Jarrel - Baptist Church Perpetuity - Landmark Baptist

Says Mosheim:
CHAPTER 15. — THE ARNOLDISTS.
“In Italy, Arnold of Brescia, a disciple of Abelard, and a man of extensive
erudition and remarkable austerity, but also a turbulent spirit, excited new
troubles and commotions both in church and State. He was, indeed,
condemned in the council of the Lateran, A.D. 1139, by Innocent II., and
thereby obliged to retire to Switzerland; but upon the death of the pontiff he
returned into Italy and raised at Rome, during the pontificate of Eugenie III.,
several tumults and seditions among the people, who changed by his
instigation the government of the city and insulted the persons of the clergy in
the most disorderly manner. He fell, however, at last, a victim to the
vengeance of his enemies; for, after various turns of fortune, he was seized, in
the year 1155, by a prefect of the city, by whom he was crucified and
afterward burned to ashes. This unhappy man seems not to have adopted any
doctrine inconsistent with the spirit of true religion; and the principles upon
which he acted were chiefly reprehensible from their being carried too far,
and executed with a degree of vehemence which was as criminal as it was
imprudent. Having perceived the discords and animosities, the calamities and
disorders, that sprang from the overgrown opulence of the pontiffs and
bishops, he was persuaded that the interests of the church and the happiness of
nations in general required that the clergy should be divested of all their
worldly possessions, of all their temporal rights and prerogatives. He
therefore maintained publicly that the treasures and revenues of popes,
bishops and monasteries ought to be solemnly resigned and transferred to the
supreme rulers of each State, and that nothing was to be left to the ministers
of the gospel but a spiritual authority and a subsistence drawn from the tithes,
and from the voluntary oblations and contributions of the people. This violent
reformer, in whose character and manner there were several things worthy of
esteem, drew after him a great number of disciples who derived from him the
name of Arnoldists, and in succeeding times discovered the spirit and
intrepidity of their leader, as often as any favorable opportunities of reforming
the church were offered to their zeal.” f314
Kurtz says of Arnold:
“His fervent oratory was chiefly directed against the secular power of the
church and its possession of property, views which were probably based on a
more spiritual conception of what the church really was. Otherwise his
doctrinal opinions seem to have been in accordance with those commonly
entertained.” f315
Wadington gives substantially the above account, adding: