On the other hand he was unquestionably the heresiarch of the

Spirituals, both of France and Italy, regarded by them as the direct

successor of Joachim and Francis. The _Historia Tribulationum_ finds in

the pseudo-Joachitic prophecies a clear account of all the events in his

career. Enthusiastic Spirituals, who held the revolutionary doctrines of

the Everlasting Gospel, testified before the Inquisition that the third

age of the Church had its beginning in Olivi, who thus supplanted St.

Francis himself. He was inspired of heaven; his doctrine had been

revealed to him in Paris, some said, while he was washing his hands;

others that the illumination came to him from Christ while in church, at

the third hour of the day. Thus his utterances were of equal authority

with those of St. Paul, and were to be obeyed by the Church without the

change of a letter. It is no wonder that he was held accountable for the

extravagances of those who regarded him with such veneration and

recognized him as their leader and teacher.[50]

When Olivi died, his former prosecutor, Giovanni di Murro, was general

of the Order, and, strong as were his own ascetic convictions, he lost

no time in completing the work which he had previously failed to

accomplish. Olivi's memory was condemned as that of a heretic, and an

order was issued for the surrender of all his writings, which was

enforced with unsparing rigor, and continued by his successor, Gonsalvo

de Balboa. Pons Botugati, a friar eminent for piety and eloquence,

refused to surrender for burning some of the prohibited tracts, and was

chained closely to the wall in a damp and fetid dungeon, where bread and

water were sparingly flung to him, and where he soon rotted to death in

filth, so that when his body was hastily thrust into an unconsecrated

grave it was found that already the flesh was burrowed through by worms.

A number of other recalcitrants were also imprisoned with almost equal

harshness, and in the next general chapter the reading of all of Olivi's

works was formally prohibited. That much incendiary matter was in

circulation, attributed directly or indirectly to him, is shown by a

catalogue of Olivist tracts, treating of such dangerous questions as the

power of the pope to dispense from vows, his right to claim implicit

obedience in matters concerning faith and morals, and other similar

muttering of rebellion.[51]

The work of Olivi which called forth the greatest discussion, and as to

which the evidences are peculiarly irreconcilable, was his Postil on the

Apocalypse. It was from this that the chief arguments were drawn for his

condemnation. In an inquisitorial sentence of 1318 we learn that his

writings were then again under examination by order of John XXII.; that

they were held to be the source of all the errors which the sectaries

were then expiating at the stake, and that principal among them was his

work on the Apocalypse, so that, until the papal decision, no one was to

hold him as a saint or a Catholic. When the condemnatory report of eight

masters of theology came, in 1319, the Spirituals held that the outrage

thus committed on the faith deprived of all virtue the sacrament of the

altar. No formal judgment was rendered, however, until February 8, 1326,

when John XXII. finally condemned the Postil on the Apocalypse after a

careful scrutiny in the Consistory, and the general chapter of the Order

forbade any one to read or possess it. One of the reports of the experts

upon it has reached us. It is impossible to suppose that they

deliberately manufactured the extracts on which their conclusions are

based, and these extracts are quite sufficient to show that the work was

an echo of the most dangerous doctrines of the Everlasting Gospel. The

fifth age is drawing to an end, and, under the figure of the mystical

Antichrist, there are prophecies about the pseudo-pope, pseudo-Christs,

and pseudo-prophets in terms which clearly allude to the existing

hierarchy. The pseudo-pope will be known by his heresies concerning the

perfection of evangelical poverty (as we shall see was the case with

John XXII.), and the pseudo-Joachim's prophecies concerning Frederic II.

are quoted to show how prelates and clergy who defend the Rule will be

ejected. The carnal church is the Great Whore of Babylon; it makes

drunken and corrupts the nations with its carnalities, and oppresses

the few remaining righteous, as under Paganism it did with its

idolatries. In forty generations from the harvest of the apostles there

will be a new harvest of the Jews and of the whole world, to be garnered

by the Evangelical Order, to which all power and authority will be

transferred. There are to be a sixth and a seventh age, after which

comes the Day of Judgment. The date of this latter cannot be computed,

but at the end of the thirteenth century the sixth age is to open. The

carnal church, or Babylon, will expire, and the triumph of the spiritual

church will commence.[52]

