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court, before which were summoned not only || who made such alterations in the process, that heretics, and persons suspected of heresy, but the manner of taking cognisance of heretical likewise all who were accused of magic, sor- causes became totally different from that which cery, Judaism, witchcraft, and other crimes of was usual in civil affairs. These friars were, a spiritual kind. This tribunal, in process to say the truth, entirely ignorant of judicial of time, was erected in other countries of Eu- matters; nor were they acquainted with the rope, though not every where with the same proceedings of any other tribunal, than that success.* which was called, in the Roman church, the Tribunal of penance. It was therefore from this, that they modelled the new court of In

V. The method of proceeding in this court of inquisition was at first simple, and almost in every respect similar to that which was ob-quisition, as far as a resemblance was possible; served in the ordinary courts of justice. But this simplicity was gradually changed by the Dominicans, to whom experience suggested several new methods of augmenting the pomp and majesty of their spiritual tribunal, and

*The accounts which we have here given of the rise of the Inquisition, though founded upon the most unexceptionable testimonies and the most authentic records, are yet very different from those

that are to be found in most authors. Some learned

men tell us, that the Tribunal of the Inquisition was the invention of St. Dominic, and was first erected quence, was the first inquisitor; that the year of its

by him in the city of Toulouse; that he, of conse

institution is indeed uncertain; but that it was un

and hence arose that strange system of inquisitorial law, which, in many respects, is so contrary to the common feelings of humanity, and the plainest dictates of equity and justice. This is the important circumstance by which we are enabled to account for the absurd and iniquitous proceedings of the inquisitors, against persons who are accused of holding, what they call, heretical opinions.

VI. That nothing might be wanting to render this spiritual court formidable and tremendous, the Roman pontiffs persuaded the European_princes, and more especially the emperor Frederic II., and Louis IX. king of doubtedly confirmed in a solemn manner by Inno-France, not only to enact the most barbarous cent III. in the Lateran council of 1215. See Jo. Alb. laws against heretics, and to commit to the Fabricius, in his Lux Evangelii toti Orbi exoriens, p. 569.-Phil. Limborchi Historia Inquisit. lib. i. c. x. flames, on pretence of public justice, those and the other writers mentioned by Fabricius. I who were pronounced such by the inquisitors, will not affirm, that the writers, who give this acbut also to maintain the latter in their office, count of the matter, have advanced all this without authority; but this I will venture to say, that the and grant them their protection in the most authors, whom they have taken for their guides, are open and solemn manner. The edicts to this not of the first rate in point of merit and credibility, purpose issued by Frederic II. are well known; Limborch, whose History of the Inquisition is looked edicts fit only to excite horror, and which renupon as a most important and capital work, is generally followed by modern writers in their ac- dered the most illustrious piety and virtue incounts of that odious tribunal. But, however laud- capable of saving from the most cruel death able that historian may have been in point of fide-such as had the misfortune to be disagreeable lity and diligence, it is certain that he was little acquainted with the ecclesiastical history of the middle ages; that he drew his materials, not from the true and original sources, but from writers of a second class, and thus has fallen, in the course of his history, into various mistakes. His account of the origin of the inquisition is undoubtedly false; nor does that which is given by many other writers approach nearer to the truth. The circumstances of this account, which I have mentioned in the beginning of

the life of St. Dominic. Nor is all this advanced in

to the inquisitors.* These execrable laws were not, however, sufficient to restrain the just indignation of the people against these inhuman judges, whose barbarity was accompanied with superstition and arrogance, with a spirit of suspicion and perfidy, and even with temerity and imprudence. Accordingly they were insulted by the multitude in many places, were driven in an ignominious manner out of some cities, and were put to death in others; and Conrad of Marpurg, the first German inquisitor, who derived his commission from Gregory IX., was one of the many victims that were sacrificed upon this occasion to the vengeance of the public, which his incredible

