A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume IILea, Henry Charles
History
A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume II
Lea, Henry Charles
Inquisition -- History
With the return of peace under Charles le Sage the Inquisition had freer
scope. The Begghards, or Brethren of the Free Spirit, undeterred by the
martyrdom of Marguerite la Porete, had continued to exist in secret. In
September, 1365, Urban V. notified the prelates and inquisitors
throughout France that they were actively at work propagating their
doctrines, and he sent detailed information as to their tenets and the
places where they were to be found to the Bishop of Paris, with orders
to communicate it to his fellow-prelates and the Inquisition. If any
immediate response to this was made, the result has not reached us, but
in 1372 we find Frère Jacques de More, “_inquisiteur des Bougres_,”
busy in eradicating them. They called themselves the Company of Poverty,
and were popularly known by the name of Turelupins; as in Germany, they
were distinguished by their peculiar vestments, and they propagated
their doctrines largely by their devotional writings in the vernacular.
Charles V. rewarded the labors of the inquisitor with a donation of
fifty francs, and received the thanks of Gregory XI. for his zeal. The
outcome of the affair was the burning of the books and garments of the
heretics in the swine-market beyond the Porte Saint-Honoré, together
with the female leader of the sect, Jeanne Daubenton. Her male colleague
escaped by death in prison, but his body was preserved in quicklime for
fifteen days, in order that he might accompany his partner in guilt in
the flames. That such a spectacle was sufficiently infrequent to render
it a matter of importance is shown by its being recorded in the doggerel
of a contemporary chronicler--
“L’an MDCCCLXXII. je vous dis tout pour voir
Furent les Turelupins condannez pour ardoir,
Pour ce qu’ils desvoient le people à decepvoir
Par feaultes heresies, l’Eveque en soult levoir.”
The sect was a stubborn one, however, especially in Germany, as we shall
see hereafter, and in the early part of the next century Chancellor
Gerson still considers it of sufficient importance to combat its errors
repeatedly. Its mystic libertinism was dangerously seducing, and he was
especially alarmed by the incredible subtlety with which it was
presented in a book written by a woman known as Mary of Valenciennes. In
May, 1421, twenty-five of these sectaries were condemned at Douai by the
Bishop of Arras. Twenty of them recanted and were penanced with crosses
and banishment or imprisonment, but five were stubborn and sealed their
faith with martyrdom in the flames.[141]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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