R. I. Moore's public lectures at University of Nottingham

A LECTURE BY R. I. MOORE

On January 29th, I attended two public talks by R. I. Moore on the subject of the "Cathars". The second of these was the main event of the evening and was videotaped, so I'm hoping it will enter the public domain soon, where I can link to it. Both talks drew heavily on material presented in Moore's latest book "The War On Heresy". For now, I thought I'd mention the first of the talks, which had a much narrower focus. The hour and a half which Moore devoted to the subject was still only enough for a brief summary of the main ideas, but I'll present what I recall of them here as they bear on one of the main subjects of this blog -- the historiography of medieval heresy.

The lecture was about one very important primary source on 12th century heresy, Eberwin of Steinfeld's letter to Bernard of Clairvaux. This one document is both the first and the most comprehensive description of the medieval heresy or heresies that traditional historians would term 'Catharism'. Moore began with a handout for our perusal, which consisted of the primary source itself, in the original Latin and with an English translation. The latter follows along with Moore's introductory comments from the handout.

THE PRIMARY SOURCE

Eberwin of Steinfeld and heresy in Cologne

This letter from Eberwin, provost of the Augustinian canons of Steinfeld, near Cologne, to Bernard of Clarivaux, is the fullest description we have of a trial of heretics in the twelfth-century, and has been central to every account of the subject: see, e.g. Lambert, MEdieval Heresy (3 ed), 62 - 4, Moore, Origins of European Dissent, 168 - 72 -- but compare Moore, The War on Heresy, 131 - 40.  The difference, which is the focus of this master class, is the impact of Uwe Brunn, Des contestaires aux 'Cathares'.  Discours de reforme et de propagande antiheretique dans les pays du Rhin et de la Meuse avant l'inquisition (Paris 2006), especially at 124 - 60.  The translation, slightly amended, is from R. I Moore, The Birth of Popular Heresy, 74 - 8 and the text from Migne, Patrologia Latina 182, col. 676 - 80.


To his reverend lord and father, Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux, Eberwin humble minister of Steinfeld,

I rejoice in your eloquence as though I have found great treasure.  You remind us so forcefully of the goodness and sweetness of God in all your speech and writings, especially on the song of the groom and his bride, of Christ and the Church, that we can truthfully say, with that same groom, 'thou hast kept the good wine until now'.  (John 2.10)  He has appointed you to be our butler for this precious wine; do not cease to pour it, do not even pause, for you will not be able to empty the jug.  Weakness will not excuse you, holy father: in this task piety is more important than bodily strength.  Nor can you plead that you are busy, for I could propose nothing more necessary than this to our common work.

You can give us drink from so many jugs.  You have poured enough from the first, and it has made us wise and strong against the teaching and charges of the scribes and pharisees; from the second against the arguments and missiles of the gentiles; from the third, against the subtle deceptions of heretics; from the fourth, against false Christians; from the fifth against the heretics who will come at the end of time, as the Holy Spirit manifestly said through the apostle, 'in the latest times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy and having their conscience seared, forbidding to marry, to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving.' (1 Tim 4.1)  Let the faithful drink from your sixth jug for strength against him who will surely be revealed in that revolt from the faithith as 'the man of sin, the son of perdition who opposeth and is lifted up above all that is called God, or that is worshipped ... whose coming is according to the second coming of Satan, in all power and signs and lying wonders and in all seduction of iniquity.' (2 Thess. 3.4)  After that, when the sons of men have been intoxicated by the richness of the Lord God and the torrent of his love, the seventh draught will not be necessary.

Good father, you have poured enough for us all for our correction, edification and elevation when we are setting out, while we are on the journey and when we have completed it, from your fourth jug, enough to avail until the end of time against the indifference and wickedness of false brethren.  Now is the time for you to draw from your fifth jug, and let fly against the new heretics who are rising on every side from the depths of the abyss, in almost every church, as though their leader is released and the day of the Lord is at hand.  There is a verse in the wedding song of the love of Christ and the Church which you must deal with, as you yourself have reminded me, 'Catch us the little foxes that destroy the vines', (Song of Solomon 2.15) which is appropriate to this problem and calls for your fifth jug.  Therefore, father, I appeal to you to distinguish all the elements of their heresy which come to your notice, and produce arguments and authorities from our own faith to destroy them.