this note, are more especially destitute of all foundation. Many of the Dominicans, who, in our times, have presided in the court of inquisition, and have extolled the sanctity of that pious institution, deny, at the same time, that Dominic was its founder, as also that he was the first inquisitor, or that he was an inquisitor at all. They go still farther, and affirm, that the court of inquisition was not erected during considerately, as every impartial inquirer into the proofs they allege will easily perceive. Nevertheless, the question, whether or not St. Dominic was an * The laws of the emperor Frederic, in relation to inquisitor, seems to be merely a dispute about words, the inquisitors, may be seen in Limborch's History and depends entirely upon the different significa of the Inquisition, as also in the Epistles of Pierre tions of which the term inquisitor is susceptible. de Vignes, and in Bzovius, Raynaldus, &c. The That word, according to its original meaning, signi- edict of St. Louis, in favour of these spiritual judges, fied a person invested with the commission and au- is generally known under the title of Cupientes; for thority of the pope to extirpate heresy and oppose its so it is called by the French lawyers, on account of abettors, but not clothed with any judicial power. its beginning with that word. It was issued in 1229, But it soon acquired a different meaning, and signi- as the Benedictine monks have proved sufficiently in fied a person appointed by the pontiff to proceed ju- their Hist. Generale de Languedoc, ton. iii. It is dicially against heretics and such as were suspected also published by Catelius, in his Histor. Comit. Toof heresy, to pronounce sentence according to their losanor, and by many other authors. This edict is respective cases, and to deliver over to the secular as severe and inhuman, to the full, as the laws of arm such as persisted obstinately in their errors. In Frederic II.; for a great part of the sanctity of good the latter sense Dominic was not an inquisitor, king Louis consisted in his furious and implacable since it is well known that there were no papal aversion to heretics, against whom he judged it more judges of this nature before the pontificate of Gre-expedient to employ the influence of racks and gib gory IX.; but he was undoubtedly an inquisitor in the sense originally attached to that term.

The records, published by the Benedictines in their Histoire Gener, de Languedoc, tom. iii. p. 371, show the simplicity that reigned in the proceedings of the inquisition at its first institution

bets, than the power of reason and argument. See Du Fresne, Vita Ludovici a Joinvillio scripta.

The life of this furious and celebrated inquisitor was composed from the most authentic records, and also from several valuable manuscripts, by the learn ed John Herman Schminckius. See also Wadding,

barbarities had raised to a dreadful degree of vehemence and fury.*

VII. When Innocent III., perceived that the labours of the inquisitors were not immediately attended with such abundant fruits as he had fondly expected, he addressed himself, in 1207, to Philip Augustus, king of France, and to the leading men of that nation, urging them, by the alluring promise of the most ample indulgences, to extirpate all, whom he thought proper to call heretics, by fire and sword. This exhortation was repeated, with new accessions of fervour and earnestness, in the following year, when Pierre de Castelnau, the legate of this pontiff, and his inquisitor in France, was put to death by the patrons of the heretics. Not long after this, the Cistertian monks, in the name of this pope, proclaimed a crusade against the heretics throughout France; and a storm seemed to be gathering against them on all sides. Raymond VI., earl of Toulouse, in whose territories Castelnau had been massacred, was solemnly excommunicated, and, to deliver himself from this ecclesiastical malediction, changed sides, and embarked in the crusade now mentioned. In 1209, a formidable army of cross-bearers commenced against the heretics (who were comprehended under the general denomination of Albigenses§) an open war, which they carried on with the utmost exertions of cruelty, though with various success, for several years. The chief director of this war was Arnald, abbot of the Cistertians, and legate of the Ro

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† Innocentii Tertii Epistolæ, lib. x. epist. 49. Innoc. Epist. lib. xi. p. 26.—Acta Sanctor. Mart. tom. i. p. 411.

§ This term is used in two senses, of which one is general, and the other more confined. In its more general and extensive sense it comprehends all the various kinds of heretics who resided at that time in Narbonne Gaul, i. e. in the southern parts of France. This appears from the following passage of Petrus Sarnensis, who, in the dedication of his History of the Albigenses to Innocent III. expresses himself thus: "Tolosani et aliarum civitatum et castrorum hæretici, et defensores eorum, generaliter Albigenses vocantur." The same author divides afterwards the Albigenses into various sects, (cap. ii. p. 3, and 8.) of which he considers that of the Waldenses as the least pernicious. Mali erant Waldenses, sed comparatione aliorum hæreticorum longe minus perversi.' It was not, however, from the city of Albigia, or Albi, that the French heretics were comprehended under the general title of Albigenses, but from another circumstance, namely, that the greatest part of Narbonne Gaul was, in this century, called Albigesium, as the Benedictine monks have clearly demonstrated in their Histoire Generale de Languedoc, tom. iii. The term Albigenses, in its more confined sense, was used to denote those heretics who inclined toward the Manichæan system, and who were otherwise known by the denominations of Catharists, Publicans or Paulicians, and Bulgarians. This appears evidently from many incontestable authorities, and more especially from the Codex Inquisitionis Tolosanæ, (published by Limborch, in his History of the Inquisition,) in which the Albigenses are carefully distinguished from the other sects that made a noise in this century.

