Brethren of the Free Spirit
Encyclopedia
The Brothers, or Brethren of the Free Spirit, was a lay
Christian movement which flourished in northern Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries. Antinomian and individualist in outlook, it came into conflict with the Catholic Church and was declared heretical by Pope Clement V
at the Council of Vienne
(1311–12). They are often considered similar to the Amalricans. They flourished at a time of great trauma in Western Europe during the conflict between the decadent Avignon Papacy
and the Holy Roman Emperor, the Hundred Years' War
, the Black Death
, the rise of the Cathar
heresy and the subsequent Crusade against them, the beginnings of the Inquisition
, the fall of the Templars
and the internal strife of the Church — all of which helped fuel the appeal of their individualistic and millenarian
approach to Christianity
and Scripture.
In this time of crisis within the Church and society as a whole there was a strong sense that the end of the world was coming and so the issue of Man's spirituality and salvation became more and more important. Where people ceased to find the spiritual answers they sought from Rome, dissident movements like the Brethren sprang up all across Europe preaching an alternative view of Christianity. They fell foul of the Church and were persecuted as heretics by the temporal and spiritual authorities of the time.
In spite of the support of earlier Popes and his popularity among the people, in 1200 Gioacchino da Fiore submitted his works to Pope Innocent III
for examination but, like Eckhart after him, died before judgement could be carried out. Some of his ideas were officially condemned along with Amaury's at the same Lateran Council of 1215 and his followers, the Joachimites
, were brutally suppressed by the Church against whom they were starting to preach. By this time, with the rise of the Cathar movement in the south of France, the Church was increasingly on its guard against the threat of heresy.
Nevertheless the spread of Free Spirit ideas continued along with other possibly related Christian lay movements such as the Beguines and Beghards, even after the suppression of other heresies such as the Cathars and the Waldensians. By the 14th century the movement had spread widely across the Champagne
, Thüringen
and Bavaria
and more northwards into what is now Belgium and Holland. It was during this time that works such as Porete's The Mirror of Simple Souls
and Mechtild of Magdeburg's Light Flowing from the Godhead were being written and Meister Eckhart
was preaching. As the heresy spread the Inquisition moved in to combat and root it out. Porete was burnt at the stake in 1310, Eckhart was put on trial in 1327 and other important Christian mystics, such as Jordan von Quedlinburg, Henry Suso
and John of Ruysbroek spoke out against the heresy — even though some (Ruysbroek in particular) expressed similar ideas such as the immanence of God and the possibility of union with Christ in this life. Where they differed with the Brethren was in their belief in the validity of the Church and the need to experience these things within its framework. Eckhart himself denied that he had anything to do with the Free Spirits and insisted that his thinking remained within orthodox boundaries. Nevertheless he was forced to recant various ideas he had propounded that seemed to overlap them before he disappeared from public life.
From 1300 to 1350 the Brethren were found largely on the Rhine from Cologne
to Strasbourg
. In Brussels
a similar movement appeared known as the Homines Intelligentiae or Men of Understanding
. Towards the end of the 14th century the Lollards in England emerged, sharing many doctrines with the Free Spirit, as well as those of the Cathars and Waldensians
. As with all these movements, the common ground included rejection of the Church as corrupt, a belief in the presence of God in the human soul via the Holy Spirit and the need to work out a grassroots salvation of mankind individually. The growing lay Christian movement with ecclesiastical connections, the secretive Friends of God
, who are thought by some to have provided protection and anonymity for Meister Eckhart after his trial, may have absorbed some of the Brethren and their ideas into their ranks during the escalation of Church persecution of heretical movements. Johannes Tauler
and Henry Suso
are associated with this movement, although their view of the Brethren is disputed, Suso in particular preaching against them. The influential "anonymous" treatise, Theologia Germanica
, was dissiminated during this time amongst many "heretical" groups and its approach to Brethren-like purification — mirroring Eckhart's style and language usage — became very influential. Some historians give it credit for the ultimate actions taken by Martin Luther
, who prized the document, and the subsequent Protestant Reformation
a century and a half later, although doctrinally Luther and the Reformation were very different from the Free Spirits.
Many edicts were published against the Brethren. In 1312 the Council of Vienne
finally putting paid to any possibility of their avoiding the charge of heresy. But, notwithstanding the severities which they suffered, records show that the followers of the Free Spirit heresy continued until about the middle of the fifteenth century. Some sources identify their beliefs as precursors of later Christian movements such as the Ranters and the Quakers. Similarly, ideas reminiscent of the Free Spirit heresy can be found in the works of the poet and artist William Blake
who preached a similar revolutionary, Gnostic Christianity (e.g. "One law for the lion and the ox is oppression... for everything that lives is holy" The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
).
or the Waldensians
, we should talk about a Doctrine or Heresy of the Free Spirit
or even little more than a loose set of ideas grouped together under a single title, i.e. "a state of mind as much as a settled body of doctrine", as British scholar Gordon Leff states it.
Not everyone accused of being a member of the Free Spirit or of disseminating their doctrines was part of the movement. Even at the Council of Vienne
the Church authorities struggled to bring together documentation of what the Free Spirit stood for, using texts such as Marguerite Porete
's The Mirror of Simple Souls
as evidence of what the Brethren said. The very fact that no one spiritual thinker can be identified as the movement's founder (names linked to the movement include Amaury de Bene, Giochinno de Fiori and Meister Eckhart
, all of whom, at different times, were cited by individuals proclaiming their adherence to the Heresy as the originators of their beliefs), or claimed to be so, indicate how disparate a movement it was.
1. That God is incarnate/immanent in everything.
2. That history was divided into three periods, each corresponding to a different aspect of the Trinity
.
3. That through a direct experience of God in which the Holy Spirit
flourishes in the individual soul Man could achieve a union with God which meant that he could no longer sin.