A group of heretics was found recently in these parts, near Cologne, some of whom readily returned to the Church.  Two of them, however, one who was called their bishop, with his companion, defied us at a meeting of clerks and laymen, at which the archbishop and some great nobles were present, and defended their heresy with quotations from Christ and the apostles.  When they saw that they were making no headway they asked for a day to be fixed on which they might bring forward men from among their followers who were expert in their faith.  They promised that if they saw their masters refuted in argument they would be willing to rejoin the Church, though otherwise they would rather die than abandon their views.  After this they were urged for three days to come to their senses, and refused, and then were seized by the people, who were moved by great enthusiasm, (though we were against it), put to the stake and burnt.  The amazing thing was that they entered and endured the torment of the flames not merely courageously, but joyfully.  I wish I were with you, holy father, to hear you explain how such great fortitude comes to these tools of the devil in their heresy as is seldom found among the truly religious in the faith of Christ.

This is their heresy.  They claim that they are the true Church, because the heritage of Christ survives in them alone.  They are the true followers of the apostolic life, because they do not seek the things of this world, houses or land or any other sort of property, just as Christ did not seek them, and did not allow his disciples to possess them.

They said to us, 'You join house to house and field to field, and seek the things of this world.  Those who are thought most perfect among you, monks and canons regular, possess things not individually, but in common: nonetheless they do possess all of these things.'  Of themselves they said:

We are the poor of Christ, wandering men; fleeing from city to city like sheep in the midst of wolves we suffer persecution with the apostles and martyrs.  We lead a holy life, fasting, abstaining, working and praying by day and night, seeking in these things the necessities of life.  We live thus because we are not of this world' you are lovers of the world, at peace with the world because you are worldly.  False apostles have corrupted the word of Christ for their own ends, and have led you and your fathers astray.  We and our fathers, the successors of the apostles, have remained in the grace of Christ, and will remain so until the end of the world.  To distinguish between you and us, Christ said, 'By their fruits you shall know them.' (Matt. 7.16)  Our fruits are the following in the footsteps of Christ.

In their diet they prohibit all milk, and anything which is made from it, and anything which is produced by procreation.  This is what they told us about their way of life.  They wear veils at mass, but openly confessed to us that when they eat daily after the manner of Christ and the apostles they consecrate their food and drink as the body and blood of Christ, by reciting the Lord's Prayer, to be nourished with the body and limbs of Christ.  They told us that they do not believe in the truth of the sacraments, which are only shadowy human tradition.  They claimed that they baptize, and had been baptized, not merely in water but in the fire and the spirit, adducing the evidence of John the Baptist who, after baptizing in water , said of Christ, 'He shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and in fire', (Matt. 3.11) and 'I baptize in water, but there hath stood a greater in the midst of you whom you know not', (John 1.26) as though he would baptize by some other medium than water.  They tried to argue that such baptism should be performed by the laying on of hands, by referring to Luke's description of Paul's baptism, in the Acts of the Apostles, which at Christ's command he received from Ananias, where there is no mention of water, but only of the laying on of hands.  They take whatever references to the laying on of hands are found in the Acts of the Apostles or the Epistles of Paul as references to baptism.  Anyone who is baptized among them in this way is called electus, and has power to baptize others who are worthy of it, and to consecrate the body and blood of Christ at his table.  But first he must be received by the laying on of hands from among those whom they call auditores into the credentes; he may then be present at their prayers until he has proved himself, when they make him an electus.  They care nothing for our baptism.  They condemn marriage, but I could not discover the reason for this from them, either because they dared not tell it, or (more likely) because they did not know it.

