Heresy of the Free Spirit

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The Free Spirit heresy consisted of small groups of Christian heretics living mostly in the Bohemia area of eastern Germany during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Their worship was not well organized and their doctrine was not well defined. Their beliefs were mostly spread in the form of literature.

Contents 1 Teachings 2 Background 3 Church Reaction 4 References

[edit] Teachings

The Free Spirit heresy mixed mystical beliefs with Christianity. Its practitioners believed that it was possible to reach perfection on earth through a life of austerity and spiritualism. They believed that they could communicate directly with God and did not need the Christian church for intercession. Critics of the Free Spirit heresy misunderstood their beliefs to mean that they considered themselves to be incapable of sin, and that they esteemed themselves above the moral conduct of the church^[1]. However, there is no evidence that this was part of their dogma.

[edit] Background

The roots of the Free Spirit heresy can be traced back to Meister Eckhart, a Germany Dominican who lived during the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. Eckhart’s beliefs and his broad German audience gained him recognition as the father of the Free Spirit heresy, however, Eckhart probably borrowed some of his doctrine from the teachings of earlier heretics ^[2]. One such heretic was Marguerite Porete a French women who was burned at Place de Greve, France, for her heretical teaching. Late in his life, Eckhart was charged before the Pope for teaching heresy. He rigorously denied and defended that charge until his death ^[3].

[edit] Church Reaction

By the early fifteenth century, the Christian church in Germany viewed heresy as a serious threat. It became a leading topic for discussion at the Council of Basel in 1431. Johannes Nider, a Dominican reformer who attended the council, became concerned that beliefs of the Free Spirit heresy, and other heresies, were mixed with elements of witchcraft. In his 1434 work, Formicarius, Nider combined the Free Spirit heresy with witchcraft in his condemnation of false teachings. Formicarius also became a model for Malleus maleficarum, a later work by Heinrich Kramer in 1486^[4]. By the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, the Christian church’s efforts to eradicate heresy and witchcraft resulted in witchcraft trials and even witch burnings.

[edit] References

1. ^ Michael D. Bailey, Battling Demons: Witchcraft, Heresy, and Reform in the Late Middle Ages (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003) , 56.
2. ^ Robert E. Lerner, The Heresy of the Free Spirit in the Later Middle Ages (Los Angles: University of California Press, 1972) , 1-5.
3. ^ Richard Kieckhefer, Repression of Heresy in Medieval Germany (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1979) , 38-39.
4. ^ Bailey, Battling Demons, 49.