The 13th century is a time of fanaticism, religious intolerance and endless wars. Everyone knows about the crusades against Muslims and pagans, but the Christian world has already been torn apart by contradictions. The gap between Western and Eastern Christians was so great that, having seized Constantinople (1204), the crusaders, in their defense, declared the Orthodox Greeks to be such heretics that "God himself is sick," and also that the Greeks, in essence, are "worse than the Saracens." (until now, Catholics half-disdainfully call Orthodox Christians "Greek Orthodox").
Cecile Morison wrote:
"The main result (of the IV Crusade) was the abyss that opened between the Catholics and the Orthodox, an abyss that continues to exist to this day."
Enemies of the Vatican
Soon the crusaders from Northern and Central France and Germany will go not to the Holy Land, and not to the East, against the "pagans", but to Occitania - to the south of modern France. Here they will drown in blood the movement of heretics-Cathars, who called their faith "the church of love" and themselves - "good people." But they considered the cross just an instrument of torture, refusing to recognize it as a symbol of faith, and dared to assert that Christ is not a man or a son of God, but an angel who appeared to show the only way to salvation through complete detachment from the material world. And, most importantly, they did not recognize the power of the Pope, which made their heresy completely intolerable.
The Waldensians were no less enemies of the Catholic Church, who did not encroach on the official theology of Rome, but, like the Cathars, condemned the wealth and corruption of the clergy. This was enough to organize the most severe repressions, the reason for which was the translation of sacred texts into local languages, carried out by "heretics". In 1179, at the III Lateran Council, the first condemnation of the teachings of the Waldensians followed, and in 1184 they were excommunicated at the Council in Verona. In Spain in 1194 an edict was issued ordering the burning of identified heretics (confirmed in 1197). In 1211, 80 Waldensians were burned at Strasbourg. In 1215, at the IV Lateran Council, their heresy was condemned on a par with the Qatari.
It should be said that the preaching of the crusades directed against heretics, among the most sane people, aroused rejection even in the 13th century. So, Matthew of Paris, for example, wrote that the British:
“They were surprised that they were offered as many benefits for shedding Christian blood as for killing infidels. And the tricks of the preachers caused only ridicule and mockery."
And Roger Bacon declared that war prevents the conversion of both pagans and heretics: “the sons of those who survive will hate the faith of Christ even more” (Opus majus).
Some recalled the words of John Chrysostom that the flock should not be shepherded with a fiery sword, but with paternal patience and fraternal affection, and that Christians should not be persecutors, but persecuted: after all, Christ was crucified, but did not crucify, was beaten, but did not beat.
But where and at what time were the voices of adequate people heard and understood by fanatics?
Saints of those years
It seemed that there should be saints to match the time. A striking example is the activity of Dominic Guzman, one of the spiritual leaders of the crusaders of the Albigensian Wars and the founder of the papal Inquisition. Centuries will pass, and Voltaire, in the poem "The Virgin of Orleans", will describe the punishment of Saint Dominic who found himself in Hell:
“But Griburdon was extremely surprised
When in a large cauldron he noticed
Saints and kings who are wounded
Christians honored themselves by example.
Suddenly he noticed two colors in a cassock
The nun is pretty close to me …
“How,” he exclaimed, “did you go to hell?
Holy Apostle, God's companion, Gospel fearless preacher
The learned man to whom the world is great, In a den in black, like a heretic!"
Then a Spaniard in a white and black cassock
In a sad voice he said in response:
“I don’t care about human mistakes …
Eternal torment
I incurred what I deserved.
I set up persecutions against the Albigensians, And he was sent into the world not for destruction, And now I am burning for the fact that I myself burned them."
However, at the same time, a completely different person walked around the world, also declared a saint.
It was Francis, the son of a wealthy merchant from Assisi, to whom Dante dedicated the following lines:
“He entered the war with his father as a youth
For a woman not called to happiness:
They don't like to let her into the house, like death
But, so that my speech does not seem hidden, Know that Francis was the groom
And the bride was called Poverty."
