TANCHELM (TANCHELINUS). - A heresiarch independent of other contemporary groups; he was active in Zeeland, in Flanders and at Cologne, around the turn of the 11th-12th centuries; he was killed by a blow to the head during a boat journey, ca. 1115.
The heresy of T. is a deviation of the Gregorian movement against simoniacal and concubinous clergy. He went to Rome with the priest Everwacherus, bearer to the pope (Urban II or Paschal II) of the plan to detach from the diocese of Utrecht part of the maritime territories, in Zeeland, in order to assign them to the Flemish one of Tournai (and not of Thérouanne). Once the mission had failed, the reaction of the clergy contributed in all likelihood to the heretical evolution of T. and to his open rebellion, which met with particular success among the uncultured riverside populations. Under the pretext of the bad conduct of the feudal clergy and on the false principle that the validity of the Sacraments depends on the goodness of the minister, he denied the religious powers of bishops and priests, refusing them submission, opposed the payment of tithes, rejected the rites. The men and women who followed him gave themselves over to armed violence. The smith Manasses, his disciple, formed a "guild" of 12 men, in imitation of the apostolic college, with a woman representing the Madonna. The canons of Utrecht, in a letter, between 1112 and 1114, to the archbishop of Cologne Frederick, who was holding T., Everwacherus and Manasses prisoner, aggravated the accusations out of animosity: he considered himself God, having divine honors attributed to him by his followers, who drank the water in which he had washed, regarding it as a Sacrament of sanctification or a relic; he had celebrated a sacrilegious nuptial rite with the Most Holy Mary, espousing a statue of her and inviting his followers to offer gifts; he kept immoral familiarity with girls and a bridegroom; he proceeded with royal pomp and insignia amid an armed escort. T. unsettled in particular the population of Antwerp, poorly served spiritually by the sole concubinous parish priest of the church of St. Michael. The heresy persisted even after the death of T., affecting even the canons. Burchard, bishop of Cambrai, in his work of reform summoned there around 1121-23 St. Norbert who, assisted by his disciple St. Evermond, succeeded in removing the abuses against the Eucharist, and many followers of T. brought back the consecrated particles that they had kept hidden for many years. The blessed Waltmann, first abbot of St. Michael, dispersed the last Tanchelmites.
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