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APOSTOLICI, APOSTOLIC BRETHREN

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 205 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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APOSTOLICI, APOSTOLIC BRETHREN , Or APOSTLES, the names given to various See also:Christian heretics, whose See also:common doctrinal feature was an ascetic rigidity of morals, which made them reject See also:property and See also:marriage. The earliest Apostolici appeared in See also:Phrygia, See also:Cilicia, See also:Pisidia and See also:Pamphylia towards the end of the 2nd See also:century or the beginning of the 3rd. According to the See also:information given by See also:Epiphanius (Haer. 61) about the doctrines of these heretics, it is evident that they were connected with the Encratites and the Tatianians. They condemned individual property, hence the name sometimes given to them of A potactites or Renuntiatores. They preserved an See also:absolute chastity and abstained from See also:wine and See also:meat. They refused to admit into their See also:sect those Christians whom the fear of martyrdom had once restored to paganism. As See also:late as the 4th century St See also:Basil (Can. 1 and 47) knew some Apostolici. After that See also:period they disappeared, either becoming completely See also:extinct, or being confounded with other sects (see St See also:Augustine, Haer. 4o; See also:John of See also:Damascus, Haer: 61). Failing a more exact designation, the name of Apostolici has been given to certain See also:groups of Latin heretics of the 12th century.

It is the second of the two sects of See also:

Cologne (the first being composed very probably of Cathari) that is referred to in the See also:letter addressed in 1146 by Everwin, See also:provost of Steinfeld, to St See also:Bernard (See also:Mabillon, See also:Vet. Anal. iii. 452). They condemned marriage (See also:save, perhaps, first marriages), the eating of meat, See also:baptism of See also:children, veneration of See also:saints, See also:fasting, prayers for the dead and belief in See also:purgatory, denied See also:transubstantiation, declared the See also:Catholic priesthood worthless, and considered the whole See also:church of their See also:time corrupted by the " negotia saecularia " which absorbed all ' One result is their inability to See also:form a true theory of Judaism and of the Old Testament in relation to the See also:Gospel, a See also:matter of See also:great moment for them and for their successors.its zeal (cf. St Bernard, Seam. 65 and 66 in Cantic.). They do not seem to have been known as Apostles or Apostolici: St Bernard, in fact, asks his hearers: " Quo nomine istos titulove censebis?" (Serm. 66 in Cantic.). Under this designation, too, are included the heretics of Perigueux in See also:France, alluded to in the letter of a certain See also:monk Heribert (Mabillon, Vet. Anal. iii. 467). Heribert says merely: " Se dicunt apostolicam vitam ducere." It is possible that they were Henricians (see See also:HENRY OF See also:LAUSANNE).

During his See also:

mission in the See also:south-See also:east of France in 1146-1147 St Bernard still met disciples of Henry of Lausanne in the environs of Perigueux. The heretics of whom Heribert speaks condemned riches, denied the value of the sacraments and of See also:good See also:works, See also:ate no meat, drank no wine and rejected the veneration of images. Their See also:leader, named Pons, gathered See also:round him nobles, priests, monks and nuns. In the second See also:half of the 13th century appeared in See also:Italy the See also:Order of the Apostles or Apostle Brethren (see especially the Chron. of Fra See also:Salimbene). This was a product of the mystic See also:fermentation which proceeded from exalted Franciscanism and from Joachimism (see See also:FRATICELLI and See also:JOACHIM). It presents great analogies with groups of the same See also:character, e.g. Sachets, Bizocchi, See also:Flagellants, &c. The order of the Apostles was founded about 126o by a See also:young workman from the environs of See also:Parma, See also:Gerard Segarelli, who had sought See also:admission unsuccessfully to the Franciscan order. To make his See also:life conform to that of See also:Christ, his contemporaries say that he had himself circumcised, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a See also:cradle, and that he then, clad in a See also:white robe and See also:bare-footed, walked through the streets of Parma crying " Penitenz agite(" Poenitentiam agite!"). He was soon followed by a throng of men and See also:women, peasants and See also:mechanics. All had to live in absolute poverty, chastity and idleness. They begged, and preached penitence.

