Medieval Heresy & the Inquisition

A fine attempt had been made to assist the parish priest in his endeavor to strive after personal holiness by the institution of the orders of the Premonstratensians and the Austin Friars. Much good was unquestionably accomplished; yet order after order eventually fell away from its original purity, and the seed of corruption remained uneradicated. At the very least, we can say that most men must have had personal experience of the glaring contrast between clerical profession and actual accomplishment. That some such contrast should at all times exist to a greater or lesser degree is the inevitable result of human weakness. However, it has always been the case that when the ministers of a religion have failed to proclaim their gospel in their lives as well as in their preaching, they have sown doubt and distrust and lost adherents.

Bishop Grosseteste told Pope Innocent IV that the corruption of the priesthood was the source of the heresies that troubled the Church. We may be sure that it was at least one source when we note in the twelfth century a marked revival of the Donatist doctrine that the sacrament is polluted when held in sinful hands. By similar reasoning, the score of a great composer might be regarded as tainted for our hearing because the members of the orchestra performing it were not all high-minded men. That would be similar logic, but it would not be the same. We expect skill in his art from a musician; without it, he cannot mediate between the composer and his audience; he cannot interpret the music; he can only jar and lacerate the feelings of his hearers. There is the skill also of the priest. He has to interpret spiritual things and needs, therefore, to be spiritually minded. God may not be dependent upon the worthiness of His interpreters; nonetheless, their unworthiness may jar upon and lacerate the feelings of worshippers conscious of the scandal of such unworthiness.