Arnoldists

The Arnoldists were a medieval religious movement that originated from the preaching of Arnold of Brescia in the 12th century, advocating for clerical reform, the renunciation of worldly wealth by the church, and a return to apostolic poverty. Though initially a movement for moral reform within the church, they were condemned as heretics and their ideas became entangled with other dissident groups, contributing to the complex landscape of heresy that William of Baskerville and Adso of Melk encounter in the abbey.

Origins and Doctrine

The Arnoldists took their name from Arnold of Brescia, a reformer who, as William explains to the abbot, sought to draw the magistrates of the city into his reform movement. When the magistrates did not follow him, he found support among the crowds of the poor and the outcast. William clarifies that the Arnoldists were not responsible for the violence and anger with which their appeals for a less corrupt city were met. He distinguishes them from other heretical groups, stating that the Arnoldists were a movement to reform behavior within the laws of Holy Mother Church, and that their only error of doctrine was maintaining that the sacraments should not be received from impure priests. They never proposed to alter the law of God.

Confusion with Other Heresies

Despite their distinct origins, the Arnoldists were frequently confused with other heretical movements. William notes that the simple people who flocked to reformers often did not have subtlety of doctrine, and that movements like the Arnoldists, the Waldensians, and the Poor Lombards were often mixed up by the populace and the inquisitors alike. The abbot, for instance, conflates the Arnoldists with the Catharists, Patarines, and others, arguing that they are all the same because they are heretics who jeopardize the order of the civilized world. William counters this, insisting that the Arnoldists were a movement to reform behavior within the church, while the Catharists preached a different church and a different view of God and morality. The Arnoldists, along with the Waldensians and Poor Lombards, wanted to construct a different world on an ideal of poverty, receiving the outcasts and living in community with the labor of their hands.

Connection to the Broader Heretical Landscape

The Arnoldists are part of the broader, complex river of heresy that William describes to Adso. He explains that over the last two centuries, the world has been struck by storms of intolerance, hope, and despair. The body of the church, which for centuries was also the body of all society, has become too rich and wide, losing its own purity. The branches of heresy and the movements of renewal are numerous and become mingled. The Arnoldists, like the Waldensians and the Poor Lombards, are part of this delta, representing attempts of the river to flow as quickly as possible to the sea, to the moment of purification. William's explanation to Adso underscores that the Arnoldists were one of many movements born from a desire for a different world, a world based on poverty and community, and that their fate was to be lumped together with other, more radical groups by the authorities who sought to suppress all dissent.