Robert the Bulgarian

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Robert the Bulgarian (French .: Robert le Bougre ), and later Robert Kleine (French .: Robert le Petit ) called († after 1239) was an in northern France occurring Inquisitor in the first half of the 13th century, through its particularly fanatical administration.

Origin and name

Robert's place of origin is unknown; presumably it was in France. According to the authors Matthäus Paris and Alberich von Trois-Fontaines , he was the son of heretics . He himself turned to a Manichaean sect in Milan around the time of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) . He owes his nickname "the Bulgarians" to this past, as the place of origin of the heretical currents of the Waldensians in the Balkans (see: Bogomils ), which was widespread in northern Italy ( Lombardy ), was identified.

However, at an unknown point in time, Robert converted back to the Roman Catholic faith and joined the Dominican Order . According to the monk Richer von Senones , he is said to have become an extremely fanatical persecutor of heresy, who as an inquisitor even burned his own parents.

Act

In the years 1232/1233 Robert and the Prior of the Dominicans of Besançon were given by Pope Gregory IX. charged with investigating and prosecuting heretic activities in La Charité-sur-Loire in Burgundy . They were the first inquisitors ever to be active in the northern French region. So far, the Inquisition has concentrated exclusively on southern France to contain the Cathars after the end of the Albigensian Crusade . In the following years Robert expanded his work into the regions of Champagne and Flanders and enjoyed the support of the young and pious King Louis IX. (Saint Louis) , who wanted to prevent the spread of the Cathar heresy to northern France. Robert received an escort of royal sergeants for his protection.

Roberts' fanatical approach, accompanied by regular executions by burns ( auto-da-fe ), immediately provoked displeasure and protests from local church institutions, but they were unable to do anything about it. In the spring of 1236 Robert had several heretics burned for the first time in Châlons-sur-Marne , and shortly afterwards five more in front of the city walls of Péronne . Even before he officially opened his tribunal in the Diocese of Cambrai , on Reichsboden , he witnessed the cremation of four people in Elincourt . On March 2, 1236, he had ten heretics burned before Douai in the presence of the Archbishop of Reims, the Bishops of Arras, Cambrai and Tournai, and Countess Joan of Flanders , and a little later twenty more in Lille . For Philipp Mouskes , these executions represented "a great joy without end".

Holocaust

The climax of Robert's work occurred on May 13, 1239 in front of the castle on Mont-Aimé (outdated: Mons Wedomarus). The castle belonged to Count Theobald IV of Champagne (Theobald I of Navarre) and is said to have been a preferred spiritual meeting place for Cathars in the past, who received their consolamentum there. The Count of Champagne had previously supported Robert's work and viewed the persecution of heresy in his principality as part of his crusade enterprise ( Crusade of the Barons ) announced just a month earlier . In the presence of the Count, the Archbishop of Reims, the Bishops of Arras, Orléans, Thérouanne, Noyon, Laon, Soissons, Senlis, Beauvais, Châlons, Troyes, Meaux, Verdun and Langres, as well as a large number of onlookers, 183 "Bulgarians" burned at a stake that could be found in Robert's sphere of activity in previous years. Alberich von Trois-Fontaines described this execution as a "great burnt offering for the good of the Lord" ( maximum holocaustum et placabile domino ). The heresy, which was comparatively weak in northern France, thus came to an end, and the few Cathars and Waldensians who had escaped persecution then exiled to the communities in northern Italy that were safe for them.

But Robert's work also came to an end after it became apparent that he had exceeded his competencies in his excessive action and had broken both secular and ecclesiastical law. Among the people who were convicted and executed by him were several people who had previously been granted absolution and who were therefore unjustly cremated. Under pressure from the northern French clergy, the Pope released Robert from all of the duties and powers of an inquisitor. According to Matthew Paris, he was even sentenced to life imprisonment on the orders of the Pope.

literature

  • Charles Homer Haskins: Robert le Bougre and the Beginnings of the Inquisition in Northern France , in: The American Historical Review 7 (1902), pp. 437-457
  • Jacques Le Goff : Louis the Saint (2000), p. 660
  • Michael Lower: The burning at Mont-Aimé: Thibaut of Champagne's preparations for the Barons' Crusade of 1239 , in: Journal of Medieval History 29 (2003), pp. 95-108

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "frater Robertus dictus Lepetit"; see the bull Constitulus by Pope Urban IV. of October 29, 1263, ed. by Marie Dominique Chapotin: Histoire des Dominicains de la Province de France (1898), p. 224
  2. ↑ Ex Abbreviatione Cronicorum Angliae , ed. by Reinhold Pauli and Felix Liebermann in: Monumenta Germaniae Historica (MGH) SS 28 (1888), p. 448
  3. ↑ Chronica Albrici Monachi Trium Fontium , ed. by Paul Scheffer-Boichorst in: Monumenta Germaniae Historica (MGH) SS 23 (1874), p. 936
  4. ↑ Richeri Gesta Senoniensis Ecclesiae , ed. by Georg Waitz in: Monumenta Germaniae Historica (MGH) SS 25 (1880), p. 308
  5. ↑ Chronique rimée de Philippe Mouskes , ed. by Baron F. de Reiffenberg (1836-38), Vol. II, p. 613
  6. ↑ Chronica Albrici Monachi Trium Fontium , ed. by Paul Scheffer-Boichorst in: Monumenta Germaniae Historica (MGH) SS 23 (1874), p. 944
  7. ↑ Matthew Paris, Chronica maiora ; ed. by Henry R. Luard (1872-1883), Vol. III, p. 520
personal data
SURNAME Robert the Bulgarian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Robert le Bougre; Robert the Bulgar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dominican and Inquisitor
DATE OF BIRTH 13th Century
DATE OF DEATH after 1239