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Curate Infirmos: The Medieval Waldensian Practice of Medicine1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Peter Biller
Peter Biller*
Affiliation:
University of York
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Extract

The question posed in this paper is the extent and nature of the medical practice of the medieval waldensian brothers. What lies behind this is in part a historiographical development which gained impetus in the 1960s, principally in the works of Mollat. In these the the period of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries has been identified as crucial in several areas: a prise de conscience by many of the problems of material need, whether poverty or physical sickness or other disabilities, and the development of new ideas in some of these areas; a peaking of foundations of institutions of assistance, in particular hospitals for the sick, the outlines of which have become clear in Belgian and French work; the embodiment of the spiritual ideal of poverty in the apostolic religious movements which grew at this time. Mollat has juxtaposed these phenomena in order to suggest that one should look for interconnections between them, and it is in the spirit of his enquiry that the present question is raised. If we look at one of the two major evangelical heresies nurtured in the late twelfth cenury matrix described by Mollat, namely the movement of the waldensian brothers, shall we find an element which should be related to the wider interests and developments in assistance and, in particular, medical care which were displayed elsewhere at this time?

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 19: The Church and Healing , 1982 , pp. 55 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1982

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Footnotes

1

Acknowledgement is due here to Professor G. Leff for reading and commenting on an earlier draft, and to Miss S. Adler for help in obtaining material; sec also nn 70 and 78 below.

References

2 The articles in question were published from 1966 onwards and are reprinted in Mollat, M., tudes sur l’economie et la société de l’Occident médiéval XIIe-XVes. (London 1977), nos xiv-xx.Google Scholar

3 See, for example, Bonenfant, P., ‘Hôpitaux et bienfaisance publique dans les anciennes Pays-Bas des origines à la fin du xviiie siècle’, Annales de la Société Belge de l’histoire des hôspitaux 3 (1965) pp 19–24 Google Scholar, and Candille, M., ‘Pour un précis d’histoire des institutions charitables. Quelques données des xiie-xive sièeles’, Bulletin de la Société Française d’histoire des hôspitaux 30 (1974) pp 79–88 Google Scholar.

4 Miólo, G., Historia breve e vera de gl’affari de i Valdesi delle valli, ed Balmas, E., Storici Valdesi 3 (Turin 1971) p 102.Google Scholar

5 Gilles, [P.], Histoire [Ecclesiastique des Eglises Reformées recueillies en quelques valées de Piedmont, & circonuoisines, autresfois appelées Eglises Vaudoises, commencant de l’an 1160 de nostre Seigneur, finissant en l’an mil six cents quarante trois] (Geneva 1644) p 16;Google Scholar Leger, [J.], Histoire [Générale des Eglises Evangéliques des Vallées du Piémont ou Vaudoises (Leyden 1669; cited here from Amsterdam 1680 edn)] p 202.Google Scholar

6 It has no place as a theme in the current standard history of the medieval waldensians, Gonnet, [G.] and Molnar, [A.], [Les Vaudois au moyen âge (Turin 1974)]Google Scholar. Notes are given en passant ibid pp 159, 369, and also in [Quellen zur Geschichte der Waldenser ed A.] Patschovsky and [K.-V.] Selge, Texte zur Kirchenund Theologiegeschichte 18 (Gütersloh 1973) p 63 n 8, and Selge, K.-V., ‘Riflessioni sul carattere sociale e sulla religiosità del Valdismo Francese primitivo’, Protestantesimo 29 (1974) p 26 Google Scholar. See also n 19 below. Earlier exaggerated claims for the content of the curriculum of medieval waldensian schools (for example, including the history of philosophy), and a consequent reaction of complete rejection are perhaps at the root of this general lack of attention to medical practice as a theme. For such claims and their rejection see Comba, E., Histoire des Vaudois d’Italie depuis leur origine jusqu’a nos jours (Paris Turin 1887)Google Scholar; cited here from the English translation based on a revision of this, London 1889) p 154, where, however, the relevant passage from Gilles, Histoire, is still quoted.

7 In the source used in the following account the conversion, set in a year of famine, is given under 1173: Chronicon anonymi Laudunensis, ed. Waitz, G., MGH SS 26 (Hannover 1882), p 447 Google Scholar. However the famine year was 1176. On this see Selge, [K.-V.], [Die ersten] Waldenser, [Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte] 37, 2 vols (Berlin 1967), l p 239 Google Scholar and n 32.