There are other heretics in our area who are always quarrelling with these people.  Indeed it was through their perpetual wrangling and discord that we discovered them.  They hold that the body of Christ is not made on the altar because none of the priests of the Church has been consecrated.  They say that the apostolic dignity has been corrupted by involvement in secular affairs, and the throne of St Peter by failing to fight for God as Peter did, has deprived itself of the power of consecration which was given to Peter.  Since the Church no longer has that power, the archbishops who live in a worldly manner within the Church cannot receive it and consecrate others.  They cite in support of their argument the words of Christ, 'The scribes and Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses; whatsoever they shall say to you observe and do' (Matt. 23, 2-3), as though the power of speaking and preaching was conferred by this and nothing else.  Thus they empty the church of priests, and condemn the sacraments, except for baptism; even that must be for adult, and they say that it is conferred by Christ and not by the minister of the sacraments.  On the baptism of children they take their view from the words of the evangelist, 'He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.' (Mark 16.16)  They hold that all marriage is fornication, unless it is between two virgins, both the man and the woman, citing the words of the Lord when he replied to the pharisees, 'What God hath joined together let no man put asunder,' (Matt 19.6) as though God joins such people in the manner of the first men, because the Lord said to the same opponents against their argument for divorce, 'From the beginning it was not so,' and, in the same place, 'He that shall marry her that is put away committeth adultery,' (Matt 19.9) and, in the apostle, 'Marriage honourable in all, and the bed undefiled'.  (Hebrews 13.4)

They do not believe in the intercession of saints, and hold that fasts and other penances which are undertaken because of sin are unnecessary, because whenever the sinner repents all his sins will be forgiven.  They call all observances of the Church which are not laid down by Christ or by the apostles after him superstitions.  They will not admit the existence of the fires of purgatory, because when the soul leaves the body it passes at once either to eternal rest or eternal punishment, according to the words of Solomon, 'If the tree falls to the south or to the north, in what place soever it shall fall there shall it be.' (Eccles. 11.13)  Consequently they condemn the prayers and offerings of the faithful for the dead.

I appeal to you, holy father, to awaken your vigilance against this many-headed evil, and direct your pen against these beasts of prey.  Do not reply that the Tower of David to which we flee is already adequately provided with bulwarks, that a thousand shields hang from its walls, and that it is furnished with every weapon for the valiant.  We want those weapons to be collected together by your labour, on behalf of us simpler and slower people, so that they will be the fitter to track down these monsters, and the more effective in resisting them.  You should know that the heretics who returned to the Church told us that they have a great multitude of adherents all over the world, including many of our own clerks and monks.  Those who were burnt told us while they were defending themselves that their heresy had been hidden until now ever since the time of the martyrs, and persisted in Greece and other lands, and these are the heretics who call themselves apostles and have their own pope.  The other lot deny our pope, but at least do not claim to have another one instead.  These apostles of Satan have women among them who are -- so they say -- chaste, widows or virgins, or their wives, both among the credentes and among the electi, alleging that they follow the apostles who permitted them to have women among them.

Farewell in the Lord.

ANALYSIS OF THE PRIMARY SOURCE

After giving his audience a chance to read this text, Professor Moore solicited reactions and questions from the audience and thereby discussed some of the salient points of the letter. Although I cannot do justice to this part of his talk with a summary, I'll try to reiterate some key points from his lecture, his book and my own reading. I will not make a clear distinction here between those ideas which he presented in his talk and those which I have inserted into the discussion, save to say that I'm sure any true insights belong to Moore and any errors to me.

It was written in around 1147 and addressed to Bernard of Clairvaux who was, at the time, one of the most pre-eminent and powerful men in the Church. Nothing else by its author, Eberwin of Steinfeld, has survived and Bernard's answer is not known. No other sources describe these heretics, the meeting at which they defended their views, or the burning. Nonetheless, many historians have used Eberwin's letter to trace the development of a distinct heretical tradition (or even an organized heretical church) which can be termed "Cathar". That label, in fact, contributes to a sort of circular reasoning fallacy. If Eberwin's heretics, to whom he never gives any kind of title, are "Cathars" and the heretics of the Languedoc, who were also never called "Cathars" at the time of the Albigensian Crusade, are also "Cathars" then any similarities between the two groups of described heretics is a common trait of "Cathars", thus showing the continuity of "Cathar" belief and practice between the locations and times presented in the sources.