man pontiff; and the commander in chief of the troops employed in this noble expedition was Simon, earl of Montfort. Raymond, who, consulting his safety rather than his conscience, had engaged in the crusade against the heretics, was now obliged to attack their persecutors. For Simon, who had embarked in this war, not so much from a principle of zeal for religion, or of aversion to the heretics, as from a desire of augmenting his fortune, cast a greedy eye upon the territories of Raymond, and his selfish views were seconded and accomplished by the court of Rome. After many battles, sieges, and a multitude of other exploits, conducted with the most intrepid courage and the most abominable barbarity, he received from the hands of Innocent, at the Lateran council, A. D. 1215, the county of Toulouse, and the other lands belonging to the obnoxious earl, as a reward for his zeal in supporting the cause of God and of the church. About three years after this, he lost his life at the siege of Toulouse. Raymond, his valiant adversary, died in 1222.

VIII. Thus were the two chiefs of this deplorable war taken off the scene; but this removal was far from extinguishing the infernal flame of persecution on the side of the pontiffs, or calming the restless spirit of faction on that of the pretended heretics. Raymond VII., earl of Toulouse, and Amalric, earl of Montfort, succeeded their fathers at the head of the contending parties, and carried on the war with the utmost vehemence, and with such various success as rendered the issue for some time doubtful. The former seemed at first more powerful than his adversary; and pope Honorius III., alarmed at the vigorous opposition he made to the orthodox legions, engaged Louis VIII., king of France, by the most. pompous promises, to march in person with a formidable army against the enemies of the church. The obsequious monarch listened to barked with a considerable military force in the solicitations of the lordly pontiff, and emthe cause of the church, but did not live to reap the fruits of his zeal. His engagements, however, with the court of Rome, and his furious designs against the heretics, were executed with the greatest alacrity and vigour by his son and successor Louis the Saint; so that Raymond, pressed on all sides, was obliged, in 1229, to make peace upon the most disadvantageous terms, even by making a cession of the greatest part of his territories to the French monarch, after having sacrificed a considerable portion of them, as a peace-offering to the church of Rome.* This treaty gave a mortal

*It was in consequence of this treaty (of which the articles were drawn up at Maux, and afterwards confirmed at Paris, in presence of Louis) that the university of Toulouse was founded, Raymond having bound himself thereby to pay the sum of 4000 silver marcs, toward the support of two professors of divinity, two of canon law, two of grammar, and six of the liberal arts, during the space of ten years. We must also observe, that what Dr. Mosheim says of the cession that Raymond made of his lands is not sufficiently clear and accurate. These lands were not to be transferred till after his death, and they were to be transferred to the brother of Louis IX. who, according to the treaty, was to espouse the daughter of Raymond. See Fleury's Hist. Eccles. liv. lxxix. sect. 50.

against the new sect, we cannot say with certainty, because we have upon record only a few of the decrees that were issued upon that occasion. Perhaps the obscurity of the rising faction screened it, in a great measure, from public view. But this was not the case in the following age; the Brethren and Sisters abovementioned issued from their retreats in proportion as their numbers increased: they drew upon them the eyes of the world, and particu larly those of the inquisitors, who committed to the flames such of these unhappy enthusiasts as fell into their hands; while the councils, holden in Germany and other countries, loaded them with excommunications and dampatory edicts.