(Dante, a lay tertiary of the Franciscan Order, was placed in a coffin, dressed like a monk - in a rough cassock and girdled with a simple three-knotted rope.)
It is hard to believe that Francis and Dominic were contemporaries: Francis was born in 1181 (or in 1182), died in 1226, the years of Dominic's life are 1170-1221. And it is almost impossible to believe that both managed to achieve official recognition of Rome, following such different paths through life. Moreover, Francis was canonized 6 years earlier than Dominic (1228 and 1234).
In 1215 they were in Rome during the IV Lateran Council, but there is no reliable indication of their meeting - only legends. Like this: during the night prayer, Dominic saw Christ, angry at the world, and the Mother of God, who, in order to propitiate her son, pointed him to two "righteous men." In one of them, Dominic recognized himself, with the second he met the next day in church - it turned out to be Francis. He approached him, told him about his vision, and "their hearts merged into one in arms and words." Many paintings and frescoes are dedicated to this subject.
One can only be surprised at the "modesty" of Dominic, who found the strength to recognize someone as righteous except himself.
According to the legend of the Franciscans, Dominic and Francis also met with Cardinal Ugolin of Ostia, who wanted to ordain them bishops, but both refused. Cardinal Ugolin is the future Pope Gregory IX, who during the life of Francis was in awe of the meek beggar righteous man, but in 1234 he canonized Dominic, whose cassock and cloak were stained with blood.
The biographies of Francis and Dominic have a lot in common. They came from wealthy families (Dominic from a noble family, Francis from a merchant), but received different upbringing. In his youth, Francis led the ordinary life of the sole heir of a wealthy Italian merchant, and nothing foreshadowed his spiritual career. And the Castilian family of Guzmans was famous for their piety, suffice it to say that Dominic's mother (Juan de Asa) and his younger brother (Mannes) were later ranked among the blessed. The Life of Saint Dominic states that his mother received a prediction in a dream that her son would become "the light of the church and the storm of heretics." In another dream, she saw a black and white dog carrying a torch in its teeth that illuminates the whole world (according to another version, the baby born by her lit a lamp that illuminated the world). In general, Dominic was simply doomed to a fanatical religious upbringing, and it bore fruit. It is said, for example, that, while still a child, trying to please God, he got out of bed at night and slept on the bare planks of the cold floor.
One way or another, both Francis and Dominic voluntarily abandoned the temptations of secular life and both became the founders of new monastic orders, but the results of their activities turned out to be the opposite. If Francis did not dare to condemn even beasts of prey, then Dominic considered himself entitled to bless the massacres during the Albigensian Wars, and send thousands of people to the stake on suspicion of heresy.
The beginning of the Albigensian Wars
The predecessor of Dominic Guzman can be called the famous Bernard of Clairvaux - the abbot of the Cistercian monastery, the very one who wrote the charter of the Knights Templar, played a large role in organizing the II Crusade and the Crusade against the Wend Slavs, and was canonized in 1174. In 1145, Bernard called for the return of the lost "sheep" - Cathars from Toulouse and Albi to the bosom of the Roman Church.
The first bonfires on which the Cathars were burned were lit in 1163. In March 1179, the Third Lateran Council formally condemned the heresy of the Cathars and Waldensians. But the fight against them was still inconsistent and sluggish. Only in 1198, after Pope Innocent III ascended the throne, the Catholic Church took decisive steps to eradicate the heretics.
At first, preachers were sent to them, among whom was Dominique de Guzman Garces - at that time one of the trusted collaborators of the new pope. Actually, Dominic was going to go to preach to the Tatars, but Pope Innocent III ordered him to join the legates heading for Occitania. Here he tried to compete in asceticism and eloquence with the "perfect" Cathars (perfecti), but, like many others, he did not achieve much success. Church authorities reacted to their failures with the first interdicts. Among the excommunicated was even the Toulouse Count Raymond VI (excommunicated in May 1207), who was later accused of the murder of the papal legate Pierre de Castelnau. Seeing that such actions did not give the desired effect, Pope Innocent III called on the faithful Catholics to the Crusade against the Occitan heretics, to which, in exchange for forgiveness, even Raimund VI joined. To do this, he had to go through an extremely humiliating procedure of public repentance and scourging.