The traditional analysis of this text therefore focuses on the beliefs and practices of the heretics described by Eberwin and identifies those which are the same or similar to beliefs and practices described in other texts about other groups of heretics, in order to demonstrate a historical connection between them. For example, the vegetarianism of Eberwin's heretics ("in their diet they prohibit all milk and anything which is made from it, and anything which is produced by procreation") has been linked to the heretics of the Languedoc seventy years later, about whom Peter des Vaux-de-Cernay said that they "renounced meat, eggs and cheese". Other traits which appear in Eberwin's description, such as the hierarchical ranks of "electi," "auditores," and "credentes" have been linked to heretics described by Byzantine authors, even if those authors only described two ranks -- "perfecti" and "credentes". This type of reading of the text allows for a great deal of loosely-reasoned identification and has allowed the "Cathars" to be seen as directly linked to pre-Christian Gnostics, early Chistians before the formation of the Catholic Church, various early heretics in the first centuries after the formation of the Catholic Church, early medieval Byzantine heretics, contemporary Italian and German heretics, and as precursors to the Protestant movement, or the modern Evangelical movement. If all that is needed is a shared idea, or even a fairly similar idea, to demonstrate a historical connection between groups of people separated by time and geography, then it is easy to begin to believe, as contemporary monks did, that all heretics were part of a conspiracy dating back to biblical times. It is, however, necessary for historians to discount these authors' further belief that this conspiracy worshiped the Devil and was a sure sign that the end times were imminent in the 12th or 13th century as mere monastic fantasy.


R. I. Moore has turned away from this traditional view of history and used this first evidence of "Cathar" heresy in the west to show how our reading of texts about heresy can be informed by context. The crucial question, Moore stressed, which historians did not really address until the 1990s was "Who was Eberwin of Steinfeld?" Moore, building on the work of Uwe Brunn, then painted a picture of Catholicism in Europe in the early 12th century, and of Eberwin's place in it.

SOME CONTEXT ABOUT THE 12th CENTURY CHURCH

At the end of the 11th century, Pope Gregory VII had undertaken a serious reform of the church and the first effort to clearly define and enforce its rules and hierarchy throughout Christendom. He had attempted to stop the selling of religious offices, wrest control over appointments from secular powers, prevent clergy from taking wives and having children, and institute various other reforms with greater or lesser success. Often resisted by the powerful bishops and archbishops, Gregory set the precedent of using charismatic preachers and monastic orders as the spearheads of his local reform movements and when later reformers addressed the same problems after his pontificate, they tended to use the same types of people.

Gregory's reforms had a profound impact on the Church and on Christendom, but the Catholic Church in the first part of the 12th century had only recently begun to resemble the organized hierarchy that we are more familiar with today. Nearly every papal election was contested, often militarily, and most popes had rival "anti-popes" who excommunicated them and vice versa. Deciding which claimant was legitimate was no easy matter -- some of those now seen as the "anti-popes" ruled from St. Peter's throne in Rome while their rivals, now seen as the "popes" endured their pontificate in exile. In most of Europe, monarchs and the nobility controlled the investiture of bishops and abbots and the Holy Roman Emperor contested that he had the ability to do so for the Papal See itself.

In a time of such uncertainty and schism in the Church's hierarchy, one could not be certain that any particular pope would maintain his authority against his rivals. Papal approvals and condemnations, therefore, could only be as strong as the perceived supremacy of the pope over other claimants to the Holy See. Furthermore, popes around this time frequently died after only a brief term in office, meaning that an individual or an order which did not find approval from Rome could expect to find another opportunity to gain favour within a few years. Although nominally imbued with supreme authority, no pope in this time period succeeded in wielding it. Even within Rome, several popes found themselves stymied by the hostile power of established political families and more than one ended up driven out of Rome by angry mobs. With papal power in such disarray, bishops and abbots in the rest of Europe often ruled their dioceses and monasteries as if they were independent dominions. In some cases, they essentially were. Where local aristocracy were free to appoint members of their own families as heads of the Church in their areas, Church lands and benefices could be expected to be run for the benefit of those aristocracies. Where Church offices could be passed down to the sons of Church officers, or even sold off without higher approval, those offices tended to feel no particular loyalty to the nominal authority of one or more far-off Supreme Pontiffs.

