Practically nothing is known of Henry's origin or early life. He likely received his orders in the
Benedictine Abbey of Cluny. If
St Bernard's reproach (
Ep. 241) is correct, Henry was an
apostate monk—a Benedictine black monk according to the chronicler
Alberic de Trois Fontaines. Henry was an itinerant preacher. He was a tall, charismatic ascetic, with 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. When Henry arrived at the
episcopal town of Le Mans in 1101, probably from
Lausanne,
Bishop Hildebert de Lavardin was absent and Henry was granted permission to preach from March to July, a practice reserved for the
regular clergy, and soon attained considerable influence over the people. Knowledge of his ministry is mostly
hearsay from a pamphlet by Abbot
Peter of Cluny. He is said to have preached
penitence, rejecting both the
intercession of saints and second marriages. Women, encouraged by his words, gave up their jewels and luxurious apparel, and young men married prostitutes in the hope of reforming them. At his instigation the inhabitants of Le Mans soon began to slight 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
Maurist Antoine Beaugendre's
Acta episcoporum Cenomannensium, Henry was shown to be less guilty of
heresy than of ignorance. He, however, was forced to leave Le Mans due to his
anti-clericalism, and probably went 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 1135 Henry was brought by the archbishop of
Arles before
Pope Innocent II at the
Council of Pisa, where he was condemned for heretical views and told to return to a monastery. It appears that
St Bernard offered him an asylum at
Clairvaux. Instead, he returned to
the Midi where he came under the influence of
Peter of Bruys. He adopted the Petrobrusians' teaching about 1135 and spread it in a modified form after its author's death. Around 1139,
Peter 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
Angoulême 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. ==Death and legacy==