Guglielmiten

This article deals with the followers of Guglielma, venerated by them as a saint, in the area of ​​Milan, on the order of the Guglielmites in the succession of Guglielmo da Maravalle see Wilhelmiten

The Guglielmites (also called Vilemites ) were a heretical sect in Milan from 1281. The Inquisition admonished some of the members in a first trial in 1284. In 1296 it was determined again and in 1300 several sect members were sentenced in a further process. In the 16th century, a Carthusian monk, Matteo Valerio, discovered 34 parchment sheets written on both sides in Latin in a general store, which were used as wrapping paper and immediately bought them all. These were the trial files of the notary Beltramus Salvagnius , but they are not completely preserved. The files of the second notary, Manfredo da Cera , cannot be found to this day (the archive in Milan burned in 1788).

history

The Guglielmites were followers of the Guglielma or Vilemína of Bohemia or Vilemína Blažena, a daughter of the Bohemian king Ottokar I Přemysl and his second wife Constance of Hungary . Guglielma was born on Pentecost 1210, appeared in Milan sometime between 1260 and 1270 and died there on August 24, 1281. Michele Caffi speculated that she was a nun who sinned (that is, she had a child) and therefore incognito fled to Milan. Her Latin name was "Guillelma", the Milanese called her "Guglielma" or "Guglielmina", also Felice, Felicino, Felicina (the happy, happy woman) or Paraclitolo (little Paracletos, Greek "comforter"). The idea of ​​the Guglielmites was that the renewal of the Christian community will come from the female sex and that it began with Guglielma. Just as Christ exhorted his disciples at the Last Supper to love and serve one another, so Guglielma urged her disciples to break free from social conventions and to unite in love and mutual respect. The extraordinary notion of a female incarnation of God spread during Guglielma's lifetime, but she did not teach it herself. She taught that her body and that of Christ were one body, that of the Holy Spirit. And that as a result, salvation through the sacrifice of Christ has been surpassed. She said that “from 1262 on, not only was the body of Christ offered and consecrated in the sacrifice of the Mass, but also the body of the Holy Spirit, which was Guglielma himself” (from anno currente MCCLXII citra non fuerat sacrificatum nec consacratum corpus Christi solum, sed cum corpore spiritus sancti quod erat ipsa Guillelma) . This doctrine is linked to the teaching of the redemption of unbelievers through the idea that through the renewed appearance of God in the female sex, his plan for the redemption of humanity can finally be fully fulfilled.

Guglielma died on August 24, 1281 and was first buried in the parish cemetery of San Pietro all'Orto. In October or November 1, 1281 the body was exhumed and reburied in a precious, decorated coffin. This was followed by the solemn transfer ceremony to Milan to the Abbey of Chiaravalle . Her grave (a monastery cell) became a destination for pilgrimages and a meeting place. One month after the burial, her body was taken out of the coffin again, stripped by the monastery brothers and washed with wine and water. The liquid was collected in a vessel and given to Sister Mayfreda. The corpse was then dressed again with a shirt and a scapular and placed back in the coffin. The scapular is a long rectangle of fabric with a neckline in the middle, worn by monks; the hypothesis that Guglielma was a tertiary of the Cistercians is based on this clothing.

Guglielma's successor was Sister Mayfreda Pirovano in the monastery of Biassono. She preached, taught, and administered the sacraments. Her authority with the Guglielmites stemmed from the fact that for them she represented the God incarnated in Guglielma on earth. She was also referred to as "dominus meus dominus vicarius" in letters, that is to say as the "popess". Opposite her, the Guglielmites also practiced the gesture of the foot and hand kiss (until now, since 1073, this has been reserved for the Pope without exception). In 1284, the Milanese Inquisition first learned of the heresy due to inattentiveness by Allegranza Perosio and Carabella Toscana. Six women and one man were interrogated in a trial, they renounced their erroneous beliefs, were symbolically punished and absolved.

In 1296, Pope Boniface VIII signed a bull ( Sepe Sanctam Ecclesiam , also known as Nuper Ad Audientiam ) condemning a heretical sect. He writes that some people, including women, theorized that they had the power to bind and loosen (the power of the apostle Peter and his successors), that they would hear confession, speak out of sins, and presume preach and would undertake the tonsure (ceremony of haircut among clergy). They would gather day and night, they would claim that sermons held in the nude are more effective, they would exchange their wives with one another, etc. The first part of the bull contains information that certainly apply to the Gugliemites. In 1296 the Inquisition investigated again, but only questioned one member. As a result, on alert, Sister Mayfreda left the Biassono monastery with other nuns and moved to Guglielmo Codega's house.

