TURLUPINS:

A medieval sect akin to the Beghards, like whom they called themselves "the fellowship of poverty." The origin and meaning of the derisive epithet "Turlupins" are obscure. They seem to have been especially numerous in Paris and the province of Isle-de-France during the reign of Charles V. (1364-80), while in 1460-65 they were in the vicinity of Lille. According to their tenets, which are known only from their opponents, "inward prayer" was the sole religious duty. They carried their endeavor to imitate apostolic poverty to such an extreme that they went almost naked. In their gatherings, which were secret, they are said to have laid aside all their garments to symbolize paradise, and it is also said that they held that those who had reached a certain stage of perfection could no longer sin, and might indulge sensual impulses without hesitation. The Inquisition proceded unsparingly against the Turlupins, and Gregory XI. praised the king for his zeal against them, but they did not entirely disappear from France until the second half of the fifteenth century.

(EUGEN LACHENMANN.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Gerson, Opera, ed. Du Pin, Antwerp, 1706; J. Hermant, Hist. des heresies, iv. 374, Rouen, 1726; P. Fredericq, Corpus documentorum inquisitionis . . . Neerlandicae, i. 409-412, The Hague, 1889; H. C. Lea, History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, ii. 126, 158, New York, 1906; KL, iii. 147-148.