It has been customary for historians to assume that this resurrection of

the Everlasting Gospel was Olivi's work, though it is evident from the

closing years of his career that he could not have been guilty of

uttering such inflammatory doctrines, and this is confirmed by the

silence of the Council of Vienne concerning them, although it condemned

his other trifling errors after a thorough debate on the subject by his

enemies and friends. In fact, Bonagrazia, in the name of the

Conventuals, bitterly attacked his memory and adduced a long list of his

errors, including cursorily certain false and fantastic prophecies in

the Postil on the Apocalypse and his stigmatizing the Church as the

Great Whore. Had such passages as the above existed they would have been

set forth at length and defence would have been impossible. Ubertino in

reply, however, boldly characterized the assertion as most mendacious

and impious; Olivi, he declared, had always spoken most reverently of

the Church and Holy See; the Postil itself closed with a submission to

the Roman Church as the universal mistress, and in the body of the work

the Holy See was repeatedly alluded to as the seat of God and of Christ;

the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant are spoken of as the seats

of God which will last to the end, while the reprobate are Babylon and

the Great Whore. It is impossible that Ubertino can have quoted these

passages falsely, for Bonagrazia would have readily overwhelmed him with

confusion, and the Council of Vienne would have rendered a far different

judgment. We know from undoubted sources that the revolutionary

doctrines commonly attributed to Olivi were entertained by those who

considered themselves and were considered to be his disciples, and we

can only assume that in their misguided zeal they interpolated his

Postil, and gave to their own mystic dreams the authority of his great

name.[53]

After the death of Olivi the Franciscan officials seem to have felt

themselves unable to suppress the sect which was spreading and

organizing throughout Languedoc. For some reason not apparent, unless it

may have been jealousy of the Dominicans, the aid of the Inquisition was

not called in, and the inquisitors withheld their hands from offenders

of the rival Order. The regular church authorities, however, were

appealed to, and in 1299 Gilles, Archbishop of Narbonne, held at Béziers

a provincial synod, in which were condemned the Beguines of both sexes

who under the lead of learned men of an honorable Order (the

Franciscans) engaged in religious exercises not prescribed by the

Church, wore vestments distinguishing them from other folk, performed

novel penances and abstinences, administered vows of chastity, often not

observed, held nocturnal conventicles, frequented heretics, and

proclaimed that the end of the world was at hand, and that already the

reign of Antichrist had begun. From them many scandals had already

arisen, and there was danger of more and greater troubles. The bishops

were therefore ordered, in their several dioceses, to investigate these

sectaries closely and to suppress them. We see from this that there was

rapidly growing up a new heresy based upon the Everlasting Gospel, with

the stricter Franciscans as a nucleus, but extending among the people.

For this popular propaganda the Tertiary Order afforded peculiar

facilities, and we shall find hereafter that the Beguines, as they were

generally called, were to a great extent Tertiaries, when not full

members of the Order. There was nothing, however, to tempt the cupidity

of the episcopal officials to the prosecution of those whose principal

belief consisted in the renunciation of all worldly goods, and it is not

likely that they showed themselves more diligent in their duties than we

have seen them when greater interests were at stake. The action of the

council may therefore be safely assumed as wasted, except as justifying

persecution within the Order. The lay Beguines doubtless enjoyed

practical immunity, while the Spiritual Friars continued to endure the

miseries at the hands of their superiors for which monastic life

afforded such abundant opportunities. Thus, at Villefranche, when

Raymond Auriole and Jean Prime refused to admit that their vows

permitted a liberal use of the things of the world, they were imprisoned

in chains and starved till Raymond died, deprived of the sacraments as a

heretic, and Jean barely escaped with his life.[54]

