“Canon 14. We prohibit also that the laity should be permitted to have
the books of the Old or the New Testament; unless anyone from
motives of devotion should wish to have the Psalter or the Breviary
for divine offices or the hours of the blessed Virgin; but we most
strictly forbid their having any translation of these books.” (The Council of Toulouse, 1229.)1
In the mid thirteenth century, a succession of Church councils prohibited the
translation of the Bible into vernacular languages. Who were these bans aimed at?
Why were they put in place? Did they lead to the Church actually destroying
bibles? If not, what purpose did these prohibitions serve?
To answer these questions, I will first look at the councils that prohibited
translations, their backgrounds and the major external influences – the Pope and the
Kings of France and Aragon, as well as the formation of a culture of censorship
during the thirteenth century. I will then examine the use of Scripture in vernacular
languages by the major heretical movements of the time, namely the Waldensians
and the Cathars, and explore the role of notaries in the production of such
vernacular texts. Finally I will review the targets of the individual councils, and
examine whether there is any evidence of the destruction of books as a result.
The councils that prohibited vernacular translations were Toulouse (1229), Trier
(1231), Tarragona (1233), and Béziers (1246). 2 Rheims (1230) also banned
translation into Gallic (French). The relevant texts are collected in appendix 1
below. These were only five in a long series of councils that tried to combat the
threat to the Church from heretical groups such as Cathars and Waldensians. They
were convened by local bishops, but influenced by outside parties such as papal
legates, royal emissaries and local nobility. There was also a rising culture of
centralisation, as more power was concentrated in Paris and Rome at the expense
of southern towns.
The major powers at the time were Pope Gregory IX, King Louis IX of France and
King Jaime I of Aragon. All three were united in a desire to repress heresy;
1 Peters, E., Heresy and Authority in Medieval Europe (London, 1980) p. 195
2 Patschovsky, A., ‘The literacy of Waldensianism’, Heresy and Literacy, 1000-1530 ed. Biller, P. and Hudson, A., (Cambridge, 1994) p. 116
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however, the Pope needed their aid to implement any plans he might decree, and
royal support was not always forthcoming. In particular, his calls for crusades –
with their massive cost and commitment of soldiers – were frequently ignored.
Gregory IX (Pope from 1227 to 1241) was closely involved in the crusading
movement, not just in the Languedoc but also in crusades to the East and
elsewhere. He declared a crusade against Bosnia and attempted to do the same against Bulgaria, to defeat dualist heretics in those lands.3 He appears to have
reacted sharply against any claim of heresy, no matter how outlandish – his letter
Vox in Rama against “Luciferian” heretics in Germany being a good example. He
was also a notable jurist, commissioning the collation of canon law known as Nova
compilation decretalium or the Decretals (1234). He favoured increased control by
the Papacy over religious and educational matters. Examples of this included his
involvement in the disputes at the University of Paris, and his censorship of the
Talmud, which will be explored later on.
King Louis IX of France and King Jaime I of Aragon had several similarities. Both
fostered good relations with the papacy, at a time of conflict with other monarchs.
Both were religious and acted strongly against heresy within their own borders; as
a result, both were open to imposing papal rules and regulations when other
countries may have been less keen on outside interference.
There was arguably also a growing general ‘culture of censorship’ at the time.
Certainly there are other cases of textual repression. An important example during
this period was the 1240 debate in Paris concerning the Talmud. It stemmed from a
complaint in 1236 by Nicholas Donin, a Jewish convert to Christianity, to Pope
Gregory IX laying charges against rabbinic Judaism and the Talmud in particular.
Eventually Pope Gregory responded, and in 1239 he wrote to the kings of France,
England, and all of Spain and Portugal. He ordered the confiscation of all Jewish
books.4
Only Louis IX complied with this decree, and he allowed the Jews an opportunity
to defend their books. Donin and Rabbi Yehiel of Paris held a public disputation.