blow to the cause of heresy, and dispersed the || pearance of piety that was observed in the champions that had appeared in its defence: conduct of the members who composed it. the inquisition was established at Toulouse, || How far the councils of this century proceeded and the heretics were not only exposed to the pious cruelties of Louis, but, what was still more shocking, Raymond himself, who had formerly been their patron, became their persecutor, and treated them upon all occasions with the most inhuman severity. It is true, this prince broke the engagements into which he had entered by the treaty above-mentioned, and renewed the war against Louis and the inquisitors, who abused, in the most odious manner, their victory and the power they had acquired. But this new effort, in favour of the heretics, was attended with little or no effect, and the unfortunate earl of Toulouse, the last representative of that noble and powerful family, dejected and exhausted by the losses he had sustained, and the perplexities in which he was involved, died, in 1249, without male issue. And thus ended a civil war, of which religion had been partly the cause, and partly the pretext, and which, in its consequences, was highly profitable both to the kings of France and to the Roman pontiffs.*

IX. The severity which the court of Rome employed in the extirpation of heresy, and the formidable arguments of fire and sword, racks and gibbets, with which the popes and their creatures reasoned against the enemies of the church, were not sufficient to prevent the rise of new and pernicious sects in different countries. Many of these sects were inconsiderable in themselves, and transitory in their duration, while some of them made a noise in the world, and were suppressed with difficulty. Among the latter we may reckon that of the Brethren and Sisters of the free spirit, which about this time gained ground secretly and almost imperceptibly in Italy, France, and Germany, and seduced into its bosom multitudes of persons of both sexes, by the striking ap*Many writers, both ancient and modern, have

In

This sect took its denomination from the words of St. Paul,* and maintained that the true children of God were invested with the privilege of a full and perfect freedom from the jurisdiction of the law. They were called, by the Germans and Flemish, Beghards and Beguttes, names which, as we have seen already, were usually given to those who made an extraordinary profession of piety and devotion. They received from others the reproachful denomination of Bicorni, i. e. Idiots. France, they were known by the appellation of Beguins and Beguines, while the multitude distinguished them by that of Turlupins, the origin and reason of which title I have not. been able to learn. Nothing carried a more shocking air of lunacy and distraction than their external aspect and manners. They ran from place to place clothed in the most singular and fantastic apparel, and begged their bread with wild shouts and clamours, rejecting with horror every kind of industry and labour, as an obstacle to divine contemplation, and to the ascent of the soul toward the Father of spirits. In all their excursions they were fol

* Romans, viii. 2, 14.

†The accounts here given of these wretched fanatics are, for the most part, taken from authentic records, which have not been yet published, from the decrees of synods and councils holden in France and Germany, from the diplomas of the Roman pontiffs, the sentences pronounced by the inquisitors, and other sources of information to which I have had access. I have also a collection of extracts from certain books of these enthusiasts, and more es

ual Rocks, and which was in the highest esteem among the free brethren, who considered it as a treasure of divine wisdom and doctrine. As 1 cannot here expose these records to the examination of the curious reader, I beg leave to refer him to a long and ample edict issued out against these brethren by Henry I. archbishop of Cologne, and published in the Statuta Coloniensia, anno 1554. This edict is, in every respect, conformable to those published on the same occasion at Mentz, Aschaffenburg, Paderborn, Beziers, Treves, and other places.

related the circumstances of this religious war, carried on against the earls of Toulouse and their confederates, and also against the heretics, whose cause they maintained. But the historians, whom I have consulted on this subject, have not treated it with that impartiality which is so essential to the merit of historic writing. The protestant writers, among whom Basnage deserves an eminent rank, are too favourable to Raymond and the Albigenses; the Roman catholic historians lean with still more partiality to the other side. Of the latter, the most re-pecially from that which treated of the Nine Spiritcent are Benedict, a Dominican monk, author of the Histoire des Albigeois, des Vaudois, et des Barbets, published at Paris in 1691, and J. Bapt. L'Anglois, a Jesuit, who composed the Histoire des Croisades contre les Albigeois, published at Rouen in 1703, to which we must add Jo. Jac. Percini Monumenta Conventus Tolosani Ordinis Fratrum Prædicator. in quibus Historia hujus Conventus distribuitur, et refertur totius Albigensium facti narratio, Tolosa, 1693. These writers are chargeable with the greatest partiality and injustice for the reproaches and calumnies they throw out so liberally against the Raymonds and the Albigenses, while they disguise, with a perfidious dexterity, the barbarity of Simon of Montfort, and the ambitious views of extending their dominions that engaged the kings of France. to enter into this war. The most ample and accurate account of this expedition against the heretics is that which is given by the learned Benedictines Claude le Vic and Joseph Vaissette, in their Histoire Generale de Languedoc, tom. iii. in which, however, there are several omissions, which render that valuable work defective.

