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Homines Intelligentiae

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Hommel, Johann Christoph

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(French hommes intelligence, men of understanding), a heretical sect which flourished in the Netherlands about 1412, most likely a later branch of the Brethren of the Free Spirit (q.v.). It was founded by AEgidius Cantor, and the most celebrated of their leaders was the German Carmelite Hildernissen. AEgidius Cantor asserted that "he was the savior of the world, and that by him the faithful should see Jesus Christ, as by Jesus Christ they should see God the Father; that the ancient law was the time of the Father, the new law the time of the Son; and that there should shortly be a third law, which was to be the time of the Holy Ghost, under which men would be at full liberty." They also held that there was no resurrection, but an immediate translation to heaven; and advanced the pernicious doctrines that prayer had no merit, and that sensual pleasures, being natural actions, were not sinful, but rather foretastes of the joys of heaven. They were accused of heresy, and, Hildernissen having recanted, the sect finally dissolved. — Broughton, Biblioth. Hist. Sacr. 1, 405; Herzog, Real-Encyclop. 2, 399; Pierer, Univers. Lex. 8, 511; Fuhrmann, Handwö rterb. d. Kirchengesch. p. 339.