A Dictionary of All Religions and Religious Denominations/Men of Understanding

MEN OF UNDERSTANDING.

This title distinguished a sect, which appeared in Flandera and Brussels in the year 1511. They owed their origin to an illiterate man, named Egidius Cantor, and to William of Hildcnison, a Carmelite monk. They pretended to be li6noui*cd with celestial visions ; and declared the approach of a new revelation more perfect than that of the gospel. They held that the resurrection was accomplished in the person of Jesus, and no other was to be expected ; that the inward man was not defiled by the outward actions, wiiatevcr they were; and that the pains of hell were to have an end.

This denomination seems to have been a branch of the brethren and sisters of the Free Spirit; and their system embraced some peculiarities both of die Mustics and Universalists.