This environment was, indeed, ripe for reform and it was not just Pope Gregory and his successors who acted on that need. Popular resentment of the corruption of the Church was frequently nurtured and expressed by those whose mandates as reformers were less clearly established. Some lay reformers were given permission by sympathetic bishops to preach in their dioceses. Some drew their authority from being followers of those who had official approval. Some had had papal approval at one point or were in hopes of receiving it at some point in the future. Some felt that they needed no external approval and drew their authority from the Scriptures or, at least, from their own understanding of the Scriptures. Among these reformers, there may have been a great deal of disparity in beliefs. The majority were never accused of any heresy and in the absence of such an accusation there are almost no records of what preachers taught or what ordinary people believed. To a great extent, the only records of people's beliefs which have come down to us exist in the context of heresy accusations. We are thus ill-equipped to gauge the possibly extremely heterogeneous beliefs of large proportions of the population of Europe and the extent to which communities accused of being 'heretical' were, in fact, different from their unaccused neighbours.


Bernard of Clairvaux was the best-known preacher of his age, one of the founders of the powerful Cistercian order, and a powerful force throughout the church. His friend and, much later, fellow saint Norbert of Xanten was also a well-connected and charismatic preacher, but was unaligned with any order as prestigious as the Cistercians. Norbert was one of the many rabble-rousers of his day who adopted an apostolic life of stark contrast to the wealth and power of the church authorities. He practiced asceticism so stringent that his first three followers died of starvation or exposure while accompanying him. Dressed in animal skins and working miracles, he traveled around Europe spreading his message and proving to be thorn in the side of the local church establishment, whom he criticized. Although he angered many in the Church with his outspoken attacks and opposition to established authority, he was well-connected and couldn't be easily removed. He was denounced by the canons of his home town of Xanten but traveled to Rome where he received permission to preach directly from Pope Gelasius II.

A few years later, the following Pope, Calixtus II, found that Norbert's anti-clerical rhetoric and his growing following were still causing trouble and commanded him to settle down and found a stable, religious house for his followers. Norbert did so at Premontre, and the members of his new order were called Premonstratensians. Norbert attempted to found an order which would own no property and live a genuinely austere life. Five years after its founding, the growing order was formally approved by another new Pope, Honorious II. The effort at quieting the fiery Norbert was unsuccessful, however, and the following year Honorious tried another tactic -- he appointed Norbert as Archbishop of Magdeburg, possibly in the hope that the troublesome preacher would find martyrdom there. He nearly did, surviving a number of assassination attempts as he brought his brand of stern reform to the border between the Holy Roman Empire and the lands of the Slavic peoples. When Honorious died a few years later, yet another schism split the Church (and Europe) as Innocent II and Anacletus II emerged as rival claimants for the papacy. Norbert and Bernard were heavily involved on the side of Innocent II and Norbert is credited for convincing the Holy Roman Emperor, Lothair, to march on Rome and evict Anacletus, securing the papacy for Innocent by force of arms in the third year of his pontificate.

Norbert died the next year, in 1134, and the nascent Premonstratensian order he left behind him was as wrought with strife and schism as the rest of Christendom. In the area around Cologne, where some of the first Premonstratensian houses had been settled, Archbishop Frederick was sympathetic to Norbert's attempts at clerical reform, but not his harsh kind of extremism. The Archbishop of Cologne was appointed by the Holy Roman Emperor and was the secular ruler of the city as well as the spiritual head of its diocese. Eager for members of the church whom he could use in an attempt at sparking reform in the Rhineland, Frederick conferred on the Premonstratensians duties such as parish service, baptism, and confession, along with the churches, tithes, and lands which provided material support for those services. Needless to say, these duties and the remuneration from them were taken from existing churchmen who were, presumably, in need of reform. In return, the German Premonstratensians were to use this backing to undertake their reform work. The acceptance of these lands and monies was a clear break with Norbert of Xanten's vision of the order and it caused a split. Those who stayed within the order accepted compromises and became, at least partly, part of the system against which their founder had preached. Those who left attempted to preserve the apostolic example of asceticism in their lives, but lacked any official mandate or acceptance for their religious way of life.

