in ecclesiastical history, a sect so called from Henry its founder, who, though a monk and hermit, undertook to reform the superstition and vices of the clergy. For this purpose he left Lausanne in Switzerland, and removing from different places, at length settled at Thoulouse in the year 1147, and there exercised his ministerial function, till being overcome by the opposition of Bernard abbot of Clairval, and condemned by pope Eugenius III. at a council assembled at Rheims, he was committed to a close prison in 1148, where he soon ended his days. This reformer rejected the baptism of infants; severely censured the corrupt manners of the clergy; treated the festivals and ceremonies of the church with the utmost contempt, and held clandestine assemblies for inculcating his peculiar doctrines.