An ecclesiastical history, ancient and modern, from the birth of Christ, to the beginning of the eighteenth century Volume 3 ; in which the rise, ... connexion with the state of learning and phil

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1825 Excerpt: ... primitive signification, nnd became marks of infamy and derision. For, among these religious beggars and these sanctimonious pretenders to extraordinary piety, there were many whose piety was nothing more than the most senseless superstition; many, also, whose austere devotion was accompanied with the opinions of a corrupt nature, and entirely opposite to the doctrine of the church, and (what was still more horrible) many artful hypocrites, who, under the mask of religion, concealed the most abominable principles, and committed the most enormous crimes. These were the fools and knaves who brought the denomination of Beghards into disrepute, and rendered it both ridiculous and infamous; so that it was only employed to signify idiots, heretics, or hypocrites. The denomination of Lollhards, of which we shall have occasion to speak more amply hereafter, met with the same fate, and was rendered contemptible by the persons who masked their iniquity under that specious title. CENT. XIII. PART II. A great difference between the Franciscan Beguins and those of Gi'rmany and the Netherlands. dered in no other light, than as seculars and laymen /. It is, however, to be observed, that the Bizochi were divided into two classes, which derive their different denominations of perfect and imperfect, from the different degrees of austerity that they discovered in their manner of living. The perfect lived upon alms, abstained from wedlock, and had no fixed habitations. The imperfect, on the contrary, had their houses, wives, and possessions, and were engaged, like the rest of their fellow-citizens, in the various affairs of life t. XL1. We must not confound these Beguins and Beguines, who derived their origin from an austere s See the Acta Inquis. Theolos. published by Limbor...