Quick Facts
- German:
- Gottesfreunde
- Areas Of Involvement:
- Christianity
- Related People:
- Heinrich Suso
- Johann Tauler
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Friends of God
religious group
Also known as: Gottesfreunde
Friends of God, medieval Christian fellowship that originated during the early part of the 14th century in Basel, Switz., and then spread to Germany and the Netherlands. Primarily a middle-class, democratic lay movement espousing a Christian life of love, piety, devotion, and holiness, the Friends of God presaged the 16th-century Reformation. Some of its leaders, attacking corruption in the Western church and expecting a subsequent intervention of God, were tried and executed for heresy.
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