Church History, Volume 2 (of 3)Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
History
Church History, Volume 2 (of 3)
Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
Church history
3. The so called =Pastorelles= were roused to revolution by
the miseries following the crusades. An impulse was given
to the sect by the news of the imprisonment of St. Louis
(§ 94, 6). A Cistercian =Magister Jacob= from Hungary
appeared in A.D. 1251 with the announcement that he had
seen the Mother of God, who gave him a letter calling upon
the pastors to rescue the Holy Sepulchre. Those who have
heard the Christmas message are called of God to undertake
the great work which neither the corrupt hierarchy nor the
proud, ambitious nobles were able to perform; but before
them, the poor shepherds, the sea will open a way, so that
they may hasten with dry feet to the release of king Louis.
His fanatical harangues soon gathered immense crowds of
common people around him, estimated at about 100,000 men.
But instead of going to the Holy Land, they first gave
vent to their wrath against the clergy, monks, and Jews
at home by murdering, plundering, and ill treating them
in all manner of ways. The queen-mother Blanca, favourable
at first, now used all her power against them. Jacob was
slain at Bourges, his troops scattered, and their leaders
executed.
4. In the =Apostolic Brothers= we have a blending of Arnoldist
and Joachist tendencies. Their founder, =Gerhard Segarelli=,
an artisan of Parma, was moved about A.D. 1260 by the sight
of a picture of the apostles in their poverty to go about
preaching repentance and calling on the church to return to
apostolic simplicity. He did not question the doctrine of
the church. Only when Honorius in A.D. 1286 and Nicholas IV.
in A.D. 1290 took measures against them did they openly
oppose the papacy and denounce the Roman church as the
apocalyptic Babylon. Segarelli was seized in A.D. 1294
and perished in the flames with many of his followers in
A.D. 1300. =Fra Dolcino=, a younger priest, now took the
leadership, and roused great enthusiasm by his preaching
against the Roman antichrist. He bravely held his ground
with 2,000 followers for two years in the recesses of the
mountains, but was reduced at last in A.D. 1307 by hunger,
and died like his predecessor at the stake. He distinguished
four stages in the historical development of the kingdom
of God on earth. The first two are those of the Father
and the Son in the O.T. and the N.T. The third begins
with Constantine’s establishment of the Christian empire,
advanced by the Benedictine rule and the reforms of the
Franciscans and Dominicans, but afterwards falling into
decay. The fourth era of complete restoration of the
apostolic life is inaugurated by Segarelli and Dolcino.
A new chief sent of God will rule the church in peace, and
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