The Medieval Protestant

Peter of Bruys is known to us because of the writings of two of his enemies. He was born in southeastern France and became a Roman Catholic priest who worked in Provence and Dauphiny about 1117 until 1131. He clashed strongly with the institution of which he was a member, however, and was defrocked.

The reason for the clash was his rejection of much of the trappings of the Roman Catholic Church as they had developed over the centuries, embellishing on practices that were not true to the central spirit of the Gospels. Five of his "erroneous" teachings were described by Peter the Venerable.

The first was about infant baptism. The Petrobusian point was that Jesus said "He who will believe and be baptized" will be saved. Infants did not have the capacity to believe, and baptism should be offered when they are old enough to choose it. St. Augustine of Hippo, however, had declared that baptizing infants and children was essential to save them from Original Sin.

The Petrobrusians also felt that churches and temples were unnecessary, but the Church felt it was important to have a beautiful and impressive building in which the faithful could gather.

Spurning idolatry, the followers of Peter destroyed and burned crosses, because this was the mechanism by which Jesus was killed. It should therefore not be venerated.

The Sacraments also came under fire. Communion was derided. In the words of Peter the Venerable:

They deny, not only the truth of the body and blood of the Lord, daily and constantly offered in the church through the sacrament, but declare that it is nothing at all, and ought not to be offered to God. They say, 'Oh, people, do not believe the bishops, priests, or clergy who seduce you; who, as in many things, so in the office of the altar, deceive you when they falsely profess to make the body of Christ and give it to you for the salvation of your souls.'

The idea of transubstantiation, the conversion of simple bread and wine into something more, the body and blood of Christ, was not declared official until the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, but it had already been accepted belief for a couple centuries.

The fifth point made against them was that they rejected the idea that prayers of the living could somehow aid the dead; once dead your spirit could no longer improve.

This simplicity of devotion—washing away all the additions made by the Church to what the Gospels offered—has made him appear to be an early example of the Protestant Reformation.

I've already written how Henry of Lausanne took up these ideas and preached them himself after Peter's demise to such widespread effect that followers were called Henricians after Henry as well as Petrobrusians. The two would have been a powerful pair of preachers, except for what happened to Peter.

About the year 1131, on Good Friday, Peter of Bruys was being true to his message and burning crosses to make a cooking fire in St. Gilles near Nîmes. Apparently he had not been there long enough to have a following, and his actions outraged the population so strongly that they seized him and threw him onto the fire of burning crosses, killing him. (Enjoy the illustration of Jan Hus being burned from a 1485 Chronicle.)

I've written about transubstantiation before, but I want to revisit it and share that the first use of that term was by someone we've talked about in the past week. See you tomorrow.

More Heresy

After being slapped down at the Council of Pisa in 1135, Henry of Lausanne refused an invitation to join St. Bernard at Clairvaux, opting instead to go to the south of France where he was exposed to the ideas of another unorthodox preacher, Peter of Bruys. Peter had died a few years earlier in 1131—well, "was killed" is more accurate—but he had persuaded many to his views on the Church

The "Petrobrusian" ideas were even more radical than Henry's. Peter rejected the church policies and practices of infant baptism, veneration of crosses, building churches, prayers for the dead, and transubstantiation. Henry took up these points in his own preaching with great success.

It is a work from Peter the Venerable that we learn about this. Also known as Peter of Cluny, he wrote in 1139 a letter, Epistola adversus Petrobrusianos, "against the Petrobrusians." In it we learn what the Petrobrusian doctrine was, and he accuses Henry of preaching errors from Peter of Bruys and spreading them in all the dioceses of southern France. These errors start with recognizing the Gospel as the sole rule of faith, and lead therefore to rejecting the authority of the Church, the sacraments of the Mass, infant baptism, and the Eucharist, as well as rejecting the idea of the communion of saints, prayers for the dead, and any formal worship or liturgy. Peter Abelard also spoke out against the Petrobrusians.

Bernard was asked to debate Henry, and after a time agreed to travel to Henry's location in 1145. When he closed in on Henry's location in Toulouse, Henry left in order to avoid a confrontation. Bernard stayed and preached to any of Henry's followers who would listen, and his eloquence and piety (and reputation for miracles) brought many back to Roman orthodoxy.

