Brethren of the Free Spirit
Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit is a unifying name for a number pantheistic - mystical faith groups in the Middle Ages. The name goes back to the word of the Bible: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom " (2 Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians 3:17). They were condemned by Pope Clement V at the Council of Vienne in 1311 as heretical and pejoratively called the Adamites.
History
In 1270, Albertus Magnus examined the faithfulness of a group of people with special mystical beliefs, who lived in the Swabian Ries and had come under Ketzereiverdacht. The transcript of the scholar, who confirmed the suspicion against the said group is to date the oldest source about the " Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit ": The pivotal point of their spirituality was the otherwise widespread in Christian mysticism idea that human soul in special cases mystica a union with God even in this world, the so-called Unio, could experience. To conflict with the Catholic Church, it came because of this assumption further conclusions were drawn as usual: The immediately united with God soul needed no more church, no salvation is mediated through priests and sacraments. In addition, there could be no sin for believers directly connected to God, the laws and rules of morality were not for them.
This latter belief she sat from the suspicion of unbridled immorality. Since the " brothers and sisters " but almost only from the descriptions of their opponents are known, it is possible that this was a misunderstanding or a malicious exaggeration. If burned for heresy mystic Margareta Porete the environment of "Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit " is attributed, as is often assumed, with good reason, there is an innocent explanation for the contempt of law and morality. In Margeruites work Miroir des simples âmes ( "Mirror of simple souls " ) it is clear that the soul united with God - in shortened - must therefore observe no more rules because the acting in it ( good ) God's will ensure that they automatically do the good. By no means does it mean that an evil act, if they would only perpetrated by a blessed with the spirit of freedom people have to apply no more than evil as the church persecutor imputed.
The Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit are not acting from the beginning of the 13th century pantheistic theologian Amalric of Bena been launched and despite some parallels in content probably nothing to do with the profession to end up on this and soon exterminated Amalrikanern. Ever is not expected from a uniformly organized sect, but of loosely with each other as well as with " orthodox " mystics affiliated groups who sought to intensify the general mysticism inherent tendency toward individualization of God's relationship to much.
The spread in several European countries "Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit " were repeatedly exposed to persecution in the 14th and early 15th centuries, most recently in 1458 in Mainz. Since the late 15th century, nothing more is known of them.
The famous mystic Meister Eckhart was heretical beliefs in the nature of "Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit " suspects and subjected to a lengthy process. Eckhart himself always denied any closeness to unkirchlichen heresies. The process still led to a conviction of individual sentences of the mystic, who was however died before the end of the process of natural causes.
Many Christian theologians, such as Jordan of Quedlinburg, and mystics such as Johannes Tauler and Frankfurt, rejected the doctrine of "Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit " as unchristian.