The army that gathered in Lyon (its number was about 20 thousand people) was led by Simon de Montfort, an experienced crusader who fought in Palestine in 1190-1200.
But the crusaders who went on this campaign were illiterate people, they knew little about theology, and they would hardly have been able to independently distinguish a Cathar from a pious Catholic. It was for such purposes that Dominique Guzman, who had lost the "competition" to the "perfect" Cathars, but received a good theological education, who became a close friend and adviser to Simon de Montfort, was needed. Often it was he who determined the belonging of a person or a group of people to the number of heretics, and personally sentenced suspects in the Qatari heresy.
The bulk of the crusaders could not be called overly scrupulous, even with a very strong desire. In order to receive the forgiveness of all sins promised by Rome and deserve eternal bliss, they were ready to kill, rape and rob heretics at any time of the day or night. But even in this army there were decent and God-fearing people: in order to calm their consciences, the preachers of the Cathars, who practiced asceticism and sexual abstinence, were accused of debauchery and copulation with demons. And the "perfect", who considered it a sin to kill any living creature except a snake, were declared robbers, bloodthirsty sadists and even cannibals. The situation is not new and quite common: as the German proverb says, "before killing a dog, it is always declared scabby." Catholic "warriors of light", led by officially recognized saints, simply could not turn out to be criminals, and their opponents did not have the right to be called innocent victims. The surprise is something else: simple "terrible tales", hastily invented to deceive ignorant ordinary crusaders, later misled many qualified historians. In all seriousness, some of them repeated in their writings stories about the hatred of the Cathars for the World created by God and the desire to destroy it, to bring the End of the World closer, for which orgies were arranged by the "perfect" and abominations were created that could drive Nero or Caligula into color. Meanwhile, the region of Southern France, which later (after annexation to France) will be called Languedoc, experienced a period of prosperity, in all respects outstripping the native lands of the Crusaders in its development.
She could well have outstripped Italy, becoming the birthplace of the Renaissance. It was a land of courtly knights, troubadours and minnesang. The presence of the Cathars did not in the least prevent it from being a land of material abundance and high culture, who spoke an obscure language of the neighbors of the Franks (who would soon come to rob Toulouse and the surrounding cities) were considered lazy barbarians and savages here. This is not surprising, since the overwhelming majority of people are ready to recognize the benefits and necessity of reasonable restrictions and moderate asceticism, are ready to respect and even recognize as saints individual ascetics who preach self-torture, voluntary poverty and renunciation of all worldly goods, but categorically do not agree to follow their example. Otherwise, not only Occitania, but also Italy, where Francis, who loved poverty, was preaching, would have fallen into desolation and decay. Let's imagine for a moment that the Cathar lands were given the opportunity of peaceful development, or they defended their views in a bloody war. In this case, on the territory of present-day southern France, a state with a distinctive culture, excellent literature, very attractive for tourists, would probably appear. And what do we in the 21st century care about the suzerain rights of French kings or the financial losses of Catholic Rome? But it was wealth, by and large, that ruined this failed state.
The fact that the Cathars' beliefs were sincere is eloquently evidenced by the following fact:
In March 1244, Montsegur fell, 274 "perfect" went to the stake, and the soldiers were offered life in exchange for renouncing their faith. Not everyone agreed, but even the Forsaken were executed, because some monk ordered them to prove the truth of the abdication by stabbing the dog.
For "good Catholics" (as Dominic Guzman's faithful companions imagined them), apparently, it was not at all difficult to stab an unsuspecting trusting dog with a knife. But this turned out to be completely impossible for the Cathars standing at the scaffold: none of them shed the blood of an innocent creature - they were warriors, not sadists.