8 The anonymous chronicle of Laon, cited in the previous note, is used here; it dates from c 1220. The other very circumstantial account is that of the Dominican Stephen of Bourbon, writing C1250: [ Lecoy de la Marche, A., Anecdotes historiques, légendes et apologues tirés du recueil inédit d’] Etienne de Bourbon, [dominicain du xiiie siècle]. Société de l’histoire de France, 185 (Paris 1887), pp 290–1.Google Scholar On his account of the waldensians see Gonnet, [G.], [Le] Confessioni [di fede Valdesi prima della riforma] (Turin 1967), pp 73–6 Google Scholar. There are differences in detail between the two accounts, and an attempt has been made to discredit the Laon chronicle: Selge, Waldenser 1, pp 231-42. Selge has been convincingly criticised by Lambert, M. D., Medieval Heresy. Popular movements from Bogomil to Hits (London 1977), pp 353–5 Google Scholar. Behind the tendency to polarisation which Lambert notes here – between an emphasis on poverty in the interpretation of early waldcnsianism, coupled with reliance on the Laon chronicle, and an emphasis on preaching in this interpretation, coupled with reliance on Stephen of Bourbon – there is also discernible a tendency to associate these emphases with a prior historical position – an emphasis on poverty with marxist history, an emphasis on preaching with a reaction to this: Selge, [K.-V.], ‘Caractéristiques [du premier mouvement vaudois et crises au cours de son expansion’], Cahiers de Fanjeaux 2, p 115 Google Scholar. Here, where these broader issues cannot be discussed, it should be noted that this polarisation is rejected, and that the basis taken is the older picture in which the waldensian movement was seen as fluid and developing in its earliest years, broadly a poverty movement, gradually taking on the preaching of repentance and then, more specifically, anti-cathar preaching.

9 Enchiridion [Fontium Valdensium], ed [G.] Gonnet, l–(Torre Pellice 1958–), 1 p 35.

10 Ibid.

11 Durand of Huesca, Liber antiheresis, bk 1 cap de labore, 3d Selge, Waldenser 2 p 82.

12 Enchiridion, ed Gonnet, p 123.

13 Fontcaude, Bernard of, Adversus Waldensium sectam liber, PL 204 (1855), cols 793–840 Google Scholar; the extracts in Enehiridion, ed Gonnet, pp 65-95 are too brief for the purposes of this paper. On the dispute and Bernard see Thouzellier, [C.], Catharisme et Valdéisme [en Languedoc à la fin du xiie et au debut du xiiie siècle], faculté des lettres et sciences humaines de Paris, Recherches 27 (Paris 1966), pp 50–9 Google Scholar, and Selge, Waldenser 1 p 131 n 4.

14 PL 204, col 800: Ubi pariter reprehendit eos, qui haereticos inducunt et presbyteros desurunt; cum Apostolus jubeat presbyteros induci, non haereticos.

15 PL 216, cols 601-2. On Elne, see Thouzellier, Catharisme et Valdéisme, pp 257-9, and Vicaire, M.-H., ‘Rencontre à Pamiers des courants vaudois et dominicain (1207)’, Cahiers de Fanjeaux 2 (1967), pp 179–81.Google Scholar

16 Vicaire (ibid p 179) writes of deux maisons: celle des frères et celle des soeurs, but the more obvious reading of the text (domum … in qua ex parte una viris, et ex alia mulieribus religiosis mansio competens habeatur, PL 216, col 601) is that it means a single divided house.

17 Statuts d’hôtels-Dieu et léproseries. Recueil de textes du xiie au xive siècle, ed. Grand, L. Le, Collection de textes pour servir à l’étude et à l’enseignement de l’histoire (Paris 1901), pp 8, 17, 46, 56, 79, 113, 124, 137, 159.Google Scholar

18 Selge, K.-V., ‘L’aile droite du mouvement vaudois et naissance des Pauvres catholiques et des Pauvres reconciliés’, Cahiers de Fanjeaux 2 (1967), pp 227–8, with some reservations.Google Scholar