3 Hamilton, B., and Hamilton, J., Christian Dualist Heresies in the Byzantine World c.650- c.1450 (Manchester, 1998) pp. 265-6 4 Eisenberg, S. A., Reading Medieval Religious Disputation: The 1240 “Debate” Between Rabbi Yehiel of Paris and Friar Nicholas Donin (PhD dissertation, University of Michigan, 2008) p. 12
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However, after various delays, there was a book burning in Paris in 1242. Twenty
or twenty-four cartloads of Talmudic manuscripts were incinerated.5 This showed
that the King of France was particularly open to measures proposed by the Pope,
even if he implemented them in its own way.
To understand the aim and intention of the prohibition on vernacular religious
texts, we must first examine at whom these measures were directed. The two major
heretical groups, the Waldensians and the Cathars, both appear to have used
vernacular texts from the Bible in their preaching and rites, and it is likely that the
bans were aimed primarily or solely at curbing their activities. Bernard Gui distinguished between their two attitudes to these texts:6 Cathars read from their
bibles whereas Waldensians preached from them. This suggests a more active use
of the Bible by the latter. At the time, very few entire bibles were written – instead
separate books of the Bible or gospels circulated independently. There was also a
lack of version control, so even a theoretically ‘standardised’ text like the Vulgate
Bible was transmitted in several competing traditions.7
For Cathars, the Bible played a central role in their rites, even if different factions
disagreed both as to which books should be accepted as part of the Bible, and as to
whether the texts used should be in Latin or the vernacular, depending on their
background and education. Historians generally believe that Italian Cathars used texts in Latin, whereas those further north used texts translated into Occitan.8
A number of contemporary writers commented that those Cathars who rejected
some or all of the books of the Old Testament did so on the grounds that they were only a record of the ‘evil God’.9 However, all held the four Gospels to be the
5 Eisenberg, S. A., Reading Medieval Religious Disputation p. 13-14 6 “The Cathar magistri are presented as reading ‘from’ or ‘about’ them (legunt de), while the Waldensians are presented as preaching from them (praedicunt de).” Biller, P. The Waldenses, 1170-1530 (Aldershot, 2001) p. 175 7 Harris, M. Roy, ‘The Occitan Translations of John XII and XIII-XVII from a Fourteenth- Century Franciscan Codex (Assisi, Chiesa Nuova MS. 9)’, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, Vol. 75, No. 4 (1985) pp. 40 8 Hamilton, B., ‘Wisdom from the East: the reception by the Cathars of Eastern dualist texts’, Heresy and Literacy, 1000-1530 p. 58; see also Paolini, L., ‘Italian Catharism and written culture’, Heresy and Literacy, 1000-1530 p. 97 9 “They attributed the New Testament to the benign God and the Old Testament to the malign God, and rejected the whole of the latter except for certain passages quoted in the New Testament.” Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay, The History of the Albigensian Crusade (trans. Sibly, W. A., and Sibly, M. D.) (Woodbridge, 1998) p. 11
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source of their beliefs, with some variations in the Epistles compared with the
Catholic canon.
Other writers note the use of additional books or Biblical Apocrypha, such as The
Vision of Isaiah or Ascension of Isaiah and The Secret Supper (Interrogatio Johannis [the questions of John]), and their status as canonical amongst Cathars.10
According to Hamilton, these works were never translated into the vernacular.11
Whilst these works were called heretical, they were not the focus of the Church’s
attack, and tolerance of other apocryphal texts was high. Equally the descriptions
of angels and their hierarchy in the Ascension of Isaiah would have been in
keeping with orthodox writings on angelology, such as those of St. Thomas
Aquinas.
Instead the focus of attention was the practical use of these biblical texts by
Cathars. The book formed a central part of their liturgy, which has survived in an
Occitan translation, and the rites match the descriptions given in later inquisitorial
depositions. The book used could have been a complete Gospel, or might have been only the Gospel of John,12 but this book was needed for the Cathar rites of adoration or consolamentum, where the text was “held over the recipient’s head”.13 Biller has reviewed many examples of this14 and suggests that in early Catharism, a
notary would have read from the holy text and then a perfectus or ‘Good Man’
would have preached or expounded on its meaning. Later on, only the perfectus
would have read aloud, as their preaching was driven underground, and officials
such as notaries would have feared the loss of their jobs from associating with
heretics.
