The turlupins were a religious sect in medieval France, loosely related to the Beguines and Beghards and the Brethren of the Free Spirit.[1] The name turlupin is a derisive epithet; they appear to have called themselves the "society of the poor" or "fellowship of poverty".[1][2] Mention of them survives only in writings of their opponents, who condemned them as heretics.[2] From Avignon, Pope Gregory XI excommunicated them as heretics.[3] Therefore, very little is known about them, but they apparently wore few clothes as an expression of the vow of poverty, which led to accusations of nudism and promiscuity.[2][4] Some historians think their importance may have been exaggerated to add "local colour" to academic theological disputes.[4]
The sect was active mainly in the second half of the 14th century around Paris, being one of the few heretical sects active in Paris at that time.[4] In 1372 a number were imprisoned, with a female leader, Jeanne Daubenton, burnt at the stake for witchcraft and heresy.[1] A similar sect may have been active in the 1460s around Lille.[2]
References edit
- ^ a b c Norman Cohn (1970). The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages. Oxford University Press. p. 169. ISBN 0-19-500456-6.
- ^ a b c d "Turlupins". New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. Vol. 12. 1912. p. 41.
- ^ Dizionario biografico universale, Volume 5, by Felice Scifoni, Publisher Davide Passagli, Florence (1849); page 446.
- ^ a b c Bronisław Geremek (2006). The Margins of Society in Late Medieval Paris. trans. Jean Birrell. Cambridge University Press. pp. 305–306. ISBN 0-521-02612-1.