by which all who had received spiritual baptism
would be refreshed and find their spiritual needs completely satisfied.

Thirteen leaders of this sect were burned A.D. 1022. When urged to
recant they replied, "We have a higher law, one written by the Holy
Spirit in the inner man."

Mosheim says they soared above the comprehension of the age in which
they lived.

A few years later a similar sect was discovered in the districts of
Arras and Liege. They held individual holiness and practical piety to
be necessary and that outward baptism and outward Sacrament were
nothing. This they affirmed was the doctrine of Christ and his
apostles.[228]

About A.D. 1046 a sect was suppressed at Turin which was favored by the
nobility and widely diffused among the clergy and laity. They claimed to
have one priest without the tonsure. He daily visited their brethren
scattered throughout the world and when God bestowed him on them they
received from him with great devotion forgiveness of sin. They
acknowledged no other priest and no other sacrament but his
absolution.[229]

Who--we ask--is this priest without the tonsure, who daily visits the
world-wide brethern?

Is it not Jesus who was made a priest, "not after the law of a carnal
commandment, but by the power of an endless life?"[230]

A sect called Bogomiles, who rejected outward baptism and acknowledged
only spiritual communion, was discovered in Constantinople, many of them
in the families connected with the court. Their leader was burned A.D.
1119, others were imprisoned, yet they spread secretly over the Greek
empire.[231]

Mosheim says: The Eastern churches continued to be infested with such
fanatics in the twelfth century, and the Latin sects were still more
numerous than the Greeks.[232]

The Catherists were a numerous faction in Bulgaria and spread almost all
over Europe under various names who all agreed in rejecting baptism and
the Lord's Supper.

"Brethern and sisters of the free Spirit" took their denomination from
the words of St. Paul (Rom. 8, 2-14). They were called Begards,
Beghines, Turpines, etc. They rejected baptism and the Supper as no
longer useful to them and held to inward and spiritual worship. They
spread rapidly in Italy, France and Germany. They were mostly poor
people and lived upon alms while upon their missionary journeys. Great
numbers of plain, pious people, rich and poor, embraced their teaching
and forsook the dominant church.[233]