- Amalric of Bena
Amalric of Bena (fr icon Amaury de Bène or Amaury de Chartres; la icon Almaricus, Amalricus, Amauricus; died c. 1204-1207) was a French theologian, after whom the
Amalricians are named.Biography
He was born in the latter part of the 12th century at Bennes, a village between
Ollé andChauffours in thediocese of Chartres .He taught philosophy and theology at the
University of Paris and enjoyed a great reputation as a subtledialectic ian; his lectures developing thephilosophy of Aristotle attracted a large circle of hearers. In 1204 his doctrines were condemned by the university, and, on a personal appeal toPope Innocent III , the sentence was ratified, Amalric being ordered to return to Paris and recant his errors.His death was caused, it is said, by grief at the humiliation to which he had been subjected.In 1209 ten of his followers were burnt before the gates of Paris, and Amalric's own body was exhumed and burnt and the ashes given to the winds. The doctrines of his followers, known as the
Amalrician s, were formally condemned by the fourth Lateran Council in 1215.Propositions
Amalric appears to have derived his philosophical system from Eriugena, whose principles he developed in a one-sided and strongly
pantheist ic form.Three propositions only can with certainty be attributed to him:
#that God is all ("omnia sunt deus") and thus all things are one because whatever is, is God ("omnia unum, quia quidquid est, est Deus");
#that every Christian is bound to believe that he is a member of the body of Christ, and that this belief is necessary for salvation;
#that he who remains in love of God can commit no sin.Because of the first proposition, God himself is thought as invisible and only recognizable in his creation.
These three propositions were further developed by his followers, who maintained that God revealed Himself in a threefold revelation, the first in the Biblical patriarch
Abraham , marking the "epoch of the Father"; the second inJesus Christ , who began the "epoch of the Son"; and the third in Amalric and his disciples, who inaugurated the "era of the Holy Ghost."Under the pretext that a true believer could commit no sin, the Amalricians seemed to have indulged in excesses, and the sect does not appear to have long survived the death of its founder. Not long after the burning of ten of their members (1210), the sect itself lost its importance, while some of the surviving Amalricans became
Brethren of the Free Spirit [http://www.pinselpark.org/geschichte/einzel/p0375_mittelalter/r_haeresie.html (German)] .Amalric was a believer in
Apocatastasis , the belief that all people would eventually be saved. [" [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Apocatastasis Apocatastasis] ". "Catholic Encyclopedia". 1913.] This was one of the counts upon which he was declared a heretic byPope Innocent III . [" [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc01.html?term=Apocatastasis Apocatastasis] ". "New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. I".]ee also
*
Brethren of the Free Spirit ources and references
*1911
*Catholic Encyclopaedia [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01379b.htm]
*W. Preger , "Geschichte der deutschen Mystik im Mittelalter" (Leipzig, 1874, i. 167-173)
*Haureau , "Histoire de la phil. scol." (Paris, 1872)
*C. Schmidt , "Histoire de l'Église d'Occident pendant le Moyen Âge" (Paris, 1885)
*Hefele , "Conciliengeschichte" (2nd ed., Freiburg, 1886).
* G. C. Capelle, "Amaury de Bène" (Paris, 1932)
* Christoph Ulrich Hahn: "Geschichte der Ketzer im Mittelalter", Vol. 3 (Stuttgart, 1850)
* Arno Borst: "Religiöse und geistige Bewegungen im Hochmittelalter", Propyläen Weltgeschichte, Ullstein 1963, Vol. 5, p. 537
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