Turlupins

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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  [ fr ], burnt at the stake for witchcraft and heresy. [1] A similar sect may have been active in the 1460s around Lille. [2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 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.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Turlupins". New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge . Vol. 12. 1912. p. 41.
  3. ↑ Dizionario biografico universale, Volume 5, by Felice Scifoni, Publisher Davide Passagli, Florence (1849); page 446.
  4. 1 2 3 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.
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