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128 [1144]

Actes and Monumentes of the churche

and geue it to them. For they shal take vp thinges that are stollen, & euil gottē, and shal saye: geue vs and we shal pray for you: so that they couer other mens faults curiously, & forget their own vtterly. Alack they shall also take awaye things miserable frō snatchers, pirates, spoylers, theues, robbers, or churchpillers, frō bankers, vserers, adulterers, heretikes, schismatikes, apostataes, lecherous women, women baudes, & men bauds, frō the mighty, from the periured merchants, false iudges, souldiors, tirants, from princes liuing against the lawe, & frō many peruerse people, and shall follow the perswasion of the deuil, & the swetenes of sinne & delicate life, transitory & short, and also saciety, to their eternal dānation. And al these thinges shalbe manifest in thē, & open to the eyes of al mē. And yet do they become euery day more indurate & wicked then other: and when theyr seducings & iniquities shalbe tried out, thē shal men cesse to geue thē, and then shal they goe about to mens houses a hungry, and lyke madde dogs casting their eyes vpon thearth, lyke turtles shrinking in their necks, that they may be filled wt bred. Then shal the people crye oute at thē: wo be vnto you wretches, the childrē of sorrow. The world hath seduced you, the Deuyll hath snafled your mouthes. Your flesh is slippery, and your harts without taste: your minde was wandring, and your eyes wer delyted in vanities, and in much madnes. Your delycate paunch desireth swete dishes, your fete ar swift to run to mischief. Remēber the tyme whē you wer in outward apperance counted blessed zelous, poore rich men, and simple stout menne, deuoute flatterers, false betrayers, peruerse backbiters, holy hipocrites, subuerters of the truthe, to muche strict and precise, proud, shameles, vnstable Doctors, delicate martyrs, confessours for lucres sake, meke slanderers, relygyous couetous, lowlye proude, godly hard mē, lyers pleasaunte, peaceable persecutours, oppressours of the simple, inuenters of euill sectes, vnmercifull louers of the worlde, sellers of pardons, spoylers of benefices, vnprofitable makers of prayer, seditious conspirers, dronken whysperers, desyerers of honour, curious in mennes faultes, the extorcioners of þe world, vnsatiable preachers, pleasers of menne, seducers of women, and sowers of discorde. Well dyd the glorious prophete Moses prophecye of you in his canticle: a people (sayeth he) without counsel, and without wisedome, would to god they wer wise and vnderstode, and did foresee þe latter ends to com. you builders a loft, and whē you could go no higher, then ye fell down, lyke Simō Magus, whom the lord did represse, and stroke with a mighty plague: so you lykewyse haue fallen through your deceiuablenes, your wickednesse, your lyes, your obtrectatiōs and your iniquities. And the people shal say to thē:away you teachers of al peruersitie, subuerters of veritie, brethren of the Sunamite, fathers of hereticall prauity, false Apostels. For you haue semed as though you had followed the lyfe of the Apostles, and yet ye haue not folowed their steps, not in the least ioate: you children of iniquity, we wil none of the trades and knoweleges of your wayes. For presumpteous pryde, and puffed presumption hath deceiued you: and insatiable concupiscence hath subuerted youre erronious hart: and when you coueted to climb vp higher and higher, then by the iuste iudgemēt of God you haue fallen down into euerlasting shame. This Hildegardis whose prophecy we haue mētioned, liued about the yeare of the Lorde. 1170. as we read in Chronico Martini.

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About the same time that these Franciscans, and Dominicke Friers began, which ar aboue mentioned, sprang vp also MarginaliaCrosseberer Fryersthe Crossebearers, or crouched Friers, taking theyr originall and occasion of Innocent the third, whiche Innocent raysed vp an army, sygned with a Crosse on their brest, to fight against MarginaliaAlbingēsesthe Albingenses  

Commentary   *   Close
Albigensian Crusade

The Albigensian Crusade was a response to the Cathar 'heresy' flourishing principally in the Languedoc region of France and in Italy. This was the first crusade against a Christian region and resulted in the successful extermination of the Cathars. The situation was more complex than Foxe details here, with political and religious priorities making the Crusade a complex event. For an outline of these complexities, especially its connection to England see Nicholas Vincent, 'England and the Albigensian Crusade', in Björn Weiler and Ifor W. Rowlands (ed.), England and Europe in the Reign of Henry III 1216-1272 (Aldershot, 2002), pp. 67-85.

