Brethren of the Free Spirit
Highly influential pantheistic Christian hippies who rejected all forms of work and believed that every sexual taboo was holy
13th - 15th centuries
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Painting depicting the Brethren of the Free Spirit
The Brethren of the Free Spirit were a thirteenth-century religious group that challenged the Christian church. Unlike most Christians, they were pantheistic, believing everything was God, concluding that everything was therefore holy and sin was just an illusion. From this belief, they reasoned that once a person realizes everything is holy, they cannot do anything unholy. Therefore, every action is permitted, no matter how immoral it appears.
The Free Spirits didn't believe in Heaven or Hell and rejected all work, thinking it existed as the punishment for original sin and sin was just an illusion. They were perhaps most well known for their sexual promiscuity, praising incest, preaching in the nude, and claiming to restore a woman's virginity by having sex with her.
Although the Brethren of the Free Spirit largely died out in the 15th century, they were influential for many later Christian movements.
Religion: Christianity
Denomination: Other
Founded: 13th century
Ended: 14th century
Location: Europe (Low Countries, Germany, France, Bohemia, northern Italy)
Also called: Free Spirits
Since they believed that sin was a fraud, that punishment for original sin was work, and that property is the result of work, they rejected property as falsehood and shared everything in common (source)
Members practiced self-abnegation and self-torture (source)
Antinomian: (See above)
P'ikareum: Taught that women could restore their virginity by having sex with a member of this group (source)
Nudism: reached in the nude (source)
Spiritual Eroticism: Used erotic language concerning Christ (source)
Incest: Johann Hartman said that he could have sex with his sister or mother anywhere, including the altar, and that it was more natural than sex with any other woman (source)
Sex was "regarded as the delight of Paradise and the ascent to mystical ecstasy" (source)
Believed that "women were created to be used by the Brethren of the Free Spirit" (source)
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Other info:
Rejected work, believing that it was a "sin against perfect nature" (see the Millerites, who had a similar belief) (source)
Denied the existence of Heaven and Hell, as well as the resurrection of the dead (source)
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