On Easter day, April 10th, 1300 Sister Mayfreda celebrated the Easter liturgy. On April 19, she was summoned for interrogation by the Inquisition. On July 20, a new trial against the Guglielmites was opened, this time also against the late Guglielma. In September the three main members were cremated along with the body of the Guglielma.

In 1302, a member was interrogated in the addendum, here it is mentioned for the first time that Guglielma has a son. An interrogator claimed that the monks of Chiaravalle likened Saint Guglielma to the moon and stars, and commented that they were doing badly.

In the process, questions about non-Christian religious practices arise for the first time: “Has she ever thrown the crusts or remains of bread into the fire? It seems as if for a moment the judge wants to take the historically unexplored path of equating the feminine with magic and witchcraft. "

Legends

Legend 1

The Milanese Bernardino Corio told a legend in 1503 that around the year 1300 there lived a heretical woman named Guglielma who pretended to be pious and holy. She lived with a certain Andreas Saramita, and under the protection of a feigned kindness, the two ran an underground “synagogue”, in which they gathered young girls, married women and widows at night. According to Guglielma's will, they all wore tonsure on their heads as if they were priests. These nightly gatherings were also attended by young and adult men disguised as clergymen. Women and men began their meetings with a prayer in front of an altar. Then they shouted, "Let's unite, let's unite!" And darkened the room. This was followed by a sexual orgy, the "secret desecration," as Corio put it.

Legend 2

In the Annales Colmarienses maiores of 1301, the Colmar Dominican chronicler notes that in the previous year ( in precedenti anno ), that is, in 1300, “an extremely dignified and equally eloquent virgin came from England who pretended to be the Holy Spirit accepted flesh for the redemption of women. And she baptized the women in the name of the Father and the Son and in her own name. After her death she was brought to Milan and cremated there: Brother Johannes von Weißenburg ( Iohannes de Wissenburc ) of the order of the monks preached to have seen her ashes " ; see. also. Not only that the woman in question came only in 1300 and from England ( de Anglia ), her further field of activity is not evident from the text passage and her death must have occurred around 1300/1301: the annals declare that her corpse first had been brought to Milan ( mortua ducta in Mediolanum ); So it must be considered questionable that Guglielma is actually meant here, especially since the Colmar annals of these years were created close to the documented events.

Furthermore, Sister Mayfreda does not appear in either of the legends. Luisa Muraro suspects that both the Visconti family from Milan and the Dominicans had various reasons for leaving out Mayfreda's role.

Teaching

The 14 most important beliefs of the Vilemitic doctrine were presented on the occasion of the trial in 1300 by the scholar Giovanni Pietro Puricelli in the 17th century (only then did the files appear) and are reproduced here:

• I. Vilemína is the spirit made flesh in the female sex.
• II. As the Archangel Gabriel proclaimed the Incarnation of the Word to Saint Mary, the Archangel Raphael Konstanze, Queen of Bohemia, proclaimed the Incarnation of the Holy Spirit.
• III. Vilemína was true God and true man (homo) in the female sex, just as Christ was true God and true man (homo) in the male sex.
• IV. Since Vilemína is the Holy Spirit and consequently divine being, she is superior to Mary, the Mother of God, as well as all other saints.
• V. As Christ suffered and died as a human being, so too Vilemína died according to her human, not her divine nature.
• VI. Like Christ, Vilemína also had five stigmas on her body.
• VII. Just as Christ rose in the flesh, ascended to heaven in the presence of his disciples and sent the Holy Spirit down on them in tongues of fire on Pentecost, so Vilemína will also be resurrected with her female body before the Last Judgment, in the presence of her disciples, friends and believers in ascend to heaven and return to them in tongues of fire. Then they will all be her apostles.
• VIII. Just as Christ left the apostle Peter as his representative on earth and gave him his church and the keys to the kingdom of heaven, so too Vilemína left Sister Mayfreda of the Humiliate order as her representative on earth.
• IX. Just as the apostle Peter celebrated masses and preached in Jerusalem, so too Vilemína's deputy Mayfreda is supposed to celebrate and preach masses first in Milan and later also in Rome; there she is supposed to take the holy seat. Like Christ, Vilemína is said to have her disciples and apostles.
• X. Sister Mayfreda should be a true “Papessa” and have the authority of a true Pope, because Mayfreda, since Vilemína is the Holy Spirit in the form of a woman, should be her deputy in the form of a woman. The Pope and the Papacy as well as the Cardinal Curia are to hand over their authority to Sister Mayfreda, who is to baptize the Jews, the Muslims and all other peoples outside the Roman Church.
• XI. The current Gospels, as well as the teaching contained therein, will be replaced by the Gospels written by four sages chosen by Vilemína, once Mayfreda has peacefully and permanently assumed the Apostolic See in Rome.
• XII. Vilemína has already risen and lives wherever she pleases, just as the risen Christ stayed wherever he liked. And just as Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene before his ascension, so Vilemína also appeared to her disciples from time to time.
• XIII. The discount for sins received from a pilgrimage to Vilemína's tomb in Chiaravalle is the same as that received so far from a pilgrimage to Christ's tomb in Jerusalem.
• XIV. Just as the apostles of Christ suffered out of love for him, so too will Vilemína's followers suffer, and just as Judas betrayed Christ and delivered him up to the Jews, so too will some of Vilemina's followers hand over their companions to the Inquisition.