19 [Paris Bibliothèque Nationale Collection] Doat 32 fols 185r–282v. A few parts are printed in Lea, H. C., A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages 3 vols (New York 1888) 2 pp 579–84 Google Scholar; see p 146 for brief comment on medical activity. On the Doat copies see Molinier, [C], L’Inquisition [dans le midi de la France au xiie et au xive siècle. étude sur les sources de son histoire (Paris 1880)] p 34 Google Scholar. This evidence has been used in Duvernoy, J., ‘Albigeois et Vaudois en Quercy d’après le registre des pénitences de Pierre Selhan’, Fédération des Sociétés Académiques et Savantes, Languedoc-Pyrénées-Gascognes. Actes du xixe Congrès d’études régionales tenu à Moissac, les 5 et 6 Mai 1963. Moissac et sa Région (Paris 1964) pp 110–121 Google Scholar; see p 120 for brief note of medical activity; the statement (p 120 n 73) that medical activity is found in ‘quasi-totalité des dépositions de fidèles vaudois’ is a gross exaggeration, and the identification of the brother Pierre de Vaiz with Valdes (pp 120–1) is unacceptable (the form Valdesius is very well attested,‘Peter‘ is an apostolic accretion not encountered till the mid-fourteenth century, and accepting Duvernoy’s suggestion would involve projecting much of the data in the depositions to dates before Valdes’ death, c1205/10).

20 See Dossat, [Y.], [‘Les] Vaudois [méridionaux d’après les documents de l’Inquisition’, Cahiers de Fanjeaux 2 (1967)] p 209 Google Scholar, where these extracts are described as résumé des dépositions … établi en vue de la rédaction des sentences. There are biographical notes on Selhan - on whose name I follow Dossat’s usage, ibid-in Molinier, L’Inquisition, and many references to him in Wakefield, W. L., Heresy, Crusade and Inquisition in southern France, 1100-1250 (London 1974).Google Scholar

21 The uncertainty of number stems from the case of one witness who consulted the brothers medically and gave to them pluries (Doat 21 fol 268v), where pluries might imply i) repeated recompense for medical care which was protracted, or ii) gifts after or beyond recompense for a single consultation, gifts which therefore might be taken to express religious support and sympathy.

22 Among consulters were some members of what Dossat, Vaudois p 211, terms grandes familles of Montauban: Touzet (fols 232v, 233v), Sapiac (fols 266v, 268r), Aussac (fol 265v), Pouzaque (fol 236r).

23 For example, consuluit Valdenses super infirmitate filae suae (fol 279v). This is the manner of phrasing in thirty-four cases.

24 fols 200v, 233v–4r, 236r, 252r, 253r, 278r.

25 fols 189r, 236r (bis), 237r, 238r, 245r, 246r, 246v, 247v (bis), 253v (bis), 254r, 258r, 260v, 263v, 264r, 271v, 275r, 281v (bis), 282r.

26 fols 230r, 234r, 237r.

27 pe-(r. pa–) –tiebatur in oculo (fol 264v); super infirmitate oculorum (fol 274v); infirmitate manus (fol 234r); tibia (fol 266v). The frequency of medical activity in the depositions and the occasional apparent error of the seventeenth century scribe (who was copying a no longer extant manuscript) combine to suggest the possibility that in the phrase aliquando iverunt Valdenses ad restringendum dolium suum (fol 236r–v) dolium (= cask) may be a mistake for dolum (= injury): ‘the Waldensians sometimes came to bind his wound’?

28 See the previous note on the possibility of a case of binding a wound. The other instances: fecit sibi emplastrum a Valdensibus (fol 250v); recepit ungium (ungium perhaps the Doat scribe’s version of contracted unguentum in the manuscript he was copying? fol 274v); accepit quandam herbam qua usus est pro infirmitate sua (fol 265v–6r). The sentence devoted to Waldensian healing in Quercy in Gonnet and Molnar, Vaudois, p 159, is erroneous: chez eux la profession médecin-guérisseur, dont l’art consistait à guérir les malades par l’imposition des mains, semble avoir connu um certain succès. The ultimate basis of this description of waldensian methods is a single text: Raimundo uxor J. de Gailhac dixit quod quando filins eius infirmabatur quidam Vaidensis venit ad domum suam et tetigit puerum (fol 264v). Tetigit: in what fashion, and with what purpose? Unfortunately this extract is too brief too enlighten us about the precise nature of a touching which could have been many things (even merely a consoling gesture, perhaps to someone incurably ill?). What can be said is 1) that nowhere in these depositions is ‘imposition of hands’, medical or religious, specifically described; 2) there is only one text (quoted above) which could possibly be construed in this sense, and that is insufficient basis for a generalisation about the medical methods of the brothers, especially when, 3) in the handful of cases where medical method is made specific it seems that (with due reservation about the brevity of the descriptions) it is conventional and purely medical methods which are being used.

29 Fol 268v: Guiralda Vesiada … consuluit quemdam Valdensem pro infirmitate sua et Vaidensis fecit ei quid potuit.

30 fols 204r, 236r, 257r, 265r.

