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The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1 - Contents
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    IV. Arnold of Brescia-Separation’of Church and State

    Another figure in this medieval pattern of life was ARNOLD OF BRESCIA (c. 1100-1155). As a young, enthusiastic cleric he came in touch with Abelard, the great speculative thinker and rationalist, and many of the latter’s ideas must have influenced him deeply. But whereas Abelard was a philosopher, Arnold was a practical preacher and a politician. Although less able in intellectual power than his teacher, he was more dangerous in his practical drift. Baronius calls him the father of political heresies.PFF1 812.3

    Arnold, deeply stirred by the corruption of the church, zealously opposed the worldly-minded clergy and monks, and preached the lofty ideal of a holy and pure church, a renovation of the spiritual order after the pattern of the apostolic church. 7Neander, op. cit., vol. 4. pp 148, 149. He is believed to have been unorthodox on infant baptism and the sacrament of the altar. (Albert H. Newman, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 564.) He claimed that the church should be without possessions and live from the tithes and voluntary offerings. Her calling is spiritual, not worldly. Whereas Hildebrand aimed at the theocratic supremacy of the church, Arnold desired her complete separation from the state.PFF1 812.4

    Arnold practiced what he preached, and his powerful sermons caused considerable agitation among the people of Lombardy-so much so that Innocent II at the Lateran Council in 1139 felt himself forced to take preventive measures. Arnold was charged with inciting the laity against the clergy and was banished from Italy as a schismatic, but not condemned as a heretic. He went to Paris, began to preach, was forced to leave the country, fled to Zurich. But even there Bernard of Clairvaux denounced him, declaring that his speech was honey but his doctrine poison. 8David S. Schaff, op. cit., part 1, p. 100.PFF1 813.1

    After some years he appeared in Rome and became en tangled with the Roman Republican movement, in fact, be came their fieriest supporter. When this movement was crushed he was imprisoned, killed, and burned, and his ashes were thrown into the Tiber. Gerhoh of Reichersberg mourned him and said they should at least have done to him as David did to Abner (2 Samuel 3), and allowed him to be buried and his death to be mourned over, instead of causing his remains to be thrown into the Tiber. The Arnoldists, probably his followers, continued for some years, but after they were branded as heretics by the Council of Verona in 1184, they disappeared.PFF1 813.2

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