For instance, ideas of the 'indwelling' in Man of the Holy Spirit, the possibility of a union between Man and God in this life, an egalitarian relationship to God among humanity and the impossibility of sin once a union with God through Love has been established can be (and was) extrapolated from the following extracts:
The egalitarian vision of the Free Spirit which recognised no barriers of race, class or gender before God can be interpreted from the words of St Paul
:
Similarly the idea of the journey towards union with God as an inner one can be interpreted from this passage in the Gospel of Luke
:
Perhaps the clearest use of the Bible in a text associated with the Free Spirit is that found in Marguerite Porete's The Mirror of Simple Souls
. Compare, for example, this passage from John's Epistle:
With Porete's words in her work:
All these strands of thought, coupled with a visionary, millenarian view of universal Christian redemption are perhaps found in the words of Paul in Athens in Acts
:
A peculiarity of some of the writings and doctrines of the Free Spirit movement is in their echoes of Gnostic ideas in texts such as the Gospel of Thomas
and the Gospel of Philip
. Imagery of the need to be 'naked' or purified before encountering salvation, the possibility of the Resurrection being a spiritual state of fullness experienced in this life rather than the next, the importance of Mary Magdalene
, and descriptions of becoming drunk on the Holy Spirit all can be found in Thomas and other Gnostic writings as well as in the practises of various Free Spirit gatherings (some Beghard congregations are said to have conducted Masses nude), the Sister Catherine Treatise
and the work of Marguerite Porete. A typical parallel, for instance, can be seen in the following extract from Thomas, which seems to endorse the pantheism of the Free Spirit's followers:
Similarly, the idea that one who has Knowledge (Gnosis
) or Union with God cannot and does not sin is found in Philip:
Whether these echoes are circumstantial or not is up for debate, especially as these Gospels were presumed lost until their discovery among the Nag Hammadi
manuscripts in the 20th Century. It is possible that such Gnostic ideas or texts were in circulation in the areas where the Free Spirit flourished via the Cathars, whose dualistic and transcendentalist approach to Christianity had its roots in the East but this is unproven, although it is true that the regions where the Cathars were strongest in northern Europe — Flanders, the Rhineland, Cologne — were the regions where the Free Spirit spread most strongly. Whatever the case the parallels are there and very striking.
Porete's expression of Free Spirit ideas is highly mystical and predicates the idea of the impossibility of sin on this mystical union with God through Love. This view of the ideas of the Free Spirit suggests that among certain of its members a complete giving over of the individual to a spiritual relationship with God is the goal of the believer. It is echoed in other works and sayings of people accused or suspected of expressing Free Spirit heresies such as Meister Eckhart and the unknown author of the Sister Catherine Treatise
. Nowhere in these writings is a belief in unbridled sensuality countenanced, in fact exactly the opposite, the woman speaker in the Sister Catherine Treatise, for instance, expressing her desire never to "diverge from the path of our Lord Jesus Christ" after her personal union with God. Scholar of the movement Ellen Babinsky summarizes this view thus:
On the other hand there are copious records of the abuse of the Free Spirit interpretation of Scripture to justify sexual licentiousness, violence, robbery and rape. Whether these records are merely anti-heretical propaganda (other heretical movements such as the Cathars were accused of similar crimes) or not is unclear but the sheer volume of evidence suggests that there was abuse of the ideology, particularly by those who professed to follow the heresy who were not living in closed communities such as Beguine and Beghard settlements. The image presented is of roving bands or isolated individuals travelling across Europe spreading havoc with their amoral, millenarian vision of Christianity. Free Spirit heretics were accused of indulging in group sex, of conducting masses naked, claiming that they were God and, in one instance, that there was no God and that blind chance ruled the universe. Historian Barbara Tuchman
vividly conjures up this vision of moral and religious anarchy in her seminal book on the Middle Ages, A Distant Mirror
, :
Here we find the central paradox in evaluating the Free Spirit. Both extracts speak of the same root belief — that the soul in union with God cannot sin — but where one speaks of the interpretation which suggests that to achieve this state is not only arduous but involves a process of purification meaning an end to sin through connection with God's will, the other sees the state of union as a justification for what would ordinarily be seen as immoral acts. Taking into account that the Free Spirit heresy challenged the authority of the Church and that the Church traditionally used accusations of sexual perversion and immorality to attack heretical movements and that individuals who lived exemplary lives morally were suspected of Free Spirit leanings (such as Meister Eckhart and even John of Ruysbroek who preached against the movement) it nevertheless remains the case that the ideas of the movement clearly were open to abuse. We can perhaps only conclude that the Free Spirit interpretation of the Bible was itself open to interpretation, with some following the more austere, spiritual path and others using the doctrines to provide themselves with a perpetual pardon for their behavior.
This ambiguity inherent within the movement is perhaps well illustrated in the following extract from a Beghard writer who was clearly influenced by the ideas of the Free Spirit:
The similarities but also the differences with the words of Porete are clear, as is the difficulty of understanding quite what the morality of the extract is, and how easily it could be misconstrued.
This interpretation of the role of sin on the road to an understanding of God is not dissimilar to that put forward by English mystic Julian of Norwich
in her work Revelations of Divine Love
, in which she says that, although undesirable, 'sin is behovely' as through repentance sin can become part of God's pattern whereby the soul can reach God. Again, Julian, like Porete, is at pains to explain that this is not to justify sin (both argue that sin is something to be avoided) but to understand its place in the universe — that sometimes before one reaches a state of bliss in union with God one cannot avoid sinning but that when it is rightly understood, those sins are forgiven, thus becoming part of God's plan in guiding the Soul to God. It is significant that Julian was not branded a heretic while Porete and other supposed followers of the Free Spirit were. Where Julian differed from Porete perhaps, was in her belief that the union with God and the particular view of the role of sin she spoke were possible within the established structure of the Church and not in opposition to it.
Laity
In religious organizations, the laity comprises all people who are not in the clergy. A person who is a member of a religious order who is not ordained legitimate clergy is considered as a member of the laity, even though they are members of a religious order .In the past in Christian cultures, the...
Christian movement which flourished in northern Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries. Antinomian and individualist in outlook, it came into conflict with the Catholic Church and was declared heretical by Pope Clement V
Pope Clement V
Pope Clement V, born Raymond Bertrand de Got was Pope from 1305 to his death...
at the Council of Vienne
Council of Vienne
The Council of Vienne was the fifteenth Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church that met between 1311 and 1312 in Vienne. Its principal act was to withdraw papal support for the Knights Templar on the instigation of Philip IV of France.-Background:...
(1311–12). They are often considered similar to the Amalricans. They flourished at a time of great trauma in Western Europe during the conflict between the decadent Avignon Papacy
Avignon Papacy
The Avignon Papacy was the period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven Popes resided in Avignon, in modern-day France. This arose from the conflict between the Papacy and the French crown....
and the Holy Roman Emperor, the Hundred Years' War
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War was a series of separate wars waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou, for the French throne, which had become vacant upon the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings...
, the Black Death
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
, the rise of the Cathar
Cathar
Catharism was a name given to a Christian religious sect with dualistic and gnostic elements that appeared in the Languedoc region of France and other parts of Europe in the 11th century and flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries...
heresy and the subsequent Crusade against them, the beginnings of the Inquisition
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
, the fall of the Templars
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
and the internal strife of the Church — all of which helped fuel the appeal of their individualistic and millenarian
Millenarianism
Millenarianism is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming major transformation of society, after which all things will be changed, based on a one-thousand-year cycle. The term is more generically used to refer to any belief centered around 1000 year intervals...
approach to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and Scripture.
In this time of crisis within the Church and society as a whole there was a strong sense that the end of the world was coming and so the issue of Man's spirituality and salvation became more and more important. Where people ceased to find the spiritual answers they sought from Rome, dissident movements like the Brethren sprang up all across Europe preaching an alternative view of Christianity. They fell foul of the Church and were persecuted as heretics by the temporal and spiritual authorities of the time.
