Amalricians
AMALRICIANS
An early 13th-century sect centered in Paris, disciples of amalric of bÈne. The disciples were more extreme than their master. Their pantheistic concept of a God who is identical with the universe made them reject transubstantiation, as they held that God was already present in the bread and wine. Their abstract pantheism ultimately led them to a denial of the essential difference between good and evil, and to the substitution of knowledge of the natural processes for faith. According to their Trinitarian concept of history, the Father ruled over ancient times and the Son over the first 12 centuries of Christianity, while the reign of the Holy Ghost began with Amalric. Having been condemned by a council in Paris (1210) as heretical, and five years later by the Fourth lateran council, the sect quickly disappeared (see joachim of fiore).
Bibliography: see references under amalric of bÈne. c. j. von hefele, Histoire des conciles d'après les documents originaux 5.2:1303–05. m. t. d'alverny, "Un Fragment du procès des Amauriciens," Archives d'histoire doctrinale et litéraire du moyen-age 25 (1950–51) 325–336. e. hammerschmidt, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 1:415–416.
[b. chudoba]