Alumbrados

The alumbrados (Spanish pronunciation:

heretical, according to the contemporary rulers. Consequently, they were firmly repressed and became some of the early victims of the Spanish Inquisition

.

Background

Gnostic origin. He thought their views were promoted in Spain through influences from Italy.^[1]

Beliefs

The alumbrados held that the human

union with God. Persons in this state of impeccability could indulge their sexual desires and commit other sinful acts freely without staining their souls.^[2]

In 1525, the Inquisition issued an

theologians described as "crazy, erroneous, and even heretical"; and that one sinned mortally every time one loved a son, daughter, or other person, and did not love that person through God (No. 36), which the theologians said was "erroneous and false, and against the common teaching of the saints". One alumbrado, seeing a girl cross the street, said that "she had sinned, because in that action she had fulfilled her will" (No. 40). The theologians commented: "The foundation of this proposition is heretical, because it seems to state that all action that proceeds from our will is sin."^[3]

Historical cases

A labourer's daughter known as

The Catholic Encyclopedia cautiously notes, "cited as an early adherent" of the alumbrados' errors, though "it is not certain that she was guilty of heresy".^[2] Some scholars—like the Dominican historian and theologian Álvaro Huerga—take a relatively favorable view of her. They question on chronological and other grounds the tendency to associate her with the movement, seeing her rather as "pre-alumbrados".^[4]

Henry Charles Lea, in his A History of the Inquisition in Spain, mentions, among the more extravagant alumbrados, a priest from Seville named Fernando Méndez, who had acquired a special reputation for sanctity: "he taught his disciples to invoke his intercession, as though he were already a saint in heaven; fragments of his garments were treasured as relics; he gathered a congregation of beatas and, after mass in his oratory, they would strip off their garments and dance with indecent vigor – drunk with the love of God – and, on some of his female penitents, he would impose the penance of lifting their skirts and exposing themselves before him."^[5] Méndez died before the Inquisition could bring him to trial.

Ignatius of Loyola, while studying at Salamanca in 1527, was brought before an ecclesiastical commission on a charge of sympathy with the alumbrados, but escaped with an admonition. Miguel de Molinos was also accused of sympathy owing to some similarities between his book The Spiritual Guide and the teachings of the early alumbrados, Isabel de la Cruz and Pedro Ruiz de Alcaraz.

A later case happened between the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century in

witch.^[7] She was also accused of having an improper relationship with her confessor. However, he had many defenders. After her death, the Franciscan Order in the Canary Islands initiated a process of canonization that had to be halted owing to the controversy.^[6]

Correction

Their correction, by Inquisitional standards, was not particularly severe. Those convicted of engaging in the mystical practices and heresy of the alumbrados were not executed, few endured long-term sentences, and most were tried only after they managed to acquire large congregations in Toledo or Salamanca. Not all, however, were so fortunate. In 1529 a congregation of naïve adherents at Toledo were subjected to whippings and imprisonment. Greater rigors followed, and for about a century alleged connection with the alumbrados sent many to the Inquisition, especially at Córdoba. In spite of this determined action, however, the heresy maintained itself until the middle of the 17th century.^[2] The connection of later alumbrados, whose practices varied in different places, to the original alumbrados, Isabella de la Cruz and Pedro Ruiz del Alcaraz, is debatable, but the continuing influence of their teachings is not improbable.

Footnotes

^ ^a ^b Menéndez y Pelayo, Marcelino (1880). Historia de los heterodoxos españoles. Madrid. pp. II, 521–585, III, 403–408.
^ ^a ^b ^c Weber, Nicholas. "Illuminati (Alumbrados.)". Archived from the original on 17 March 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-04.
^ Homza, Lu Ann (editor and translator). The Spanish Inquisition 1478–1614: An Anthology of Sources. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, 2006, pp. 80–92.
^ Huerga, Álvaro. "Los pre-alumbrados y la Beata de Piedrahíta", Historia de la Iglesia, Vol. XVII. Valencia: EDICEP, 1974, pp. 529–533. (In Spanish)
^ Lea, Henry Charles. A History of the Inquisition of Spain, Vol. 4, Book 8, Chapter 5, pp. 29–30.
^ ^a ^b Los conventos de La Orotava. Manuel Hernández González.
^ ^a ^b Los 4 místicos tinerfeños

References

Menéndez y Pelayo, Marcelino (1880). Historia de los heterodoxos españoles. Madrid. pp. II, 521–585, III, 403–408.
"Illuminati". The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 16. New York: The Encyclopedia Press. 1914.