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Thesaurus Absconditus: the Hidden Treasure of the Waldensians*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Peter Biller
Peter Biller*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of York
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Extract

Records which survive of interrogations, principally of Waldensian followers, in Fribourg in 1430 preserve for us the figure of a k. person who had clearly been much seen on the streets of Fribourg in the 1420s, a town gossip. The woman in question was called Surer, nicknamed ‘the Fat’. One of the reported street-corner conversations has Surer the Fat talking to an earnest credens, a follower of the Waldensian Brothers. Her opening gambit was this: ‘The confessors of the sect’, she said, ‘must be very wealthy’. As an inquisitive gossip she knew about the offerings made to the Waldensian Brothers by their many lay followers in Fribourg, and from other witnesses we know that Fribourg street-corner conversations were rife with rumours about the Waldensians, both general ones about their evil character and more specific ones about their diabolist practices. These may have included a particular allegation about wealth which had first acquired currency in later fourteenth-century Austria.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 24: The Church and Wealth , 1987 , pp. 139 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1987

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Footnotes

*

Acknowledgement is due here to the British Academy for a grant for the purchase of microfilms of Archives de l’Isère B.4350–1. See also n. 64 below.

References

1 Fribourg Archives d’État GS 26, fol. 2(b)r: ‘Confessores dicte secte deberent esse multum divites?’ The reply is given in n. 68 below.

2 ‘Predicatis vos pauperes, dum plures ollas seu amphoras ac multum thesaurum auri et argenti habeatis in terra conclusum’, St Florian MS XI 152, fol. 42v; ‘Illi tantum de voluntaria paupertate gloriantur, qui sine labore tam magnos habent thesauros auri et argenti in tuto’, Klosterneuburg MS CC. 826, fols 240v-50r.

3 Quellen zur Ketzergeschichte Brandenburgs und Pommems, ed. D. Kurze = Veròffentlichungen der historischen Kommission zu Berlin, 45, Quellenwerke, 6 (Berlin/New York, 1975), p. 172. The inquisitor’s question is more often than not—as in this instance—left unrecorded, but its precise terms are usually clearly implicit in the terms of the answer. There is a late example (15 30s) of an inquisitor referring to the grands trésors of the Waldensians, G. Audisio, Les vaudois du Luberon. Une minorité en Provence (1460–1560) (Gap, 1984), p. 233.

4 John of Paris, Tractatus de regia potestate et papali, ed. F. Bleienstein, Johannes Quidort von Paris über königliche una päpstliche Gewalt, Frankfurter Studien zur Wissenschaft von der Politik (Frankfurt, 1969), p. 69.

5 D. Kurze, ‘Zur Ketzergeschichte der Mark Brandenburg und Pommerns vornehmlich im 14. Jahrhundert. Luziferianer, Putzkeller und Waldenser’, Jahrhuch fur die Geschichte Mittel-und Ostdeutschlands, 16/17 (1968), pp. 70–1 and n. 82.

6 Quellen zur Ketzergeschichle, p. 118.

7 T. W. Röhrich, Mittheilungen aus der Geschichte der evangelichen Kirche des Elsasses, 3 vols (Strasbourg, 1855) 1, p. 54.

8 Toulouse Bibliothèque Municipale MS 609, fols 248v, 249v, 250v.

9 P. van Limborch, Historia Inquisitionis Cui subiungitur Liber Sententiarum Inquisitionis Tholosanae Ahanno Christi MCCCVII ad annum MCCCXXIII (Amsterdam, 1690), p. 359.

10 BN MS Doat 21, fols 219r, 221v, 228r-v.

11 Gui, Bernard, Practica Inquisitionis Heretice Pravitatis, v.2.6, ed. Douais, C. (Paris, 1886), p. 251 Google Scholar.

12 Toulouse, fols 248v, 250v.

13 Doat, fols 239v, 265v.

14 Doat, fols 189v-282v passim; Quellen zur Geschichte der Waldenser, ed. A. Patschovsky and K.-V. Selge = Texte zur Kirchen- und Theologiegeschichte, 18 (Giitersloh, 1973), p. 63; Limborch, p. 359; Quellen zur Ketzergeschichte, pp. 86, 201, 211; Fribourg, fols 10(b)v, 52r, 52r, 54r; CUL MS Dd.iii.25, fol. 60r.