Bernard went home to Clairvaux and Henry continued to preach, finally being arrested and condemned by the bishop of Toulouse to life imprisonment (imprisonment is an assumption, based on his disappearance from the historical record and no reference to execution). Bernard in 1146 wrote an open letter to the people of Toulouse, calling on them to abandon the false doctrines preached by Henry. The ideas lived on until at least 1151, however, at which time Matthew Paris tells us that a young girl, inspired by the Virgin Mary, converted many followers of Henry of Lausanne.

What happened to Peter of Bruys in 1131? That makes a good story, though not a happy one for him. I'll see you back here tomorrow.

Henry of Lausanne

When Bishop Hildebert returned to Le Mans after his visit to Rome (to ask the pope to let him resign from his position), he faced a situation that made him really not want to be the bishop anymore. Henry of Lausanne had been preaching there.

Henry was likely a Benedictine who had left the order and decided to follow his own path. In Hildebert's absence, Henry had started preaching publicly, a practice that was usually only the province of the regular clergy. Peter the Venerable wrote a pamphlet describing Henry's message: penitence was paramount, the intercession of saints was not a thing, second marriages were sinful. People responded, giving up the trappings of wealth. We are told that young men would even marry their prostitutes in order to "make honest women" of them.

One result was that the population began to reject ecclesiastical authority as unnecessary, replacing it with a simpler lifestyle. Henry and Hildebert had a public debate in which Henry's principles were shown (one person wrote) to be less heretical than simply born out of ignorance of what the Bible and Church doctrine said. Still, Hildebert banished Henry from Le Mans.

Henry went elsewhere, winding up in Arles where the archbishop arrested him and, in 1135, brought him before Pope Innocent II at the Council of Pisa. In this case a tribunal did find him heretical. He was ordered to stop his itinerant ways and go to a monastery. Supposedly he was offered a place at Clairvaux Abbey by Bernard of Clairvaux.

Bernard was a powerful influence, and association with him would have given Henry some protection (and perhaps modified his views). Henry chose instead to go to the south of France where he met Peter of Bruys. Peter was an early protestant who rejected infant baptism, veneration of crosses, building churches, prayers for the dead, and transubstantiation.

Henry adopted the ideas of Peter, and continued to preach them after Peter's death. This was not a wise career move for him, as we shall see tomorrow.

Peter the Venerable

Peter of Montboissier was born to a woman who was called "Blessed Raingarde" (she was revered as saintly but not formally canonized).

His mother dedicated him to God and handed him to a Cluniac monastery early in his life. By the time he was twenty years old he was the prior of a monastery at Vézelay. He was so good at his job that by the age of thirty he was named abbot general of the Cluniac Order, and embarked on a campaign of reform and stricter discipline.

Peter favored education, and promoted learning in his monasteries. This put him at odds with Bernard of Clairvaux, who preferred the life of a monk to be spent in prayer and manual labor. He charted his own course in other ways: he supported the election of Pope Innocent II against that of Pope Anacletus, even though Anacletus also began as a Cluniac monk, like Peter. Peter also protected Peter Abelard when he was being persecuted for his Trinitarianism (more on that later).

He was prominent in many religious councils, such as Pope Innocent II's Council of Pisa, where he supported Innocent's reforms. He tried to persuade the political figures of Europe that the Crusades should be nonviolent missionary campaigns, not military campaigns intended to subjugate.

His defense of Christianity against other religions was fierce. He wrote treatises against Jews. He called for the Koran to be translated into Latin (which was completed in 1143) so that it could be debated properly, meaning refuted properly. He traveled to Spain (possible Toledo) to meet the translators. Later scholars criticized the translation for its errors.

His responses to the translated texts were two treatises, the the Summa totius heresis Saracenorum ("The Summary of the Entire Heresy of the Saracens") and the Liber contra sectam sive heresim Saracenorum ("The Refutation of the Sect or Heresy of the Saracens"). He essentially labels them heresies so far from Christianity that they are equivalent to paganism.

Peter died on Christmas Day 1156. Peter was thought of as a saint, but was never canonized. As of 2004, the Roman Catholic Church considers him "Blessed."

I now want to turn to his support of Peter Abelard, another French scholar who caused a stir in religious circles. See you tomorrow.

Alberic of Ostia

Alberic started in Beauvais in France but went everywhere once he became a papal legate. Born in 1080, he entered Cluny and became a Benedictine monk, becoming prior of Saint-Martin-des-Champs in Paris. Cluny's abbot, Peter the Venerable, brought him back in 1126 to help restore Benedictine discipline.

In 1135, he attended the Council of Pisa, called by the newly (and suspiciously) elected Pope Innocent II. This brought him to Innocent's attention, and Alberic was named Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia in 1138. Innocent immediately sent him as a papal legate to England.

