Heretic Lives Medieval Heresy from Bogomil and the Cathars to Wyclif and Hus

A new heresy is born in this world and in our days.So declared the Monk Heribert at the turn of the fi rst millennium.
Addressing himself to all Christians in the Orient and in the Occident, North and South, who believe in Christ, he warned that a new heresy was being spread throughout Périgord by men of iniquity who claimed the authority of the Apostles. Displaying a horror soon to be characteristic of the orthodox Christians throughout Europe, Heribert sought
to secure their well-being from the perilous doctrines advanced by these new preachers of iniquity. The heretics Heribert had discovered were, as he saw them, pseudo- apostles bent on undermining the integrity of the faith and on converting people to their error.Though false apostles, they seemed to live chaste and pious lives,which was all the better for undermining the Church. Pretending to follow the apostolic life, they did not eat meat, did not drink wine except on the third day, and refused to accept money. They were often found in prayer, genufl ecting a hundred times a day, and were active and successful missionaries and preachers. Heribert alleged that they had corrupted and brought to them numerous people, not only laypeople, who have given up their belongings, but also clerics,monks, and nuns’. In their simple life of preaching and poverty, the heretics might seem to be following the core teachings of the Church, in a resumption of the apostolic life, but, he contended, the appearances were deceiving.