By contrast, the Waldensians used translated texts from the start. Their foundation story as written by Stephen of Bourbon15 has two interesting points. Firstly, Valdes
10 Wakefield, W. L., and Evans, A. P., (ed.) Heresies of the High Middle Ages p. 449-465. 11 Hamilton, B., ‘Wisdom from the East’, p. 53
12 Biller, P., ‘The Cathars of Languedoc and written material’, Heresy and Literacy, 1000- 1530 ed. Biller, P. and Hudson, A., (Cambridge, 1994) p. 68 13 Biller, P., ‘The Cathars of Languedoc and written material’, p. 74
14 Chapter 4 of Biller, P. and Hudson, A., (ed.) Heresy and Literacy, 1000-1530 (Cambridge, 1994) 15 Stephani de Borbone tractatus de diversiis materiis praedicabilis IV.vii.42, translated in Wakefield, W. L. and Evans, A. P., (ed.) Heresies of the High Middle Ages pp. 209-10
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(or Vaudes) himself pays for both the gospels and secondary literature to be
translated into Occitan for him: “…not only for many books of the Bible but also
for many passages from the Fathers, grouped by topics, which are called Sentences.”16 Secondly, the translators are named – Bernard Ydros and Stephen of
Anse – and Bernard is identified as a “priest” and a “scribe” or notary, whereas
Stephen was a “prebendary of the cathedral of Lyons”. This suggests how we could
look for the producers of vernacular texts outside of the groups that actually used
them.
Notaries would have been an important local resource for translation and copying
of texts in thirteen century Occitania. In this pre-printing mode of production, the
original centre of manufacture was the monastery. Monastic estates provided the
livestock for the vellum, and the religious duty of literate monks was extended
from general working and prayer to include copying codices, providing cheap
labour for book production. Later on, the rise of universities and literate urban
classes drove the need for commercial copying of books. This was provided by
teams of copyists and bookmakers or stationers, selling to students and readers, and
regulated through guilds of scriveners and similar bodies.
Occitania appears to have lacked these two forms of book production. Monasteries
were smaller and poorer than more famous centres to the north, and the University
of Toulouse was only founded in 1229, the city being on the small side to house
sufficient demand for an independent book trade. The University at Montpellier,
better known for medicine and law than theology, was also underdeveloped until it
received formal recognition from the papacy in 1289.17
Instead, notaries and clerics in administrative roles would have copied texts as a
sideline to their day-to-day work. The role of notaries in society was widespread
with the acceptance of Italian customs and Roman laws into the area. Lesné-Ferret
comments, “At the middle of the thirteenth century, the public notariate existed in
the smallest and most remote localities while the number of notaries in large towns
16 Bernard Gui expands on this as, “He had procured for himself translations of the Gospels and some other books of the Bible in vernacular French, also some texts from St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, and St. Gregory, arranged topically, which he and his adherents called ‘sentences.’” Wakefield, W. L. and Evans, A. P., (ed.) Heresies of the High Middle Ages p. 387. 17 Schachner, N., The Medieval Universities (New York, 1938) p. 262
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multiplied.”18 He also noted that in Montpellier in 1223, a local statute prohibited
notaries from being clerics admitted to holy orders, forcing a separation of church
and civil jurisdictions that had frequently overlapped.19 Documents would mainly
have been in Latin, although Occitan was increasingly used for city records. After
1229, increasing centralisation in Paris under Louis IX meant that records went
back into Latin rather than into Gallican (northern French).20
Even non- or semi-literate individuals would have used notaries, a recognition of
the importance of official writing. In order that texts could be attributed to the right
notary, in the absence of seals, signatures often contained pictograms.21 These
pictograms may have related to nicknames or to the signs outside their premises.
This would have enabled a non-literate person to return the document to the notary
to be read aloud by a witnessing party, in the event of any dispute or question.
Having identified the users and translators of the vernacular Gospels, we will now
look at the individual councils and their targets, and why they lead to different
canons.