31 fols 236r, 244r, 245r, 271v.

32 fols 189r, 198r, 204v (bis), 207v 242r, 242v, 248v, 249r, 249v 254r, 264v, 269v, 271r, 281r, 281v; on behalf of a newphew, 270v; on behalf of her maid, 201r.

33 fols 241v-242r, where a grandmother consulted them on behalf of an ill man, and her daughter on behalf of her son.

34 See domum Valdensium specified several times (fols 238v, 242r, 268v - the domum in qua manebant, 241v), and the renting of houses to them (fols 219r, 221v), and many instances of going ad Valdenses.

35 fol 281r: visitavit multotiens Valdenses infirmantes.

36 fol 264r: misit filium suum infirmum Valdensibus ut haberent curam ipsius. The similar phrasing of a case where a witness duxit quemdam infirmum ad Valdenses ter vel quater et habuerunt curam ipsius (fol 275r) – where residence would seem not to be implied –does not settle the matter: different treatment for different cases? Further precisions cannot be extracted from such brief texts.

37 fol 249r-v: dixit quod pluries venit ad Valdenses in hospitali et ibi audivit pluries praedicationem eorum. The statement in Gonnet and Molnar, Vandois, p 159, that they possessed un hôpital does not make an allowance for the possibility that this meant a hospice of general resort, a temporary lodging, or a house in which the waldensians lived a regular and common religious life, described elsewhere (in a source probably of German origin, possibly late thirteenth century) as hospitium von], ([J. J. I. Beiträge, Döllinger [zur Sektengeschichte des Mittelalters,] 2 vols (Munich 1890), 2 pp 93–7)Google Scholar.

38 For example, quidam Valdensis veniebat ad domum suam pro infirmitate filii sui (Doat 21 fol 249r).

39 fol 207v: Geralda de Mailhoz tenuit Valdensem in domo sua per tres dies pro infirmitate viri sui.

40 fol 270r: P. Bonus Filius dixit quod cum quidam infirmaretur in domo sua Valdenses veniebant ad domum suam pro infirmo quem receperant in cura et hoc bene pe duos menses. It is often specified that medical visitation for one illness was repeated or frequent, only occasionally that consultation for one illness was repeated or frequent – for example, pro quadam infirmitate sua consuluit Valdenses quinquies (fol 273v).

41 Some material for a study of cathar practice of medicine is scattered in the depositions (given in the course of enquiries by Bernard of Caux and other inquisitors in the Lauragais and Lavaur region in 1245-6) contained in Toulouse Bibliothèque Municipale ms 609. For example, from Avignoner. two perfecti) were led to the witness’s house ad curandum ipsum testem de quadam infirmitate quam paciebatur in crure fol 130v); the witness’s son was taken to them quia … dixerat ipsi testi quod obtimi medici erant, and the witness gave them seven Toulouse shillings proeo quod fecerunt filio suo (fol 132v). From Auriac: Ber. de Plants de Auriaco habuit quendam librum medicine ex deposito ab Arnaldo Faure herético (fol 94r).

42 Cathars had treated the husband of one witness who consulted a waldensian, Doat 21 fol 270v.

43 fol 263r: dedit eis panem et vinum quia non recipiebant denarios. None of the statements, by credentes or others, is sufficiently long and detailed to indicate whether they knew about the brothers’ vow of poverty. In one exceptional case where the person consulting a waldensian brother had given him twenty pence the background of the brother’s vow and the phrasing used to describe the gift-fecit eidart viginti denarios (fol 204r) – combine to suggest the possibility of forced overcoming of the reluctance of this brother, or even some stratagem whereby direct giving and receiving of the money could be avoided in order to preserve obedience to the vow. In other, not medical, contexts there are a few cases of money gifts and bequests.

44 fols 257r, 263v, 265r: bread, wine, and meat; 273v: flour; 264v: flour and oil; 198r: a salted fish; 207v: bread, wine and leeks; 247v: a cheese and oil; 261v: a measure of brown cloth. Elsewhere, where specified, recompense was in bread and (or) wine.

45 Fol 238 r–v: … habuit quemdam Valdensem medicum de infirmitate sua et dedit eis aliquando panes et amplius dedisset eis si voluissent recipére et credebat quod essent boni homines. Here there is both giving as recompense and giving as expession of sympathy and support, and both are covered in the single description of giving.

46 Medical: fols 18r, 200v, 204r, 204v (bis), 205r, 212v. Seeing, hearing sermons, etc: 189 v, 201 r, 201 r–v 203 v, 204r, 205 r, 206 v, 211 v(ter), 212 r(ter), 212v(bis).

