A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume ILea, Henry Charles
History
A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume I
Lea, Henry Charles
Inquisition -- History
know nothing as to the fate of Pons and his disciples, but their numbers
and activity were a manifestation of the pervading disquiet and yearning
for a change.[54]
* * * * *
Arnald of Brescia's heresy was much more limited in its scope. A pupil
of Abelard, he was accused of sharing his master's errors, and
incorrect notions respecting pædo-baptism and the Eucharist were
attributed to him. Whatever may have been his theological aberrations,
his real offence was the energetic way in which he lashed the vices of
the clergy and stimulated the laity to repossess the ample wealth and
extended privileges which the Church had acquired. Profoundly convinced
that the evils of Christendom arose from the worldliness of the
ecclesiastical body, he taught that the Church should hold neither
temporal possessions nor jurisdiction, and should confine itself rigidly
to its spiritual functions. Of austere and commanding virtue,
irreproachable in his self-denying life, trained in all the learning of
the schools, and gifted with rare persuasive eloquence, he became the
terror of the hierarchy, and found the laity ready enough to listen and
to act upon doctrines which satisfied their worldly aspirations as well
as their spiritual longings. The second Lateran Council, in 1139,
endeavored to suppress the revolt which he excited in the Lombard cities
by condemning and imposing silence on him; he refused obedience, and the
next year Innocent II., in approving the proceedings of the Council of
Sens, included him in the condemnation of Abelard, and ordered both to
be imprisoned and their writings burned. Arnald had fled from Italy to
France, and now he was driven to Switzerland, where we find his restless
activity at work in Constance and then in Zurich, pursued by the
sleepless watchfulness of St. Bernard. According to the latter, his
conquests over souls in Switzerland were rapid, for his teeth were arms
and arrows, and his tongue was a sharp sword. After the death of
Innocent II. he returned to Rome, where he seems to have been reconciled
to Eugenius III. in 1145 or 1146. The new pope, speedily wearied with
the turbulence of the city which had exhausted his predecessors,
abandoned it and finally sought refuge in France. Arnald was not idle in
these movements, and was generally held responsible for them. Vain were
the remonstrances of St. Bernard to the Roman commonalty, and equally
vain his appeals to the Emperor Conrad to restore the papal power by
force. At the same time Conrad treated with disdain envoys sent by the
Roman republic, protesting that their object was to restore the imperial
supremacy as it had existed under the Cæsars, and inviting him to come
and assume the empire of Italy. Eugenius, on his return to Italy, in
1148, issued from Brescia a condemnation of Arnald, directed especially
to his supporters among the Roman clergy, who were threatened with
deprivation of preferment; but the citizens stood firm, and the pope was
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