Many have written of the Turlupins, but none with accuracy and precision. See Beausobre's Dissertation sur les Adamites, part ii. p. 384, where that learned author has fallen into several errors, as usually happens to him when he treats subjects of this kind. I know not the origin of the word Turlupin; but I am able to demonstrate, by the most authentic records, that the persons so called, who were burned at Paris and in other parts of France, were no other than the Brethren of the free spirit, who were condemned by the Roman pontiffs, and also by various councils.

lowed by women, called Sisters, with whom they lived in the most intimate familiarity.* They distributed, among the people, books which contained the substance of their doctrines; held nocturnal assemblies in places remote from public view; and seduced many from frequenting the ordinary institutions of divine worship.

XI. Among these fanatics there were several persons of eminent probity, who had entered into this sect with the most upright intentions, and who extended that liberty of the spirit, which they looked upon as the privilege of true believers, no farther than to an exemption from the duties of external worship, and an immunity from the positive laws of the this class of men in internal devotion, and they treated with the utmost contempt the rules of monastic discipline, and all other external rites and institutions, as infinitely beneath the attention of the perfect. Nor were their exhortations and examples without effect; for, about the middle of this century, they persuaded a considerable number of monks and devout persons, in Suabia, "to live without any rule, and to serve God in the liberty of the spirit, which was the most acceptable service that could be presented to the Deity." The inquisitors, however, stopped these poor enthusiasts in the midst of their career, and committed several of them to the flames, in which they expired, not only with the most unclouded serenity, but even 'with the most triumphant feelings of cheerfulness and joy.

X. These brethren, who gloried in the free-church. The whole of religion was placed by dom which they pretended to have obtained, through the spirit, from the dominion and obligation of the law, adopted a certain rigid and fantastic system of mystic theology, built upon pretended philosophical principles, which bore a striking resemblance to the impious doctrines of the Pantheists. They held, "That all things flowed by emanation from God, and were finally to return to their divine source; that rational souls were so many portions of the Supreme Deity, and that the universe, considered as one great whole, was God: that every man, by the power of contemplation, and by calling off his mind from sensible and terrestrial objects, might be united to the Deity in an inexplicable manner, and become one with the Source and Parent of all things; and that they, who, by long and assiduous meditation, had plunged themselves, as it were, into the abyss of the Divinity, acquired a most glorious and sublime liberty, and were not only delivered from the violence of sinful lusts, but even from the common instincts of nature." From these and the like doctrines, the brethren drew this impious and horrid conclusion, "That the person who had ascended to God in this manner, and was absorbed by contemplation in the abyss of Deity, became thus a part of the Godhead, commenced God, was the Son of God in the same sense and manner in which Christ was, and was thereby raised to a glorious independence, and freed from the obligation of all laws human and divine." It was in consequence of all this, that they treated with contempt the ordinances of the Gospel, and every external act of religious worship, looking upon prayer, fasting, baptism, and the sacrament of the Lord's supper, as the first elements of piety adapted to the state and capacity of children, and as of no sort of use to the perfect man, whom long meditation had raised above all external things, and carried into the bosom and essence of the Deity.†

* Hence they were styled, in Germany, Schwestriones, as appears by the decrees of several councils.

It may not be improper to introduce a certain number of sentences, translated faithfully from several of the more secret books of these heretics. The following will be sufficient to give the curious reader a full idea of their impiety.

"Every pious and good man is the only begotten Son of God, whom God engendered from all eternity: (for these heretics maintained, that what the Scriptures taught concerning the distinction of three persons in the divine nature, is by no means to be understood literally, and therefore explained it according to the principles of their mystical and fantastic system.)

"All created things are non-entities, or nothing: I do not say that they are small or minute, but that they are absolutely nothing.

"There is in the soul of man something that is neither created nor susceptible of creation, and that is, rationality, or the power of reasoning.