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Foxe's concentration on the Siege of Toulouse taken from Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, ed. Henry Richards Luard, Rolls Series (7 vols., London, 1872-1884), vol. 3, pp. 51-7 and ending with a description of the history of the persecution taken from Chronica Majora, vol. 3, pp. 57, 105-119 presents the Cathars and Count Raymond VI of Toulouse as holding 'true' doctrines and being unfairly treated by the machinations of the papacy. There were, in fact, a variety of differences in the dualistic and Gnostic doctrines of the Cathars to the beliefs of the Protestant reformers, however Foxe uses the lack of detailed documentation available to him to his advantage, by having previously stated that 'what these Albingenses were, it can not be wel gathered by the old popishe histories' (1570, f. 341). Instead Foxe concentrates on how the Papacy through greed, trickery and hatred forced the French to persecute the Cathars as they had done on a variety of other occasions. Thus Foxe uses the Albigensian Crusade as a characterisation assassination of the papacy and its legates.

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In-between this account Foxe has added accounts of events going on in England at the same time largely taken from his favoured sources the Chronica Majora, Flores Historiarum and Nicholas Trivet. This includes the arrival of the Minorities to England from Chronica Majora, vol. 3, pp. 60-1, Matthew Paris, Flores Historiarum, ed. Henry Richards Luard, Rolls Series (3 vols., London, 1890), vol. 2, pp. 187-8 and Nicholas Trivet, Annalium continuatio; ut et Adami Murimuthensis Chronicon (Oxford, 1722), p. 211, Stephen Langton's holding of a meeting at Oxford from Nicholas Trivet, p. 210, an introduction to Hubert de Burgh from the Chronica Majora, vol. 3, pp. 71-3, 291, with whom Foxe would deal in detail after the Albigensian crusade, general conflicts between the Bishops of London and Westminster and bad storms across the country also from the Chronica Majora, vol. 3, pp. 74-75 and the Flores Historiarum, vol. 2, pp. 172-5. As an introduction to the Albigensian persecution Foxe also described Louis IX (ruled 1226-1270) becoming king of France from the Chronica Majora, vol. 3, p. 77, Flores Historiarum, vol. 2, pp. 177-8 and Nicholas Trivet, p. 212.

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From other sources Foxe mentioned the building of Salisbury Minster from Arundel MS 5 (which Foxe names Scala Mundi) and the reaffirmation of Magna Charta from The Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough, ed. Harry Rothewell, Camden Society, 3rd Series, 89 (London, Camden Society, 1957), pp. 162-173. Guisborough was probably the most detailed account of Magna Charta available to Foxe, however he did not solely rely on it for his account. He took from Robert Fabian, The New Chronicles of England and France, ed. Henry Ellis (London, 1811), p. 326 a corrective on the dating of the affirmation.

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Matthew Phillpott
University of Sheffield

, whom the Pope and his sect accompted for heretikes aboute the partes of Tholous. What these Albingensis wer, it cannot be wel gathered by the olde popish histories. if there were any that did holde, teache, or maintaine agaynst the Pope, or his Papall pride, or withstande & gainsay his beggarly traditions, rites, and relygious &c. the histories of that tyme for þe most part in writyng of them, doe so depraue them, and misreport them, suppressyng the truthe of theyr artycles, that they make them and paynt them foorth to bee worse then Turkes and infidels. And that as I suppose, caused Math. Parisiensis and other of that sorte to wryte so of thē as they did. Otherwise it is to be thoughte, and so I fynde in some recordes, that the opinions of the sayde Albingenses were sounde ynoughe, holdyng and professyng nothyng els, but onely agaynst the wanton wealthe, pride, and tyrannye of the Prelates, denyinge the Popes authoritie to haue grounde of the scryptures, neyther coulde they awaye with the ceremonies and traditions, as Images, pardons, purgatorye of the Romishe Churche, callyng them (as some say) blasphemous occupyinges. &c. Of these Albingenses were slayne at tymes and burned a greate multytude, by the meanes of the Pope, and Simon Ecclesiasticus with other moe. It semeth that these Albingenses were chielfly abhorred of the Pope, because they set vp a contrary Pope against him, about the coastes of Bugarorum. For the whiche cause the Bishop called Portinēsis being the Popes Legate in those quarters, writeth to the Archbyshop of Roane and to other bishops in thys wyse.

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MarginaliaA letter of the byshop Portinēsis concernyng the Albingenses.VEnerabilibus patribus dei gratia Rothomagensi Archiepiscopo & eius suffraganeis episcopis sal.

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