§ 1. GALATIAN

In order to understand the situation, political and ecclesiastical, in Southern France we must bear in mind that the Gauls of the West and the Galatae of the East were of the same stock, and that each branch, though several nations intervened, retained unimpaired its racial characteristics. Galli, Galatae, Keltae are but different forms of the same word. Livy would speak of Gauls in the East; Polybius of Galatians in the West. The Gauls were a warm-hearted people, but unstable in their friendships, impetuous and courageous in war, but unable to wear down a foe by stubborn endurance. As C?sar noticed: "sunt in consiliis capiendis mobiles, et novis plerumque rebus student;" an opinion endorsed in modern times by one of their own nation—Thierry: "Une bravoure personnelle que rien n'égale chez les peuples anciens—un esprit franc, impétueux, ouvert à toutes les impressions, éminemment intelligent—mais, à c?té de cela, une mobilité extrême, point de constance, une répugnance marquée aux idées de discipline et d'ordre." To these traits may be added vivid imagination, a fondness for song and poetry, a love of nature so intimate that allegory became reality.

Gaul had become one of the perpetual conquests of Rome and had submitted to its governmental system, but nothing could eradicate its racial peculiarities. The {20} Gaul was an individualist, the Roman an imperialist, and hence the Gaul might be conquered, but never destroyed. Now this imperialism which the Church took over from the State was developed vigorously and rapidly under Pope Gregory VII and his successors, and the insistence of it aroused a corresponding reaction in Gaulish nationalism. The Church had condemned Nominalism as inimical to Catholic unity, and had adopted the opposite scholastic theory of Realism as most agreeable to the theory of the Holy Roman Empire. This theory, however, now declared to be a dogma of the Catholic faith, struck at the root of national and individual independence. Such an independence France had constantly shewn, and it may be traced not only to the racial antipathy between Gaul and Pelagian, but to the fact that Western Gaul had never lost touch with its Eastern kin. Its Christianity from the earliest times was on Eastern rather than Western lines. Its monasticism was of the Oriental type. The letter which the Christians of Gaul in A.D. 177, describing the sufferings and deaths of the martyrs in the persecution, sent to "the brethren in Asia and Phrygia, having the same faith and hope of redemption with us," can only be explained on the assumption that they were of the same kith and kin. In fact, one of the martyrs, Alexander, was a Phrygian.[13] The Gallican Liturgy was Eastern (Ephesian), not Western.
§ 2. SLAVONIC

The spirit of independence which pervaded Southern France would be strengthened by its constant communication with Slavonia, for the Slavs, according to {21} Procopius, had the same national characteristics. "They are not ruled by one man, but from the most ancient times have been under a democracy. In favourable and unfavourable situations all their affairs are placed before a common council." The "'Times' History of the World" says: "The Slavs are characterised by a vivacity, a warmth, a mobility, a petulance, an exuberance not always found in the same degree among even the people of the South. Among the Slavs of purer blood these characteristics have marked their political life with a mobile, inconstant and anarchical spirit.... The distinguishing faculty of the race is a certain flexibility and elasticity of temperament and character which render it adaptable to the reception and the reproduction of all sorts of diverse ideas." This likeness of temperament would naturally draw two nations together and account for the readiness with which the Gallican mind absorbed Slavonic propaganda.
§ 3. NATIVE

The country had been early converted to Christianity, and the dominant form of Christianity was now Roman. But when we speak of a country being "converted" in the Middle Ages, we must regard the statement with considerable qualifications. Conversions were often political conveniences, rather than personal convictions. The people followed their chiefs, accepted the Church's ministrations and attended her services, but knew next to nothing of Christian truth. In France two things contributed to this ignorance: (a) the official language of the Church being different from that of the people; (b) the slackness and refusal of the Church in providing services and sermons in a language which the people understood.