The council of Toulouse in 1229 was held only six months after the Treaty of
Paris, which in turn marked the end of the Albigensian Crusade. Life during
wartime had been harsh, with the practice of collective punishment and area denial
techniques. Punishments included mass burnings of suspected heretics and
executions of prisoners generally, and area denial measures included the destruction of crops and vineyards,22 which threatened the collapse of the local
agrarian economy. The council sought to move on to the individual pursuit of
18 Lesné-Ferret, M., ‘The Notariate in the Consular Towns of Septimian Languedoc (Late Twelfth–Thirteenth Centuries)’, Urban and Rural Communities in Medieval France: Provence and Languedoc, 1000-1500 ed. Reverson, K., & Drendel, J., (Leiden, 1998) p. 4 19 Lesné-Ferret, M., ‘The Notariate in the Consular Towns’ p. 9 20 Fisher, J. H., ‘European Chancelleries and the rise of Standard Written Languages’, Essays in Medieval Studies: Proceedings of the Illinois Medieval Association Volume 3, (Illinois, 1986) p. 10 21 Friedlander, A., ‘Signum meum apposui: Notaries and their Signs in Medieval Languedoc’, The Experience of Power in Medieval Europe, 950-1350 (Aldershot, 2005) pp. 93-117 22 Wakefield, W. L., Heresy, Crusade and Inquisition in Southern France, 1100-1250 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1974) pp. 126-7
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heretics and pursue the aims of the earlier peace treaty. Despite the many years of conflict, the authorities believed that little had been achieved to drive out heresy.23
We can gain further context for the council of Toulouse from the preaching of
Hélinand of Froidmont. A leading Cistercian, he gave a number of sermons in
Toulouse in 1229, including ones identified with the opening of the new university and the opening and closing of the council itself.24 Hélinand preached against
heretical beliefs concerning the origin of the world, and abstaining from sexual
intercourse and eating meat. He focused on attacking Cathar beliefs and appears
knowledgeable of their writings. Hélinand also attacked the Cathar rite of
consolamentum, exhorting listeners to pursue the consolation of the Eucharist in
the Church. This view was reflected in canon 13 of the council, which prescribes confession and reception of the Eucharist three times a year. 25 Audisio has
suggested that the authorities also started to crack down on Waldensians at this
time, having ignored them in previous decades due to their useful preaching against Catharism.26 However, the focus was still on the nominal cause of the Albigensian
crusade – ‘Albigenses’ being the Church’s label for Cathars in the Languedoc. The
broad sweep of its Canon 14 would have effectively covered both Waldensian and
Cathar texts.
The council of Trier in 1231 is poorly reported, but it condemned heretics with
Scripture translated into German; this is likely to have been aimed at the
Waldensians. After reports of their previous appearance in Metz in 1199 and investigation by the bishop there,27 we may assume Waldensians had spread north
and south in the intervening period. We do not have the exact text of any measures
against them to compare with the other councils.
23 Wakefield, Heresy, Crusade and Inquisition p. 209
24 Kienzle, B. M., Cistercians, Heresy and Crusade in Occitania, 1145-1229 (York, 2001) p. 182 25 Kienzle, B. M., Cistercians, Heresy and Crusade p. 183-192 – appearances at Christmas, Easter and Pentecost, see Mansi, J. D., Sacra Conciliorum Nova, et amplissima collectio, tomus XXIII. (Venice, 1725-1768) col 197 26 Audisio, G., The Waldensian Dissent: Persecution and Survival c. 1170-c.1570 (Cambridge, 1999) pp. 29-30 27 The investigation is discussed in Boyle, L. E., ‘Innocent III and Vernacular Versions of Scripture’, The Bible in the Material World Essays in Memory of Beryl Smalley (Studies in Church History Subsidia 4) (Oxford, 1985) pp. 97-107
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The council at Tarragona in 1233 is less well known than that of 1242, which was
explicitly against Waldensian heretics called “Inzabbatati” 28 or ‘open sandal
wearers’. In contrast, the 1233 council is described in a perfunctory manner in
Mansi, even though King Jaime I enacted its canons as laws. Its targets are more
difficult to place.
One source of context for the period is Lucas of Tuy, who wrote a book against
“Albigensian” heretics around 1235-6. The book only survives as a printed edition
from 1612, but shows a concern about Cathar heretics in Leon in the early years of the thirteenth century.29 In particular he names Arnald, who came from the borders of France to Spain to “sow the weeds of the errors of heresy”.30 He is described as
a very fast writer (scriptor velocissimus) and accused of distributing booklets
(opuscula) of corrupting works to Catholics.31 This suggests Cathar influences
across the north of Spain and not just into the Kingdom of Aragon. So we can
assume the broad measures, covering both Old and New Testament, were meant to
cover Cathars and Waldensians, even if they were not actually widespread in
Aragon at that time.
