From 1311 to 1315 Duke Frederick of Austria joined with the archbishop of Salzburg and the bishop of Passau in a drive to clear the Austrian lands of heretics who, again, were clearly Waldensians.(5) As usual, those who would not recant were burned; and these seem to have been the great majority. A contemporary chronicler notes that “all showed an incredible stubbornness, even to death; they went joyfully to execution”. The same chronicler summarizes the sect’s doctrine— and amongst tenets which the Waldensians really hold he intersperses some which come straight from the bull Vox in Rama. These people, he says, believe that Lucifer and his demons were unjustly expelled from heaven, and in the end will find eternal blessedness; whereas Michael and his angels will be eternally damned. Meanwhile God neither punishes, nor even knows of, anything done under the earth; so the heretics hold their meetings in subterranean caverns, where they indulge in incestuous orgies — father with daughter, brother with sister, son with mother.(6) Conveniently, this view of the doctrine and behaviour of the Waldensians was confirmed by the confession which Dominican inquisitors extracted from one Ulrich Wollar, of Krems.(7)
Popes took these fantasies seriously and used their unique authority to disseminate them. Like Gregory IX before him, John XXII incorporated them into a bull; and in both cases the pope took this step under the influence of a single cleric in a distant country. Just as Pope Gregory in Rome took on trust the reports which Conrad of Marburg sent from Germany, so Pope John, resident at Avignon, accepted without question the tales concocted by a canon of Prague cathedral. The canon, Henry of Schönberg, was not even a genuine fanatic like Conrad but simply an intriguer, intent on ruining his bishop. Inspired by this man, the pope in 1318 fulminated a bull accusing the bishop of protecting heretics. Here, too, the heresy described is unmistakably Waldensian— but here, too, real Waldensian doctrine is blended with fantasies of Lucifer-worship and of nocturnal orgies in caverns.(8)
Already in Vox in Rama, in 1233, the Devil is shown as presiding in corporeal form over the nocturnal assemblies of the Waldensians; and the same fantasy is found a century later. Under the year 1338 the Franciscan John of Winterthur, in Switzerland, tells of heretics who were being tortured to death or burned at the stake, in Austria and the neighbouring countries. These too must have been Waldensians; and the rituals ascribed to them are strange indeed. When they have assembled in a subterranean hide-out, the proceedings open with a sermon in which the head of the sect expounds its doctrine. Next four youths appear, bearing burning torches; and then there enters a king, clad in precious robes, with a sparkling crown and strangely shining sceptre, and surrounded by a brilliant retinue of knights.
The king announces that he is the king of heaven — which means that he is Lucifer. He confirms the doctrine that has just been expounded and commands, in virtue of his authority, that it be observed and obeyed for ever. At once a grasshopper comes and settles on the mouth of each individual in turn; whereupon all are overwhelmed with such a joyous ecstasy that they lose all self-control. The moment has come for the customary orgy: the lights are extinguished and each has intercourse with his or her neighbour; often a man with a man, a woman with a woman. The chronicler ends with the comment that these sectarians are the special sons of Satan, for they imitate his words and works before other men.(9)
That is what people believed about the Waldensians in the southernmost parts of the German-speaking world — but in the far north the picture was apparentlyjust the same. Around 1336 rumours reached the bishop of Brandenburg that the town of Angermiinde was infected with heresy. Inquisitors were sent to investigate, and not in vain. They found a number of people who were suspected of “the heresy of the Luciferans”; and fourteen men and women, having refused to recant, were burned.(10) Details of the charges are lacking, but a story which reached John of Winterthur at least suggests what was meant by “the heresy of the Luciferans”.
According to the Swiss chronicler — who bases himself on “a faithful report”—a schoolmaster in Brandenburg invited a Franciscan friend of his to come and see the Holy Trinity. Having obtained permission of his brethren, and armed himself with a consecrated wafer, the Franciscan accompanied the schoolmaster to what turned out to be an assembly of heretics. It was presided over by three strikingly handsome men, clad in shining robes, whom the schoolmaster identified as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Unimpressed, the Franciscan produced the Eucharist and held it aloft, crying: “Then who is this?” John of Winterthur finishes his story: “The spirits which, in the guise of the Trinity, had so long fooled people and made them mad, vanished at the sight of the Eucharist; leaving behind a most evil stink. The Franciscan returned thankfully to his brethren, and reported on God’s power and its wondrous effects. But the heretics who had let themselves be mocked and deceived by the spirits were sent to the stake and burned. When they were warned to cast off the filth of superstitions and devilish deceit, to reject, and to profess the true faith, as they ought to do, they persevered in their heretical perversity, being too much ensnared and seduced. They preferred to perish in the fire, in the midst of their sins, to being saved by confession of the true faith. Indeed, they said that they saw in the flames golden chariots which would at once carry them over to the joys of heaven.”(11) In 1384 a further group of “Luciferans” was discovered in Brandenburg, and on this occasion we know what they were accused of. Like the Austrian heretics, and like Conrad of Marburg’s victims, they were supposed to believe that Lucifer had been wrongfully expelled from heaven, and would in due course return there and take over from God. Meanwhile they worshipped Lucifer as their god, and also held promiscuous orgies in underground cellars. The rest of the doctrine ascribed to these people is purely Waldensian, and everything suggests that they too were Waldensians.(12) *
There is no reason to think that Waldensians were very numerous in the German lands at any time. Nor, after their earliest days, were they socially influentiaclass="underline" by the fourteenth century they consisted almost entirely of artisans, modest tradesmen and peasants. Certainly when pitted against the massive structure and vast resources of the Catholic Church the sect was much too small, scattered and obscure to constitute any real threat. Yet in certain quarters it was felt not simply as a threat but as a destructive force of overwhelming, superhuman power. Again we may turn to the Franciscan John of Winterthur to discover not indeed how things were, but how they were imagined to be. In his view, only the most strenuous efforts of Catholic preachers — including of course Franciscan preachers — prevented the Church from being altogether overwhelmed and obliterated: “These people would overthrow the faith of Peter, if the teachers did not each day fortify it with the word of truth. So Peter’s little boat, which sails on the billows of the sea of this world, is battered by the blows of the tempest; but it does not sink, because it is sustained by the strong hands of the teachers.... ”(13)
*
The present chapter was written long before the appearance of the work of Robert E. Lemer,