Vas that so many persons of this character perished in the fumes of persection in Italy, France, and Germany, during

$a. In no part of Germany were this sect more numerous that the titles on the Rhine, and especially in Cologne. Therefice Boy L. archbishop of Cologne, published a severe rimme vix them, a. D. B506: and his example was 50 wed by the prelates of Mayence, Treves, Worms, and b. And as there were acute and subtle men among ths class of people, the very acute John Duns Scotus was sent

Chigne, in the year 1508, to dispute against them and confate them. In the year 1810, Margaret Porretta, a celebrated kaler of this sect, was burnt at Paris, with one of the brethno. She had undertaken to demonstrate in a book she pubSbed that the scal, vien absorbed in the love of God, is free from alles add may gratify every natural propensity without guilt'. Influenced by these, and numerous other examples, the soveNim pectin Cent V., in the general council of Vienne, a. p. 1811, published a special decree against the Beghardi and Ellier of Germany; in which he states the opinions held by this party, imperfectly indeed, yet so far as to render it clear, they were mystics, and Brethren and Sisters of the free spirit. Clement published another decree, in the same council, in which he suppressed the Beghing of a far different class, namely, those who had previously been approved, and who lived every where in established houses. For the Brethren and Sisters of the free spirit had crept into most of the convents of the Beesime, and inculcated their mysterious and sublime views on those women, who being captivated with these novelties, prated absurdly and impiously about the mysteries and the true worship of God'.

* See the Statuta Coloniensia, Colon. 1554. 4to. p. 58. [Harzheim, Concilia German, tom. iv. p. 99. Schl.]

• John's Scriptores Rerum Moguntinar. tom. iii. p. 298. Martene's Thesaur. Anecdotor, tom. iv. p. 250, &c. [Harzheim, Concil, German, tom. iv. p. Ì39. 200. 234, 235. 407. 436. 438. 482, &e. Schl.]

Wadding's Annales Minor. tom. vi. p. 108, &c.

7 Luc Dachery, Spicileg. Veter. Scriptor. tom. iii. p. 63. Jo. Baleus, De Scriptoribus Britannicis, cent. iv. No. 88. p. 367. Basil. 1557. fol.

$ It is extant in the Corpus Juris Canon, among the Clementina, lib. v. tit. iii. De Hæreticis, cap. iii. p. 1088.

In the Corpus Juris Canon. Clementinæ, lib. iii, tit. xi. De Religiosis Domibus, cap. i. p. 1075. ed. Boehmer. 1 Hence in the German monuments

§ 5. The Brethren of the free spirit, oppressed by so many decrees and ordinances, endeavoured to descend from upper to lower Germany, and they actually migrated to several provinces of the latter. Westphalia alone they were not able to disquiet. For Henry, the archbishop of Cologne, assembled a council in 1322, and warned the bishops in his province of the impending danger; and they, by their great vigilance, prevented the entrance of any of these people into Westphalia'. About the same time, also, the leader and champion of the Beghardi living on the Rhine, (as they were then called,) Walter, a Hollander, an eloquent man, and distinguished for his writings, having come from Mayence to Cologne, was there seized and burnt 3. The death of this man was a great loss to the Brethren of the free spirit; yet it by no means effected their ruin. For it appears from numberless testimonies that this class of people held clandestine meetings for a long time at Cologne, and in other provinces of Germany; and that there were men among them distinguished for their learning and weight of character, among whom, besides others, was the celebrated Henry Aycard, or Eccard, a Dominican of Saxony, and provincial of his order for Saxony, an acute man, who taught theology at Paris with applause. John XXII., in

of this age, we may often notice a distinction made between the reputable and approred Beguine, and the Beguine of the sublime or free spirit: of whom, the former adhered to the public religion, and the latter were corrupted by mystical opinions.

