bent the knee thrice, saying "benedicite," to which the minister
replied, "Diaus vos henesiga," It was a mark of respect to the
Holy Ghost assumed to dwell in the minister, and in the records
of trials we find it eagerly inquired into, as it served to convict
those who performed it.[1]
These customs, and the precepts embodied in the formula of heretication, illustrate the strong ascetic tendency of the faith. This was the inevitable consequence of its peculiar form of Dual-
ism. As all matter was the handiwork of Satan, it was in its nature evil ; the spirit was engaged in a perpetual conflict with it, and the Catharan's earnest prayer to God was not to spare the flesh sprung from corruption, but to have mercy on the imprisoned spirit —"no aias merce de la earn nada de corrujptio, mais aias merce de l’esperit pausat en career.'' Consequently, whatever
- ↑ Rainerii Saccon. Summa. — Lib. Confess. Inquis. Albiens. (MSS. Bib. Nat. fonds latin, 11847).— Coll. Doat, XXII. 208, 209; XXIV. 174; XXVI. 197,259,272.— Lib. Sentt. Inquis. Tolosan. pp. 10, 33, 37, 70, 71, 76, 84, 94, 125, 126, 137-139, 143, 160,
173, 179, 199.— Bern. Guidon. Practica P. IV. V. (MSS. Bib. Nat. Collect. Doat.
T. XXX.). — Landulf. Senior Hist. Mediolan. ii. 27. — Anon. Passaviens. contra
Waldens. cap. 7. — Processus contra Valdenses (Archivio Storico Italiano, 1865,
No. 39, p. 57). The description in the text of the form of heretication, by Rainerio Saccone, is confirmed in its details by the depositions of witnesses before the Inquisition of Toulouse, showing that the form was essentially the same throughout the churches.— Doat, XXII. 224, 237 sqq.; XXIII. 272, 344; XXIV. 71. See also Vaissette III. Preuves, 386, and Cunitz, Beitrage zu den theolog. Wissenschaften, 1852, B. IV. pp. 12-14, 21-28, 33, 60.
The practice of the Endura among the Cathari of Languedoc has been investigated with his customary thoroughness by M. Charles Molinier (Annales de la Faculty des Lettres de Bordeaux, 1881, No. 3). It was not always limited to three days, and its rigor may be guessed by a single example. Blanche, the mother of Vital Gilbert, caused her infant grandchild to be " consoled " while sick, and then prevented the mother, Guillelma, from giving it milk till it died (Lib. Sententt. Inq. Tolos. p. 104). Molinier's theory that the custom was of comparatively late introduction is confirmed by the absence of any allusion to it in the ritual published by Cunitz (loc. cit.), but that it was not confined to Languedoc is shown by the Anon. Passaviens. and the evidence in the Piedmontese trials of 1388 (Arch. Storico, ubi sup.).
A case in which the Consolamentum was administered to an insensible patient who subsequently recovered is recorded in the sentences of Pierre Cella (Doat, XXI. 295), and also several instances in which young girls were " perfected " at a very early age, and wore the vestments for limited periods of two or three years (ibid. 241. 244).