47 fol 211 v: dilexit eum; 203 v: diligebat P. de vallibus Valdensem tanqnam angelum Dei.

48 Only in one or two cases docs the deposition imply that any pastoral activity – the giving of a sermon – accompanied a medical visit. In only one case is it specified that a death followed medical consultation, and this is the only case, where, as one would expect, there is clearly associated religious exhortation and consolation: consuluit Valdenses pro infirmitate filii sui et quidam Valdensis erat fere cotidie in domo sua qui predicabat ei et consolabatur eum de morte filii sui (fol 266 v). The statement that the Waldensian brothers and cathar perfecti knew well how to assister les mourants dont ils consolent la famille ( Albe, E., ‘L’Hérésie albigeoise et l’Inquisition en Querey’, Analecta Gallicana. RHEF 1 (1910) p 281)Google Scholar is misleading insofar as it is taken to apply to the waldcnsian brothers and as a generalisation since this is the only case to which it refers. For an instance of medical care and conversion going hand in hand and a description of the brothers which implies their combining physical and spiritual help see the later quotation of the case of Odo Crispin and the letter of George Morel. See also two instances of spiritual help to the sick: the laying of the gospel of St John on the head of an ill female credens by mulieres Valdenses (perhaps under cathar influence?), Patschovsky and Selge, p 63; a description which includes sending blessed bread to the ill, Müller, K., Die Waldenser und ihre einzelnen Gruppen bis zum Ausgang des 14.jahrhunderts (Gotha 1886) pp 81–2.Google Scholar

49 See Kurze, D., ‘Zur Ketzergeschichte der Mark Brandenburg und Pommerns vornehmlich im 14.Jahrhundert. Luziferianer, Putzkeller und Waldenser’. Jahrbuch für die Geschichte Mittelund Ostdeutschlands 16/17 (1968) pp 50–94 Google Scholar, especially 66ff. I have not been able to find any medical activity in the large numbers of depositions from 1392–4 contained in Wolfenbüttel Hezog August Bibliothek Cod Helmst 403 and Cod Guelf348 Novi. Much of the material in these now appears in Quellen zur Ketzergeschichte Brandenburgs und Pommerns ed D. Kurze, , Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission zu Berlin 45, Quellenwerke 6 (Berlin New York 1975) pp 77–261 Google Scholar. The main sources from other parts of Europe which might qualify the argument proposed here are the unprinted parts (which are the majority) of the late fifteenth century interrogations of alpine waldensians in Archives de l’Isère B 4350 and B 4351, which I have not been able to consult.

50 Although the inquisition made wide and detailed discoveries in Austria in the 1260s (Nickson, [M. A. E.], [‘The] “Pseudo-Reinerius” [treatise, the final stage of a thirteenth century work on heresy from the diocese of Passau’, AHDLMA 62 (1967)] p 290)Google Scholar no trials survive. Again, although in the sixteenth century there still existed in the monastery of Garsten near Steyer tria volumina satis magna of processes of waldensians ( lllyricus, M. F., Catalogus Testium Veritatis (Geneva 1608) p 1941)Google Scholar, almost certainly trials before the inquisitor Peter Zwicker in the 1390s, only a handful of sentences, containing little detail, survives.

51 Enchiridion ed Gonnet, p 151. On Ebrard see Selge, , Waldenser 1 p 132 n 6.Google Scholar

52 Paris Bibliothèque Nationale Fonds Francais 2425 fol 154 rb. On the area of the translation and date of the ms (not before the early years of the fourteenth century) see Meyer, P., ‘Recherches linguistiques sur l’origine des versions provençales du nouveau testament’, Romania (1889) p 426 Google Scholar. Berger, S. (‘Les bibles provençales et vaudoises’, Romania 18 (1889) pp 375–7)CrossRefGoogle Scholar pointed to the profile of waldensian doctrinal emphases given by the marginal pointers in this ms, pointers which he thought went back to the fifteenth century (ibid p 375). He noted only a few of the pointed passages (there are about eighty in the ms), and did not include the passage in question here. Some general comments on marginalia in waldensian mss are given in Balmas, E. and Dal Corso, M., I manoscritti valdesi di Ginevra (Turin 1977) pp 36–40 Google Scholar.