Mansi lists two councils at Béziers in 1246.32 The second of these contained a
broad prohibition on either lay or clerical ownership of any theological books in
the vernacular language, rather than just the Bible. It came after a series of
inquisitions had been held by the Dominicans, as their efforts continued through
the new technique of personal inquiry into heresy. We can assume that they
pursued Cathars and Waldensians equally, although in the sentences that survive,
more people were condemned for being Cathars than Waldensians by a large
margin. The condemned theological books may have included works or collections
28 Mansi, J. D., Sacra Conciliorum Nova… tomus XXIII. cols 553-560
29 Smith, D. J., Crusade, Heresy and Inquisition in the Lands of the Crown of Aragon (c. 1167-1276) (Leiden, 2010) pp. 132-6 30 “Quidam etiam haereticus nomine Arnaldus de confinibus Galliae venit in Hispaniam Zizaniam erroris haeretici seminando…Erat enim scriptor velocissimus, & corrupta santorum opuscula vendebat, vel dabat Catholicis…” Lucas of Tuy, De Altera Vita, Fideique Controversis Adversus Albigensium errors Libri III… (Ingolstadt, 1612) p. 182; see also Roth, N., ‘Jews and Albigensias in the Middle Ages: Lucas of Tuy on Heretics in Leon’, Serafad, 41:1 (1981) pp. 83-4 31 Also discussed in Biller, P., ‘The Cathars of Languedoc and written material’, Heresy and Literacy, 1000-1530 ed. Biller, P. and Hudson, A., (Cambridge, 1994) p. 69 32 Mansi, J. D., Sacra Conciliorum Nova… tomus XXIII. cols 689-704, cols 715-724
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of authorities supporting heretical views, such as the “perpendiculum scientarum” (the Plumb-line of Knowledge) cited by Lucas of Tuy33 but the council did not
specify any particular books. The canon of the council was so broad, covering any
theological books, that it appears to be a catch-all for any heretical or unauthorised
enquiry into religion.
These four councils were all in, or close to, Occitan areas of the south. The fifth
council is an exception, being in northern France, at Rheims in 1230. It is also
poorly documented; our knowledge comes not from an official record of the
council, but from a sermon given by Philip, chancellor of the University of Paris from 1218 to 1236.34 In it he attacks a baker called Echard, who appears to have
been a Waldensian, and reports a prohibition on translating scripture into “the
Gallic tongue” i.e. northern French. Again we lack the exact wording to compare
with the other councils, and assume this was a reaction to a specified individual.
So the five councils attacked the books of both Cathars and Waldensians, with an
apparent bias against Waldensians. Were any of these books preserved? Or did
these measures ensure their destruction?
We have very few books in Occitan from the thirteenth century or earlier, heretical
or not. The two most notable are the Cathar New Testament and Ritual preserved in Lyons, Bibliothèque de la ville A.I.54 (formerly MS Palais des arts 36),35 and
the Occitan New Testament in the British Library, MS Harley 2928. The former is
the only surviving complete Cathar New Testament, whilst the other is the earliest
Occitan gospel text in existence. Otherwise the main evidence of heretical
literature are from much later, such as the fourteenth century Occitan passages from the gospel of John preserved by the Spiritual Franciscans in Assisi,36 or
fifteenth century Occitan texts from Waldensian communities in the Alps.37
33 Lucas of Tuy, De Altera Vita p. 158; see also Biller, P., ‘The Cathars of Languedoc and written material’, p. 69 34 Haskins, C. H., Studies in Mediaeval Culture (Oxford, 1929) pp. 245-255 35 Wunderli, P., Le Nouveau Testament de Lyon (ms. Bibliothèque de la ville A.I.54 / Palais des arts 36) Vol. 1: Introduction et edition critique (Romanica Helvetica vol. 128) (Tübingen / Basel, 2009) 36 Harris, M. Roy, ‘The Occitan Translations of John XII and XIII-XVII from a Fourteenth-Century Franciscan Codex (Assisi, Chiesa Nuova MS. 9)’, pp. 1-149. 37 Biller, P., The Waldenses, 1170-1530 (Aldershot, 2001) pp. 189-90
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The Lyon manuscript is relatively small at 17.5cm x 13.2cm in size and written on
parchment. A photographic reproduction was published in the 19th century.38 Anne
Brenon studied the decoration of the text, and commented on the unusual
decoration. Whilst there are red and blue initial letters and geometric patterns on
initials, the scribe avoided using any of the usual motifs of plants, animals or vines, which is very different from Latin bibles of the period.39 The only two identifiable
symbols are marks that Brenon terms as a ‘lily’ and a ‘fish’. These break out of the
text, extending above or hanging below the words of the gospels.40
These symbols are strangely familiar when we compare them with the notarial signs collected by Alan Friedlander.41 The fish below the text are reminiscent of
those used as signs for notaries, and the ‘lilies’ are more like the variations on the
fleur-de-lis used to designate the writing of a royal notary from the 1250s onwards.
