WHITE BRETHREN. 
5r>9 
it from God, without the merits of Jesus Christ ; that the old law of 
Christ was soon to be abolished^ and that a new law, which enjoined 
the baptism of blood to be administered by whipping;, w as to be sub- 
sitituted in its place: upon which Clement VII. by an injudicious policy, 
thundered out anathemas against the Flagellantes, who were burnt by 
the inquisitors in several places ; but they appeared again in Thuringia 
and Lower Saxony in the fifteenth century, and rejected not only 
all the sacraments, but every branch of external worship, placing 
their only hopes of salvation in faith and flagellation, to which they 
added other strange doctrines concerning evil spirits. Their leader, 
Conrad Schmidt, and many others, were burnt by German inquisitors 
about a. D. 1414. 
Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit. 
This was an appellation assumed by a religious sect which sprung 
up towards the close of the thirteenth century, and gained many 
adherents in Italy, France, and Germany. They took their denomi- 
nation from the words of St. Paul, Rom. viii. 2, 14. and maintained 
that the true children of God were invested with perfect freedom from 
the jurisdiction of the law. They were enthusiasts to a degree of 
distraction, both in their principles and practice. They resembled 
the Beghards (by which name they were sometimes called) in their 
aspect, apparel, and manner of living. Some of their professed prin- 
ciples resembled those of the Pantheists; for they held that all things 
flowed by emanation from God ; that rational souls were portions 
of the Deity ; that the universe was God ; that by the power of 
contemplation they were united to the Deity, and acquired hereby 
a glorious and sublime liberty, from both the sinful lusts and common 
instincts of nature; and hence they concluded, that the person w ho 
was thus absorbed in the abyss of the Deity, became a part of the 
Godhead, and was the* son of God in the same sense and manner as 
Christ, and that he was freed from the obligation of all laws, human 
and divine. They treated with contempt all Christian ordinances, and 
all external acts of religion, as unsuitable to the state of perfection 
at which they were arrived. Some of them were honest but deluded 
enthusiasts, and they endured the torments inflicted on them by the 
inquisitors with astonishing heroism and triumph. 
White Brethren, 
These W'ere the followers of a priest from the Alps, about the 
beginning of the fourteenth century, who was arrayed in a white gar- 
ment, and as they were also clothed in white linen, they were distin- 
guished by this title. Their leader carried about a cross, like a 
standard, and his apparent sanctity and devotion drew together a 
number of followers. This enthusiast practised many acts of morti- 
fication and penance, endeavoured to persuade the European nations 
to renew the holy war, and pretended that he was favoured with 
divine visions. Boniface IX. ordered him to be apprehended and 
committed to the flames, upon which his followers dispersed. 
