Eric Voegelin The People of God - Geschwister-Scholl-Institut für ...

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purification of the Church; the movements of the 16 th century
had the far-reaching consequences of the Reformation and the
Counter-Reformation.
bb. Civilizational Destruction – The Fragmentary
Civilization. Against the function of purifying reform stands
the destructive effect of the movement. In order to signify
properly the distinction between the comprehensive
civilizational function of the pre-Reformation institutions and
the restricted social and cultural sphere of the sect as outlined
above, we shall call the latter the bearer of a fragmentary
civilization. What the sect gives in religious tenseness and
purity of conduct it looses in range of civilizational content.
The rich Church civilization, giving room to power and
rulership, to the wealth of natural differences and social ranks,
is reduced in the sect to the petty existence, horizon and
education of the lower middle class. The danger to Western
Civilization arising from this source could on the whole be
mastered before the 16 th century through the processes of
absorption and suppression referred to before. 7 Typical in this
respect is the early history of the Franciscans. They begin as a
movement, not differing essentially from other heretical
movements of the time; they find cautious support from
Innocent III and are recognized by the Pope after long
hesitations as the order of the Fratres Minores. The problem
of the ascetic women in the movement is solved by the
organization of the women of a second order, the order of the
Clarisses. In order to keep under control the possible anticivilizational
tendencies of the broader masses a third order is
formed, the Tertiary Order of the brethren living in the world.
The Order then becomes ecclesiasticized so quickly and
thoroughly that the movement character is all but lost; this
danger brings to the fore the radical spiritual wing again, and
the Spirituals are finally forced out of the Order; they split up
and disappear as minor heretical sects while the Order itself
7 On the anti-civilizational character of the sects see Troeltsch, 1.c., p. 337.