498 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
DiEFENBAcn: Der Hexemmlin, vor u. tiach Glaubenspaltung in Detitschland, Mainz, 1886 (the last chapter — on the condones variae — gives sermons on the weather, storms, winds, dreams, mice, etc.); also, Besessenheit, Zanberei u. Hexenfabeln, Frankfurt, 1893 ; also, Zauberglaube des 16ten Jahrh. nach d. Katechismen M. Lnthers und d. P. Canisius, Mainz, 1900. — BiNZ: Dr.Joh. Weyer, Bonn, 1885, 2d ed., Berlin, 1896. A biography of one of the early opponents of witch-persecution, with sketches of some of its advocates. — Baissac: Les grands jours de la sorcellerie, Paris, 1890. — H. VoGELSTEiN and P. Rieger, Gesch. d. Juden in Horn, 2 vols., Berlin, 1895 sq. — S. Kiezlek : Gesch. d. Hexenprocesse in Baiern, Stuttgart, 1896, — C. Lempens: D. grosste Verbrechen aller Zeiten. Pragmatische Gesch. d. Hexenprocesse, 2d ed., 1904. — Janssen- Pastor : Gesch. d. dcutschen Volkes, etc., vol. VIII., 531-751. — The Witch-Persecutions, in Un. of Pa. TransU, and lieprints, vol. III.
For § 60. The Spanish Inquisition. — See lit., V. I. p. 460 sqq. — Hefele: D. Cardinal Ximines und d. kirchl. Znstdnde in Spanien am Ende d. 15 u. Anfang d. 16. Jahrh., Tubingen, 1844, 2d ed., 1851. Also, art. Ximines in Wetzer-Welte, vol. XII. — C. V. Langlois: L'inq., d''apres les travaux recents, I'aris, 1902. — H. C. Lea: Hist, of the Inquisition of Spain, 4 vols., New York, 1906 sq. Includes Sicily, Sardinia, Mexico and Peru, but omits Holland. — E. Vacandako : The Inquisition. A criticis7n and history. Study of the Coercive Poicer of the Church, transl. by B. L. Conway, London, 1908. — C. G. Ticknor: Hist, of Spanish Literature, I. 460 sqq. — Pastor : Gesch. d. Plipste, III. 624-630.
Dr. Lea's elaborate work is the leading modern treatment of the subject and is accepted as an authority in Germany. See Benrath in Lit-Zeitung, 1908, pp. 203-210. The author has brought out as never before the prominent part the confiscation of property played in the Spanish tribunal. The work of Abbt5 Vacandard, the author of the Life of St. Bernard, takes up the positions laid down in Dr. Lea's general work on the Inquisition and attempts to break the force of his statements. Vacandard admits the part taken by the papacy in prosecuting heresy by trial torture and even by the death penalty, but reduces the Church's responsibility on the ground of the ideas prevailing in the Middle Ages, and the greater freedom and cruelty practised by the state upon its criminals. He denies that Augustine favored severe measures of compulsion against heretics and sets forth, without modification, the unrelenting treatment of Thomas Aquinas.
§ 58. Heretical and Unchurchly Movements.
In the 14tli and 15th centuries, the seat of heresy was shifted from Southern France and Northern Italy to Bohemia and Northern Germany, the Netherhinds and England. In Northern and Central Europe, the papal Inquisition, which had been so effective in exterminating the All)igenses and in repressing or scattering the Waldenses, entered upon a new period of its
§ 58. HERETICAL AND UNCHURCHLY MOVEMENTS. 499
history, in seeking to crush out a new enemy of the Church, witchcraft. The rise and progress of the two most powerful and promising forms of popular heresy, Hussitism and Lollardy, have already been traced. Qilier__sectansts who came under the Church's ban were the Beghards and Beguines, who had their origin in the 13th century ,i the Brethren of the FrejB Spirit, the Fraticelli,_the Flagellants^ and the Waldenses.
It is not possible to state with exactness the differences between the Beghards, Beguines, the Brethren of the Free Spirit and the Fraticelli as they appeared from 1300 to 1500. The names were often used interchangeably as a designation of foes of the established Church order. ^ The court records and other notices that have come down to us indicate that they were represented in localities widely separated, and excited alarm which neither their numbers nor the station of their adherents justified. The orthodox mind was easily thrown into a panic over the deviations from the Church's system of doctrine and government. The distribution of the dissenters proves that a widespread religious unrest was felt in Western Christendom. They may have imbibed some elements from Joachim of Flore's millenarianism, and in a measure partook of tlie same spirit as German mysticism. There was a spiritual hunger the Church's aristocratic discipline and its priestly ministrations did not satisfy. The Church authorities had learned no other method of dealing with heresy than the method in vogue in the days of Innocent III. and Innocent IV., and sought, as before, by imprisonments, the sword and fire, to prevent its predatory ravages.
The Brethren of the Free Spirit ^ were infected with pantheistic notions and manifested a tendency now to free thought, now to libertinism of conduct. At times they are identified with the Beghards and Beguines. The pantheistic element suggests a connection with Amaury of Bena or Meister Eckart, but of this the extant records of trials furnish
1 See vol. v., I. 489 sqq.
2 Haupt, pp. 467, 471. Bezold : Gesch. d. de.utschen Beform., p. 120 sqq.
3 Secta spiritus Iwertatis, liberi spiritus, etc.