History
From the very beginning of what would become the Free Spirit Heresy its followers ran into trouble with the secular and religious authorities. Both Amaury de Bene and Giochinno de Fiori, whose ideas could be said to be at the fountainhead of the movement, underwent examination and persecution at the hands of the Church. Amaury's writings were condemned in 1204, Amaury himself dying in 1207 having been forced to recant his views. In 1209 ten of his followers were burnt at the stake in Paris, Amaury's body was exhumed, also burnt and the ashes scattered. By 1215 his work and followers were formally condemned by the Fourth Lateran Council and denounced as officially heretical.In spite of the support of earlier Popes and his popularity among the people, in 1200 Gioacchino da Fiore submitted his works to Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III was Pope from 8 January 1198 until his death. His birth name was Lotario dei Conti di Segni, sometimes anglicised to Lothar of Segni....
for examination but, like Eckhart after him, died before judgement could be carried out. Some of his ideas were officially condemned along with Amaury's at the same Lateran Council of 1215 and his followers, the Joachimites
Joachimites
Joachimites, also known as Joachites were a millenarian group that arose from the Franciscans in the thirteenth century. They based their ideas on the works of Joachim of Flora...
, were brutally suppressed by the Church against whom they were starting to preach. By this time, with the rise of the Cathar movement in the south of France, the Church was increasingly on its guard against the threat of heresy.
Nevertheless the spread of Free Spirit ideas continued along with other possibly related Christian lay movements such as the Beguines and Beghards, even after the suppression of other heresies such as the Cathars and the Waldensians. By the 14th century the movement had spread widely across the Champagne
Champagne (province)
The Champagne wine region is a historic province within the Champagne administrative province in the northeast of France. The area is best known for the production of the sparkling white wine that bears the region's name...
, Thüringen
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
and Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
and more northwards into what is now Belgium and Holland. It was during this time that works such as Porete's The Mirror of Simple Souls
The Mirror of Simple Souls
The Mirror of Simple Souls is an early 14th century work of Christian mysticism by Marguerite Porete dealing with the workings of Divine Love....
and Mechtild of Magdeburg's Light Flowing from the Godhead were being written and Meister Eckhart
Meister Eckhart
Eckhart von Hochheim O.P. , commonly known as Meister Eckhart, was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic, born near Gotha, in the Landgraviate of Thuringia in the Holy Roman Empire. Meister is German for "Master", referring to the academic title Magister in theologia he obtained in Paris...
was preaching. As the heresy spread the Inquisition moved in to combat and root it out. Porete was burnt at the stake in 1310, Eckhart was put on trial in 1327 and other important Christian mystics, such as Jordan von Quedlinburg, Henry Suso
Henry Suso
Henry Suso was a German mystic, born at Überlingen on Lake Constance on March 21, c. 1300; he died at Ulm, January 25, 1366; declared Blessed in 1831 by Gregory XVI, who assigned his feast in the Dominican Order to March 2...
and John of Ruysbroek spoke out against the heresy — even though some (Ruysbroek in particular) expressed similar ideas such as the immanence of God and the possibility of union with Christ in this life. Where they differed with the Brethren was in their belief in the validity of the Church and the need to experience these things within its framework. Eckhart himself denied that he had anything to do with the Free Spirits and insisted that his thinking remained within orthodox boundaries. Nevertheless he was forced to recant various ideas he had propounded that seemed to overlap them before he disappeared from public life.
From 1300 to 1350 the Brethren were found largely on the Rhine from Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
to Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
. In Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
a similar movement appeared known as the Homines Intelligentiae or Men of Understanding
Men of Understanding
The Men of Understanding is the name assumed by a heretical sect in the Low Countries, which in 1410-11 was cited before the Inquisition at Brussels.-History:...
. Towards the end of the 14th century the Lollards in England emerged, sharing many doctrines with the Free Spirit, as well as those of the Cathars and Waldensians
Waldensians
Waldensians, Waldenses or Vaudois are names for a Christian movement of the later Middle Ages, descendants of which still exist in various regions, primarily in North-Western Italy. There is considerable uncertainty about the earlier history of the Waldenses because of a lack of extant source...
. As with all these movements, the common ground included rejection of the Church as corrupt, a belief in the presence of God in the human soul via the Holy Spirit and the need to work out a grassroots salvation of mankind individually. The growing lay Christian movement with ecclesiastical connections, the secretive Friends of God
Friends of God
The Friends of God was a medieval lay mystical group within the Catholic Church and a center of German mysticism. It was founded between 1339 and 1343 in Basel, Switzerland, and was also fairly important in Strasbourg and Cologne, because around those times, some of the area was placed under a...
, who are thought by some to have provided protection and anonymity for Meister Eckhart after his trial, may have absorbed some of the Brethren and their ideas into their ranks during the escalation of Church persecution of heretical movements. Johannes Tauler
Johannes Tauler
Johannes Tauler was a German mystic theologian.- Life :He was born about the year 1300 in Strasbourg, and was educated at the Dominican convent in that city, where Meister Eckhart, who greatly influenced him, was professor of theology in the monastery school...
and Henry Suso
Henry Suso
Henry Suso was a German mystic, born at Überlingen on Lake Constance on March 21, c. 1300; he died at Ulm, January 25, 1366; declared Blessed in 1831 by Gregory XVI, who assigned his feast in the Dominican Order to March 2...
are associated with this movement, although their view of the Brethren is disputed, Suso in particular preaching against them. The influential "anonymous" treatise, Theologia Germanica
Theologia Germanica
Theologia Germanica, also known as Theologia Deutsch or Teutsch, is a mystical treatise believed to have been written in the mid 14th century by an anonymous author, usually associated with the Friends of God. According to the introduction of the Theologia the author was a priest and a member of...
, was dissiminated during this time amongst many "heretical" groups and its approach to Brethren-like purification — mirroring Eckhart's style and language usage — became very influential. Some historians give it credit for the ultimate actions taken by Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
, who prized the document, and the subsequent Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
a century and a half later, although doctrinally Luther and the Reformation were very different from the Free Spirits.
Many edicts were published against the Brethren. In 1312 the Council of Vienne
Council of Vienne
The Council of Vienne was the fifteenth Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church that met between 1311 and 1312 in Vienne. Its principal act was to withdraw papal support for the Knights Templar on the instigation of Philip IV of France.-Background:...
finally putting paid to any possibility of their avoiding the charge of heresy. But, notwithstanding the severities which they suffered, records show that the followers of the Free Spirit heresy continued until about the middle of the fifteenth century. Some sources identify their beliefs as precursors of later Christian movements such as the Ranters and the Quakers. Similarly, ideas reminiscent of the Free Spirit heresy can be found in the works of the poet and artist William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
who preached a similar revolutionary, Gnostic Christianity (e.g. "One law for the lion and the ox is oppression... for everything that lives is holy" The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is a book by the English poet and printmaker William Blake. It is a series of texts written in imitation of biblical prophecy but expressing Blake's own intensely personal Romantic and revolutionary beliefs. Like his other books, it was published as printed sheets...