This was important because papal legate authority had been given to the Archbishop of Canterbury at the strong request of King Henry II. The recent Archbishop, William of Corbeil, had died, and the post was vacant due to the ongoing period called the Anarchy. Alberic helped negotiate a resolution to the war between Stephen of Blois and David I of Scotland (who supported Empress Matilda). Afterward, Alberic visited abbeys and churches and convened a council that elected Abbot Theobald of Bec as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Alberic brought Theobald and others back to Rome in January 1139 where they attended the Second Lateran Council. He was then sent to repeat his English success in Bari on the Adriatic, where the citizens refused to accept Roger II of Sicily as their ruler. He failed that time: the citizens wouldn't allow him into the city.

Still, Innocent relied on him to build deeper ties to the Armenian Church, that had split centuries earlier from Rome over doctrinal differences. There he met with the Armenian Catholicos (leader) Grigor III Pahlavuni. The two traveled on pilgrimage to Jerusalem where, at the Templum Domini, the Dome of the Rock, Grigor pledged to improve relations with Rome.

In the summer of 1144, Alberic was in France, traveling round and resolving ecclesiastical disputes. While there, he persuaded Bernard of Clairvaux to preach against heresy in the Southwest of France. Alberic then returned to Rome in time to help plan the Second Crusade.

Alberic died on 20 November 1148 and was buried in Verdun Cathedral. Bernard of Clairvaux said Mass at his grave, calling Alberic "the venerable Bishop of Ostia, a man who has done great things in Israel, through whom Christ has often given victory to His Church."

It's nice to be considered venerable, even nicer when you are so respected that Venerable becomes part of your name, such as the Venerable Bede. Another person so highly respected was Peter the Venerable, and I'll tell you more about him tomorrow.

Bernard of Clairvaux

Like many well-known theologians/priests in the Middle Ages, Bernard of Clairvaux was born to a wealthy family. This was in Burgundy in 1090, in the family's manor that still exists today (with modifications) as a convent named in his honor.

One of seven children (six sons, one daughter), he was sent at the age of nine to a school miles away, where he took a special interest in rhetoric and literature. He also developed a special interest in the Virgin Mary, seeing her as the ideal human intercessor between mankind and God. Later in life he would write several works about her, although he did not accept the idea of the Immaculate Conception.

His mother's death when he was 19 years old motivated him to devote himself to a cloistered life. He joined Cîteaux Abbey, a relatively new establishment (founded 1098) for those who wished to strictly live according to the Rule of St. Benedict. When a scion of one of the noblest families of Burgundy chose the monastic life, his example prompted scores of young men to do the same. By 1115, the community had grown large enough that a new abbey was needed, and Bernard was elected to take a group of 12 monks to the Vallée d'Absinthe and found a new one. He named this the Claire Vallée ("Clear Valley"), and the name Clairvaux became attached to him.

Bernard's example was such that all male members of his immediate family ultimately joined Clairvaux, leaving only his younger sister, Humbeline in the outside world. (She eventually got permission from her husband to enter a Benedictine nunnery.) His brother Gerard, a soldier, joined after being wounded; Bernard made him the cellarer, a job at which he was so efficient that he was sought after for advice by craftsmen of all kinds. Gerard of Clairvaux also became a saint.

A rivalry arose between Clairvaux and Cluny Abbey. Cluny's reputation for monasticism and the physical size of its church made it a little proud, and the growing reputation of Cîteaux and Clairvaux rankled. While Bernard was on a trip away from Clairvaux, the Abbot of Cluny visited and persuaded one of its members, Bernard's cousin Robert of Châtillon, to join Cluny. This bothered Bernard deeply. Cluny criticized the way of life at Cîteaux, causing Bernard to write a defense of it, his Apology. The Apology was so convincing that the abbot of Cluny, Peter the Venerable, affirmed his admiration and friendship. Another person convinced by the Apology was Abbot Suger.

At the Council of Troyes in 1128, Bernard was asked by Pope Honorius II to attend and made him secretary, giving him the responsibility to draw up synodal statutes. He also composed a rule for the Knights Templar. Bernard's reputation had grown to the point that he was sought after as a mediator. In the schism of 1130, when there were two popes, King Louis VI brought the French bishops together to find a way forward. The person chosen to make the final decision on which pope was authentic and which an antipope? Bernard of Clairvaux. I'll tell you more about that, and his further successes, tomorrow.