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Peter of Bruys (or de Bruis) (1st half 12th Century) -- Peter was an early heretic in medieval Europe.
Peter of Bruys was a wandering heretical street preacher who traveled throughout large areas of northern Italy and southern France in the early 12th Century. He began his reformation movement in 1104 and created a sect called the Petrobrusians around 1110.
Peter was a contemporary of Henry the monk and shared many of the same ideas. In addition he actively preached ideas of his own. He rejected the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation and regarded the Lord's Supper as a merely historical and memorial act. He held the Church to be made up of a regenerated people only, counted the bishops and priests, as he knew them, mere frauds, rejected the adoration of images, prayers for the dead, and the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. He rejected the divine inspiration of the Old Testament, saying it was written by men. He rejected the cross as a symbol of Christianity. When he preached, Peter attempted to incite others to burn crosses in a bonfire. His theological reasoning for this was to dematerialize religion to remove anything material between man and god. In addition he incited others to attack monasteries, to drag the monks out and force them to marry. He told his followers to eat meat on Good Friday, and to do so publicly.
He was burned to death at St Giles, France, in a fire of crosses of his own making, about the year 1130, "by an enraged populace, instigated by the clergy of the Catholic church."
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