2 Nicol. Schatten's Annales Paderbornenses, tom. ii. p. 249.

3 Jo. Trithemius, Annales Hirsaugens. tom. ii. p. 155. Schatten's Annales Paderborn. tom. ii. p. 350. This was the celebrated Walter, whom so many ecclesiastical historians tell us was the founder of the sect of Lollhards, and a distinguished witness for the truth. These and other conclusions the learned writers deduce from the language of Trithemius: Lohareus (thus it reads in my copy: but I believe the true reading to be Lollhardus; which term Trithemius often uses, in the manner common in his age, while treating of the sects that dissented from the church) autem iste

Waltherus, natione Hollandinus, Latini Sermonis parram habebat notitiam. From these words, I say, those learned men infer, that the name of the man was Walter, and his surname Lolhard : and hence they infer, farther, that the sect of the Lollhards derived its name from him, as being its founder. But it is clear, from this and other passages of Trithemius, that Lolhardus was not his surname, but an epithet of reproach, which was applied to all heretics who concealed the poison of error under the cloak of piety. This same Walter is called by Trithemius, a little before, Fratricellorum princeps. Yet the name Fratricelli he uses in a broader sense, or to include various sects. This Walter was a man devoted to mystic views, and a principal teacher among the brethren of the free spirit along the Rhine.

See Jac. Echard's Scriptores Prædicator. tom. i. p. 507. Odor. Raynald's Annales Eccles, tom. xv. ad ann. 1329.

the year 1330, sought to remedy this evil by a new and severe ordinance, in which the errors of the sect of the free spirit were more distinctly and precisely stated than in the ordinance of Clement'; but he could not by any means extirpate it. Both the Inquisitors and the bishops fought against it, quite to the end of the century, over the greater part of Europe.

§ 6. From the ordinance of Clement, or of the council of Vienne, against the Beguins, or those females who associated in regular houses for united prayer and labour, originated that great persecution of the Beguins, which continued down to the times of the reformation by Luther, and proved ruinous to both Beguins and Beghards in several countries. For although the pontiff, at the close of that ordinance, had allowed pious females to lead a life of celibacy, whether under a vow or not, and forbid the toleration of such females only as were corrupted with the opinions of the Brethren of the free spirit, yet the enemies of the Beguins and Beghards, who were very numerous, both among the mechanics, especially the weavers, and among the priests and monks, took occasion from that ordinance of Clement to expel the Beguins from their houses, seize and carry off their goods, and to offer them many other insults and injuries. Nor were the Beghards treated with more indulgence. John XXII. first succoured the Beguins in the year 1324, by a special ordinance, in which he explained that of Clement, and commanded their houses and goods to be left to them unmolested. And other pontiffs afterwards extended to them relief. Moreover the Beguins themselves, in order to escape more easily the machinations and violence of their enemies, embraced in many places the third rule of St. Francis,

§ 70, p. 389. [and Harzheim's Concilia German. tom. iv. in the Digressio ad Sæcul. xiv. p. 635, &c. where we find the bull of pope John XXII. which he sent to the archbishop of Cologne, and in which the 26 articles which Eccard taught, but afterwards had to retract, are stated; and are, almost word for word, the same as those propositions quoted in the history of the preceding century, (Part ii. ch. v. § 11. p. 624, above,) from the book de Novem Rus. Sch.]

5 This new constitution of John XXII. has never been published entire. Its first words were, In agro Domini ; and its inscription was, Contra singularia, dubia, suspecta et temeraria, quæ Beghardi et Beghina prædicant et obsercant. A summary of it is given by Herman Coerner, Chronicon; Eccard's Corpus Histor. Medii Eri, tom. ii. p. 1035, 1036. It is also mentioned by Paul Langius, Chronicon Citizense; in Jo. Pistorius' Scriptores Rerum German. tom. i. p. 1206.

and of the Augustinians. But all these guards could not prevent them from suffering great injury, both as to character and property, from this time onward; and in many places they were oppressed both by the magistrates and by the monks and clergy, who were greedy of their property.