).
Relationship to other Christian lay movements
There is considerable confusion as to the relationship between the Brethren and other lay Christian movements of the time: the Beguines and Beghards with whom they were often confused. Indeed some have argued that the Brethren didn’t exist at all in the commonly held idea of a movement. It had no central leader, hierarchy or organisation and was very difficult to define. Such a view holds that rather than speaking of a Brethren of the Free Spirit in the same way as we speak of the Cathars, the LollardsLollardy
Lollardy was a political and religious movement that existed from the mid-14th century to the English Reformation. The term "Lollard" refers to the followers of John Wycliffe, a prominent theologian who was dismissed from the University of Oxford in 1381 for criticism of the Church, especially his...
or the Waldensians
Waldensians
Waldensians, Waldenses or Vaudois are names for a Christian movement of the later Middle Ages, descendants of which still exist in various regions, primarily in North-Western Italy. There is considerable uncertainty about the earlier history of the Waldenses because of a lack of extant source...
, we should talk about a Doctrine or Heresy of the Free Spirit
Heresy of the Free Spirit
The Free Spirit heresy consisted of small groups of Christian heretics living mostly in Bohemia, now the Czech Republic, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Their worship was not well organized and their doctrine was not well defined. Their beliefs were mostly spread in the form of...
or even little more than a loose set of ideas grouped together under a single title, i.e. "a state of mind as much as a settled body of doctrine", as British scholar Gordon Leff states it.
Not everyone accused of being a member of the Free Spirit or of disseminating their doctrines was part of the movement. Even at the Council of Vienne
Council of Vienne
The Council of Vienne was the fifteenth Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church that met between 1311 and 1312 in Vienne. Its principal act was to withdraw papal support for the Knights Templar on the instigation of Philip IV of France.-Background:...
the Church authorities struggled to bring together documentation of what the Free Spirit stood for, using texts such as Marguerite Porete
Marguerite Porete
Marguerite Porete was a French mystic and the author of The Mirror of Simple Souls, a work of Christian spirituality dealing with the workings of Divine Love. She was burnt at the stake for heresy in Paris in 1310 after a lengthy trial, after refusing to remove her book from circulation or recant...
's The Mirror of Simple Souls
The Mirror of Simple Souls
The Mirror of Simple Souls is an early 14th century work of Christian mysticism by Marguerite Porete dealing with the workings of Divine Love....
as evidence of what the Brethren said. The very fact that no one spiritual thinker can be identified as the movement's founder (names linked to the movement include Amaury de Bene, Giochinno de Fiori and Meister Eckhart
Meister Eckhart
Eckhart von Hochheim O.P. , commonly known as Meister Eckhart, was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic, born near Gotha, in the Landgraviate of Thuringia in the Holy Roman Empire. Meister is German for "Master", referring to the academic title Magister in theologia he obtained in Paris...
, all of whom, at different times, were cited by individuals proclaiming their adherence to the Heresy as the originators of their beliefs), or claimed to be so, indicate how disparate a movement it was.
Doctrine
As mentioned above, defining the doctrine of the Brethren of the Free Spirit is a complex undertaking. Central to their belief seem to be three fundamental ideas:1. That God is incarnate/immanent in everything.
- Sometimes described as a form of pantheismPantheismPantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal, anthropomorphic or creator god. The word derives from the Greek meaning "all" and the Greek meaning "God". As such, Pantheism denotes the idea that "God" is best seen as a process of...
, the idea is similar to the neo-Platonic view that God is both immanent and transcendent. For the Brethren this meant that God was present in creation and in humanity. Both Marguerite PoreteMarguerite PoreteMarguerite Porete was a French mystic and the author of The Mirror of Simple Souls, a work of Christian spirituality dealing with the workings of Divine Love. She was burnt at the stake for heresy in Paris in 1310 after a lengthy trial, after refusing to remove her book from circulation or recant...
and Johannes "Meister" EckhartMeister EckhartEckhart von Hochheim O.P. , commonly known as Meister Eckhart, was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic, born near Gotha, in the Landgraviate of Thuringia in the Holy Roman Empire. Meister is German for "Master", referring to the academic title Magister in theologia he obtained in Paris...
, who were tried as heretics and accused of preaching Free Spirit doctrines, cite the words of St PaulPaul of TarsusPaul the Apostle , also known as Saul of Tarsus, is described in the Christian New Testament as one of the most influential early Christian missionaries, with the writings ascribed to him by the church forming a considerable portion of the New Testament...
in the New TestamentNew TestamentThe New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
to argue:
-
- "All things are from Him, through Him and in Him." (RomansEpistle to the RomansThe Epistle of Paul to the Romans, often shortened to Romans, is the sixth book in the New Testament. Biblical scholars agree that it was composed by the Apostle Paul to explain that Salvation is offered through the Gospel of Jesus Christ...
11:36)
- "All things are from Him, through Him and in Him." (Romans
- PoreteMarguerite PoreteMarguerite Porete was a French mystic and the author of The Mirror of Simple Souls, a work of Christian spirituality dealing with the workings of Divine Love. She was burnt at the stake for heresy in Paris in 1310 after a lengthy trial, after refusing to remove her book from circulation or recant...
expressed the same concept thus:
-
- "Beloved, what do you wish from Me? I contain all things which were, and are, and shall be, I am filled by all things. Take from me all which pleases you: If you desire from me all things, I will not deny. Say, Beloved, what do you wish from me? I am Love, filled with the goodness of all things: What you will, we will. Beloved, tell us plainly your will." (The Mirror of Simple SoulsThe Mirror of Simple SoulsThe Mirror of Simple Souls is an early 14th century work of Christian mysticism by Marguerite Porete dealing with the workings of Divine Love....
trans: Ellen Babinsky 1993)
- "Beloved, what do you wish from Me? I contain all things which were, and are, and shall be, I am filled by all things. Take from me all which pleases you: If you desire from me all things, I will not deny. Say, Beloved, what do you wish from me? I am Love, filled with the goodness of all things: What you will, we will. Beloved, tell us plainly your will." (The Mirror of Simple Souls
- Amaury de Bene is often identified as being the originator of this concept, but it had been present as a doctrine in the Church since its inception in the works of Christians influenced by PlatonismPlatonismPlatonism is the philosophy of Plato or the name of other philosophical systems considered closely derived from it. In a narrower sense the term might indicate the doctrine of Platonic realism...
such as Pseudo-Dionysius, PelagiusPelagiusPelagius was an ascetic who denied the need for divine aid in performing good works. For him, the only grace necessary was the declaration of the law; humans were not wounded by Adam's sin and were perfectly able to fulfill the law apart from any divine aid...
and John Scotus Eriugena, especially in its Eastern (ByzantineByzantineByzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
) incarnation.
