Europe's inner demons

Popes took these fantasies seriously and used their unique authority to disseminate them. Like Gregory IX before him, John XXII incorporated them into a bull; and in both cases the pope took this step under the influence of a single cleric in a distant country. Just as Pope Gregory in Rome took on trust the reports which Conrad of Marburg sent from Germany, so Pope John, resident at Avignon, accepted without question the tales concocted by a canon of Prague cathedral. The canon, Henry of Schönberg, was not even a genuine fanatic like Conrad but simply an intriguer, intent on ruining his bishop. Inspired by this man, the pope in 1318 fulminated a bull accusing the bishop of protecting heretics. Here, too, the heresy described is unmistakably Waldensian— but here, too, real Waldensian doctrine is blended with fantasies of Lucifer-worship and of nocturnal orgies in caverns.⁽⁸⁾

Already in Vox in Rama, in 1233, the Devil is shown as presiding in corporeal form over the nocturnal assemblies of the Waldensians; and the same fantasy is found a century later. Under the year 1338 the Franciscan John of Winterthur, in Switzerland, tells of heretics who were being tortured to death or burned at the stake, in Austria and the neighbouring countries. These too must have been Waldensians; and the rituals ascribed to them are strange indeed. When they have assembled in a subterranean hide-out, the proceedings open with a sermon in which the head of the sect expounds its doctrine. Next four youths appear, bearing burning torches; and then there enters a king, clad in precious robes, with a sparkling crown and strangely shining sceptre, and surrounded by a brilliant retinue of knights.

The king announces that he is the king of heaven — which means that he is Lucifer. He confirms the doctrine that has just been expounded and commands, in virtue of his authority, that it be observed and obeyed for ever. At once a grasshopper comes and settles on the mouth of each individual in turn; whereupon all are overwhelmed with such a joyous ecstasy that they lose all self-control. The moment has come for the customary orgy: the lights are extinguished and each has intercourse with his or her neighbour; often a man with a man, a woman with a woman. The chronicler ends with the comment that these sectarians are the special sons of Satan, for they imitate his words and works before other men.⁽⁹⁾

That is what people believed about the Waldensians in the southernmost parts of the German-speaking world — but in the far north the picture was apparentlyjust the same. Around 1336 rumours reached the bishop of Brandenburg that the town of Angermiinde was infected with heresy. Inquisitors were sent to investigate, and not in vain. They found a number of people who were suspected of “the heresy of the Luciferans”; and fourteen men and women, having refused to recant, were burned.⁽¹⁰⁾ Details of the charges are lacking, but a story which reached John of Winterthur at least suggests what was meant by “the heresy of the Luciferans”.