Henry of Lausanne - Life and Teachings

Life and Teachings

Practically nothing is known of his origin or early life. He likely received his orders in the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny. If St Bernard's reproach (Ep. 241) is well founded, Henry was an apostate monk—a black monk (Benedictine) according to the chronicler Alberic de Trois Fontaines. The information we possess as to his degree of instruction is scarcely more precise or less conflicting.

When he arrived at Le Mans, his terminus a quo was probably Lausanne. At that moment Hildebert, the bishop of Le Mans, was absent from his episcopal town, and this is one of the reasons why Henry was granted permission to preach (March to July 1101), a function jealously guarded by the regular clergy. Whether by his prestige as a hermit and ascetic or by his personal charm, he soon acquired enormous influence over the people. Our knowledge of his ministry is admittedly hearsay and mostly obtained from a pamphlet by Peter of Cluny. He seemingly rejected the invocation of saints and also second marriages, and preached penitence. Women, inflamed by his words, gave up their jewels and luxurious apparel, and young men married prostitutes in the hope of reclaiming them.

He was a tall, charismatic preacher had a beard and long hair. His voice was sonorous, and his eyes flashed fire. He went bare-footed, preceded by a man carrying a staff surmounted with an iron cross; he slept on the bare ground, and lived by alms. At his instigation the inhabitants of Le Mans soon began to abuse the clergy of their town and to reject all ecclesiastical authority. On his return from Rome, Hildebert had a public disputation with Henry, in which, according to the bishops Acta episcoporum Cenomannensium, Henry was shown to be less guilty of heresy than of ignorance. He, however, was forced to leave Le Mans, and went probably to Poitiers and afterwards to Bordeaux. Later we find him in the archdiocese of Arles, where the archbishop arrested him and had his case referred to the tribunal of the pope.

In 1134 Henry was brought by the archbishop of Arles before Pope Innocent II at the council of Pisa, where he was made to abjure his errors and was sentenced to imprisonment. It appears that St Bernard offered him an asylum at Clairvaux; but it is not known if he reached Clairvaux, nor do we know when or in what circumstances he resumed his activities. Towards 1139, however, Peter of Cluny, abbot of Cluny, wrote a treatise called Epistola seu tractatus adversus Petrobrusianos (Migne, Patr. Lat. clxxxix) against the disciples of Peter of Bruys and Henry of Lausanne, whom he calls Henry of Bruys, and whom, at the moment of writing, he accuses of preaching, in all the dioceses in the south of France, errors which he had inherited from Peter of Bruys.

According to Peter of Cluny, Henry's teaching is summed up as follows: rejection of the doctrinal and disciplinary authority of the church; recognition of the Gospel freely interpreted as the sole rule of faith; condemnation of the baptism of infants, of the eucharist, of the sacrifice of the mass, of the communion of saints, and of prayers for the dead; and refusal to recognize any form of worship or liturgy.

The success of this teaching spread very rapidly in the south of France. Speaking of this region, St Bernard (Ep. 241) says: The churches are without flocks, the flocks without priests, the priests without honour; in a word, nothing remains save Christians without Christ. On several occasions St Bernard was begged to fight the innovator on the scene of his exploits, and in 1145, at the instance of the legate Alberic, cardinal bishop of Ostia, he set out, passing through the diocese of Angoulme and Limoges, sojourning for some time at Bordeaux, and finally reaching the heretical towns of Bergerac, Périgueux, Sarlat, Cahors and Toulouse. At Bernard's approach Henry departed Toulouse, leaving there many adherents, both of noble and humble birth, and especially among the weavers.