(Mabillon, _Vet. Anal._
iii. 452). They condemned marriage (save, perhaps, first marriages), the
eating of meat, baptism of children, veneration of saints, fasting,
prayers for the dead and belief in purgatory, denied transubstantiation,
declared the Catholic priesthood worthless, and considered the whole
church of their time corrupted by the "negotia saecularia" which
absorbed all its zeal (of. St Bernard, _Serm._ 65 and 66 _in Cantic._).
They do not seem to have been known as Apostles or Apostolici: St
Bernard, in fact, asks his hearers: "Quo nomine istos titulove
censebis?" (_Serm. 66 in Cantic._). Under this designation, too, are
included the heretics of Perigueux in France, alluded to in the letter
of a certain monk Heribert (Mabillon, _Vet. Anal._ iii. 467). Heribert
says merely: "Se dicunt apostolicam vitam ducere." It is possible that
they were Henricians (see HENRY OF LAUSANNE). During his mission in the
south-east of France in 1146-1147 St Bernard still met disciples of
Henry of Lausanne in the environs of Perigueux. The heretics of whom
Heribert speaks condemned riches, denied the value of the sacraments and
of good works, ate no meat, drank no wine and rejected the veneration of
images. Their leader, named Pons, gathered round him nobles, priests,
monks and nuns.

In the second half of the 13th century appeared in Italy the _Order of
the Apostles_ or _Apostle Brethren_ (see especially the _Chron._ of Fra
Salimbene). This was a product of the mystic fermentation which
proceeded from exalted Franciscanism and from Joachimism (see FRATICELLI
and JOACHIM). It presents great analogies with groups of the same
character, e.g. Sachets, Bizocchi, Flagellants, &c. The order of the
Apostles was founded about 1260 by a young workman from the environs of
Parma, Gerard Segarelli, who had sought admission unsuccessfully to the
Franciscan order. To make his life conform to that of Christ, his
contemporaries say that he had himself circumcised, wrapped in swaddling
clothes and laid in a cradle, and that he then, clad in a white robe and
bare-footed, walked through the streets of Parma crying "Penitenz
agite!" ("Poenitentiam agite!"). He was soon followed by a throng of men
and women, peasants and mechanics. All had to live in absolute poverty,
chastity and idleness. They begged, and preached penitence. Opizo,
bishop of Parma, protected them until they caused trouble in his
diocese. Their diffusion into several countries of