- At the time of the Free Spirit movement it was viewed as heretical by the Western Church, which argued that God was exclusively transcendent and not present in Creation at all. Through this belief the Brethren rejected the Catholic idea of TransubstantiationTransubstantiationIn Roman Catholic theology, transubstantiation means the change, in the Eucharist, of the substance of wheat bread and grape wine into the substance of the Body and Blood, respectively, of Jesus, while all that is accessible to the senses remains as before.The Eastern Orthodox...
(only recently doctrinally defined at the time), believing instead in ConsubstantiationConsubstantiationConsubstantiation is a theological doctrine that attempts to describe the nature of the Christian Eucharist in concrete metaphysical terms. It holds that during the sacrament, the fundamental "substance" of the body and blood of Christ are present alongside the substance of the bread and wine,...
at most and a complete rejection of the idea of the need for the EucharistEucharistThe Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
at all in other cases.
2. That history was divided into three periods, each corresponding to a different aspect of the Trinity
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
.
- The first, the Age of the Father, corresponded with the era of the Old Testament (AbrahamAbrahamAbraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...
, MosesMosesMoses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
and the Prophets etc). The second, the Age of the Son, corresponded to the coming and ministry of Christ and the first millennium or so of Christianity. The last and final era was the Age of the Holy Spirit or the ParacleteParacleteParaclete means advocate or helper. In Christianity, the term most commonly refers to the Holy Spirit.-Etymology:...
as it is described in the New Testament, when God would become manifest in Man. Giochinno de Fiori was the first to develop this doctrine, basing his ideas on a close reading of RevelationRevelationIn religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing, through active or passive communication with a supernatural or a divine entity...
("Grace be unto you, and peace from Him which is [the Son],and which was [the Father] and which is to come [the Holy Spirit]" Revelation 1:4). The Brethren of the Free Spirit believed that this era was coming to pass and, with the incarnation of God in all humanity, the Last Days before the dawn of the 'New Heaven and New Earth'.
3. That through a direct experience of God in which the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...
flourishes in the individual soul Man could achieve a union with God which meant that he could no longer sin.
- Of all the three central ideas of the Free Spirit movement this was the most difficult to understand, the most shocking to the Church and the most open to abuse. This concept of a mystical union with God in this lifetime — the opposite of the Catholic doctrine of the Beatific VisionBeatific visionThe beatific vision - in Christian theology is the ultimate direct self communication of God to the individual person, when she or he reaches, as a member of redeemed humanity in the communion of saints, perfect salvation in its entirety, i.e. heaven...
after death (that Man could only 'see Him as He is' after death) - was seen as being a form of ResurrectionResurrectionResurrection refers to the literal coming back to life of the biologically dead. It is used both with respect to particular individuals or the belief in a General Resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. The General Resurrection is featured prominently in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim...
or eternal aliveness in this world, the Soul having died and been reborn in God while still incarnate (an interpretation of the Resurrection found also in some of the early Gnostic movements).
- Individuals who had achieved this state of being were called 'the Spiritualised', having received the 'indwelling' of the Holy Spirit through uniting with love as described in the book of ActsActs of the ApostlesThe Acts of the Apostles , usually referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament; Acts outlines the history of the Apostolic Age...
. (The term 'indwelling' is also used in the KabbalahKabbalahKabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...
as a translation of ShekhinahShekhinahShekinah is the English spelling of a grammatically feminine Hebrew word that means the dwelling or settling, and is used to denote the dwelling or settling divine presence of God, especially in the Temple in Jerusalem.-Etymology:Shekinah is derived...
, or the Glory of God, which is seen to dwell within the human soul.) Such individuals saw themselves as having evolved beyond ordinary states of good and evil (duality), replacing notions of faith and hope (beliefs in things which might be) with the positive light of knowledge (GnosisGnosisGnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge . In the context of the English language gnosis generally refers to the word's meaning within the spheres of Christian mysticism, Mystery religions and Gnosticism where it signifies 'spiritual knowledge' in the sense of mystical enlightenment.-Related...
, or direct knowledge of God).
- Although they did not use the terminology of the Gnostics, nor did they probably even know of them, their use of the words 'knowledge' and 'ignorance' as different states of spiritual awareness are strikingly reminiscent of the earlier movement as they are of the terminology of other religions and mystical movements such as BuddhismBuddhismBuddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
and SufismSufismSufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
. This experience of Oneness with God and the difficulty of expressing it often lead to hostile listeners accusing members of the Free Spirit of blasphemy. Thus expressions such as:
-
- "Father rejoice with me, I have become God... When I looked into myself I saw God within me and everything he has ever created in heaven and earth... I am established in the pure Godhead, in which there never was form or image." (Sister Catherine TreatiseSister Catherine TreatiseThe Sister Catherine Treatise is a work of Medieval Christian mysticism seen as representative of the Heresy of the Free Spirit of the thirteenth and fourteenth Centuries in Europe...
, trans: Elvira Borgstaedt 1986)
- "Father rejoice with me, I have become God... When I looked into myself I saw God within me and everything he has ever created in heaven and earth... I am established in the pure Godhead, in which there never was form or image." (Sister Catherine Treatise
- were met with horror and anger by the Church who saw the normal relationship of Man to God being usurped and turned on its head. Achieving this union with God happened through an austere process of self-abnegation and annihilation of the Ego, according to mystics such as EckhartEckhart-People with the surname Eckhart:* Aaron Eckhart, an American film actor* Johann Georg von Eckhart, historian* Meister Eckhart, a German theologian and philosopher-Other:* Eckhart Tolle is a German-born writer and public speaker living in Canada....
and Porete. What disturbed the authorities was what the followers of the Free Spirit felt they could do afterwards, once they had attained this supposedly sinless state and their assertion that the mediation of the Church was irrelevant.
- These fundamental elements of the movement meant that they rejected the validity or even the need for the Church in favour of an individual approach to God. Like the Cathars, they therefore rejected the sacraments as well. Some saw the Church as the active enemy of God, describing the Church as the Anti-Christ, again something they had in common with the earlier sect. They also rejected the secular authorities, citing Christ's injunction forbidding oaths and preached an egalitarian approach to Christianity which did not recognise distinctions of gender. Some have seen them as proto-anarchists in their refusal to acknowledge hierarchies of any kind. Whatever the case, few of their views could be expected to endear themselves either to the Church or the feudal authorities who ruled the regions in which they flourished.