It seems likely that a notary copied the manuscript in an Occitan town adding his
usual signs to the text. He may not even have been familiar with the illustrative
conventions of illuminated bibles, as these were more likely to have been produced
outside of the area, by monasteries or the great stationers of Paris.
The Occitan text in the British Library, MS Harley 2928, is much older. It has been
dated to the first quarter of the twelfth century, and is bound between seven other
religious texts in Latin. It is also relatively small at 16cm x 9cm; the text is plain
and not illustrated, and is a translation of John 13-17. There is nothing to suggest
use by a heretical group; but it shows booklets with vernacular texts were
circulating long before the Church councils attacked them. A very similar text,
being part of John 12 and 13-17 in Occitan, was written around 1325×1335 and is
preserved in a Franciscan manuscript in Assisi. The choice of passages, relating to
the sufferings of Jesus and predictions of the end, was popular amongst mendicants
and monastic orders.
38 Clédat, L., Le Nouveau Testament traduit au XIIIe siècle en langue Provençale: suivi d’un ritual cathare (Paris, 1887) 39 Brenon, A., ‘Cathars and the representation of the divine: Christians of the Invisible’, Iconoclasm and Iconoclash: Struggle for Religious Identity ed. Asselt, W. v., Geest, P. v., Müller, D., and Salemink, T. (Leiden, 2007) pp. 247-261+appendices 40 Clédat, L., Le Nouveau Testament traduit au XIIIe siècle, pages 3, 7, 16, 113, 135, 474 (fish) and pages 1, 5, 10, 19, 28, 36, 57, 110, 115 and perhaps 134 (lily) 41 Friedlander, A., ‘Signum meum apposui: Notaries and their Signs in Medieval Languedoc’, pp. 93-117.
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The Harley manuscript predates Waldensian or Cathar use, but provides evidence
of translation into Occitan. This manuscript and comparable texts used by
Franciscan and Dominican preachers were usually small (octavo or smaller) and easily carried.42 The size was also an advantage in making such works easier to
hide.
However, we have to be careful in not assuming translations were produced only
for heretical groups. Vernacular translations of individual books of the bible were
circulating in Paris between 1230 and 1260, laying the ground for entire bibles in French towards the end of the thirteenth century. 43 However, it is difficult to
measure how many such books were produced. There may be a survivorship bias
in the books we can see today; Latin texts in monastic libraries may have been
more likely to be carefully preserved than vernacular texts in regular day-to-day
use.
But is the paucity of surviving vernacular texts attributable to their portable nature
and daily wear and tear, or were they destroyed by burning, as prescribed at the
council of Tarragona? Certainly the latter is the assumption of many historians.
Givens states that, “The fire was undoubtedly the final destination of most heretical works that came into the inquisitors’ hands”, 44 but do we have any positive
evidence of this?
Descriptions of book burnings were rare; stories of anyone actually getting rid of a
bible even more so. Stephen of Bourbon tells us that Robert, dauphin of Auvergne
and marquis of Montferrand, collected books of all the heretical sects. He was persuaded by the friars to burn all the offending works.45 Otherwise there is little
indication of any destruction of books.
