Brothers and sisters of the free spirit
Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit is a unifying term for a number of pantheistic - mystical faith groups in the Middle Ages. The name goes back to the Bible verse: "But where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" ( 2 Cor 3:17 LUT ). They were called heretically condemned and derogatory Adamites by Pope Clement V at the Council of Vienne in 1311 .
history
In 1270 Albertus Magnus examined the faithfulness of a group of people with special mystical beliefs who lived in the Swabian Ries and who had come under suspicion of heresy . The writing of the scholar, who confirmed the suspicion against the named group, is the oldest source so far about the "brothers and sisters of the free spirit": the fulcrum of their spirituality was the idea that was also otherwise widespread in Christian mysticism that the human In special cases, the soul could experience a union with God in this world, the so-called Unio Mystica . The conflict with the Catholic Church arose because this assumption led to more far-reaching consequences than usual: the soul that was directly united with God no longer needed a church, no mediation of salvation through priests and sacraments . In addition, there could be no more sin for the believers directly connected to God, the laws and moral regulations no longer applied to them.
This latter belief exposed them to suspicion of boundless amorality. Since the “brothers and sisters” are almost only known from the descriptions of their opponents, it is possible that this was a misunderstanding or a malicious exaggeration. If the mystic Margareta Porete, who was burned for heresy, belongs to the group of “brothers and sisters of the free spirit”, as is often assumed, there is a harmless explanation for the disdain for law and morality. In Margeruites work Miroir des simples âmes ("Mirror of the simple souls") it becomes clear that the soul united with God - to put it briefly - no longer has to obey any rules, because the (good) will of God working in it ensures that it automatically does the good. In no way does it mean that an evil deed, if only committed by a person blessed with the spirit of freedom, is no longer to be considered evil, as the church's persecutors assumed.
The Brethren of the Free Spirit are not acting from the early 13th century pantheist theologian Amalric of Bena been launched and have probably nothing despite some parallels in content with the job to end in this and soon exterminated Amalrikanern to do. In general, one cannot assume a uniformly organized sect, but rather groups loosely connected with each other and with “orthodox” mystics who sought to intensify the general tendency inherent in mysticism to individualize the relationship with God.
The "brothers and sisters of the free spirit", which are widespread in several European countries, were repeatedly persecuted in the 14th and early 15th centuries, most recently in Mainz in 1458. Nothing is known about them since the end of the 15th century.
The famous mystic Meister Eckhart was also suspected of heretical convictions in the manner of the "brothers and sisters of the free spirit" and subjected to a lengthy process. Eckhart himself always denied any closeness to unchurch heresies. The trial nonetheless led to a condemnation of individual sentences by the mystic, who, however, died a natural death before the end of the process.
Numerous Christian theologians, such as Jordan von Quedlinburg , and mystics such as Johannes Tauler and Der Frankfurter , rejected the teaching of the "brothers and sisters of the free spirit" as unchristian.
See also
literature
- Richard Kieckhefer : Repression of Heresy in Medieval Germany , Philadelphia 1979.
- Gordon Leff: Heresy in the Later Middle Ages , 2 vol., New York 1967, I, 308ff.
- Robert E. Lerner : The Heresy of the Free Spirit in the Later Middle Ages , University of California Press, Berkeley-Los Angeles 1972.
- Raoul Manselli : Article Brothers of the Free Spirit , in: Theologische Realenzyklopädie Vol. 7, Berlin / New York 1981, pp. 218–220.
- Bernard McGinn : The Flowering of Mysticism. Men and Women in the New Mysticism (1200-1350) , Vol. 3 of The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism , New York: Crossroads 1998 (also in German translation)
- Walter Nigg : From the spirit of mysticism - The brothers and sisters of the free spirit , in: The book of the heretics , Artemis Verlag, Zurich 1949; Paperback edition: Diogenes, 1998
- Alexander Patschovsky : Freedom of the heretics , in: Johannes Fried (ed.): The occidental freedom from the 10th to the 14th century . (= Lectures and research 39) Sigmaringen 1991, pp. 265–286 ( digitized version ).