53 The annotations to this were given in appendix to its edition: Der codex Teplensis, enthaltend die Schrift des newen Erzetiges ed Klimesch, P., 3 vols (Augsburg Munich 1881–4), 1 pp 107-26Google Scholar. It may be suggested that their bent – passages relating to preaching, the poor, persecution, etc. – indicates a waldensian annotator. Some passages concerning charity are marked, including the six corporal works of Matt 25:34, and most instances of Christ’s healing are noted or cross-referenced, together with some other important passages (the giving of authority to heal of Matt 10:1, Luke 9:1, and the injunction of the ill to go to priests of James 5:14), but some relevant passages (e.g. the curate infirmos of Luke 10:9) escape such noting. A summary of the controversy about the nature of the codex Teplensis is given in Deanesly, M., The Lollard bible and other medieval biblical versions (Cambridge 1920) pp 64–8 Google Scholar.

54 See on this compilation Patschovsky, A., Der Passauer Anonymus. Ein Sammelwerk über Ketzer Juden Antichrist aus der Mitte des xiii. Jahrhunderts, MGH Schriften 22 (Stuttgart 1968)Google Scholar.

55 Quoted here from a later recension: Nickson, “Pseudo-Reinerius”, pp 292 and 295; see p 280 n 1 on the identity of Neuhofen.

56 Gui, Bernard, Practica Inquisitionis Heretice Pravitatis, ed C. Douais, (Paris 1886), p 250 Google Scholar; on Gui’s account of the brothers see Gonnet, Confessioni, pp 113-4. The description of Gui’s knowledge of the waldensians by R. Manselli - le pen qu’il sait, la nature approximative of the information he gives – is over-pessimistic ( Manselli, R., ‘Bernard Gui face aux Spiritualset aux Apostoliques’, Bernard Cui et son monde, Cahiers de Fanjeaux 16 (1981) p 267)Google Scholar. Gui had independent knowledge as an inquisitor, his extensive use of sources (to which he alludes) implies more about his literary methods than the limits of his knowledge, and his use of sources (except, concerning the waldensians, on the charge of immorality) is usually faithful. For a discussion of the development of the six and seven corporal works of mercy, and an interesting example of the study of the diffusion and teaching of the corporal works of mercy as one of the roots of the hospital movement see Vicaire, M.-H., ‘La place des oeuvres de miséricorde dans la pastorale en pays d’oc’. Cahiers de Fanjeaux 13 (1978), pp 21–44 Google Scholar.

57 In the deposition of the credens Peyronette in 1494 a brother is described saying quod melius et magis meritorium erat dare elemosynam alicui pauperi infirmo aut leproso quam offere in Ecclesia sacerdotibus: Allix, [P.], [Some] remarks [upon the Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of Piedmont] (London 1690) p 324 Google Scholar.

58 Willi and his wife Alexia were among those who were accused of waldensian affiliation in 1399 and successfully defended themselves Ochsenbein, ([G. F.], [Aus dem schweizerischen] Volkslehen [des XV. Jahrhunderts] (Bern 1881) p 108)Google Scholar, but it is clear from the 1430 proceedings that he had been a credens for at this date it was stated that the priest W. Studer (whose mother, brothers, and sisters were credentes) had led him back into the church, (ibid pp 223–4), and there is also trace of a fine paid by him on behalf of a credens found guilty at this time (ibid p 240). One witness in 1430 admitted saying that in Fribourg erant multi de secta Waldensium et de maioribus saltem aliqui, with a list including William Mossuz, though she claimed (unconvincingly) that this had been a lie: F[ribourg] A[rchives d’] E[tat] GS 26 fol 15r. All this suggests the hypothesis of Willi as a rich and influential man successfully protecting himeslf; see Ochsenbein, Volksleben p 159, for a self-protective action by Willi in 1427.

59 Ammann, H., ‘Freiburg als Wirtschaftsplatz in Mittelalter’, Fribourg-Freiburg 1157-1481 (Fribourg 1957) p 228 Google Scholar, where three other families with sometime waldensian connections (Perroman, Ferwer, Pavilliard) are listed among the sixteen richest families. Some evidence suggests a background to Willi of a network in various cities of rich trading waldensian families. Mossu‘s father Johannod was trading in 1356 with the Strasbourg cloth-cutter Heintzemann zur Bircken (Mittelalterliche Wirtschaft [im Alltag: Quellen zur Geschichte von Gewerbe Industrie und Handel des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts aus den Notariatsregistern von Freiburg im Uchtland ed. H. Ammann (Aarau 1942) p 3 no 12, whose son Hermann was revealed as a waldensian credens in 1400; for other examples of such networks see [P. P. A.] Biller, [‘Aspects of the Waldenses in the fourteenth century’ (Oxford D. Phil. Thesis)] pp 172-5, and Vienna Ost Nat Bib 3748 fols 147v 149r, with its example of a credens trading between Donauwörth and Regensburg and in contact with credentes in both places. Willi’s own commercial activities extended to places (Solothurn, Bern) where credentes had lived, also to Ulm and Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Mittelalterliche Wirtschaft p 70 nos 711-19 and 73 no 744.