* * * * *

Thus passed away the unfortunate thirteenth century--that age of lofty

aspirations unfulfilled, of brilliant dreams unsubstantial as visions,

of hopes ever looking to fruition and ever disappointed. The human

intellect had awakened, but as yet the human conscience slumbered, save

in a few rare souls who mostly paid in disgrace or death the penalty of

their precocious sensitiveness. That wonderful century passed away and

left as its legacy to its successor vast progress, indeed, in

intellectual activity, but on the spiritual side of the inheritance a

dreary void. All efforts to elevate the ideals of man had miserably

failed. Society was harder and coarser, more carnal and more worldly

than ever, and it is not too much to say that the Inquisition had done

its full share to bring this about by punishing aspirations, and by

teaching that the only safety lay in mechanical conformity, regardless

of abuses and unmindful of corruption. The results of that hundred years

of effort and suffering are well symbolized in the two popes with whom

it began and ended--Innocent III. and that pinchbeck Innocent, Boniface

VIII., who, in the popular phrase of the time, came in like a fox, ruled

like a lion, and died like a dog. In intellect and learning Boniface was

superior to his model, in imperious pride his equal, in earnestness, in

self-devotion, in loftiness of aim, in all that dignifies ambition,

immeasurably his inferior. It is no wonder that the apocalyptic

speculations of Joachim should acquire fresh hold on the minds of those

who could not reconcile the spiritual desert in which they lived with

their conception of the merciful providence of God. To such men it

seemed impossible that he could permit a continuance of the cruel

wickedness which pervaded the Church, and through it infected society at

large. This was plainly beyond the power of a few earnest zealots to

cure, or even to mitigate, so the divine interposition was requisite to

create a new earth, inhabited only by the few virtuous Elect, under a

reign of ascetic poverty and all-embracing love.

One of the most energetic and impetuous missionaries of these beliefs

was Arnaldo de Vilanova, in some respects, perhaps, the most remarkable

man of his time, whom we have only of late learned to know thoroughly,

from the researches of Señor Pelayo. As a physician he stood unrivalled.

Kings and popes disputed his services, and his voluminous writings on

medicine and hygiene were reprinted in collective editions six times

during the sixteenth century, besides numerous issues of special

treatises. As a chemist he is more doubtfully said to have left his mark

in several useful discoveries. As an alchemist he had the repute of

producing ingots of gold in the court of Robert of Naples, a great

patron of the science, and his treatises on the subject were included in

collections of such works printed as lately as the eighteenth century. A

student of both Arabic and Hebrew, he translated from Costa ben Luca

treatises on incantations, ligatures, and other magic devices. He wrote

on astronomy and on oneiromancy, for he was an expert expounder of

dreams, and also on surveying and wine-making. He draughted laws for

Frederic of Trinacria which that enlightened monarch promulgated and

enforced, and his advice to Frederic and his brother Jayme II. of Aragon

on their duties as monarchs stamps him as a conscientious statesman.

When Jayme applied to him for the explanation of a mysterious dream he

not only satisfied the king with his exposition, but proceeded to warn

him that his chief duty lay in administering justice, first to the poor,

and then to the rich. When asked how often he gave audience to the poor,

Jayme answered, once a week, and also when he rode out for pleasure.

Arnaldo sternly reproved him; he was earning damnation; the rich had

access to him every day, morning, noon, and night, the poor but seldom;

he made of God the hog of St. Anthony, which received only the refuse

rejected by all. If he wished to earn salvation he must devote himself

to the welfare of the poor, without which, in spite of the teachings of

the Church, neither psalms, nor masses, nor fasting, nor even alms would

suffice. To Jayme he was not only physician but counsellor, venerable

and much beloved, and he was repeatedly employed on diplomatic missions

by the kings of both Aragon and Sicily.[55]

Multifarious as were these occupations, they consumed but a portion of

his restless activity. In dedicating to Robert of Naples his treatise on

surveying, he describes himself--

"Yeu, Arnaut de Vilanova ...

Doctor en leys et en decrets,

Et en siensa de strolomia,

Et en l'art de medicina,

Et en la santa teulogia"--

and, although a layman, married, and a father, his favorite field of

labor was theology, which he had studied with the Dominicans of

Montpellier. In 1292 he commenced with a work on the Tetragrammaton, or

ineffable name of Jehovah, in which he sought to explain by natural

reasons the mystery of the Trinity. Embarked in such speculations he

soon became a confirmed Joachite. To a man of his lofty spiritual

tendencies and tender compassion for his fellows, the wickedness and

cruelty of mankind were appalling, and especially the crimes of the

clergy, among whom he reckoned the Mendicants as the worst. Their vices

he lashed unsparingly, and he naturally fell in with the speculations of

the pseudo-Joachitic writings, anticipating the speedy advent of

Antichrist and the Day of Judgment. In numberless works composed in both

Latin and the vernacular he commented upon and popularized the Joachitic

books, even going so far as to declare that the revelation of Cyril was

more precious than all Scripture. Such a man naturally sympathized with

the persecuted Spirituals. He boldly undertook their defence in sundry

tracts, and when, in 1309, Frederic of Trinacria applied to him to

expound his dream, he seized the opportunity to invoke the monarch's

commiseration for their suffering, by explaining to him how, when they

sought to appeal to the Holy See, their brethren persecuted and slew

them, and how evangelical poverty was treated as the gravest of crimes.

