Life and Teachings
Sources suggest that Peter was born at Bruis in southeastern France. The history of his early life is unknown, but it is certain that he was a Roman Catholic priest who had been deprived of his office by the Church hierarchy for teaching unorthodox doctrine. He began his preaching in Dauphiné and Provence probably between 1117 and 1120. The local bishops, who oversaw the dioceses of Embrun, Die, and Gap, suppressed his teachings within their jurisdictions. In spite of the official repression, Peter's teachings gained adherents at Narbonne, Toulouse, and in Gascony.
Peter of Bruys admitted the doctrinal authority of the Gospels in their literal interpretation; the other New Testament writings he seems to have considered valueless, as he doubted their apostolic origin. To the New Testament epistles he assigned only a subordinate place as not coming from Jesus Christ, but rather being the work of men.
He rejected the Old Testament as well as the authority of the Church Fathers and that of the Roman Catholic Church itself. According to an account listed in an older version of The Catholic Encyclopedia his contempt for the Roman Catholic Church extended to the clergy and physical violence was preached and practiced against priests and monks by his followers, known as Petrobrusians. Petrobrusians also opposed clerical celibacy.
Read more about this topic: Peter Of Bruys
Famous quotes containing the words life and/or teachings:
“I, for one, have never in my life come across a perfectly healthy human being.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)
“... there are no chains so galling as the chains of ignorance—no fetters so binding as those that bind the soul, and exclude it from the vast field of useful and scientific knowledge. O, had I received the advantages of early education, my ideas would, ere now, have expanded far and wide; but, alas! I possess nothing but moral capability—no teachings but the teachings of the Holy Spirit.”
—Maria Stewart (1803–1879)