According to Luisa Muraro, it should be noted that Puricelli ignores the orthodox part of the vilemite doctrine and the belief of the vilemites was not limited to the list of their heretical beliefs. It should be emphasized that the origin of the faith and the doctrine of the Vilemite doctrine, which Puricelli left out, formed Vilemína itself, by awakening in those who knew her the idea of ​​a direct relationship between God and the female sex and There was reason to believe that he who had created man in the duality of a body of two sexes had also deified him through his incarnation in this duality.

Members

Members according to the Impreviaturbuch (protocol book) of Beltramus Salvagnius, notary in the city of Milan, Porta Nova, recorded before the inquisitors Guidonus Cochenato, Raynerius Pirovano, Nicolao Varena, Leonardo Bergamo, Nicolaus Cumanus, Albertonus Corbella and Leonardus Pergamensis, brothers of the Dominican Order:

Guglielma or Blazena Vilemína, founder of the Gugliemites, died in 1281, burned in 1300 Agnese (sister of the humiliates) Alessandro (monk) Bassani, Jacoba (sister of the Humiliates), indicted in 1284, indicted again in 1300 and burned Ser Carentano, Bonadeo (probably merchant) Carentano, Bellacara, probably indicted and burned in 1300 Carentano, Giovanna Carentano, Giacoma Carentano, Felicino, accused in 1300 and punishment of the two crosses (mark of shame) Cassate, Felis Cerliano, Bianca Colleoni, Simonino Coppa, Jacoba Ser Cotta, Danisius (noble knight), interrogated in 1300 da crema, carmeo Crimella, Stephanus (carpenter), accused 1300 and punishment of the two crosses (mark of shame) Crimella, Aydelina, 1300 charged and fined Cutix, Guillelmus, chaplain of St Benedictus Demianus, Rugerius Ferno, Antonia Ferno, Beltrame, Magister Ferno, Feliciono Ferno, Jacoba Ferno, Jacobus, (doctor), 1300 charged and fine Ferno, Paraclitolo Brother Pietro Garbagniate, Francischus, 1300 accused and punishment of the two crosses (mark of shame) Garbagniate, Ottorino Garbagniate, Petra Garbagniate, Miranus (painter and later priest) Lova, Flores Lombardo (monk) Lova, Rugerius Malcolzatus, Beltrame Malcolzatus, Sibilia, 1300 accused and punishment of the two crosses (mark of shame) Malcolzatus, Franceschinus, 1300 accused and punishment of the two crosses (mark of shame) Marchisio Secco, interrogated in 1302

Maresco, Bonacossa Massallia, Johana Massallia, Beltraminus Massallia, Maxinus Meliore (sister of the humiliates) Montinarius, Agnese Montinarius, Bononia Montenarius, Symoninus Novate, Albertone, had seen Guglielma again in a vision after her death, accused in 1300 and punishment of the two crosses (mark of shame) Novate, Margarita Novatis, Dionese, 1300 indicted and fine Novazzano, Girardo, interrogated in 1296, accused in 1300 and punishment of two crosses (mark of shame) Novazzano, Cara, died by 1300 Oldegardi, Petra, indicted in 1300 and acquitted Oldegardi, Catella, 1300 indicted and acquitted da Operno, Graziadeo (monk) Perazollo, Fiore, 1300 charged and fined Perusius, Johanes Perusius, Alegrantia Pirovano, Mayfreda (sister of the Humiliates), cousin of Matteo I. Visconti , had seen Guglielma several times after her death, successor to Guglielma, indicted in 1284, indicted again in 1300 and burned Pontario, Taria (seamstress, seamstress), accused in 1300 and punishment of the two crosses (mark of shame) Saramita, Meliore (sister of the Humiliates), indicted in 1284, died by 1300 Saramita, Andreas, had seen Guglielma several times after her death, indicted in 1284, indicted again in 1300 and burned Saramita, Ricadona, had seen Guglielma again after her death, indicted in 1284, already deceased by 1300 Saramita, Fiordebellina (sister of the Humiliates), indicted in 1284 Strabono, Marco Sicus, Marchisius Torriani Tuscany, Carabella Toscanus, Amizone, died by 1300 Veddano, Marchisio (monk) Visconti, Galeazzo