Opizo, See also:

bishop of Parma, protected them until they caused trouble in his See also:diocese. Their See also:diffusion into several countries of Christendom disturbed See also:Pope See also:Honorius IV., who in 1286 ordered them to adhere to an already recognized See also:rule. On their refusal, the pope condemned them to banishment and Opizo imprisoned Segarelli. The See also:councils of See also:Wurzburg (1287) and See also:Chichester (1289) took See also:measures against the Apostles of See also:Germany and See also:England. But in 1291 the sect reappeared, sensibly in-creased, and Pope See also:Nicholas IV. published anew the See also:bull of Honorius IV. From that See also:day the Apostles, regarded as rebels, were persecuted pitilessly. Four were burned in 1294, and Segarelli, as a relapsed heretic, went to the stake at Parma in 1300. They had had See also:close relations with the dissident See also:Franciscans, but the Spirituals often disavowed them, especially when the sect, which in Segarelli's time had had no very precise doctrinal character, became with Dolcino frankly heterodox. Dolcino of See also:Novara was brought up at See also:Vercelli, and had been an Apostle since 1291. Thrice he See also:fell into the hands of the See also:Inquisition, and thrice recanted. But immediately after Segarelli's See also:death he wrote an See also:epistle, soon followed by a second, in which he declared that the third Joachimite See also:age began with Segarelli and that See also:Frederick of See also:Sicily was the expected conqueror (Hist. Dulcini and Addit. ad Hist.

Dulcini in See also:

Muratori, Scriptores, vol. ix.). He gave himself out as an See also:angel sent from See also:God to elucidate the prophecies. Soon he founded an Apostolic See also:congregation at whose See also:head he placed himself. Under him were his four lieutenants, his " mystic See also:sister," Margherita di See also:Franck, and 4000 disciples. He taught almost the same principles of devotion as Segarelli, but the Messianic character which he attributed to himself, the announcement of a communistic millennial See also:kingdom, and, besides, an aggressive See also:anti-See also:sacerdotalism, gave to Dolcino's sect a clearly marked character, analogous only to the theocratic community of the See also:Anabaptists of See also:Minster in the 16th century. On the 5th of See also:June 1305 Pope See also:Clement V., recognizing the See also:impotence of the See also:ordinary methods of' repression, issued bulls for See also:preaching a crusade against the Dolcinists. But four See also:crusades, directed by the bishop of Vercelli, were required to reduce the little See also:army of the heresiarch, entrenched in the mountains in the neighbourhood of Vercelli. Not till the 23rd of See also:March 1307 were the sectaries definitively overcome. The Catholic crusaders seized Dolcino in his entrenchments on See also:Mount Rubello, and the pope at once announced the happy event to See also:King See also:Philip the See also:Fair. At Vercelli Dolcino suffered a horrible See also:punishment. He was torn in pieces with red-hot pincers—the See also:torture lasting an entire day—while Margherita was burned at a slow See also:fire. See also:Dante mentions Dolcino's name (Inferno, c. See also:xxviii.), and his memory is not yet completely effaced in the See also:province of Novara.

The Apostles continued their propaganda in Italy, See also:

Languedoc, See also:Spain and Germany. In turn they were condemned by the councils of Cologne (1306), Treves (131o) and See also:Spoleto (1311). The inquisitor of Languedoc, Bernard Gui, persecuted them unremittingly (see Gui's Practica Inquisitions). From 1316 to 1322 the condemnations of Apostles increased at See also:Avignon and See also:Toulouse. They disappeared, however, at a comparatively late date from those regions (See also:council of See also:Lavaur, 1368; council of See also:Narbonne, 1374). In Germany two Apostles were burned at See also:Lubeck and See also:Wismar at the beginning of the 15th century (1402-1403) by the inquisitor Eylard. Several controversialists, including Gotti, Krohn and Stockmann, have mentioned among the innumerable sects that have sprung from Anabaptism a See also:group of individuals whose open-See also:air preaching and rigorous practice of poverty gained them the name of Apostolici. These must be carefully distinguished from the Apostoolians, See also:Mennonites of Frisia, who followed the teachings of the pastor See also:Samuel Apostool (1638-beginning of 18th century). In the Mennonite church they represent the rigid, conservative party, as opposed to the Galenists, who inclined towards the Arminian latitudinarianism and admitted into their community all those who led a virtuous life, whatever their doctrinal tendencies. (P.

End of Article: APOSTOLICI, APOSTOLIC BRETHREN

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