Homines Intelligentiae
HOMINES INTELLIGENTIAE
Pseudomystic sect active in and around Brussels in late 14th and early 15th century. Aegidius Cantoris (Sanghers), an uneducated layman who was apparently influenced by the visionary and poetess Bl. hadewijch and by Marie of Valenciennes, founded the sect, which was especially popular among women. The most notable convert was the Carmelite William of Hildernisse, who assumed leadership at the death of Aegidius and developed his ideas (see williamites). The salient points of doctrine were pantheism; illuminism; belief in the age of the Holy Spirit and of spiritual freedom; sexual libertinism; contempt of good works; and rejection of the means of grace, of the priesthood, and of the Church. The sect was condemned by peter of ailly in 1411 [E. Baluze, Miscellanea (Paris 1678) 2:277–297].
Bibliography: p. frÉdÉricq, ed., Corpus documentorum Inquisitionis haereticae pravitatis Neerlandicae, 5 v. (Ghent 1889–1906) 1:267–279. h. c. lea, A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, 3 v. (New York 1958). f. vernet, Dictionnaire de theologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al. (Paris 1903–50) 7:38–39.
[m. f. laughlin]