BRETHREN AND SISTERS OF THE FREE SPIRIT, in Ecclesiastical History, an appellation assumed by a new sect which sprung up towards the close of the thirteenth century, and gained many adherents in Italy, France, and Germany. They took their denomina-
tion from the words of St Paul, Rom. chap. viii. ver. 2, 14. and maintained, that the true children of God were invested with the privilege of a full and 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 principles resembled those of the Pantheists; for they held, that all things flowed by emanation from God; that rational souls were portions of the Deity, and that the universe was God; and that, by the power of contemplation, they were united to the Deity, and acquired hereby a glorious and sublime liberty, both from the sinful lusts and the common instincts of nature: and hence they conclude, that the person, who 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 that Christ was, 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 upon them by the inquisitors with astonishing calmness and triumph. Others proceeded to the most extravagant licentiousness of conduct. They held their secret assemblies stark naked, and lay in the same beds with their spiritual sisters, and indiscriminately with other women, without the least scruple or hesitation: modesty and decency being, according to their creed, marks of inward corruption. And some of them proceeded still farther, and maintained, that the divine man, or believer, could not sin, let his conduct be ever so horrible or atrocious. Many edicts were published against them; but notwithstanding the severities they suffered, they continued till about the middle of the fifteenth century. They were called by several other names, such as Schwelltriones, Picards, Adamites, and Turlupins.