Trithemius' Account of their Examination, and Disputation with Ecbert

Trithemius gives a brief description of their examination and disputation with Ecbert, abbot of the monastery of Saint Florian in Schonaugh, in the bishopric of Treves.

The clergy and the chief men of the city of Cologne, by messengers and letters, asked Ecbert to come to Cologne, since he was a very learned man, in order to examine these heretics. Abbot Ecbert arrived at Cologne on August 2, in the year 1163, and entered into a public disputation with three of these heretics, Arnold, Marsilius, and Theodoric, who seemed to have better abilities than the rest.

However, he does not state exactly what the articles of the discussion were, unless we are to gather them from these words of his: "They despised all the rulers of the church, prelates, priests, and clerics, calling them soul deceivers and snares of the devil. They ridiculed the sacraments of the Roman church (among which was included infant baptism) and denied the holy body and blood of the Lord (that is, transubstantiation in the sacrament of the altar). [n411-1] Now, when they could not be brought, neither by arguments, nor by authority (namely, from the testimony of the fathers), nor by admonitions, to renounce their errors (so he calls their true faith), but stubbornly persisted in their purpose, they were utterly cast out from the church, and delivered into the hands of the laity, that is, into the power of the secular authorities, who led them, eight men and two women, out of the city, and committed them to the flames, on the fifth day of August of the same year." Trith., in Hist. Also, 2nd book of the Persecutions, folio 441, columns 3 and 4. [n411-2]