60 F A E Hôpital II 199; the terms were 1416-18, 1420-3, 1426-9. On the hospital see Niquille, [J.], [L’Hôpital de Notre-Dame à Fribourg] (Fribourg 1921)Google Scholar.

61 FAE Procenrum Tabula; the terms were 1419, 1423, 1424, 1425. See Niquille p 23 on the role of the confraternity.

62 The will is in FAE RN 32 fols 100r-109 r. See fol .101 r: bona mea inmobilia … hospitalti pauperum miserorum beate Marie Virginis de Friburgo; fol 102 v: pauperibus leprosis … et ad opus domorum leprosorum 40 libri. There was also provision for annual gifts of bread and wine to the poor on Christmas Eve prout ab antiquo ego dictus Willinus testator conseuvi …, fol 105 r. When considering the question of Willi‘s continuing waldensian sympathies it is worth noting that the usually lengthy and specific section providing for anniversary masses for the testator (an area of cult utterly rejected by the waldensians) was replaced in Willi’s will by the vague and brief meo et predecessorum anniversario … bene et laudabiliter ut moris est faciendo, fol 100 v. To be compared with this will are those studied by Audisio (wills of waldensians who had emigrated from the waldensian valleys of Val Pute, Argentière, and Freyssinière into Provence in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries) which show, by comparison with catholic wills, i) downgrading of provisions concerning the cult of the saints and Mary, and general absence of trenteniers of masses, ii) far greater concern with gifts to the poor: Audisio, G., ‘II sentimento religioso dei Valdesi della Provenza’, Quaderni Storici 14 (1979) pp 462–4 Google Scholar.

63 Much waldensian dialect literature remains unedited; the dating of texts, for a long time controversial for theological reasons, remains a problem. Little work had been done since the nineteenth century until recently; now there are appearing important editions (Altwaldensische Bibelübersetzung. Manuskript Nr. 8 der Bibliothèque Municipale Carpentras, ed Nüesch, H.-R., Romanica Helvetica 92a-b (Bern 1979)Google Scholar, and II Vergier de Cunsollacion e altri scritti (manoscritto Ce 209) ed A.D. Checchini, Antichi Test Valdesi 1, the latter the first in a projected edition of all the main waldensian manuscripts under the editorship of E. Balmas and L. B. Cedrini) and important articles, by E. Balmas and others, in the Bollettino della Società di Studi Valdesi and Protestantesimo. In what follows the dating and analyses given in Gonnet and Molnar are followed.

64 For example, prior to 1368 Austrian brothers knew the Liber Electorum (a waldensian text of the early to mid-fourteenth century) in latin; it also survives in a waldensian dialect version; the only edition based on a collation of all known mss is that in Biller, pp 264–270.

65 Montet, E., La Noble Leçon. Texte originale d’après le manuscrit de Cambridge avec les variantes des manuscrits de Genève et de Dublin suivi d’une traduction francaise et de traductions en vaudois moderne (Paris 1888) pp 50–1 Google Scholar.

66 Morland, S., The history of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piedmont (London 1658) pp 119–24 Google Scholar (La Temor del segnar), pp 133—42 (Glosa pater) – this version being the earliest according to Gonnet and Molnar, p 327 (following Montet).

67 Gonnet and Molnar, pp 367, 447.

68 Leger, Histoire, pp 69-70; Leger knew this work by the title Almanac spirituel (Gonnet and Molnar, p 369). It is to be hoped that the monograph on the Tresor whose future publication is advertised by Claudiana Editrice of Turin (R. Cegna, Fede e prassi valdese del Quattrocento) will clarify the position of this passage on visiting the sick within the (textually) complex compilation which the Tresor constitutes.

69 Cambridge University Library Dd xv 32 fols 11r-13v. Its existence is noted by Gonnet and Molnar, p 369.

70 My largest debt in this paper is to Dr L. Minio-Paluello for his supplying of a provisional transcription and translation of this text.