"God is neither good, nor better, nor best: whosoever therefore calls the Deity good, speaks as foolVOL. I.-48

But we find among these Brethren of the free spirit another class of fanatics very different from these now mentioned, and much more extravagant, whose system of religion was as dangerous as it was ridiculous and absurd, since it opened a door to the most licentious manners. These wretched enthusiasts maintained, that, by continual contemplation, it was possible to eradicate all the instincts of nature out of the heaven-born mind, and to introduce, into the soul a certain divine stupor, and holy apathy, which they looked upon as the great characteristics of Christian perfection. The persons who adopted these sentiments took strange liberties in consequence of their pretended sanctity, and showed, indeed, by their conduct, that they had little regard to external appearances; for they held their secret assemblies in a state of nudity, and lay in the same beds with their spiritual sisters, or, indiscriminately, with other women, without the smallest scruple or hesitation. This shocking violation

ishly as he who calls an object black which he

knows to be white.

"God still engenders his only begotten son, and begets still the same son, whom he had begotten from eternity: for every operation of the Deity is uniform and one; and therefore he engenders his son without any division.

"What the Scriptures say concerning Christ is true of every good, of every divine man: and every quality of the divine nature belongs equally to every person whose piety is genuine and sincere."

To these horrid passages we may add the following sentences, in which John bishop of Strasbourg (in an edict he published against the Brethren of the free spirit, in 1317) discovers farther the blasphemous doctrine of this impious sect. 'Deus (says these heretics) est formaliter omne quod est. Quilibet homo perfectus est Christus per naturam. Homo perfectus est liber in totum, nec tenetur ad servandum præcepta ecclesiæ data a Deo. Multa sunt poetica in Evangelio, quæ non sunt vera; et homines credere magis debent conceptibus ex anima sua Deo juncta profectis, quam Evangelio,' &c.

* See Mart. Crusius, Annal. Suevicorum, part ii. lib. ii. cap. xiv. ad annum 1261.-This author has taken his materials from Felix Faber, an impartial writer.

of decency was a consequence of their perni- || cious system. They looked upon decency and modesty as marks of inward corruption, as the characters of a soul that was still under the dominion of the sensual, animal, and lascivious spirit, and that was not, as yet, re-united to the divine nature, its centre and source. And they considered, as at a fatal distance from the Deity, all such as either felt the carnal suggestions of nature, or were penetrated with warm emotions at the view or approach of persons of a different sex, or were incapable of vanquishing and suppressing the rising fervour of lust and intemperance.*

leave this subject, that flagitious and impious impostors mingled themselves sometimes with this sect, and took the name of Beghards, that by a feigned piety they might impose upon the multitude, and deceive the simple into their snares.*

XII. The famous Amalric, professor of logic and theology at Paris, whose bones were dug up and publicly burned in 1209, (although he

and the earth. He is also the father of the eternal
word. Neither could God produce any thing with-
out this divine man, who is therefore obliged to ren
der his will conformable to the will of God, that
whatever may be agreeable to the Deity, may be
agreeable to him also. If therefore it be the will of
God that I should commit sin, my will must be the
same, and I must not even desire to abstain from
And although a man,
sin. This is true contrition.
who is well and truly united to God, may have com-
mitted a thousand mortal sins, he ought not to wish
that he had not committed them: he should even be

There were, moreover, in this fanatical troop, certain enthusiasts, who far surpassed in impiety the two classes we have been now mentioning, who abused the system and doctrines of the sect, so as to draw from them an apology for all kinds of wickedness, and who audacious-ready to die a thousand deaths rather than omit one ly maintained, that the divine man, or the believer, who was intimately united to God, could not sin, let his conduct be ever so horrible and atrocious. This execrable doctrine was not, indeed, explained in the same manner by all the Brethren of the free spirit who were so outrageous to adopt it. Some held that the motions and actions of the body had no relation at all to the soul, which, by its union with God, was blended with the divine nature: others fell into a notion infinitely injurious to the Supreme Being, and maintained that the propensities and passions that arose in the soul of the divine man after his union with the Deity, were the propensities and affections of God himself, and were therefore, notwithstanding their apparent deformity and opposition to the law, holy and good, since the Supreme Being is infinitely exalted above all law and all obligation. It is necessary to observe, before we