Order of Brothers Preachers
Dominic's merits in exposing the secret Cathars were so great that in 1214 Simon de Montfort presented him with the "income" obtained from the plundering of one of the "heretical" cities. Then he was given three buildings in Toulouse. These houses and the funds received from the robbery became the basis for the creation of a new religious order of brothers-preachers (this is the official name of the Dominican Order) - in 1216. There are two variants of the coat of arms of the Order of Monks-Preachers.
On the one on the left, we see a cross, around which the words of the motto are written: Laudare, Benedicere, Praedicare ("Praise, bless, preach!").
On the other - the image of a dog carrying a lighted torch in its mouth. This is a symbol of the order's dual purpose: the preaching of the Divine Truth (burning torch) and the protection of the Catholic faith from heresy in any of its manifestations (dog). Thanks to this version of the coat of arms, a second, unofficial, name of this Order appeared, based also on the "play on words": "The Dogs of the Lord" (Domini Canes). And the black and white color of the dog matches the colors of the traditional robes of the monks of this order.
Probably, it was this version of the coat of arms that became the basis of the legend about the "prophetic" dream of Dominic's mother, which was described earlier.
In 1220, the Order of Brothers Preachers was declared beggarly, but after the death of Dominic, this commandment was often not observed, or was not observed too strictly, and in 1425 it was completely abolished by Pope Martin V. The Order is headed by a general master, in each the country has branches of the Order, which are headed by provincial priors. During the period of greatest power, the number of provinces of the Order reached 45 (11 of them - outside Europe), and the number of Dominicans - 150 thousand people.
The Dominican preaching of the Divine Truth at first, as you understand, was by no means peaceful, and I would comment on this "sermon" with the words from Psalm 37 of King David: "There is no peace in my bones because of my sins."
When you read about the incredible atrocities of those years, not the words of prayers come to mind, but the following lines (written by T. Gnedich at another time and on a different occasion):
“God have mercy on us sinners, Take us to the high temple, Have descended to hell
All disobedient to us.
Bright robes of angels, Forces of the holy regiments!
Downward facing sword
Into the very thick of enemies!
The sword that strikes the daring
By the power of the immortal hands
The sword that cleaves the heart
The pain of great torment!
Washed up to hell
Their skulls are the way!
Lord, remember us sinners!
Lord, take revenge!"
And further:
“Thy kingdom come, O Lord God!
May your sword be punished, Archangel Michael!
May it not remain on Earth (and under the Earth too)
Nothing against the glorious power!"
In Toulouse, the brothers-preachers fought with the heretics so fiercely that in 1235 they were expelled from the city, but returned after two years. Inquisitor Guillaume Pelisson proudly reports that in 1234, the Dominicans of Toulouse, having received news that one of the women dying nearby had received a "consultum" (the Qatari equivalent of the rite of communion before death), interrupted the gala dinner in honor of the canonization of their patron in order to burn the unfortunate count's meadow.
In other cities of France and Spain, the population was so hostile to the Dominicans that at first they preferred to settle outside the city limits.
Albigensian wars and their results
The Albigensian Wars began with the siege of Béziers in 1209.
Attempts by Raimund-Roger Trancavel, a young lord of Béziers, Albi, Carcassonne and some other "heretical" cities to enter into negotiations were not crowned with success: the crusaders, who were inclined to plunder, simply did not talk to him.
On July 22, 1209, their army laid siege to Beziers. The sortie of the townspeople who had no combat experience ended with the crusaders who were pursuing them bursting into the city gates. It was then that the papal legate Arnold Amalric allegedly said the phrase that went down in history: "Kill everyone, the Lord will recognize his own."
In fact, in a letter to Innocent III, Amalric wrote:
“Before we had time to intervene, they delivered to the sword up to 20,000 people indiscriminately into Cathars and Catholics and with shouts of 'Kill everyone.' I pray that the Lord will recognize his own."
Shocked by the atrocities of the "Christ-loving warriors", Viscount Raimund Trankevel ordered to notify all his subjects:
"I offer a city, a roof, bread and my sword to all who are persecuted, who are left without a city, roof or bread."
The gathering place for these unfortunates was Carcassonne. On August 1, 1209, the crusaders laid siege to it, cutting it off from sources of drinking water.
