Soon opposition, timidly at first, made itself felt.  Laymen ventured to interfere in the domain of religion.  All knowledge—­and consequently all tradition and religion—­had been for a thousand years the exclusive possession of the clergy; those laymen who had any culture at all knew a little Latin and a few scholastic propositions.  All this was changing.  Despite reiterated ecclesiastical prohibitions, parts of the Bible were translated into the vulgar tongue and eagerly studied by ignorant folk; everywhere men appeared to whom religion was a matter of vital importance, men who strove to find God in their own souls, instead of blindly accepting the God of foreign doctrine.

The more obvious cause of the growing dislike to ecclesiastical authority was the immorality of the priests.  The contrast between the professions of humility, and the greed, vice and tyranny of the clergy was too pronounced.  The ecclesiastical offices were publicly sold.  Divine forgiveness was cheaper than a new garment; every priest was allowed to keep a mistress if he paid a tax to the bishop.  Two poems of the troubadour, Guillem Figueiras, express the state of affairs very bluntly:  “Our shepherds have become thievish wolves, plundering and despoiling the fold under the guise of messengers of peace.  They gently console their sheep night and day, but once they have them in their power, these false shepherds let their flock perish and die.”  In the other poem he says of the priest: 

     He lies in a woman’s arms all night,
     And wakes—­defiled—­in the morning light
     To proffer the sacred host.

Worse invectives even, no less forcible than those of later reformers, he hurled against Rome.  “In the flames and torments of hell is thy place!...  Thou hast the appearance of an innocent lamb, but inwardly thou art a raging wolf, a crowned snake, begotten by a viper, the friend of the devil!” Even the good-natured German minnesinger, Walter von der Vogelweide, found bitter words against Rome:  “They point our way to God and go to hell themselves.”  Bernard of Clairvaux, the supporter of the Church, sharply criticised the abuses of pope and clergy in his book, De Consideratione:  “The property of the poor is sown before the door of the rich, the gold glitters in the gutter, the people come hurrying up from all sides; but not to the neediest is it given, but to the strongest and to him who is first on the spot.”  He accused the pope of extravagance and luxury:  “Was Peter clothed in robes of silk, covered with gold and precious stones?  Was he carried in a litter surrounded by soldiers and vassals?” And he uttered a word which to this day is a historical truth:  “In all thy splendour thou art the successor of Constantine rather than the successor of Peter.”