualistic antagonism between God
and matter, a docetic view of the humanity of Christ, opposed the worship of saints and images,
and rejected the whole Catholic church with all the material means of grace, for which they
substituted a spiritual baptism, a spiritual eucharist, and a symbol of initiation by the imposition
of hands. Some resolved the life of Christ into a myth or symbol of the divine life in every man.
They generally observed an austere code of morals, abstained from marriage, animal food, and
intoxicating drinks. A pallid, emaciated face was regarded by the people as a sign of heresy. The
adherents of the sect were common people, but among their leaders were priests, sometimes in
disguise. One of them, Dieudonné, precentor of the church in Orleans, died a Catholic; but when
three years after his death his connection with the heretics was discovered, his bones were dug up
and removed from consecrated ground.
The Oriental fashion of persecuting dissenters by the faggot and the sword was imitated in
the West. The fanatical fury of the people supported the priests in their intolerance. Thirteen New
Manichaeans were condemned to the stake at Orleans in 1022. Similar executions occurred in other
places. At Milan the heretics were left the choice either to bow before the cross, or to die; but the
majority plunged into the flames.
A few men rose above the persecuting spirit of the age, following the example of St. Martin
of Tours, who had vigorously protested against the execution of the Priscillianists at Treves. Wazo,
bishop of Liège, about 1047, raised his voice for toleration when he was asked for his opinion
concerning the treatment of the heretics in the diocese of Châlons-sur-Marne. Such doctrines, he
said, must be condemned as unchristian; but we are bound to bear with the teachers after the example
of our Saviour, who was meek and humble and came not to strive, but rather to endure shame and
the death of the cross. The parable of the wheat and the tares teaches us to wait patiently for the
repentance of erring neighbors. "We bishops," he tells his fellow-bishops, "should remember that
we did not receive, at our ordination, the sword of secular power, the vocation to slay, but only the
vocation to make alive." All they had to do was to exclude obstinate heretics from the communion
of the church and to guard others against their dangerous doctrines.^764
CHAPTER XIII.
THE STATE OF LEARNING.
(^762) Other names, however, were invented to distinguish the different branches which were compared to foxes with tails
tied together. In the time of Innocent III., more than forty heretical names were used, about twelve of them for the Manichaean
branch, chiefly "Manichaeans," "Catharists," and "Patareni." See Hahn, I. 49 sqq.
(^763) On the different derivations see the notes of Gieseler, II. 234 sq., and Hahn, I. 30 sqq.
(^764) Neander, III. 605 sq.; Gieseler, II. 239, note.