After 12 days, the naive 24-year-old knight again tried to enter into negotiations, but was treacherously captured and three months later died in the dungeon of his other castle - Komtal.
Left without a recognized commander, Carcassonne fell two days later.
In 1210, Simon de Montfort decided to go down in history by sending Pierre Roger de Cabaret, a knight whose castle he could not take, 100 mutilated prisoners from the neighboring city of Bram - with ears and noses cut off, and blinded: only one of them, who was supposed to be a guide, the crusader left one eye. And Raymund VI Montfort generously offered to dissolve the army, tear down the fortifications of Toulouse, renounce power and, joining the ranks of the Hospitallers, go to the county of Tripoli in the Holy Land. Raimund refused and in 1211 was again excommunicated. The property of the count, to the great joy of the crusaders, was declared confiscated in favor of those who could seize it.
But the deceived Raimund VI had a strong ally - Pedro II the Catholic, brother of his wife, king of Aragon, count of Barcelona, Girona and Roussillon, lord of Montpellier, who in 1212 took Toulouse under his patronage.
The Aragonese, who voluntarily recognized himself as a vassal of Pope Innocent III, for a long time avoided war with the crusaders. He negotiated and dragged on for as long as he could, but still came to the rescue - despite the fact that his son Jaime was the fiancé of Simon de Montfort's daughter, from 1211 he was with the conqueror, and now he was in the role of a hostage.
Together with his Aragonese ally, Count Raimund opposed the Crusaders, but was defeated in September 1213 at the Battle of Mure. In this battle, Pedro II died, his son and heir, Jaime, the future hero of the Reconquista, was a prisoner of Montfort. Only in May 1214, at the insistence of Pope Innocent III, was he released to his homeland.
Toulouse fell in 1215, and Simon de Montfort was declared the owner of all the conquered territories at the Montpellier Cathedral. The king of France Philip II Augustus, whose vassal became this leader of the Crusaders, also did not fail.
In January 1216, the already mentioned Arnold Amalric, appointed Archbishop of Narbonne, decided that spiritual power was good, but secular power was even better, and demanded a vassal oath from the inhabitants of this city. Unwilling to share, Simon de Montfort was excommunicated by the enterprising papal legate. This excommunication did not make any impression on the crusader, and he took Narbonne by storm.
While the robbers were sharing the clubs stolen from each other, the rightful owner of these places landed in Marseilles - Raymond VI, ruined by Montfort Toulouse rebelled, and by 1217 the count regained almost all of his possessions, but renounced power in favor of his son.
And Simon de Montfort died during the siege of the rebellious Toulouse from a direct hit from a stone-throwing machine shell - in 1218.
The war was continued by the children of old enemies. In 1224, Raymond VII (son of Raymund VI) expelled Amory de Montfort from Carcassonne, then, according to the good old tradition, he was excommunicated (in 1225), but, in the end, only the French king Louis VIII, nicknamed Leo, won. who annexed the County of Toulouse to his possessions. However, this did not bring him happiness: not having time to reach Toulouse, he fell seriously ill and died on the way to Paris - in Auvergne.
Amaury de Montfort, having transferred the already lost possessions to King Louis VIII, received in return only the title of Constable of France. In 1239, he went to fight the Saracens, was captured in the battle of Gaza, in which he spent two years, was ransomed by his relatives - only to die on the way home (in 1241).
Dominique de Guzman died even earlier - on August 6, 1221. The last hours of his life became the subject of many paintings, which often depict the Evening Star - the Dominicans believed that they lived in the end times and were "workers of the eleventh hour" (they considered John the Baptist to be the "Morning Star"). This star at the forehead of Dominic was also depicted by the Dominican Fra Angelico 200 years after the death of the founder of his Order - on the lower right part of the altar panel "Coronation of the Virgin".
Currently, there is a state named after this saint - the Dominican Republic, located in the eastern part of the island of Haiti. But the island state of Dominica got its name from the word "Sunday" - on this day of the week, the island was discovered by the Columbus expedition.