§ 7. Some years before the middle of the century, while Germany, France, and other countries of Europe, were afflicted with various calamities, the Flagellants, a sect long since forgotten, especially in Germany, appeared again, and roaming through various countries, produced excitement among the people. These new Flagellants, who were of every order, sex, and age, were worse than the old ones. For they not only supposed that the compassion of God might be excited by selfinflicted pains, but also circulated other doctrines opposed to religion for example, that flagellation was of equal efficacy with baptism, and the other sacraments, that by it might be obtained from God the forgiveness of all sins, without the merits of Christ; that the old law of Christ was soon to be abolished, and a new law (of baptism with blood by flagellation) was to be substituted in its place; and other doctrines, some worse, and some not so bad. Clement VII., therefore, anathematized these flagellants; and the Inquisitors burned some of them in one place and another. But they were as difficult to be suppressed as the other sects of errorists".

§ 8. Directly the opposite of this melancholy sect was the merry one of the Dancers, which originated in the year 1373, at Aix-la-Chapelle, and thence spread through the district of Liege, Hanault, and other Belgic provinces. Persons of both sexes, publicly and in private houses, suddenly broke into a dance, and holding each other by the hand, danced with great violence till they fell down nearly suffocated. Amidst those

I have made very extensive collections respecting this long and eventful conflict of the Beguins. The most copious of all the printed histories of it, and especially of the conflict at Basle, and of that most bitter enemy of the Beguins, John Mülberg, a priest of Basle, is that of Christian Wurstisen or Urstisius, in his Chronicle of Basle, written in German, lib. iv. c. ix. p. 201, &c. Basil, 1580. fol. The writings

of Mülberg, so famous in the following century for his assaults on the Beguins, are before me, in manuscript, and are preserved in many old libraries.

7 See Baluze, Vita Pontiff. Avenion. tom. i. p. 160. 316. 319; and Miscellanea, tom. i. p. 50. Matthæus, Analecta Veteris Eri, tom. i. p. 50, tom. iii. p. 241, tom. iv. p. 145. Herm. Gyges, Flores Tempor. p. 139.

villent movements they said they were favoured with wonderful These also wandered about, like the Flagellants, and Eved by being; they esteemed the public worship of the church and of the priesthood of little value, and held secret assembles. This appears to have been a singular species of dscase; but the ignorant priests of that age supposed, that those people were possessed by some evil spirit; and at Liege they endeavoured to cast him out by applying fumigations and insense to their bodies. And it is reported, that the evil spirit was dislodged by these means.

$9. The Knights Templars, established near 200 years before this in Palestine, were far worse than all the heretics, and were the enemies and deriders of all religion, if the crimes and enormities charged upon them were real. Their accuser before the pontiff, Clement V., was no less than the king of France, Pip the Fair, an avaricious prince, extremely vindictive and fiery. The pontiff had to yield to the wishes of the King, although at first he made some resistance. Therefore in the year 1307, and afterwards, all the Knights, dispersed over the whole of Europe, while apprehending no such thing, were seized on a day appointed: many, who refused to confess the crimes and enormities charged upon them, were put to death; others, who being compelled by tortures and allured by promises, confessed their crimes, were dismissed. The whole order, in the year 1311, was extinguished by the council of Vienne. Their very ample possessions were transferred, in part, to other orders, especially to the Knights of St. John, now of Malta, and in part were confiscated by the reigning sovereigns.

§ 10. The Knights Templars, if we may believe their judges, were a society of men who made ridicule of God and Christ, and of every thing sacred, and trampled upon all law and

* See Baluze, Vitæ Pontif. Avenion. tom. i. p. 485. Ant. Matthæus, Analecta Veter. Eri, tom. i. p. 51, where the Chronicon Belgicum, ad ann. 1374, obscurely says: gingen de Dansers, Gens impacata cadit, cruciata salvat. [These people fell down, if unexorcised, but the sign of the cross restored them.] These Dancing Brothers and

Sisters were very much like the French Convulsionists [or Prophets] who in our age have produced so much disturbance. [Mosheim's age has passed away, and with it many of its names. The things represented by them are of immortal mould, as in this case the modern Jumpers testify. Ed.]