XIV.

with a view of this light upon mount Tabor. CP_NT. Hence he concluded that this divine operation PART II. was really different from the substance of the Deity; and further that no Being could possibly partake of the divine substance or essence, but that finite natures might possess a share of his divine light, or operation. The Barlaamites, on the contrary, denied these positions, affirming, that the properties and operations of the Deity were not different from his essence, and that there was really no difference between the attributes and essence of God, considered in themselves, but only in our conceptions of them, and reasonings upon them [u].

in the

western

III. In the Latin church the inquisitors, those The severiactive ministers and executioners of papal justice, ty of the extended their vigilance to every quarter, and inquisition most industriously hunted out the remains of those sects who opposed the religion of Rome, even world. the Waldenses, the Catharists, the Apostolists, and others; so that the history of these times abounds with numberless instances of persons who were burnt, or otherwise barbarously destroyed, by these unrelenting instruments of superstitious vengeance. But none of these enemies of the church gave the inquisitors and bishops so much employment of this bloody kind, as the Brethren and Sisters of the free spirit, who went under the Bb 4

common

[u] See Jo. CANTACUZENUS, Historia, lib. ii. cap. xxxix. p. 263. and GREGOR. PONTANUS. NICEPHORUS Gregoras, Historie Byzantine, lib. xi. cap. x. p. 277. and in many other places. But these two writers disagree in many circumstances. Many materials relative to this controversy are yet unpublished (see MONTFAUCON, Biblioth. Coisliniana, p. 159. 174. 404.) Nor have we ever been favoured with an accurate and welldigested history of it. In the mean time, the reader may consult LEO ALLATIUS, De perpetua consensione Orient. et Occid. ecclesia, lib. ii. cap. xxii. p. 824.-HENR. CANISII Lectiones Antiqua, tom. iv. p. 361.-DION. PETAVIUS, Dogmat. Theol. tom. i. lib. i. cap. xii. p. 76.--STEPH. DE ALTIMURA, Panoplia contra Schisma Gracor. p. 381, &c.

XIV.

CENT common name of Beggards or Beguines in GerPARTII. many and Flanders, and were differently denominated in other provinces. For as this sort of people professed an uncommon and sublime sort of devotion, endeavouring to call off men's minds from the external and sensible parts of religion, and to win them over to the inward and spiritual worship of God, they were greatly esteemed by many plain, well-meaning persons, whose piety and simplicity were deceived by a profession so seducing, and thus made many converts to their opinions. It was on this account that such numbers of this turn and disposition perished in the flames of persecution during this century in Italy, France, and Germany.

Severe edicts a

IV. This sect was most numerous in those cities of Germany that lay upon the Rhine, espegainst the cially at Cologn, which circumstance induced HENCatharists, Beggards, RY 1. archbishop of that diocese, to publish a Beguines, severe cdict against them, A. D. 1306 [w]; an

&c.

example that was soon followed by the bishops of Mentz, Triers, Worms, and Strasburg [x]. And as there were some subtile acute men belonging to this party, that eminently keen logician, JOHN DUNS SCOTUS [y], was sent to Cologn, in the year 1308, and to dispute against them, and to vanquish them by dint of syllogism. In the year 1310, the famous MARGARET PORETTA, who made such a shining figure in this sect, was burnt at Paris with one of the brethren. She had undertaken to demonstrate in an elaborate treatise, That the soul, when absorbed in the love of God, is free from the restraint of every law, and may freely gratify all its natural appetites, without contracting

any

[w] See Statua Coloniensia, published in 4to, at Cologn, A. D. 1554. p. 58.

[x] JOHANNIS Scriptor. rerum Moguntinar. tom. iii. p. 298. -MARTENE, Thesaur. Anecdotor. tom. iv. p. 250.

[] WADDINGI Annal. Minor. tom. vi. P. 108.

any guilt [z]. Pope CLEMENT V. exasperated by CENI. this and other instances of the pernicious fanati- PART II. cism that had got among this sect, published in a general council held at Vienne, A. D. 1311, a special constitution against the Beggards and Beguines of Germany. And though the edict only mentions imperfectly the opinions of this sect, yet, by the enumeration of them, we may easily perceive that the Mystic brethren and sisters of the free spirit are the persons principally intendded [a]. CLEMENT, in the same council, issued another constitution, by which he suppressed another and a very different sort of Beguines [b], who had hitherto been considered as a lawful and regular society, and lived every where in fixed habitations appropriated to their order, but were now corrupted by the fanatics above mentioned. For the Brethren and Sisters of the free spirit had insinuated themselves into the greatest part of the convents of the Beguines, where they inculcated with great success their mysterious and sublime system of religion to these simple women. And these simple women were no sooner initiated into this brilliant and chimerical system, than they were captivated with its delusive charms, and babbled, in the most absurd and impious manner, concerning the true worship of the Deity [c].

