DULCINISTS

Heretics, so denominated from one Dulcinus, a layman, of Novara in Lombardy, who lived in the beginning of the 14th century. He pretended to preach the reign of the Holy Ghost ; and while he justly enough rejected the pope’s authority, he foolishly made himself to be the head of that third reign, saying, that the Father had reigned from the beginning of the world to the coming of Christ ; and the Son’s reign began then, and continued until the year 1300. He was followed by a great many people to the Alps, where he and his wife were taken and burnt by the order of Clement IV.