Scriptural justification
Although not orthodox in interpretation, many of the ideas of the Free Spirit can be seen echoed in the Bible. In their preaching and literature followers of the Free Spirit (or rather those accused of being so) often drew justification, inspiration and imagery from Scriptural sources.For instance, ideas of the 'indwelling' in Man of the Holy Spirit, the possibility of a union between Man and God in this life, an egalitarian relationship to God among humanity and the impossibility of sin once a union with God through Love has been established can be (and was) extrapolated from the following extracts:
- "Beloved, now we are the Sons of God, and it doth not appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure. Whosoever commiteth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the Law. And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins: and in Him is no sin. Whoesoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whoesoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him" (First Epistle of JohnFirst Epistle of JohnThe First Epistle of John, often referred to as First John and written 1 John, is a book of the New Testament. This fourth catholic or "general" epistle is attributed to John the Evangelist, traditionally thought to be the author of the Gospel of John and the other two Epistles of John. This...
3:2–6)
- "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe in me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, my Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me" (Gospel of St John 17:20–23)
- "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on their handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will shew wonders in the heaven above..." (ActsActs of the ApostlesThe Acts of the Apostles , usually referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament; Acts outlines the history of the Apostolic Age...
2:17–21)
The egalitarian vision of the Free Spirit which recognised no barriers of race, class or gender before God can be interpreted from the words of St Paul
Paul of Tarsus
Paul the Apostle , also known as Saul of Tarsus, is described in the Christian New Testament as one of the most influential early Christian missionaries, with the writings ascribed to him by the church forming a considerable portion of the New Testament...
:
- "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Jesus Christ. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (GalatiansEpistle to the GalatiansThe Epistle of Paul to the Galatians, often shortened to Galatians, is the ninth book of the New Testament. It is a letter from Paul of Tarsus to a number of Early Christian communities in the Roman province of Galatia in central Anatolia...
3:28–29)
Similarly the idea of the journey towards union with God as an inner one can be interpreted from this passage in the Gospel of Luke
Gospel of Luke
The Gospel According to Luke , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Luke or simply Luke, is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels. This synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. It details his story from the events of his birth to his Ascension.The...
:
- "And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo, here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." (Gospel of LukeGospel of LukeThe Gospel According to Luke , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Luke or simply Luke, is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels. This synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. It details his story from the events of his birth to his Ascension.The...
17:20–21)
Perhaps the clearest use of the Bible in a text associated with the Free Spirit is that found in Marguerite Porete's The Mirror of Simple Souls
The Mirror of Simple Souls
The Mirror of Simple Souls is an early 14th century work of Christian mysticism by Marguerite Porete dealing with the workings of Divine Love....
. Compare, for example, this passage from John's Epistle:
- "Beloved, let us love one another, for love cometh of God. And every one that loveth, is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love... If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is made perfect in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given of his spirit... Whoesoever confesseth that Jesus is the son of God, in Him dwelleth God, and he in God... For God is love, and He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him... For as He is, even so are we in this world" (First Epistle of JohnFirst Epistle of JohnThe First Epistle of John, often referred to as First John and written 1 John, is a book of the New Testament. This fourth catholic or "general" epistle is attributed to John the Evangelist, traditionally thought to be the author of the Gospel of John and the other two Epistles of John. This...
3)
With Porete's words in her work:
- "I am God, says Love, for Love is God and God is Love, and this Soul is God by righteousness of Love. Thus this precious beloved of mine is taught and guided by me, without herself, for she is transformed into me, and such a perfect one, says Love, takes my nourishment" (The Mirror Of Simple SoulsThe Mirror of Simple SoulsThe Mirror of Simple Souls is an early 14th century work of Christian mysticism by Marguerite Porete dealing with the workings of Divine Love....
. Trans: Ellen Babinsky 1993)
All these strands of thought, coupled with a visionary, millenarian view of universal Christian redemption are perhaps found in the words of Paul in Athens in Acts
Acts of the Apostles
The Acts of the Apostles , usually referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament; Acts outlines the history of the Apostolic Age...
:
- "God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of Heaven and Earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though He needeth anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from any of us; for in Him we live, and move and have our being; as certain of your poets have said, for we are also His offspring" (ActsActs of the ApostlesThe Acts of the Apostles , usually referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament; Acts outlines the history of the Apostolic Age...
17:24–28)
A peculiarity of some of the writings and doctrines of the Free Spirit movement is in their echoes of Gnostic ideas in texts such as the Gospel of Thomas
Gospel of Thomas
The Gospel According to Thomas, commonly shortened to the Gospel of Thomas, is a well preserved early Christian, non-canonical sayings-gospel discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945, in one of a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library...
and the Gospel of Philip
Gospel of Philip
The Gospel of Philip is one of the Gnostic Gospels, a text of New Testament apocrypha, dating back to around the third century but lost to modern researchers until an Egyptian peasant rediscovered it by accident, buried in a cave near Nag Hammadi, in 1945...
. Imagery of the need to be 'naked' or purified before encountering salvation, the possibility of the Resurrection being a spiritual state of fullness experienced in this life rather than the next, the importance of Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
, and descriptions of becoming drunk on the Holy Spirit all can be found in Thomas and other Gnostic writings as well as in the practises of various Free Spirit gatherings (some Beghard congregations are said to have conducted Masses nude), the Sister Catherine Treatise
Sister Catherine Treatise
The Sister Catherine Treatise is a work of Medieval Christian mysticism seen as representative of the Heresy of the Free Spirit of the thirteenth and fourteenth Centuries in Europe...
and the work of Marguerite Porete. A typical parallel, for instance, can be seen in the following extract from Thomas, which seems to endorse the pantheism of the Free Spirit's followers:
- "It is I who am the light which is above them all. It is I who am the all. From me did the all come forth, and unto me did the all extend. Split the piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there." (Gospel of ThomasGospel of ThomasThe Gospel According to Thomas, commonly shortened to the Gospel of Thomas, is a well preserved early Christian, non-canonical sayings-gospel discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945, in one of a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library...
)
Similarly, the idea that one who has Knowledge (Gnosis
Gnosis
Gnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge . In the context of the English language gnosis generally refers to the word's meaning within the spheres of Christian mysticism, Mystery religions and Gnosticism where it signifies 'spiritual knowledge' in the sense of mystical enlightenment.-Related...
) or Union with God cannot and does not sin is found in Philip:
- "The one who has Knowledge is a free person. But the free person does not sin, for the one who sins is a slave of sin." (Gospel of PhilipGospel of PhilipThe Gospel of Philip is one of the Gnostic Gospels, a text of New Testament apocrypha, dating back to around the third century but lost to modern researchers until an Egyptian peasant rediscovered it by accident, buried in a cave near Nag Hammadi, in 1945...