Why, despite the council’s edicts, does it appear that very little was done to enforce
them? Certainly the civil authorities had no great interest in devoting resources to
such matters. There may also have been a great reluctance by the Church to
42 Biller, P., The Waldenses, 1170-1530 pp. 185-88; d’Avray, D. L., The Preaching of the Friars, Sermons diffused from Paris before 1300 (Oxford, 1985) pp. 57-62 43 McGerr, R. P., ‘Guyart Desmoulins, the Vernacular Master of Histories, and His “Bible historiale”’, Viator, 14 (1983) p. 214 44 Given, J. B., Inquisition and Medieval Society: power, discipline and resistance in Languedoc (Ithaca, 1997) p. 50 45 Wakefield, W. L. and Evans, A. P., (ed.) Heresies of the High Middle Ages p. 67
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advocate the destruction of the Bible, even in translation, when the reverence of the
book in Catholic church services was already an important part of orthodox ritual.
As the events in Paris in 1241-2 show, it would have been possible, if there had
been the will. Inquisitors in Occitania could have been ‘firemen’, searching for
banned books to burn. But they did not – the focus was on personal salvation and
attacking the carriers of heresy, wandering preachers or Cathar perfecti.
So if book burnings were so rare, how then should we view these canons of local
church councils? These rulings are better seen as experiments in the ‘war on
heresy’. The Church and monarchy tried a number of approaches, and tested a
broad range in Languedoc. These ranged from disputations and Dominicans
through to regime change and domestic crusade. Other experiments included the
foundation of the university of Toulouse – a transplant of ideas that seemed
unlikely to succeed in its early years. It initially lured academics from the
university of Paris during the Dispersal of 1229-1231, attracted by guaranteed pay and the freedom to teach Aristotle.46 But the Count of Toulouse was unable to pay
them, despite his obligations under the Treaty of Paris, as the cost of reparations
was too high. The destruction of vines and farms led to food shortages in Toulouse.
The first professors hired from Paris drifted back north, and it was another decade
before the university took root.47
To conclude, we have seen how vernacular translations of the gospels became
important to both Waldensians and Cathars. For the Waldensians, it can be truly said that “the medium is the message”48 – the medium of portable local language
texts, rather than chained Latin books in churches, was an important lesson in
itself. It showed the gospels were for all, such as the workers and the weavers, and
an Occitan translation would have been essential for this. For Cathars, the choice of
language was originally less important, compared with the rites themselves. This
importance was recognised at these councils, although they failed to implement
measures attacking heretical texts in all languages, choosing instead to focus on the
translation from Latin as the primary heretical feature.
46 Schachner, N., The Medieval Universities (New York, 1938) pp. 270-1
47 Smith, C. E., The University of Toulouse in the Middle Ages (Milwaukee, 1958) pp. 56-8 48 McLuhan, M., Understanding Media (Toronto, 1964) p. 9
12
Burning the Bible: Heresy and Translation in Occitania 1229 – 1250 Peter B. Nowell
While Latin-speaking churchmen did not encourage the circulation of vernacular
bibles in France, they did nothing to repress it. Otherwise we would have expected
to see its prohibition in more of the councils, and the ban repeated by Raymond
Penafort in his compilation of canon law. It took time for market forces to catch up
and lower the cost of production, to deliver many more such bibles into the hands
of the laity, but this was hardly impeded by the Church. In the meantime, notaries
were free to earn extra money by copying gospels for local readers.
Finally, for inquisitors, the vernacular texts appear to have been a badge of heresy,
rather than constituting offensive items on their own. It seems that the canons of
the councils were taken more as a warning of the dangers posed by educated
heretics, than as a hard-and-fast rule explicitly demanding the destruction of
vernacular religious texts. In practice, book burning did not catch on because the
focus of inquisitors was on people and their actions, not objects and ideas. As a
result, it rarely happened. However, the significance of the pocket-sized tome
would have been obvious to the local inquisitor, and its importance in identifying
those heretics whose threat to the establishment was seen as greatest should not be
underestimated. The educated heretic was more concerning to the Church, and his
influence on others much more dangerous and contagious, than that of a simple
follower – and his ‘heretical’ vernacular books were a powerful sign of this.
