ime is of purely
ecclesiastical origin. The Roman law knew nothing of it. It was at
first a penalty peculiar to monks and clerics, although later on
laymen also were subjected to it.

About the year 1000, the Manicheans, under various names, came from
Bulgaria, and spread over western Europe.[1] We meet them about this
time in Italy, Spain, France, and Germany. Public sentiment soon
became bitter against them, and they became the victims of a general,
though intermittent, persecution. Orleans, Arras, Cambrai, Chalons,
Goslai, Liege, Soissons, Ravenna, Monteforte, Asti, and Toulouse
became the field of their propaganda, and often the place of their
execution. Several heretics like Peter of Bruys, Henry of Lausanne,
Arnold of Brescia, and Eon de l'Etoile (Eudo de Stella), likewise
troubled the Church, who to stop their bold propaganda used force
herself, or permitted the State or the people to use it.

[1] Cf. C. Schmidt, _Histoire et doctrine de la secte des Cathares_,
vol. 1, pp. 16-54, 82.

It was at Orleans in 1022 that Catholics for the first time during
this period treated heretics with cruelty. An historian of the time
assures us that this cruelty was due to both king and people: _regis
jussu et universae plebis consensu_.[1] King Robert, dreading the
disastrous effects of heresy upon his kingdom, and the consequent
loss of souls, sent thirteen of the principal clerics and laymen of
the town to the stake. It has been pointed out that this penalty was
something unheard-of at the time. "Robert was therefore the
originator of the punishment which he decreed."[2] It might be said,
however, that this penalty originated with the people, and that the
king merely followed out the popular will.

[1] Raoul Gleber, _Hist_., lib. iii, cap. viii, _Hist. des Gaules_,
vol. x, p. 38. For other authorities consult Julien Havet, _L'heresie
et le bras seculier au moyen age_, in his _OEuvres_, Paris, 1896,
vol. ii, pp. 128-130.

[2] Julien Havet, op. cit., pp. 128, 129.

For, as an old chronicler tells us, this execution at Orleans, was
not an isolated fact; in other places the populace hunted out
heretics, and burned them outside the city walls.[1]

[1] _Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Saint-Pere de Chartres_, ed. Guerard,
vol. i, p. 108 and seq.; cf. _Hist. des Gaules_, vol. x, p. 539.

Several years later, the heretics who swarmed into the diocese of
Chalons attracted the attention of the Bishop of the city, who was
puzzled ho