V. The Brethren of the free spirit, oppressed Nevertheby so many severe edicts and constitutions, formed

[x] LUC. DACHERII Spicil. veter. Scriptor. tom. iii. p. Jo. BALEUS, De Scriptor. Britann. Centur. iv. n. 88. p. published in folio at Basil, A. D. 1557.

less, the Brethren the and Sisters of the free

63.—spirit could 367. not be extirpated.

[a] It is extant in the Corpus Juris Canon. inter Clementinus, lib. v. tit. iii. De Hæreticis, cap. iii. p. 1088.

[b] In Jure Canonico inter Clementinas, lib. iii. tit. xi. De religiosis domibus. cap. i. p. 1075. edit. Bohmer.

[c] For this reason, in the German records of this century, we often find a distinction of the Beguines into those of the right and approved class, and those of the sublime and free spirit; the former of whom adhered to the public religion, while the latter were corrupted by the opinions of the Mystics.

CEN T. the design of removing from Upper Germany into PART II. the lower parts of the empire; and this emigra

XIV,

tion was so far put in execution, as that Westphalia was the only province which refused admission to these dispersed fanatics, and was free from their disturbances. This was owing to the provident measures of HENRY, archbishop of Cologn, who, having called a council, A. D. 1322, seriously admonished the bishops of his province of the approaching danger, and thus excited them to exert their utmost vigilance to prevent any of these people from coming into Westphalia. About the same time the Beggards [d] upon the Rhine lost their chief leader and champion, WALTER, a Dutchman, of remarkable eloquence, and famous for his writings, who came from Mentz to Cologn, where he was apprehended and burnt [e]. The

[d] By Beggards here Dr MOSHEIM means particularly the Brethren of the free spirit, who frequently passed under this denomination.

[e] Jo. TRITHEMII Annal. Hirsuag. tom. ii. p. 155.— SCHATEN, Annal. Paderborn. tom. ii. p. 250.-This is that famous WALTER, whom so many ecclesiastical historians have represented as the founder of the sect of the Lollards, and as an eminent martyr to their cause. Learned men conclude all this and more from the following words of TRITHEMIUS. But that same WALTER Lobareus (so it stands in my copy, though I fancy it ought to have been Lollbardus; especially as TRITHEMIUS, according to the custom of his time, frequently uses this word when treating of the sects that dissented from the church) a native of Holland, was not well versed in the Latin tongue. I say, from this short passage, learned men have concluded that WALTER'S surname was Lollhard; from whence, as from its founder and master, they supposed his sect derived the name of Lollards. But it is very evident, not only from this, but from many other passages of TRITHEMIUS, that Lollbard was no surname, but merely a term of reproach applied to all heretics whatever who concealed the poison of error under the appearance of piety. TRITHEMIUS, speaking of the very same man, in a passage which occurs a little before that we have just quoted, calls him the head of the Fratricelli, or Minorites: but the term Minories was a very extensive one, including people of various sects.

XIV.

The death of this person was highly detrimentalC EN T. to the affairs of the Brethren of the free spirit, but PART II. did not, however, ruin their cause nor extirpate their sect. For it appears from innumerable testimonies, that these people, for a long time afterwards, not only held their private assemblies at Cologn, and in many other provinces of Germany, but also that they had several men among them of high rank and great learning, of which number HENRY AYCARDUS, or ECCARD, a Saxon, was the most famous. He was a Dominican, and also the superior of that order in Saxony; a man of a subtile genius, and one who had acquitted himself with reputation as professor of divinity at Paris [f]. In the year 1330, pope JOHN XXII. endeavoured to suppress this obstinate sect by a new and severe constitution, in which the errors of the sect of the free spirit are marked out in a more distinct and accurate manner than in the Clementina [g]. But his attempt was fruitless, the disorder continued, and was ombated both by the inquisitors and bishops in most parts of Europe to the end of this cen

tury.

cution of

VI. The Clementina, or constitution of the The perse council of Vienne against the Beguines, or those the Be

female guines, and its tragical This WALTER embraced the opinions of the Mystics, and was conclusion. the principal doctor among those Brethren of the free spirit, who lived on the banks of the Rhine.

[f] See ECHARDI Scriptor. Prædicator. tom. i. p. 507.ODOR. RAYNALDUS, Annal. tom. xv. ad d. 1329, sect. lxx. p. 389.

[g] This new constitution of JOHN XXII. was never published entire. It began with the following words: In agro Dominico, and was inscribed thus, contra singularia dubia, suspecta, et temeraria, quæ Beghardi et Beghine prædicant et observant. We are favoured with a summary of it by HERM. CORNERUS, in Chronico. in ECCARDI Corpore Histor. medii ævi, tom. ii. p. 1035, 1036. It is also mentioned by PAUL LANGIUS, in Chronico Citizensi, in Jo. PISTORII Scriptor. rerum German. tom. i. p. 1206.