13
Burning the Bible: Heresy and Translation in Occitania 1229 – 1250 Peter B. Nowell
Appendix 1
Canons relating to vernacular translations of the Bible.
Council Latin Text English translation
Toulouse
(1229)
14 XIV. Ne laici habeant libros scriptura,
praeter psalterium, & Divinum, officium:
at eos libros ne habeans in vulgari
lingua. Prohibemus etiam, ne libros
veteris testament aut novi, laici
permittantur habere: nisi forte
psalterium, vel breviarium pro Divinis
officiis, aut horas beatae Mariae aliquis
ex devotione habere velit. Sed ne
praemissos libros habeant in vulgari
translatos, artissime inhibemus.49
Canon 14. We prohibit also that
the laity should be permitted to
have the books of the Old or the
New Testament; unless anyone
from motives of devotion
should wish to have the Psalter
or the Breviary for divine
offices or the hours of the
blessed Virgin; but we most
strictly forbid their having any
translation of these books.50
Rheims
(1230)
Rusticales homines sunt idiote; non
tamen negligendi sunt, neque cum eis
negligenter agendum est; sermo enim
eorum serpit ut cancer; et cet. Propter
hoc preceptum est in Remensi concilio
ne transferantur sicut hactenus libri sacre
Scripture in gallicum idioma.51
…Whence it was decreed in the
council of Rheims that the
books of the Holy Scripture
should not be translated, as
heretofore, into the Gallic
tongue.52
Trier
(1231)
Anno Domini MCCXXXI. In ipsa
Civitate Treviri tres esse scholas
haereticorum deprehensum. Et plures
erant eorum instructi erant scripturis
Sanctis, quas habebant in Theutonicum
translatas.53
1231. In the city of Trier three
heretical schools were arrested.
And many were teaching the
holy Scripture, which they had
translated into German.
49 Mansi, J. D., Sacra Conciliorum Nova, et amplissima collectio, tomus XXIII. (Venice, 1725-1768) col. 197
50 Peters, E., Heresy and Authority in Medieval Europe (London, 1980) p. 195 51 Haskins, C. H., Studies in Mediaeval Culture (Oxford, 1929) p. 247 52 Haskins, C. H., Studies in Mediaeval Culture p. 246
53 Mansi, Sacra Conciliourum Nova col. 241
Burning the Bible: Heresy and Translation in Occitania 1229 – 1250 Peter B. Nowell
Tarragona
(1233/4)
15 II. Item, statuitur, ne aliquis libros veteris
vel novi testament in Romanico habeat.
Et si aliquis habeat, infra octo dies post
publicationem huiusmodi constitutionis a
tempore sententiae, tradat eos loci
episcopo comburendos, quod nisi fecerit,
sive clericus fuerit, sive laicus, tamquam
suspectus de haeresi, quousque se
purgaverit, habeatur.54
Nobody was to have books of
the Old or New Testament in
the vernacular. If they did so,
within eight days of their
knowing of the publication of
the constitution, they were to
hand the books over to their
bishop for them to be burnt. If
they did not do so, whether they
were a cleric or a layperson,
they were to be held suspect of
heresy until they purged
themselves.55
Béziers (2)
(1246)
XXXVI. De bailius negligentibus, vel
suspectis, & aliis culpabilibus non
ponendis in administrationibus, vel
officiis publicis, vel consiliis seu familiis
potentum, & de libris theologicis non
tenendis etiam a laicis in Latino, &
neque ab ipsis, neque a clericis in
vulgari, & depoenis contra praedictos;
…56
…Shall see that it is rigorously
carried out that theological
books shall not be kept, either
by the laity in Latin, or by them
or by clerks in the vulgar
tongue…57
54 Mansi, Sacra Conciliorum Nova, col. 329 55 Smith, D. J., Crusade, Heresy and Inquisition in the Lands of the Crown of Aragon (c. 1167-1276) (Leiden, 2010) p. 185. An alternative translation is Deansley, M. The Lollard Bible (Cambridge, 1920) p. 48 56 Mansi, Sacra Conciliorum Nova, col. 724
57 Deansley, M., The Lollard Bible p. 38
Burning the Bible: Heresy and Translation in Occitania 1229 – 1250 Peter B. Nowell
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International Answer 