Friends of God

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.