Other changes within the Church assailed the new order, particularly on the topic of women. Norbert had both men and women in his following and, indeed, many were married couples who undertook a religious life together. The first Premonstratensian houses were all of mixed gender. Indeed, it is quite possible that many early Cistercian houses were mixed as well at the start of the 12th century. By the 1130s, the Church had shifted strongly away from according any significant role to women in its organization and no one was more vociferously opposed to women than Bernard of Clairvaux. The mixed houses were broken up and the women's houses, probably poorly endowed in the process, disappeared quickly.

One of two German Premonstratensian houses, Steinfeld was at the centre, both of the Archbishop of Cologne's efforts at reform, and of the factional in-fighting which occurred between "official" and "unofficial" followers of Norbert in the wake of his death. Although we do not have any biographical account of Eberwin, he was the Premonstratensian superior of Steinfeld in 1147 when he wrote this letter to Bernard, 22 years after the Pope's acceptance of the Premonstratensian rule and 13 years after Norbert's death. 

RE-INTERPRETATION OF EBERWIN'S LETTER

In this context, we can re-interpret the "heretics" to whom Eberwin refers, and against whom he requests Bernard's authority, as fundamentalist followers of Norbert who challenged the newly monied and political house at Steinfeld as being a corruption of Norbert's teaching. "This is their heresy.  They claim that they are the true Church, because the heritage of Christ survives in them alone," Eberwin wrote of these people who challenged the Church's (and his) authority. "They are the true followers of the apostolic life, because they do not seek the things of this world, houses or land or any other sort of property, just as Christ did not seek them, and did not allow his disciples to possess them.  They said to us, 'You join house to house and field to field and seek the things of this world. Those who are thought most perfect among you, monks and canons regular, possess things not individually, but in common: nevertheless they do possess all of these things.'"

This initial description of the heretics makes sense if we imagine them as followers of Norbert's apostolic tradition who struggled against the integration of their movement into the established wealthy Church until they found themselves altogether outside of it.  "We are the poor of Christ," Eberwin quotes them as saying, "wandering men; fleeing from city to city like sheep in the midst of wolves we suffer persecution with the apostles and martyrs. We lead a holy life, fasting, abstaining, working and praying by day and night, seeking in these things the necessities of life. We live thus because we are not of this world; you are lovers of the world, at peace with the world because you are worldly. False apostles have corrupted the word of Christ for their own ends, and have led you and your fathers astray." This tension over righteous authority was inevitable in a Church where authority could not clearly flow from Rome through a reliable and effective hierarchy. Instead, Norbert of Xanten and others like him had taught alternative ways to distinguish between true and false apostles. "To distinguish between you and us, Christ said, 'By their fruits you shall know them.' Our fruits are the following in the footsteps of Christ," concluded the heretics in Eberwin's summation of their statements.

Eberwin's description goes on to detail their dietary restrictions and here it must be noted that extremes of fasting and rejection of certain foods, especially meat, were not unique features of a particular heresy, but rather ascetic ideals embraced by monastic houses, apostolic preachers, and often repeated in the lives of saints. Norbert's extremes of self-denial were enough to kill off some of his enthusiastic followers -- certainly, nothing claimed by these heretics was so rigorous.

There are other features of the heretics' practices and beliefs which Eberwin describes and which can also be understood as the features of a fundamentalist tradition which believed itself to be following in Norbert's footsteps.  Norbert had not been the lone authority in the organization of his followers; he had established communities under monastic rules and overseen the appointment of local leaders.  As those communities fractured in his absence, it is not surprising that different splinter groups would have different ideas about how they should be structured.  The creation of those called electi, with the power to baptize others, and their division from the auditores and credentes of the community, could easily be seen as a feature of this fracturing. The alternative explanation -- that these communities had received their structure by joining a larger, international heretical movement of "Cathars" -- must wrestle with the fact that although "Cathars" in other places were said to also have ranks, they had only two (perfecti and credentes) and not three.