15 Moneta of Cremona, Adversus Catharos et Valdenses, v.7.i, ed. T. Ricchini (Rome, 1743), p. 448.

16 Anselm of Alexandria, Tractatus de hereticis xii, ed. A. Dondaine, AFP 20(1950), p. 318.

17 Doat fols 197r, 215r, 223v, 261v, 271r; Patschovsky and Selge, pp. 63, 69. Limborch, pp. 232, 264; Quellen zur Ketzergeschichte, pp. 119, 208.

18 V. Vinay, Le Confessioni di fede dei Valdesi riformati = Collana della Facoltà Valdese di Teologia, 12 (Turin, 1975), p. 38. See also Röhrich, pp. 55–6 for the reverse, a credens receiving clothing from a Brother.

19 P. P. A. Biller, ‘Multum ieiunantes et se castigantes: Medieval Waldensian Asceticism’, SCH 22 (1985), p. 219.

20 Doat fols 203r, 215r, 261v.

21 Moneta of Cremona, V.7.i, p. 448.

22 Fribourg, fol. 10(b)v: ‘… in quodam sacculo libros suos quos secum portabat’.

23 G. Audisio, Le Barbe et l’Inquisiteur. Procès du barbe vaudois Pierre Griot par l’inquisiteur Jean de Roma (Apt, 1532) (La Calade, Aix-en-Provence, 1979), p. 85.

24 Le registre d’inquisition de Jacques Foumier évêque de Pamiers [1318–1325), ed. J. Duvernoy, Bibliothèque Méridionale, ser. 3, 41, 3 vols (Toulouse, 1965) 1, pp. 105–6.

25 E. Balmas and M. Dal Corso, I manoscritti valdesi di Ginevra (Turin, 1977), pp. 9, S9–6o.

26 Some of the late fifteenth-century Alpine references to Brothers’ gifts of pins are given in Cameron, E., The Reformation of the Heretics. The Waldenses of the Alps, 1480–1580 (Oxford, 1984), pp. 118–19 Google Scholar, where their significance is discussed without reference to the widespread earlier evidence of gifts of pins and other domestic objects. These include: pins in Limborch, pp. 222, 233, 241, 242, 354, forks, p. 233, knives, p. 240; res domesticas necessarias mulieribus, Quellen zur Bõhmischen Inquisition im 14. Jahrhundert, ed. A. Patschovsky, MGH Quellen 11 (Weimar, 1979), p. 199; a small knife, Quellen zur Ketzergeschichte, p. 126. Finally one text from southern France in the early fourteenth century not only generalizes this practice, but also provides a straightforward explanation of it: ‘Perferunt… haeretici suis credentibus et eorum liberis et familiis aliqua jocalia, videlicet zonas, cultellos et achalbenos [Dollinger’s misreading of ‘achalberios’, MS Vat Lat 2648, fol. 72vb], ut libentius et familiarius recipiantur’, in the tract De vita et actibus de fide et erroribus haereticorum quise dicunt Pauperes Christiseu Pauperes de Lugduno, ed. J. 1. von Dòllinger, Beiträge zur Sektengeschichte des Mittelalters, 2 vols (Munich, 1890) 1, p. 97.1 am preparing an edition of the De vita et actibus.

27 Limborch, p. 359.

28 P. P. A. Biller, ‘Curate ínfimos: the Medieval Waldensian Practice of Medicine’, SCH 19 (1982), pp. 62, 74.

29 Ibid., p. 75 and nn. 81–2.

30 Quellen zur Ketzergeschichte, p. 89.

31 Cash payment, Doat, fol. 204r; payments in kind, Biller, ‘Curate infirmos’, p. 65 and n. 44.

32 Patschovsky and Selge, p. 72; Griot, p. 154. Credentes’ payment of tithes is discussed by Audisio, pp. 204–5. The contrary—that Brothers tried to dissuade credentes from paying tithes and making offerings—is suggested by Pseudo-David of Augsburg, De inquisitone hereticorum xvii, ed. W. Preger, ABAW PhK 14, 2 (1876), p. 215, in a treatise which often exaggerates Waldensian radicalism.

33 Quellen zur Kelzergeschichte, p. 166: ‘Item quod obtulerit… ad … iuvamen presbiterorum’. The Anonymous of Passau describe credentes’ offerings as ficte, Patschovsky and Selge, p. 74, but this author generally overstates the extent to which credentes’ orthodox religious behaviour was fide.