71 In the Epistola Fratrum de Italia (1368 or earlier), Klosterncuburg CC 826 fols 222 v-3 r, and Biller, pp 280-1.

72 This is the suggestion of Gonnet and Molnar, p 369.

73 The brothers needed tiny books for two reasons, one which they shared with the friars - portability required by their itinerant preaching (on the friars see D’Avray, D. L., ‘Portable Vademecum books containing Franciscan and Dominican texts’, Manuscripts at Oxford. R. W. Hunt memorial exhibition ed de la Marc, A. C. and Barker-Bcnfield, B. C. (Oxford 1980) pp 61–4)Google Scholar, and one reason which they did not share with the friars, their desperate need for secrecy, and hence for little books which could be hidden easily. It was with such little books that they were seen by credentes; for example a witness in Fribourg had seen a brother habentem unum parvum librum ante se quem statim occultavit, FAE GS 26 fol b 10 v. The Cambridge ms is very small, each parchment leaf (the binding is of 1977) measuring approximately 3½ × 2¼ inches (informaton of Mr. G. Waller, Superintendent, Mss Reading room, Cambridge University Library). No other contemporary or earlier medical book of the medieval waldensians is known to me (the original language and date - post-medieval? - of the short herbal text given in Armand-Hugon, A., ‘Stregoneria e Medicina presso gli antichi Valdesi’, Bollettino della Società di Studi Valdesi 95 (1954) pp 34–6 Google Scholar, are unclear). In view of the many external parallels between waldensian brothers and cathar perfecti it is worth noting the latter’s possession of a librum medicine in the mid-thirteenth century (see n 41 above).

74 Audisio, [G.], Le barbe [et l’inquisiteur. Procès du barbe vaudois Pierre Griot par l’inquisiteur Jean de Roma (Apt, 1532)] (Aix-en-Provence 1979) p 71.Google Scholar

75 Ibid p 77.

76 Cambridge University Library Dd iii 26 H2 fol 8 r.

77 Ibid fol 8r-v.

78 Ibid fols 8 v-9 r. I have not firmly identified the herb miltalha. Dr L. Minio-Paluello has drawn my attention to milzatella (lamium maculatum) - similar to miltalha? - as a form of milzadella, and the indication of this in Michiel, P. A., I Cinque Libri di Piante. Codice Marciano ed E. De Toni (Venice 1940) p 346 Google Scholar; see also Battaglia, S., Grande Dizionario della Lingua Italiana 10 (Turin 1978) p 413. Google Scholar

79 Audisio, Le barbe, p 47 n 2.

80 Cum quis infirmatur, adimus illum vocati… nonnunquam adimus infirmantes invocati, scientes eorum indigentiam, ut eis spiritualiter et corporaliter subveniamus, Vinay, V., Le confessioni di fede dei Valdesi riformati, Collana della Facoltà valdese di Teologia 12 (Turin 1975) p 42 Google Scholar.

81 Gilles, Histoire, p 16.

82 Etienne de Bourbon, p 293.

83 Miraculis derogent… qui morbos fingunt, et curaciones in ecclesia; from De occasionibus errorum hereticorum ed Preger, W., ‘Beiträge zur Geschichte der Waldesier im Mittelalter’, ABAW hist Cl 13 (1877) p 243. For the compilation from which this comes see n 54 above.Google Scholar

84 The suggestion here of a tendency among credentes towards rational preference for medical rather than miraculous treatment (‘rational’ within the context of the level of development of medieval medicine) allows for much variation among credentes. There is a case from the Stettin trials of a female credens who gave brothers money to pay for prayers for her recovery from illness, Wattenbach, W., ‘Über die Inquisition gegen die Waldenser in Pommern und der Mark Brandenburg’, ADAW phil-hist Cl 3 (1886) p51 Google Scholar.

85 Paris Bibliothèque Nationale Lat 3375 fol 257 v: non est recurrendum sanctis in necessitatibus quia non possunt invare.

85 On Gui and his order see Brune, M., Histoire de l’ordre hospitalier du Saint-Esprit (Lons-le-Saunier and Paris 1892)Google Scholar and Revel, M., ‘Le rayonnement de l’ordre du Saint-Esprit du Montpellier à Rome et en Italie’, Cahiers de Fanjeaux 13 (1978) pp 343–55.Google Scholar

86 On Gui and his order see Brune, M., Hisloire de I’ordre hospilalier du Saint-Esprit (Lons-le-Saunier and Paris 1892)Google Scholar and Revel, M., ‘Le rayonnement de I’ordre du Saint-Esprit du Montpellier a Rome et en Italie’, Caliiers de Fanjeaux 13 (1978) pp 343-55.Google Scholar