TANCHELMO (TANCHELINUS). — A heresiarch independent of other contemporary groups; he was active in Zeeland, Flanders, and Cologne during the late 11th and early 12th centuries; he was killed by a blow to the head during a boat journey, ca. 1115.
The heresy of T. was a deviation from the Gregorian movement against simoniacal and concubinous clergy. He went to Rome with the priest Everwacherus, who bore to the pope (Urban II or Paschal II) a proposal to detach from the diocese of Utrecht part of the maritime territories in Zeeland and assign them to the Flemish diocese of Tournai (and not Thérouanne). The failure of the mission and the reaction of the clergy probably contributed to T.’s heretical development and to his open rebellion, which met with particular success among the uncultivated coastal populations. Under the pretext of the misconduct 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 submission to them, opposed the payment of tithes, and rejected the rites. Women and men who followed him abandoned themselves to armed violence. The blacksmith Manassès, 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 written between 1112 and 1114 to the archbishop of Cologne, Frederick, who held T., Everwacherus, and Manassès 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, considering it a Sacrament of sanctification or a relic; he had celebrated a sacrilegious wedding rite with Mary Most Holy, marrying her statue and inviting his followers to offer gifts; he maintained immoral familiarity with girls and married women; he proceeded with royal pomp and insignia among an armed escort.” T. particularly disturbed the population of Antwerp, which was poorly served spiritually by the sole concubinous parish priest of the church of St. Michael. The heresy continued even after T.’s death, affecting even the canons. Burcardo, bishop of Cambrai, in the work of reform summoned there, around 1121–23, St. Norbert, who, assisted by his disciple St. Evermond, succeeded in eliminating abuses concerning the Eucharist, and many followers of T. returned the consecrated particles that they had kept hidden for many years. Blessed Waltmann, first abbot of St. Michael, dispersed the last Tanchelmites.