77:15–18)
Whether these echoes are circumstantial or not is up for debate, especially as these Gospels were presumed lost until their discovery among the Nag Hammadi
Nag Hammâdi
Nag Hammadi , is a city in Upper Egypt. Nag Hammadi was known as Chenoboskion in classical antiquity, meaning "geese grazing grounds". It is located on the west bank of the Nile in the Qena Governorate, about 80 kilometres north-west of Luxor....
manuscripts in the 20th Century. It is possible that such Gnostic ideas or texts were in circulation in the areas where the Free Spirit flourished via the Cathars, whose dualistic and transcendentalist approach to Christianity had its roots in the East but this is unproven, although it is true that the regions where the Cathars were strongest in northern Europe — Flanders, the Rhineland, Cologne — were the regions where the Free Spirit spread most strongly. Whatever the case the parallels are there and very striking.
Expression of the Free Spirit
For all the reasons given above it is hard to establish who was representative of the Free Spirit and who was not. Similarly, perceptions of how members of the movement behaved are complex and multifarious. Although sharing similar ideas about how to interpret the Bible — antinomian, egalitarian, believing in a mystical apprehension and union with God in this life — how this happened in practice is hard to determine. For instance, there is no evidence in Porete's work that amorality was justified. Although Porete argues that the Unencumbered or Annihilated Soul is above the Virtues and demands of Holy Church she believes that sin is not possible because, because the Soul is now One with God, sin is simply not available to it as an option:- "This Soul has given everything through the freeness of the nobility by the work of the Trinity, in which Trinity this Soul plants her will so nakedly that she cannot sin if she does not uproot herself. She has nothing to sin with, for without a will no on can sin. Now she is kept from sin if she leaves her will there where she is planted, that is, in the One who has given it to her freely from His goodness. And thus, by His beneficence, He wills the return of His beloved nakedly and freely, without a why for her sake, on account of two things: because He wills it, and because He is worthy of it. And before this she had no fertile and restful peace until she was purely stripped of her will." (The Mirror Of Simple SoulsThe Mirror of Simple SoulsThe Mirror of Simple Souls is an early 14th century work of Christian mysticism by Marguerite Porete dealing with the workings of Divine Love....
. Trans: Ellen Babinsky 1993)
Porete's expression of Free Spirit ideas is highly mystical and predicates the idea of the impossibility of sin on this mystical union with God through Love. This view of the ideas of the Free Spirit suggests that among certain of its members a complete giving over of the individual to a spiritual relationship with God is the goal of the believer. It is echoed in other works and sayings of people accused or suspected of expressing Free Spirit heresies such as Meister Eckhart and the unknown author of the Sister Catherine Treatise
Sister Catherine Treatise
The Sister Catherine Treatise is a work of Medieval Christian mysticism seen as representative of the Heresy of the Free Spirit of the thirteenth and fourteenth Centuries in Europe...
. Nowhere in these writings is a belief in unbridled sensuality countenanced, in fact exactly the opposite, the woman speaker in the Sister Catherine Treatise, for instance, expressing her desire never to "diverge from the path of our Lord Jesus Christ" after her personal union with God. Scholar of the movement Ellen Babinsky summarizes this view thus:
- "The Free Spirits were committed to poverty and mendicancy as an outgrowth of the vita apostolica movement. The centrepiece of the Free Spirit perspective seems to be that an arduous ascetic practice was necessary to attain the divine life of union with God. In this view, only through extreme purgation could one divest the self of all will and desire in order to achieve perfection. The motivation for the Free Spirit was the search for spiritual perfection, not a revolutionary antipathy to the Church, as some scholars have thought" (The Mirror Of Simple SoulsThe Mirror of Simple SoulsThe Mirror of Simple Souls is an early 14th century work of Christian mysticism by Marguerite Porete dealing with the workings of Divine Love....
. Introduction: Ellen Babinsky 1993)
On the other hand there are copious records of the abuse of the Free Spirit interpretation of Scripture to justify sexual licentiousness, violence, robbery and rape. Whether these records are merely anti-heretical propaganda (other heretical movements such as the Cathars were accused of similar crimes) or not is unclear but the sheer volume of evidence suggests that there was abuse of the ideology, particularly by those who professed to follow the heresy who were not living in closed communities such as Beguine and Beghard settlements. The image presented is of roving bands or isolated individuals travelling across Europe spreading havoc with their amoral, millenarian vision of Christianity. Free Spirit heretics were accused of indulging in group sex, of conducting masses naked, claiming that they were God and, in one instance, that there was no God and that blind chance ruled the universe. Historian Barbara Tuchman
Barbara Tuchman
Barbara Wertheim Tuchman was an American historian and author. She became known for her best-selling book The Guns of August, a history of the prelude to and first month of World War I, which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1963....
vividly conjures up this vision of moral and religious anarchy in her seminal book on the Middle Ages, A Distant Mirror
A Distant Mirror
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, published in 1978, is a work by American historian and Pulitizer Prize winner Barbara Tuchman, focusing on life in 14th century Europe....
, :
- "The Brethren of the Free Spirit, who claimed to be in a state of grace without benefit of priest or sacrament, spread not only doctrinal but civil disorder... Because the Free Spirit believed God to be in themselves, not in the Church, and considered themselves in a state of perfection without sin, they felt free to do all things commonly prohibited to ordinary man. Sex and property headed the list. They practiced free love and adultery and were accused of indulging in group sex in their communal residences. They encouraged nudity to demonstrate absence of sin and shame. As 'holy beggars', the Brethren claimed the right to use and take whatever they pleased, whether a market woman's chickens or a meal in a tavern without paying. This included the right, because of God's immanence, to kill anyone who forcibly attempted to interfere" (A Distant MirrorA Distant MirrorA Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, published in 1978, is a work by American historian and Pulitizer Prize winner Barbara Tuchman, focusing on life in 14th century Europe....
: the Calamitous Fourteenth Century 1979)
Here we find the central paradox in evaluating the Free Spirit. Both extracts speak of the same root belief — that the soul in union with God cannot sin — but where one speaks of the interpretation which suggests that to achieve this state is not only arduous but involves a process of purification meaning an end to sin through connection with God's will, the other sees the state of union as a justification for what would ordinarily be seen as immoral acts. Taking into account that the Free Spirit heresy challenged the authority of the Church and that the Church traditionally used accusations of sexual perversion and immorality to attack heretical movements and that individuals who lived exemplary lives morally were suspected of Free Spirit leanings (such as Meister Eckhart and even John of Ruysbroek who preached against the movement) it nevertheless remains the case that the ideas of the movement clearly were open to abuse. We can perhaps only conclude that the Free Spirit interpretation of the Bible was itself open to interpretation, with some following the more austere, spiritual path and others using the doctrines to provide themselves with a perpetual pardon for their behavior.
This ambiguity inherent within the movement is perhaps well illustrated in the following extract from a Beghard writer who was clearly influenced by the ideas of the Free Spirit:
- "Moreover, the godlike man operates and begets the same that God operates and begets. For in God he worked and created heaven and earth. He is also the generator of the eternal word. Nor can God do anything without this man. The god-like man should, therefore, make his will conformable to God's will, so that he should will all that God wills. If, therefore, God wills that I should sin, I ought by no means to will that I may not have sinned. This is true contrition. And if a man have committed a thousand mortal sins, and the man is well regulated and united to God, he ought not to wish that he had not done those sins; and he ought to prefer suffering a thousand deaths rather than to have omitted one of those mortal sins." (quoted from Mosheim, Institutes of Ecclesiastical History, II. v, 11)
The similarities but also the differences with the words of Porete are clear, as is the difficulty of understanding quite what the morality of the extract is, and how easily it could be misconstrued.
