Free Spirit (Spirit of Freedom)

LIBERO SPIRITO (SPIRIT OF LIBERTY).—
These names designate various groups of heretical
sects found from the mid-thirteenth century through
the whole of the fifteenth century in different parts
of the Germanic countries, in the Netherlands, and
in northern France; and at the beginning of the fourteenth
century also in Italy, namely in Umbria. The origin of the
movement is obscure. The sect appeared in the mid-thirteenth
century, especially in the upper-Rhine countries and in general
in the southern part of the German-speaking territory; it then
spread farther north into the Netherlands, beguines and beghards (v.) were also involved, though not all of them, so much
so that the sect was sometimes designated by these names, as
indeed occurred at the Council of Vienne in 1312. As early as
1274 the Franciscan Simone di Tournai had pointed out this
danger (cf. Arch. franc. hist., 24 [1931], p. 61 ff.).

The condemnation pronounced by the said Council (c. 3
Ad nostrum [V, 3] in Clem.) lists eight errors professed
by the sect: 1. Man can attain such a degree of perfection
that he cannot sin; 2. Whoever has reached this degree has
no need to fast or pray, and may grant the body everything
it desires; 3. Those who have reached that degree and are
in the spirit of liberty are subject to no human obedience
and are not bound by ecclesiastical precepts; 4. Man can
possess final beatitude in this life, as he will possess it in
the next; 5. Every intellectual nature is blessed in itself
and has no need of the light of glory to raise it to the vision
and enjoyment of God; 6. Exercising oneself in virtue is
proper to imperfect man, whereas the perfect soul dismisses
the virtues; 7. The kiss of a woman is a mortal sin when
nature is not inclined to it, whereas the carnal act is not
a sin when nature is inclined to it; 8. Reverence must not
be shown to the Body of Christ, nor must one think of the
Passion of Our Lord. From this the perverse quietism, and
in a certain sense also the pantheism, becomes clear; in
some groups it was even more apparent.

Immoral quietism is likewise the principal characteristic
of the sect of the “spirit of liberty” in Umbria. Its founder
was Bentivenga da Gubbio, a Friar Minor called the “apostle”;
undoubtedly because he came from the suppressed sect of
Gerardo Begarelli’s “apostles.” Under the cloak of feigned
sanctity and apostolic zeal, he secretly spread his errors,
which allowed people to follow their passions without remorse,
since the adepts attained impeccability. An inquisitorial
manual of the time lists ten errors or heresies of the sect,
which for the most part correspond to the eight articles
condemned by the Council of Vienne. The sect, which had
been secretly spreading during the early years of the fourteenth
century, was discovered when Bentivenga, around 1306–1307,
attempted to win s. Chiara da Montefalco over to his errors.
The Saint denounced him to Cardinal Napoleone Orsini, legate
in Tuscia, whose chaplain, Ubertino da Casale, juridically
proved Bentivenga’s guilt; he was condemned to perpetual
imprisonment. According to Arnaldo da Villanova, his
adherents numbered more than 240 men and women, including
7 Friars Minor. In 1311 Clement V sent as inquisitor Rainerio,
bishop of Cremona, with the specific task of eradicating the
error in the valley of Spoleto. He prosecuted Francesco di
Borgo S. Sepolcro, called the “prophet,” who had already been
condemned for “spirit of liberty,” but was virtually acquitted
in the new trial. Individual cases of “spirit of liberty” are
also found later in Italy, and s. Bernardino da Siena was still
combating II.