34 Fribourg, fol. 53r: ‘Pauperinis autem capellanis existentibus in istis villagiis qui nichil habent dari debet’.

35 For an early fourteenth-century Brother’s indication of this contrast see Fournier, pp. 87–8. An example of the Brothers’ formulation is in Cambridge Xv.iii.25, fol. 60r: ‘Dicebant quod vivebant de hiis que dabantur amore Dei’.

36 Quellen zur Ketzergeschichte, p. 239: ‘Nichil ipsis dedit quia pauper fuit’, a formula repeated by his brother, ibid., p. 238, with the addition ‘libenter tamen dedisset si habuisset’.

37 Griot, p. 106.

38 Audisio, p. 233.

39 Doat fols 234r-v, 271r (executing husband’s will), 275v (brother’s will); Patschovsky and Selge, p. 69; Quellen zur Ketzergeschichte, pp. 118 (executing husband’s will), 119 (wife’s will), 157 (parents’ will), 172 (brother’s will), 179 (wife’s will), 212 (will of husband’s previous wife).

40 Archives de l’Isère B.4350, fol. 117v: ‘Interrogata si quando faciunt testamentum aliquid eis derelinquunt respondit quod sic, videlicet quandoque sex et quandoque septem grossos’.

41 Fribourg, fol. 50(b)v: ‘… audivit ab illis de secta quod quando unus ex ipsis moritur debet relinquere de bonis suis proximoribus, et eciam aliquid relinquere illis qui sunt [de] dicta secta pro manutenencia dicte secte’.

42 Vinay, p. 38.

43 Gifts in money to the Waldensian Brothers, Doat fols 204r (20d), 206v (10s. 8d), 234r (4d.), 234r-v (200s. bequest), 244v (6d. 2d), 246v (denarios), 247v (id), 250r (denarium), 271r (14s. bequest), 275r (duos Morlanos), 277v (2d), 289v (id), 206r (frequent gifts, sometimes 6d., sometimes 12d.); gifts or bequests to Cathar perfecti, or money held for or given by them, fols 188r (100s.), 200r (denarios), 206r (lid), 210v (100s.), 210v-nr (£10 6s. Caturcenses), 228r (20s.), 230r (50s.), 231r (20s., 5s.), 233v (100 aureos). Modest sums are found in the earliest reference to gifts by a named credens (to pennies given by a credensin the diocese of Nîmes c.1200, Patschovsky and Selge, p. 56), and among the last medieval evidence, the late fifteenth-century Alpine trials—for example, a credens’ statement that one would give unum grossum vel plus when confessing to the Brothers, Isère fol. 117v.

44 De vila et actibus, p. 96.

45 Doat, fol. 236r: ‘… aliquando volebat eis faceré eleomosinas, sed nolebant accipere’, 238r-v: ‘… amplius dedisset eis si voluissent recipere’; 203r: ‘… dédit eis panem et vinum quia non recipiebat denarios’; Limborch, p. 231: ‘… obtulit… licet ipsi noluerint recipere’; p. 239: ‘… de pecunia sua dédit cuidam ipsorum, et cuidam alteri voluit dare, set ipse noluit recipere’; p. 241: ‘… semel voluit dare cuidam Valdensi xii denarios, set ille noluit recipere’. Limborch, p. 239: ‘Item de pecunia sua dedit cuidam ipsorum, et cuidam alteri voluit dare, set ipse noluit recipere’; other examples, pp. 224, 225, 231, 241.

46 Fournier, p. 525.

47 Moneta of Cremona, v.7.i, p. 448.

48 Limborch, p. 233; changing currency: Fournier, pp.512–13. A question specifically envisaging the activity of a collector as a repository appears in an inquisitor’s list of questions designed to be put to credentes, ed. by R. Holinka, Sektářstvi v Cechách před revoluti husitskou = Sbornih filosofichefakulty univnsitety Komenského v Bratislave, 6 (Bratislava, 1929), p. 180: ‘Si recepit eorum deposita ‘. The question-list cannot be precisely dated; it has affinities with other lists from German-speaking areas c.1400.

