■ WALDENSES-ORTLIBENSES. 3I9 protected by some of the most influential citizens of the town, and the}^ were able to disseminate their pestiferous opinions in safety. Here, as in many other places, quarrels between the people and the bishop paralyzed the arm of the Church, and the Waldenses for many years continued to infect the city.* It cannot, therefore, surprise us that nearly all the heretics burned at Strassburg in 1212 belonged to this sect. From their writings and confessions a list of three hundred errors was com- piled, afterwards condensed into seventeen, and these were read before them to the people while they were on their way to the place of execution. Priest John, their leader, admitted the correct- ness of aU save one alleging promiscuous sexual intercourse, which he indignantly denied. Those which he admitted show how rapid- ly their doctrines were developing to their logical conclusions, and how impassable was the gulf which ah-eady separated them from the Church. All the holy orders were rejected, and this alreadv led to the abolition of sacerdotal celibacy; disbelief in purgatory was definitely adopted, with its consequences as to prayers and masses for the dead, and there had already been invented, before St. Francis and his foUowers, the dogma that Christ and his dis- ciples held no property.f The Ortlibenses or Ordibarii, who were also represented among the victims of Strassburg, demand a somewhat more de- tailed consideration than their immediate importance would seem to justify, because, although comparatively few in numbers they present the earhest indication of a peculiar tendency in German free thought which we shaU find reproduce itself in many forms and constitute, with almost unconquerable stubbornness, the prin- cipal enemy with which the Inquisition had to deal. Early in the century Maitre David de Dinant, a schoolman of Pans, whose subtlety of argumentation rendered him a favorite with Innocent III., had indulged in dangerous speculations derived
- Innoc. pp. in. Regest. 11. 141, 142, 235. - Alberic. Trium Font. ann. 1200 -
Ca?sar. Heisterb. Dist. v. c. 20. tKaltner op cit.pp.69-71.-I am rather inclined to believe that honest Darnel Specklm has drawn to some extent upon his own convictions for this list of errors. Among them he enumerates lay communion in both elements A. the cup at this time had not been withdrawn from the laity, its ad ministration would not liave been characterized as a heresy.
