A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 4Lea, Henry Charles
History
A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 4
Lea, Henry Charles
Inquisition -- Spain
Another development of the same tendencies--probably a survival of the
Pelagini--was discovered in Brescia in 1708. The sectaries called
themselves disciples of St. Augustin, engaged in vindicating his
opinions on predestination and grace, but they were popularly known as
Beccarellisti, from two brothers, priests of the name of Beccarelli,
whom they regarded as their leaders. For twenty-five years--that is,
since the ostensible suppression of the Pelagini--the sect had been
secretly spreading itself throughout Lombardy, where it was said to
number some forty-two thousand members, including many nobles and
wealthy families and ecclesiastics of position. They had a common
treasury and a regular organization, headed by the elder Beccarelli as
pope, with cardinals, apostles and other dignitaries. The immediate
object of the movement, we are told, was to break the power of the
religious Orders and to restore to the secular priesthood the functions
of confession and the direction of souls which it had well-nigh lost,
but there was taught the Quietist doctrine of divine grace to which the
devotee surrendered all his faculties. This was allowed to operate
without resistance, and Beccarelli held that Molinos was the only true
teacher of Christian perfection, but we may safely reject as
exaggeration the statement that carnal indulgence was regarded as
earning a plenary indulgence, applicable to souls in purgatory. Cardinal
Badoaro, then Bishop of Brescia, took energetic measures to stamp out
this recrudescence of the condemned doctrines; the leaders scattered to
Switzerland, Germany and England, while Beccarelli was tried by the
Inquisition of Venice and was condemned to seven years of
galley-service.[116]
Probably the latest victims who paid with their lives for their belief
in the efficacy of mental prayer and mystic death were a beguine named
Geltruda and a friar named Romualdo, who were burnt in a Palermitan atto
di fede, April 6, 1724, as impenitent Molinists after languishing in
gaol since 1699.[117]
[Sidenote: _FÉNELON AND BOSSUET_]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account