Tanchelm (approx. 1070 - Antwerp, 1115), also known as Tanchelm of Antwerp, Tanchelijn, Tanquelin or Tanchelin, was an

itinerant preacher An itinerant preacher (also known as an itinerant minister or evangelist or circuit rider) is a Christian evangelist who preaches the basic Christian redemption message while traveling around to different groups of people within a relatively shor ...

critical of the established

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

church, active in the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

around the beginning of the 12th century.

History

Tanchelm was supposed to have been a monk, perhaps from the circle of Count

Robert II of Flanders Robert II, Count of Flanders (c. 1065 – 5 October 1111) was Count of Flanders from 1093 to 1111. He became known as Robert of Jerusalem (''Robertus Hierosolimitanus'') or Robert the Crusader after his exploits in the First Crusade. Early li ...

(1092–1111). From 1112 he preached in Antwerp, the

Duchy of Brabant The Duchy of Brabant was a State of the Holy Roman Empire established in 1183. It developed from the Landgraviate of Brabant and formed the heart of the historic Low Countries, part of the Burgundian Netherlands from 1430 and of the Habsburg Neth ...

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...

and

Zeeland , nl, Ik worstel en kom boven("I struggle and emerge") , anthem = "Zeeuws volkslied"("Zeelandic Anthem") , image_map = Zeeland in the Netherlands.svg , map_alt = , m ...

against the official church and its hierarchy, against the

Real Presence The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is the Christian doctrine that Jesus Christ is present in the Eucharist, not merely symbolically or metaphorically, but in a true, real and substantial way. There are a number of Christian denomin ...

in the

Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...

. He opposed the payment of

tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more ...

s and condemned those priests who lived with women. He was apparently also in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, where he is supposed to have campaigned, in vain, for an extension of the Bishopric of Thérouanne to cover the islands of the

Scheldt The Scheldt (french: Escaut ; nl, Schelde ) is a river that flows through northern France, western Belgium, and the southwestern part of the Netherlands, with its mouth at the North Sea. Its name is derived from an adjective corresponding to ...

. He was briefly put under arrest in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

in 1113–1114 but released again, despite the vigorous protests of the cathedral clergy of

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

. In 1115, he was slain by a priest while on a water journey. The followers of Tanchelm, who is reported to have allowed himself to be venerated almost to the point of worship, were still to be found for a period after his death in Antwerp; in 1124 Saint

Norbert of Xanten Norbert of Xanten, O. Praem (c. 1075 – 6 June 1134) (Xanten-Magdeburg), also known as Norbert Gennep, was a bishop of the Catholic Church, founder of the Premonstratensian order of canons regular, and is venerated as a saint. Norbert was can ...

preached against their

heresies Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

. Tanchelm prefigured ideas in the

Protestant reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and ...

Controversy about his views

The negative information regarding Tanchelm has been contained in no more than two documents: * a letter written by canons of the cathedral of Utrecht, * a postmortem memorandum written by followers of saint Norbert. As both these documents were written by enemies of Tanchelm and no contradictory documents have emerged, professor Henri Pirenne put question marks behind the accusations and formulated another thesis. He theorized that Tanchelm was a collaborator of the count of Flanders and, like his master, took sides with the Pope regarding the

investiture controversy The Investiture Controversy, also called Investiture Contest ( German: ''Investiturstreit''; ), was a conflict between the Church and the state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops ( investiture) and abbots of mona ...

. By acting so, he was declared an enemy by the bishop and the canons of Utrecht, who had taken sides with the Holy Roman Emperor. Hence the fierce opposition and the slanderous accusations against him and, in the end, his assassination.

References

Sources

* Henri PIRENNE, ''Tanchelin et le projet de démembrement du diocèse d'Utrecht vers 1100'', in: Bulletin des Classes des lettres et des sciences morales et politiques de l'Académie royale de Belgique, 1927. * Beulertz, S. (ed. ) 1999: ''Tanchelm'', in: ''Lexikon des Mittelalters'', vol. 8, col. 455. Stuttgart-Weimar * Cohn, Norman 1958: '' The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarism and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages''. Secker & Warburg.

External links

* 11th-century births 1115 deaths 11th-century people of the Holy Roman Empire People from Antwerp Heresy in Christianity in the Middle Ages {{netherlands-reli-bio-stub