Portal:Christianity/Selected biography/December 2007

Peter of Bruys (variously known as Pierre De Bruys or Peter de Bruis; fl. 1117 – c.1131) was a French heresiarch who taught doctrines that were in opposition to the Roman Catholic Church's beliefs. An angry mob killed him in or around the year 1131. Information concerning Peter of Bruys is derived from two extant sources, the treatise of Peter the Venerable against his followers and from a passage written by Peter Abelard.

Sources suggest that Peter was born at Bruis in south–eastern 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. 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.

There is no evidence that Peter Waldo or any other later religious figures were directly influenced by Peter of Bruys. His radical views on the Old Testament and the New Testament epistles disqualify him from even being a spiritual forerunner of later Protestant figures such as Martin Luther or John Smyth. In spite of this, Peter of Bruys is considered a prophet of the Reformation by some evangelical Protestants.

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