Quotes, notes

1. ↑ Luisa Muraro: Vilemina and Mayfreda - The story of a feminist heresy . Kore, Verlag Traute Hensch, Freiburg im Breisgau, page 46, 1987.
2. ↑ Luisa Muraro: Vilemina and Mayfreda - The story of a feminist heresy . Kore, Verlag Traute Hensch, Freiburg im Breisgau, page 88, 1987.
3. ↑ Luisa Muraro: Vilemina and Mayfreda - The story of a feminist heresy . Kore, Verlag Traute Hensch, Freiburg im Breisgau, page 123ff, 1987.
4. ^ Monumenta germaniae historica digital (full text digitized version): Georg Heinrich Pertz u. a. (Ed.): Scriptores (in Folio) 17: Annales aevi Suevici. Hannover 1861, p. 226 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
5. ↑ Luisa Muraro: Vilemina and Mayfreda - The story of a feminist heresy . Kore, Verlag Traute Hensch, Freiburg im Breisgau, page 129ff, 1987.
6. ↑ Luisa Muraro: Vilemina and Mayfreda - The story of a feminist heresy . Kore, Verlag Traute Hensch, Freiburg im Breisgau, pages 135-137, 1987.
7. ↑ Luisa Muraro: Vilemina and Mayfreda - The story of a feminist heresy . Kore, Verlag Traute Hensch, Freiburg im Breisgau, page 138, 1987.
8. ↑ Luisa Muraro: Vilemina and Mayfreda - The story of a feminist heresy . Kore, Verlag Traute Hensch, Freiburg im Breisgau, pages 139-140, 1987.

Fiction

• Christine Neumeyer: The Popess of Milan. The history of the Vilemites , AAVAA Verlag, 2013

literature

• Patrizia Maria Costa: Guglielma la Boema l'eretica di Chiaravalle. Uno scorcio di vita religiosa milanese nel secolo 13 , Milano, NED 1985, ISBN 88-7023-082-1 and Interpretazioni contemporanee su un caso di spiritualitá femminile eterodossa: Guglielma la Boema , Milan 1985
• Luisa Muraro : Vilemina and Mayfreda. The story of a feminist heresy , Freiburg im Breisgau, Kore Verlag 1987, ISBN 3-926023-04-X .
• Marina Benedetti: Io non sono Dio. Guglielma di Milano ei Figli dello Spirito Santo , Milano, Biblioteca francescana 1998, ISBN 88-7962-083-5
• Giovanni Pietro Puricelli: De Guillelma Bohema vulgo Gulielmina etc. , 1676, kept in the Ambrosian Library, call number C 1 inf.
• Muratori: Antiquitates Italica Medii Aevi, Sive Dissertationes , Milan 1741, Vol. V, pp. 90-93
• Tiraboschi: Vetera Humiliatorum Monumenta , Milan 1766, Vol. I, pp. 354-363
• Giorgio Giulini: Memorie storiche della citta e campagna di Milano , 1854, Vol. IV, pp. 670-673
• Pietro Tamburini: Storia generale della Inquisizione , Milan 1862, Vol. I, pp. 587-592, Vol. II, pp. 5-72
• Michele Caffi: Dell'Abbazia di Chiaravalle in Lombardia. Iscrizione e Monumenti. Aggiuntava la storica dell'eretica Guglielmina Boema , Milan 1842
• Franz Palacky: Literary trip to Italy in 1837 , Prague 1838
• Massimo Fabi: Corografia d'Italia , Milan 1854, Vol. I, pp. 523-524
• Andrea Ogniben: I Guglielmiti del secolo XIII , Perugia 1867
• Henry Ch. Lea: History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages , Bonn 1913, pp. 102–115
• Gerolamo Biscaro: Guglielma la Boema ei Guglielmiti , Archivio Storico Lombardo 1930, Vol. VII, pp. 1-67
• Stephen E. Wessley: The Thirtheenth-Century Guglielmites: Salvation through Women , in Derek Baker (ed.), Medieval Women, Oxford 1978, pp. 289-303