Between the middle of the eighth and ninth centuries {22} Latin was the language only of the learned and officials; the mass of the people ceased to understand it. Latin was sacrosanct, and to address God in any other language was profane. Hence the Church lost its spiritual hold upon the masses. "The hungry sheep looked up and were not fed." So serious was the situation that Charlemagne summoned five Councils at five different places, the most Southern being Arles, and ordered the Bishops to use the vulgar tongue in the instruction of their flocks. From this it is clear that the Bishops and Clergy were bilingual, but deliberately abstained from adopting in their pastoral work a language which their people could understand; even the Bible was a closed book. The heretics, on the contrary, were most zealous in supplying this want, particularly the Waldenses. Not only did they translate the whole of the New Testament and parts of the Old, but added notes embodying Sententiae or opinions of the Fathers. They contended that prayers in an unknown tongue did not profit. They knew by heart large portions of Holy Scripture[14] and readily quoted it in their discussions with the Church. The Catharists also had composed a little work called "Perpendiculum Scientiarum," or "Plummet of Knowledge" (cf. Is. xxviii. 17), consisting of passages of Scripture whereby Catholicism might be easily and readily tested. Not until the eleventh century do we come across in the West any translation into the vulgar tongue by the Church, and then only of Legends of Saints in the dialect of Rouen. In Southern France the vernacular which ultimately emerged was known as Langue D'Oc, and sometimes Proven?al. "In its rise Proven?al literature stands completely by itself, and in its development it long continued to be {23} absolutely original. This literature took a poetic form, and this poetry, unlike classical poetry, is rhymed." No class of literature is more easily remembered than rhymed verse in common speech. The results of it, therefore, need not cause us surprise. It produced a sense of unity, of comradeship. Latin might be the language of the Church, but this was the language of the people. Its growth created a cleavage between Church and people, which the former sought to bridge by giving the latter accounts of miracles and legends in verse and prose in the Romance language, and by permitting them to sing songs of their own composition—and not necessarily sacred or even modest songs—in the Churches.[15] But the experiment or concession only served to secularize religion, and turned the services into amusements. Nor was it in accord with the real policy of Catholicism which was to prevent the people generally from forming their own opinions of Christianity by an independent study of the Scriptures—a policy which to the Gallican temperament would be particularly odious and exasperating.[16]
§ 4. SECULAR ELEMENTS

Secular causes also account for the growing unpopularity of the Church. On the one hand the seigneurs resented the increasing wealth and land encroachments of Bishops and Abbots. "In the eleventh century the fear of the approaching final judgment and the belief in the {24} speedy dissolution of the world spread throughout all Europe. Some bestowed the whole of their possessions on the Church."[17] But when the donors recovered from their alarm, they regretted their sacrifice, and their descendants would be provoked every day at the sight of others in enjoyment of their ancestral lands. Moreover, the break-up of Charlemagne's vast kingdom threw great power into the hands of the Dukes and Counts. In their own domains they were practically autocrats. The only check upon their sovereignty came from the Church, whose Bishops and Abbots were often able to protect themselves by their own routiers or by ecclesiastical penalties, such as excommunication. But the lords countered this by thrusting their own nominees, often their own relations, into the most powerful and lucrative offices of the Church, or by keeping them vacant and appropriating their revenues. A semblance of legality was thrown over this practice by the fact that "the Bishoprics being secular fiefs, their occupants were bound to the performance of feudal service," and the investiture into the temporalities of the office belonged to the sovereign. Thus the freedom of the Church in the election and appointment of her officers was curtailed.
§ 5. COMMERCE

On the other hand, the increase of commercial prosperity broke down the feudal system. The merchants took advantage of the poverty of the Counts through constant wars by obtaining in exchange for loans certain privileges which, by charter, settled into the inalienable rights of the ville franche. They built for themselves fortified houses in the towns, and from them laughed to scorn the threats of the seigneurs. Their enterprise was constantly {25} bringing money into the country: the non-productive Church was constantly sending it out. Trade with foreign countries created in commercial and industrial circles a sense of independence, and their enlarged outlook gave birth to a religious tolerance favourable to doctrines other than, or in addition t............