In 1244, the last stronghold of the Albigensians, Montsegur, fell, but the Cathars still retained some influence here. The instructions to the inquisitors said that Cathars can be identified by their poor dark clothing and emaciated figure. Who do you think in medieval Europe dressed poorly and did not suffer from obesity? And what strata of the population suffered the most from the zeal of the “holy fathers”?
The last known to the history of the "perfect" Cathars - Guillaume Belibast, was burned by the inquisitors only in 1321. It happened in Villerouge-Theremin. Even before the Cathars left southern France, the troubadours: Guiraut Riquiere, who was considered the last of them, was forced to go to Castile, where he died in 1292. Occitania was ruined and thrown far back, a whole layer of the unique high medieval European culture was destroyed.
Dominican Inquisitors
Having dealt with the Cathars, the Dominicans did not stop and began to look for other heretics - at first "on a voluntary basis", but in 1233 they obtained a bull from Pope Gregory IX, which gave them the right to "eradicate heresies." Now it was not far before the creation of a permanent tribunal of the Dominicans, which became the organ of the papal Inquisition. But this caused indignation among the local hierarchs, who tried to resist the infringement of their rights by the monks who came from nowhere, and at the Council of 1248 it came to direct threats to the dull bishops, whom the papal inquisitors could now, in case of failure to comply with their decisions, not be allowed into their own churches. … The situation was so acute that in 1273 Pope Gregory X made a compromise: the inquisitors and church authorities were ordered to coordinate their actions.
The first Grand Inquisitor of Spain was also the Dominican - Thomas Torquemada.
His contemporary, the German Dominican Jacob Sprenger, professor and dean of the University of Cologne, co-authored the infamous book The Hammer of the Witches.
Their “colleague”, the German inquisitor Johann Tetzel, argued that the meaning of indulgences surpasses even the meaning of baptism. It was he who became the character of the legend about a monk who sold to a certain knight forgiveness for a sin that he would commit in the future - this sin turned out to be the robbery of the “merchant of the sky”.
He is also known for an unsuccessful attempt to refute 95 theses of Luther: Wittenberg's students burned 800 copies of his "Theses" in the courtyard of the university.
At present, the papal inquisition has a neutral name "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith", the head of the judicial department of this department, as before, can only be one of the members of the Order of Brothers Preachers. His two assistants are also Dominicans.
Dominicans so different
The general curia of the Dominicans is now in the Roman monastery of Saint Sabina.
During its existence, this Order has given the world a huge number of famous people who have achieved success in various fields.
Five Dominicans became popes (Innocent V, Benedict XI, Nicholas V, Pius V, Benedict XIII).
Albertus Magnus rediscovered the works of Aristotle for Europe, and wrote 5 treatises on alchemy.
Two Dominicans have been recognized by the Masters of the Church. The first of them is Thomas Aquinas, the "angelic doctor", who formed "5 proofs of the existence of God." The second is the nun in the world, Catherine of Siena, the first woman who was allowed to preach in the church (for this she had to break the prohibition of the Apostle Paul). It is believed that she, following Dante, contributed to the transformation of the Italian language into a literary one. She also convinced Pope Gregory XI to return to the Vatican.
The Dominicans were the famous Florentine preacher Savonarola, who actually ruled the city from 1494-1498, the Early Renaissance painters Fra Angelico and Fra Bartolomeo, the philosopher and utopian writer Tomaso Campanella.
The 16th century missionary Gaspar da Cruz wrote the first book about China published in Europe.
Bishop Bartolomé de Las Casas became the first historian of the New World, and became famous for the struggle for the rights of local Indians.
Dominican monk Jacques Clement went down in history as the assassin of the French king Henry III of Valois.
Giordano Bruno was also a Dominican, but he left the order.
The Belgian Dominican monk Georges Peer won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in helping refugees in 1958.
In 2017, the Order consisted of 5,742 monks (more than 4,000 of them are priests) and 3,724 nuns. In addition, its members may be secular persons - the so-called tertiaries.