At the time when Eberwin wrote, there was little or no formal structure belonging to heresy trials or accusations. The Church Fathers of the 4th and 5th centuries had classified the heretics of their era and established Church law for their condemnation and punishment. No such easy classifications existed for contemporary dissenters in the 11th and 12th centuries. Opponents of local church authority were not clearly the Donatists or Manichees who existed seven centuries earlier in other parts of the world. Therefore, the well-established laws condemning them were not so easily applied. Furthermore, even powerful churchmen of the day may have been unsure of their authority to condemn anyone to death. Despite their worldliness, priests were still supposed to avoid the shedding of blood and the neat division which inquisitors would later claim between Church conviction and secular execution still lay almost a hundred years in the future. By appealing to the most respected churchman of his day, Bernard of Clairvaux, to "awaken [his] vigilance ... and direct [his] pen against these beasts of prey" so that Eberwin and his community would "be the fitter to track down these monsters, and the more effective in resisting them" Eberwin sought to gain the best authority he could find against dissent in a world and a church where authority was hotly contested.

A great deal has been made of Eberwin's claims that the heretics in his area belonged to a "heresy [that] had been hidden until now ever since the time of the martyrs, and persisted in Greece and other lands, and these are the heretics who call themselves apostles and have their own pope." We do not know if Eberwin invented this, or if he heard it from colleagues who had embellished it, or if it accurately reflects the statements of the heretics he spoke to.  We cannot even be sure if Eberwin's heretics were real and if we should believe any of the contents of his letter.  If Eberwin was accurately reporting the beliefs of heretics he had heard, we cannot know why they might have thought that their movement stretched geographically as far as Greece and temporally as far as "the time of the martyrs". It is a common trait of all denominations of Christianity to claim a tradition deriving from Christ and extending historically from his time to the present. Certainly, Norbert had claimed to be following an apostolic tradition derived from Christ and his apostles. Probably, Norbert had had little restraint in matching his teachings to the traditional truths promulgated by the Catholic Church.  Possibly, these claims of a separate tradition originated with Norbert or, just as likely, with those who took leadership of parts of his movement after his departure from Premontre. The main point is that of many possible explanations, the real existence of the international, historical, heretical conspiracy claimed in Eberwin's letter is not the most compelling.

ADDITIONAL NOTES FOR FURTHER EXAMINATION

There are some other features of Eberwin's letter which interested me, but which Professor Moore did not touch on in the time he had for his lecture. I was struck by Eberwin's lengthy use of the metaphor of Bernard as butler for seven jugs of wine. In this unwieldy construction, Bernard pours from each jug and Eberwin's "us" drink and are thus "made wise and strong against" the rhetoric of various types of adversaries, who are categorized with a separate jug made ready against each. In providing this categorization, Eberwin reveals a number of surprising assumptions, which I have not yet found explanations for, about his opponents and, indeed, his world.

The first category of opponents are "the scribes and pharisees", the second are "the gentiles", the third are "the heretics", the fourth are "the false Christians", the fifth are "the heretics who will come at the end of time", the sixth appears to be the Antichrist, and the seventh is undefined as the draught from that jug "will not be necessary".  It seems strange that Eberwin categorizes "heretics" separately from "false Christians" and "the heretics who will come at the end of time".  Eberwin emphasizes that Bernard's efforts against "false Christians", that is his pouring from his fourth jug, has already been "enough to avail until the end of time".  But Eberwin suggests that Bernard has not yet dealt with the problem of "the heretics who will come at the end of time" when he says "Now is the time for you to draw from your fifth jug" as if Bernard's work has not already done so.