He used his influence similarly at the court of Naples, thus providing

for them, as we shall see, a place of refuge in their necessity.[56]

With his impulsive temperament it was impossible for him to hold aloof

from the bitter strife then raging. Before the thirteenth century was

out he addressed letters to the Dominicans and Franciscans of Paris and

Montpellier, to the Kings of France and Aragon, and even to the Sacred

College, announcing the approaching end of the world; the wicked

Catholics, and especially the clergy, were the members of the coming

Antichrist. This aroused an active controversy, in which neither party

spared the other. After a war of tracts the Catalan Dominicans formally

accused him before the Bishop of Girona, and he responded that they had

no standing in court, as they were heretics and madmen, dogs and

jugglers, and he cited them to appear before the pope by the following

Lent. It could only have been the royal favor which preserved him from

the fate at the stake of many a less audacious controversialist; and

when, in 1300, King Jayme sent him on a mission to Philippe le Bel, he

boldly laid his work on the advent of Antichrist before the University

of Paris. The theologians looked askance on it, and, in spite of his

ambassadorial immunity, on the eve of his return he was arrested without

warning by the episcopal Official. The Archbishop of Narbonne interposed

in vain, and he was bailed out on security of three thousand livres,

furnished by the Viscount of Narbonne and other friends. Brought before

the masters of theology, he was forced by threats of imprisonment to

recant upon the spot, without being allowed to defend himself, and one

can well believe his statement that one of his most eager judges was a

Franciscan, whose zeal was doubtless inflamed by the portentous

appearance of another Olivi from the prolific South.[57]

A formal appeal to Boniface was followed by a personal visit to the

papal court. Received at first with jeers, his obstinacy provoked

repression. As a relapsed, he might have been burned, but he was only

imprisoned and forced to a second recantation, in spite of which

Philippe le Bel, at the assembty of the Louvre in 1303, in his charges

of heresy against Boniface asserted that the pope had approved a book of

Arnaldo's which had already been burned by himself and by the University

of Paris. Boniface, in fact, in releasing him, imposed on him silence on

theologic matters, though appreciating his medical skill and appointing

him papal physician. For a while he kept his peace, but a call from

heaven forced him to renewed activity, and he solemnly warned Boniface

of the divine vengeance if he remained insensible to the duty of

averting the wrath to come by a thorough reformation of the Church. The

catastrophe of Anagni soon followed, and Arnaldo, who had left the papal

court, naturally regarded it as a confirmation of his prophecy, and

looked upon himself as an envoy of God. With a fierce denunciation of

clerical corruptions he repeated the warning to Benedict XI., who

responded by imposing a penance on him and seizing all his apocalyptic

tracts. In about a month Benedict, too, was dead, and Arnaldo announced

that a third message would be sent to his successor, "though when and by

whom has not been revealed to me, but I know that if he heeds it divine

power will adorn him with its sublimest gifts; if he rejects it, God

will visit him with a judgment so terrible that it will be a wonder to

all the earth."[58]

For some years we know nothing of his movements, although his fertile

pen was busily employed with little intermission, and the Church vainly

endeavored to suppress his writings. In 1305 Fray Guillermo, Inquisitor

of Valencia, excommunicated and ejected from church Gambaldo de Pilis, a

servant of King Jayme, for possessing and circulating them. The king

applied to Guillermo for his reasons, and, on being refused, angrily

wrote to Eymerich, the Dominican general. He declared that Arnaldo's

writings were eagerly read by himself, his queen and his children, by

archbishops and bishops, by the clergy and the laity. He demanded that

the sentence be revoked as uncanonical, else he would punish Fray

Guillermo severely and visit with his displeasure all the Dominicans of

his dominions. It was probably this royal favor which saved Arnaldo when

he came near being burned at Santa Christina, and escaped with no worse

infliction than being stigmatized as a necromancer and enchanter, a

heretic and a pope of the heretics.[59]

When the persecution of the Spirituals of Provence was at its height,

Arnaldo procured from Charles the Lame of Naples, who was also Count of

Provence, a letter to the general, Gerald, which for a time put a stop

to it. In 1309 we find him at Avignon, on a mission from Jayme II., well

received by Clement V., who prized highly his skill as a physician. He

used effectively this position by secretly persuading the pope to send

for the leaders of the Spirituals, in order to learn from them orally

and in writing of what they complained and what reformation they desired

in their Order. With regard to his own affairs he was not so fortunate.

At a public hearing before the pope and cardinals, in October, 1309, he

predicted the end of the world within the century, and the advent of

Antichrist within its first forty years; he dwelt at much length on the

depravity of clergy and laity, and complained bitterly of the

persecution of those who desired to live in evangelical poverty. All

this was to be expected of him, but he added the incredible indiscretion

of reading a detailed account of the dreams of Jayme II. and Frederic of

Trinacria, their doubts and his explanations and exhortations--matters,

all of them, as sacredly confidential as the confession of a penitent.

