Reaction and Reform: Reception of Heresy in Arras and Aquitaine in the Early Eleventh Century

Abstract

MICHAEL FRASSETTO* In the first decades of the eleventh century, chroniclers throughout Western Christendom took note of the sudden and dramatic resurgence of religious dissent around them.' Although certain of the diabolic inspiration of the heretics, chroniclers have left modern scholars with an uncertain record of the precise nature of the heretics' teachings. Much of this confusion in the documents stems from the hostility of the orthodox to the heretics and the tendency of some chroniclers to identify heresy in terms established by St. Paul and St. Augustine. This difficulty can be overcome by reference to Arras and Aquitaine, regions where heresy received the most elaborate and lengthy documentary reaction. The documents from these areas, the Acta Synodi Atrebatensis in Manicheos of 1025 of Gerard of Arras-Cambrai and the history and unedited sermons of Ademar of Chabannes, contain the most important information concerning the nature of religious dissent in the early eleventh century.2 Moreover, in response to the arrival of the heretics, these authors provide in-depth commentary on the nature of orthodox belief and thus place themselves in the broader context of eleventhcentury religious controversies. A comparison of the works of Ademar and Gerard, thus, would reveal unique insights into the development of religious belief, orthodox and heterodox, in the eleventh century. The works of Ademar and Gerard are of particular value because of the backgrounds of these two ecclesiastics. The disgraced impressario of the failed apostolic cult of St. Martial,Ademar was a prominent monk in the communities of St. Cybard of Angouleme and St. Martial of Limoges.3 As a master of the arts of the scriptorium, he naturally became involved with the great artistic, liturgical, and musical reforms associated with the community at St. Martial. As a result of these activities, Ademar has left us an extensive literary corpus including works of forgery, hagiography, liturgy which provide important insights into the monastic mentality of this period.4 Slightly different insights are offered by the writings of Gerard. A conservative bishop of the north, Gerard was not involved in the liturgical or hagiographical reforms of his southern contemporary but rather was involved in the administrative duties his office required.5 Gerard, like Adalbero of Laon, supported the traditional tripartite division of society and asserted the prerogatives of the episcopal order. Ademar and Gerard, thus, offer valuable evidence because they provide us with the reaction of members of the two main orders of the institutional Church to the appearance of heresy. As several scholars have noted, Gerard's Acta Synodi Atrebatensis is a complex document written in response to the appearance of heretics in Arras in 1025.6 As one of a series of documents in which Gerard condemned the enemies of the traditional social order, including the Peace of God and Cluniac reform movements, the Acta concentrate on the issue of the threat posed by religious dissent. Composed to respond to the heretics of 1025, the Acta reflect Gerard's long-standing concerns about conformity to and preservation of the established faith. The longest and most interesting section of the Acta is the defense of the sacramental and sacerdotal system of the Church which was composed between 1025 and 1042.7 Indeed, the sermon of Gerard was rewritten in the years after the synod, allowing the bishop or his secretary a period of reflection in which to develop a thorough defense of orthodoxy. The other sections of the Acta provide evidence of the character of the heresy appearing in Arras. The opening section contains a letter written by Gerard to a certain bishop R, most likely Roger I of Chalonssur-Marne, in whose diocese the heretics had formerly appeared.8 In the letter, Gerard chastises this bishop for failing to correct the heretics who were now infecting Gerard's diocese and also describes the heretics' beliefs and missionary activity. …