* Certain writers, whose principal zeal is employed in the defence of these heretics, and who have accustomed themselves to entertain a high idea of the sanctity of all those who, in the middle ages, separated themselves from the communion of the church of Rome, suspect the inquisitors of having attributed falsely these impious doctrines to the Brethren of the free spirit, with a view to blacken these pious men, and to render them odious. But this suspicion is entirely groundless; and the account of this matter, which we have given in the text, is conformable to the strictest truth. The inquisitors have been less fabulous in their accusations of these heretics, than many are apt to imagine. They acknowledge that the Beghards, though destitute of shame, were not in general chargeable with a breach of the duties of chastity and abstinence. They were indeed of opinion, that the firmness of mind, and insensibility of heart, which rendered them proof against female charms, and deaf to the voice of nature, were privileges granted to them by the devil; for they adopted the opinion of honest Nieder, (For micar. lib. iii. cap. v.) and-affirmed that it was in the power of that evil spirit to render men cold, and to extinguish the warm and lascivious solicitations of nature; and that Satan wrought this miracle upon his friends and adherents, in order to procure them a high reputation for sanctity, and make them appear superior in virtue to the rest of mankind. "Credo (saith Nieder, who was both a Dominican and an inquisitor) quosdam ex eis dæmonis opera affectos fu isse, ne moverentur ad naturales actus incontinentiæ

Facillimum enim est dæmonibus infrigidare." This account will be confirmed by the following passage, which is faithfully translated from the fa mous book of the Nine Rocks, written originally in German: "Moreover the divine man operates and engenders whatever the Deity operates and engenders: for in God he produced and formed the heavens

of these mortal sins." Hence arose the accusation brought by the inquisitors against this impious sect, whom they reproach with maintaining that the "sin of a man united to God, is not sin, since God works in him and with him whatever he does." Henry Suso, a Dominican monk, and one of the most celebrated Mystic writers, composed, in the following century, another book concerning the Nine Rocks, which is to be found in the edition of his works pubdifferent from that which was in such high esteem lished by Laurence Surius. But this book is entirely among the Beghards, though it bears the same title. The latter is of much older date, and was in vogue in Germany, among the Brethren of the free spirit, ago into my hands an ancient manuscript, composed long before Suso was born. There fell some time in Alsace during the fifteenth century, containing an account of various revelations and visions of that age. In this manuscript I found a piece entitled, Declaratio Religiosi cujusdam super Revelatione Carthusiano cuidam de Ecclesiæ per gladium reformatione, Leodii in anno 1453 facta; and, almost in the beginning of this declaration, I met with the following passage relating to the book of the Nine Rocks: "Homo quidam devotissimus, licet laicus, librum de novem Rupibus conscripsit a Deo compulsus, ubi multa ad præsens pertinentia continentur de Ecclesiæ renovatione et prævia gravi persecutione." These Nine Rocks signified, according to the fanatical doctrine of this wrong-headed sect, the different steps by which the divine man ascended to the Deity.

*The founder of this famous sect, the place of its origin, and the time of its first appearance, are not known with certainty. I have in my possession eighty-nine Sentences of the Beghards, vulgarly called Schwestriones, but who style themselves Brethren of the sect of the free spirit and of voluntary pover ty, with a refutation of the said sentences, written at Worms toward the conclusion of this century by one of the inquisitors. The 79th sentence runs thus. "To say that the truth is in Rhetia, is to fall into the heresy of Donatus, who said that God was in Africa, and not elsewhere." From these words it appears evident, that Rhetia was the country where the church of the Brethren of the free spirit was fixIed and established, and that from this province they passed into Germany. I am not, however, of opinion, that this sect had its origin in that province; but am rather inclined to think, that Italy was its country, and that, being driven thence, it took refuge in Rhetia. Nor is at all improbable, that Italy, which saw so many religious factions arise in its bosom, was also the nursing mother of this blasphemous seet. We shall be almost fully confirmed in this opinion, when we consider that, in a long letter from Clement V. to Rainier bishop of Cremona, (published by Odor. Raynaldus, Annal. tom. xv. an. 1311,) the zealous pontiff exhorts that prelate to suppress and extirpate, with all his power, the sect of the Brethren of the free spirit, who were settled in several parts of Italy, and particularly in the province of Spoleto and the countries adjacent. Such are the terms of the pontiff's letter: "In nonnullis Italiæ partibus, tam Spoletana provinciæ, quam cir. cumjacentium regionum."

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