This interpretation of the role of sin on the road to an understanding of God is not dissimilar to that put forward by English mystic Julian of Norwich
Julian of Norwich
Julian of Norwich is regarded as one of the most important English mystics. She is venerated in the Anglican and Lutheran churches, but has never been canonized, or officially beatified, by the Catholic Church, probably because so little is known of her life aside from her writings, including the...
in her work Revelations of Divine Love
Revelations of Divine Love
The Revelations of Divine Love is a book of Christian mystical devotions written by Julian of Norwich. It is believed to be the first published book in the English language to be written by a woman. At the age of thirty, 13 May 1373, Julian was struck with a serious illness...
, in which she says that, although undesirable, 'sin is behovely' as through repentance sin can become part of God's pattern whereby the soul can reach God. Again, Julian, like Porete, is at pains to explain that this is not to justify sin (both argue that sin is something to be avoided) but to understand its place in the universe — that sometimes before one reaches a state of bliss in union with God one cannot avoid sinning but that when it is rightly understood, those sins are forgiven, thus becoming part of God's plan in guiding the Soul to God. It is significant that Julian was not branded a heretic while Porete and other supposed followers of the Free Spirit were. Where Julian differed from Porete perhaps, was in her belief that the union with God and the particular view of the role of sin she spoke were possible within the established structure of the Church and not in opposition to it.
See also
- ActsActs of the ApostlesThe Acts of the Apostles , usually referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament; Acts outlines the history of the Apostolic Age...
- Gospel of JohnGospel of JohnThe Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
- First Epistle of JohnFirst Epistle of JohnThe First Epistle of John, often referred to as First John and written 1 John, is a book of the New Testament. This fourth catholic or "general" epistle is attributed to John the Evangelist, traditionally thought to be the author of the Gospel of John and the other two Epistles of John. This...
- RevelationRevelationIn religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing, through active or passive communication with a supernatural or a divine entity... - Amaury de Bene
- BeghardsBeghardsBeghards and Beguines were Roman Catholic lay religious communities active in the 13th and 14th centuries, living in a loose semi-monastic community but without formal vows...
- Beguines - Cathars/Catharism
- CatholicismCatholicismCatholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
- ChristianityChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
- Christian mysticismChristian mysticismChristian mysticism refers to the development of mystical practices and theory within Christianity. It has often been connected to mystical theology, especially in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions...
- Esoteric ChristianityEsoteric ChristianityEsoteric Christianity is a term which refers to an ensemble of spiritual currents which regard Christianity as a mystery religion, and profess the existence and possession of certain esoteric doctrines or practices, hidden from the public but accessible only to a narrow circle of "enlightened",... - Council of VienneCouncil of VienneThe Council of Vienne was the fifteenth Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church that met between 1311 and 1312 in Vienne. Its principal act was to withdraw papal support for the Knights Templar on the instigation of Philip IV of France.-Background:...
- FraticelliFraticelliThe Fraticelli, sometimes confusingly called Fratricelli, were medieval Roman Catholic groups that could trace their origins to the Franciscans, but which came into being as a separate entity. The Fraticelli were declared heretical by the Church in 1296 by Boniface VIII...
- Giochinno de Fiori
- GnosticismGnosticismGnosticism is a scholarly term for a set of religious beliefs and spiritual practices common to early Christianity, Hellenistic Judaism, Greco-Roman mystery religions, Zoroastrianism , and Neoplatonism.A common characteristic of some of these groups was the teaching that the realisation of Gnosis...
- Gospel of PhilipGospel of PhilipThe Gospel of Philip is one of the Gnostic Gospels, a text of New Testament apocrypha, dating back to around the third century but lost to modern researchers until an Egyptian peasant rediscovered it by accident, buried in a cave near Nag Hammadi, in 1945...
- Gospel of ThomasGospel of ThomasThe Gospel According to Thomas, commonly shortened to the Gospel of Thomas, is a well preserved early Christian, non-canonical sayings-gospel discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945, in one of a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library... - Heresy of the Free SpiritHeresy of the Free SpiritThe Free Spirit heresy consisted of small groups of Christian heretics living mostly in Bohemia, now the Czech Republic, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Their worship was not well organized and their doctrine was not well defined. Their beliefs were mostly spread in the form of...
- Lollards
- List of Christian mystics
- Marguerite PoreteMarguerite PoreteMarguerite Porete was a French mystic and the author of The Mirror of Simple Souls, a work of Christian spirituality dealing with the workings of Divine Love. She was burnt at the stake for heresy in Paris in 1310 after a lengthy trial, after refusing to remove her book from circulation or recant...
- The Mirror Of Simple SoulsThe Mirror of Simple SoulsThe Mirror of Simple Souls is an early 14th century work of Christian mysticism by Marguerite Porete dealing with the workings of Divine Love.... - Meister EckhartMeister EckhartEckhart von Hochheim O.P. , commonly known as Meister Eckhart, was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic, born near Gotha, in the Landgraviate of Thuringia in the Holy Roman Empire. Meister is German for "Master", referring to the academic title Magister in theologia he obtained in Paris...
- Sister Catherine TreatiseSister Catherine TreatiseThe Sister Catherine Treatise is a work of Medieval Christian mysticism seen as representative of the Heresy of the Free Spirit of the thirteenth and fourteenth Centuries in Europe... - Ranters
- Rosicrucianism - Rosicrucian ManifestosRosicrucian ManifestosThe Rosicrucian Manifestos were two documents of unknown authorship written in the early 17th century in Europe. They purported to announce the existence of a hitherto unknown esoteric order, the Brotherhood of the Rose Cross, to the world...
- Theologia GermanicaTheologia GermanicaTheologia Germanica, also known as Theologia Deutsch or Teutsch, is a mystical treatise believed to have been written in the mid 14th century by an anonymous author, usually associated with the Friends of God. According to the introduction of the Theologia the author was a priest and a member of...
- WaldensiansWaldensiansWaldensians, Waldenses or Vaudois are names for a Christian movement of the later Middle Ages, descendants of which still exist in various regions, primarily in North-Western Italy. There is considerable uncertainty about the earlier history of the Waldenses because of a lack of extant source...
External links
- History of the Christian Church: Heresy and its suppression
- Blessed Henry Suso Wrote Büchlein der Wahrheit (Little Book of the Truth), "written in part against the pantheistic teachings of the Beghards, and against the libertine teachings of the Brethren of the Free Spirit."