§ 82. AMAURIANS AND OTHER ISOLATED SECTS. 487
in Christ's birth and death ; and that to him who abides in love, sin is not reckoned. God becomes incarnate in believ ers who are members of Christ's body, as He became incar nate in the body of Jesus. God was as much in the body of Ovid as He was in the body of Augustine. Christ is no more in the consecrated bread than in any other bread or object. The Amaurians denied the resurrection of the body, and said that heaven and hell are states of the soul. The sinner carries hell in himself, even as a mouth holds a bad tooth.1 The believer can no more sin than can the Holy Spirit who dwells in him. The pope is antichrist and the Roman Church, Babylon. The relics of the martyrs are nothing but dust.
From these statements the conclusion is to be drawn that Amaury and his followers insisted upon the liberty of the Spirit working independently of outer rites and dwelling in the heart. The Fourth Lateran, in its second canon, de clared that the father of lies had so blinded Amaury's mind that his doctrine was the raving of an insane man rather than a heresy. Amaury absorbed Joachism, for he speaks of three ages, the ages of the Father and the Son, and the age of the Spirit, which was the last age, had begun in Amaury's time, and would continue to the consummation of all things. Amaury's followers seem to have become merged with the Brethren of the Free Spirit.2
The synod of Paris, which condemned the Amaurians, also condemned David of Dinant, and ordered one of his works, the Quarternuli, burnt. His writings were also forbidden by the statutes of the University of Paris of 1215, which forbade the reading of some of the works of Aristotle, Amaury the heretic, and Maurice of Spain.3 David seems to have been a professor at Paris and died after 1215. He shared the pantheism of Amaury, was quoted by Albertus
1 Putridus dens in ore, synod of Paris, 1209.
2 So Preger, I. 212, on the basis of the " Anonymous of Passau." For the ninety-seven errors ascribed to the Brethren of the Free Spirit, see Preger, I. 461-469, and Hauck, in Herzog, I. 431.
8 Chartul, pp. 70, 79.
488 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1204.
Magnus, and his speculations have been compared with the system of Spinoza.1
Belonging to the same class were the followers of Ortlieb of Strassburg, called Ortlibenses, Ortilibarii, Oriliwenses, Ortoleni,2 and by other similar names. Some of their num ber were probably among the many heretics burnt in Strass burg, 1212. They were charged with holding that the world is eternal and God is immanent in all things. He did not have a Son, till Jesus was born of Joseph and Mary. They denied the resurrection of the body. The death and resurrection of Christ had only a symbolic import. The body of Christ is no more in the eucharistic bread than in any other bread. The established Church was the courtesan of the Apocalypse. The four Gospels are the chief parts of the Scriptures. They allowed marriage but condemned carnal cohabitation. The Ortlibenses were, like the Amaurians, spiritualists, and said that a man must follow the guidance of the Spirit who dwells in him.3 They were a part of that extensive group designated by the general name of the Brethren of the Free Spirit, who fill so large a place as late as the fifteenth century.
The Passagii, or Passageni, a sect whose name is first men tioned in the acts of the synod of Verona, seem to have been unique in that they required the literal observance of the Mosaic law, including the Jewish Sabbath and circumcision. It is possible they are identical with the Oircumcisi spoken of in the code of Frederick II. As late as 1267 and 1274 papal bulls call for the punishment of heretics who had gone back to Jewish rites, and the Passagii 4 may be referred to.
1 Preger, I. 184-191.
2 This name, given in the code of Frederick II. , would seem to refer to the same sect. The "Anonymous of Passau," writing about 1316, is our chief authority. See Muller, Die Waldenser, pp. 147 sqq. ; Dollinger, Beitrage, II. 301, 703, etc. ; Preger, II. 191-196 ; Delacroix, 52-76 ; Alphand^ry, 154-167 ; Deutsch, art. Ortlieb, in Herzog, XIV. 499-501. Alphande"ry urges the affilia tion of the Ortlibenses with the Vaudois, chiefly because of their frequent juxtaposition in mediaeval writings.
8 Delacroix, p. 73, insists upon the identity of the Amaurians and Ortlibenses in all essential matters. 4 See Dollinger, II. 827 ; Alphande'ry, 168 sqq.