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. Orléans, Arras, Cambrai, Châlons, Goslai, Liège, 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 Éon de l'Étoile (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 universæ 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'hérésie et le bras séculier au moyen âge_, 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-Père de Chartres_, ed. Guérard, 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 Châlons attracted the attention of the Bishop of the city, who was puzzled how to deal with them. He consulted Wazo, the Bishop of Liège, who tells us that the French were "infuriated" against heretics. These words would seem to prove that the heretics of the day were prosecuted more vigorously than the documents we possess go to show. It is probable that the Bishop of Châlons detested the "fury" of the persecutors. We will see later on the answer that Wazo sent him.