What is the difference between "the heretics" of the third jug and "the heretics who will come at the end of time"?  Possibly, by "the heretics" of the third category, Eberwin means those heretics of antiquity who had already been well defined and anathematized by the Church fathers, as opposed to his contemporary heretics. Tellingly, Eberwin expresses the belief that the "end of time" is already upon him since these fifth-category heretics are now "rising on every side from the depths of the abyss, in almost every church, as though their leader is released and the day of the Lord is at hand".  Eberwin, like other monks before and after him who wrote about heresy, was not temperate in his rhetoric or reluctant to suggest that his opponents were literally the servants of the devil. The discussions of the divergent methods of baptism or rejection of the sacrament of marriage may seem minor enough to the modern reader, but to Eberwin and churchmen of his day these differences may well have been proof of the utter evil in the souls of those against whom they fought. It is perhaps from his apocalyptic, millenialist view that the idea came of heretics as eternal enemies of the church, present in ancient writings, who had remained hidden until they would unleash their maleficence upon the world at the end of days.  It certainly appears that the biblical representation of heresy was influential in Eberwin's depictions of his own local heretics.  He quotes in his letter 1 Tim 4:1 "in the latest times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy and having their conscience seared, forbidding to marry, to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving."  Eberwin certainly seems to have gone to efforts to subsequently repeat each of these features and associate them with the communities against whom he sought Bernard's authority. 

Who were "the false Christians" of the fourth jug, against whom Bernard of Clairvaux had done enough to last until the end of time, however soon Eberwin might have thought that was?  It would be incautious to begin to try to match Bernard's biography to Eberwin's jugs, given Bernard's wide-ranging activities and the vagaries of our understanding of Eberwin's categories.  By 1147, Bernard had been engaged in many controversies.  He had successfully persecuted Abelard, had energetically supported popes against their rivals, had vigorously defended the Cistercians from the rival Cluniac order, and was still quite active in the ongoing struggle between the two houses. 

He had also, most recently, preached against Henry of Lausanne in the area around Toulouse.  Henry was a former Cluniac monk about whom we know very little, save what Bernard alleged about him.  He was an itinerant preacher, critical of church authorities, and a follower of the denounced Peter of Bruys.  In this sense, he does not seem to have been that different from Norbert of Xanten and his later followers, save for Norbert's family connections and papal approval.  Henry of Lausanne was arrested, after Bernard's intervention, and held in prison at Toulouse, most likely until his death.  Bernard's efforts against Henry and his followers began in 1145 and ended, after Henry's imprisonment, with Bernard's letter to Toulouse at the end of 1146 warning them to take action against any remaining followers of the condemned man.  In current historical writing about the subject, this is generally seen as Bernard combatting heresy in the Languedoc.  Many traditional historians, of course, have portrayed it as combatting the "Cathar" heresy there.  It is quite odd, then, that in 1147 Eberwin would write to Bernard praising all of his efforts, but suggesting that Bernard had done more than enough about "false Christians" but had not yet turned his attention to "heretics" such as those recently discovered around Cologne.  It seems unlikely that Eberwin would have been unaware of Bernard's well-publicized actions or would have chosen to ignore them.  Perhaps we now have the date of Eberwin's letter wrong, or perhaps there is a broader misunderstanding of what Eberwin means by "heretics" as opposed to his other categories.

Lastly, I find Eberwin's manner of describing the heretics to be remarkably inconsistent. When he describes them in the beginning they are creeping out of the depths of the abyss to follow their leader, the Antichrist. When he mentions them again at the end they are "apostles of Satan".  But in between these epithets, he stops to remark on the courage and stoicism of their martyrdom. "The amazing thing was that they entered and endured the torment of the flames not merely courageously, but joyfully.  I wish I were with you, holy father, to hear you explain how such great fortitude comes to these tools of the devil in their heresy as is seldom found among the truly religious in the faith of Christ". The depiction of heretics showing joy as they burned, or rushing of their own accord into the fires, is one that would often be repeated in later accounts of the burnings of heretics.  I continue to be puzzled as to whether this could possibly have truth to it, or whether it constituted some particularly beloved trope of Church authors in discussing their burnt opponents.  Nonetheless, Eberwin, who is the first example of this trope that I am familiar with, makes it clear that he is presenting virtues on the part of his enemies and that these demonstrations of virtue are in need of explanation.  Similarly, in his lengthy discussions of the beliefs of the heretics, he bases their views in Scripture and provides the logical connections between the biblical passages and their "heretical" interpretation.  In this, he shows far more understanding and empathy than would be expected from his hyperbolic condemnation of his opponents as Satanic evildoers.