49 Röhrich, pp. 49, 67.

50 Quellen zur Ketzergeschichte, p. 172.

51 Rõhrich, pp. 43–4.

52 The treatise of the Anonymous of Passau, ed. J. Gretser, Maxima Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum, ed. M. de La Bigne, 28 vols (Lyons, Geneva, 1677, 1707) 25, col. 274.

53 De vita et actibus, p. 96;Bernard Gui, v.2.v, p. 249; Vinay, pp. 38, 40; Griot, pp. 104–6. See also De inquisitione hereticorum, vii, p. 210, and Summa quedam brevissima, ed. J. Goll, Quellen una Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Böhmischen Brüder, 2 vols (Prague, 1878–82) I, p. 119, where in a critical report Waldensian collections are termed thesauros, though the motive of helping pauperes in the sect is recognized.

54 Doat, fol. 212r; Limborch, pp. 216, 222, 242 (these do not specify whether in money or kind); Fournier, pp. 522–5; Quellen zur Ketzergeschichte, pp. 126, 172, 181, 216, 248. See the question for a credens in Holinka, p. 180: ‘Si recepit eorum elemosinas’.

55 Quellen zur Ketzergeschichte, p. 257:‘… accessisset propter nutrimentum suum, non valens se aliter nutrire’.

56 Quellen zur Böhmischen Inquisition, p. 211: ‘… necessaria in expensis…’, and see n. 68 below.

57 Röhrich, p. 52: ‘… die winkeler … nit hettent zu zehrende mit essende und drinckende’.

58 Biller, ‘Curate infirmos’, pp. 57–8, 68–9.

59 Alain de Lille, De fide cathoiica, ii. 25, PL 210, col. 399.

60 Moneta of Cremona, v.7.i, p. 448; compare Anonymous of Passau, col. 273.

61 Pseudo-David, De inquisitione heretkorum vii, p. 210.

62 Quellen zur Kelzergeschichte, pp. 88, 204.

63 Fribourg, fol. 7(b)r.

64 Chartularium Universttatis Parisiensis, ed. H. Denifle and E. Chatelain, 4 vols (Paris, 1889–97) 1. no 1749, p. 32. I owe this reference to Professor John Bossy.

65 Kurze, p. 64: ‘… wer in dem Glauben were, konnte nimmer arm werden’.

66 Later the association of magic, witchcraft, and hidden treasure becomes a commonplace: see Thomas, K., Religion and the Decline of Magic (London, 1971)Google Scholar, index under ‘treasure’.

67 Worthwhile discussions of the tradition of a Luciferan and sexually licentious picture of the Waldensians can be found in Kurze, pp. 52–66, for Brandenburg, and for Piedmont in Merlo, G. G., Ereticie inquisitori nella società piemontese del trecento (Turin, 1977), pp. 63–74 Google Scholar and Cameron, pp. 107–13, while the general contribution of the medieval picture of the Waldensians to the witchcraft stereotype is a central theme of Cohn, N., Europe’s Inner Demons (London, 1975)Google Scholar; these do not deal widi the role of treasure in the tradition.

68 Fribourg, fol. 2(b)r: ‘Certe non sunt [multum divites] quia eisdem dantur solum expense’.

69 Quellen zur Ketzergeschichte, p. 172.

70 Cum dormirent homines, ed. J. Gretser, Maxima Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum, 25, cols 277–99.

71 Klosterneuburg CC.826, fols 230v-35r and 244v-51v; Dubrovnik Dominican Convent Cod. 30, fols 176va-9ra; Karlsruhe Landesbibliothek Reichenauer Pap. Hs. 48, fols 328ra-32rb and 337vb-4va (from Benedictine abbey of Reichenau); Linz Studienbibliothek 292, fols 8r-11r (from Benedictine Abbey of Garsten); Berlin Staarsbibliorhek Lat.Fol 704, fols 194va-5va (from Salvatorberg Charterhouse, Erfurt); Vienna òsterreichische Nationalbibliothek 3895, fols 224ra-6vb (from Augustinian house, Mondsee); St Florian XI 152, fols 41r-4r; St Paul-im-Lavanttal 924, fols 152rb-6ra; Prague Knihovna Metropolitni Kapituli E.76, fols 8v-11r.

72 For an account of its diffusion see Biller, P. P. A., ‘Medieval Waldensian Abhorrence of Killing pre-c.1400’, SCH 20(1983), p. 144 Google Scholar.