Cardinal Napoleone Orsini, the protector of the Spirituals, wrote to

Jayme congratulating him on his piety as revealed by that wise and

illuminated man, inflamed with the love of God, Master Arnaldo, but this

effort to conjure the tempest was unavailing. The Cardinal of Porto and

Ramon Ortiz, Dominican Provincial of Aragon, promptly reported to Jayme

that he and his brother had been represented as wavering in the faith

and as believers in dreams, and advised him no longer to employ as his

envoy such a heretic as Arnaldo. Jayme's pride was deeply wounded. It

was in vain that Clement assured him that he had paid no attention to

Arnaldo's discourse; the king wrote to the pope and cardinals and to his

brother denying the story of his dream and treating Arnaldo as an

impostor. Frederic was less susceptible: he wrote to Jayme that the

story could do them no harm, and that the real infamy would lie in

abandoning Arnaldo in his hour of peril. Arnaldo took refuge with him,

and not long afterwards was sent by him again to Avignon on a mission,

but perished during the voyage. The exact date of his death is unknown,

but it was prior to February, 1311. For selfish reasons Clement mourned

his loss, and issued a bull announcing that Arnaldo had been his

physician and had promised him a most useful book which he had written;

he had died without doing so, and now Clement summoned any one

possessing the precious volume to deliver it to him.[60]

* * * * *

The interposition of Arnaldo offered to the Spirituals an unexpected

prospect of deliverance. From Languedoc to Venice and Florence they were

enduring the bitterest persecution from their superiors; they were cast

into dungeons where they starved to death, and were exposed to the

infinite trials for which monastic life afforded such abundant

opportunities, when Arnaldo persuaded Clement to make an energetic

effort to heal the schism in the Order and to silence the accusations

which the Conventuals brought against their brethren. An occasion was

found in an appeal from the citizens of Narbonne setting forth that the

books of Olivi had been unjustly condemned, that the Rule of the Order

was disregarded, and those who observed it were persecuted, and further

praying that a special cult of Olivi's remains might be permitted. A

commission of important personages was formed to investigate the faith

of Angelo da Clarino and his disciples, who still dwelt in the

neighborhood of Rome, and who were pronounced good Catholics. Such

leading Spirituals as Raymond Gaufridi, the former general, Ubertino da

Casale, the intellectual leader of the sect, Raymond de Giniac, former

Provincial of Aragon, Gui de Mirepoix, Bartolommeo Sicardi, and others

were summoned to Avignon, where they were ordered to draw up in writing

the points which they deemed requisite for the reformation of the Order.

To enable them to perform this duty in safety they were taken under

papal protection by a bull which shows in its minute specifications how

real were the perils incurred by those who sought to restore the Order

to its primitive purity. Apparently stimulated by these warnings, the

general, Gonsalvo, at the Chapter of Padua in 1310, caused the adoption

of many regulations to diminish the luxury and remove the abuses which

pervaded the Order, but the evil was too deep-seated. He was resolved,

moreover, on reducing the Spirituals to obedience, and the hatred

between the two parties grew bitterer than ever.[61]

The articles of complaint, thirty-five in number, which the Spirituals

laid before Clement V. in obedience to his commands formed a terrible

indictment of the laxity and corruption which had crept into the Order.

It was answered but feebly by the Conventuals, partly by denying its

allegations, partly by dialectical subtleties to prove that the Rule did

not mean what it said, and partly by accusing the Spirituals of heresy.

Clement appointed a commission of cardinals and theologians to hear both

sides. For two years the contest raged with the utmost fury. During its

continuance Raymond Gaufridi, Gui de Mirepoix, and Bartolommeo Sicardi

died--poisoned by their adversaries, according to one account, worn out

with ill-treatment and insult according to another. Clement had

temporarily released the delegates of the Spirituals from the

jurisdiction of their enemies, who had the audacity, March 1, 1311, to

enter a formal protest against his action, alleging that they were

excommunicated heretics under trial, who could not be thus protected. In

this prolonged discussion the opposing leaders were Ubertino da Casale

and Bonagrazia (Boncortese) da Bergamo. The former, while absorbed in

devotion on Mont' Alverno, the scene of St. Francis's transfiguration,

had been anointed by Christ and raised to a lofty degree of spiritual

insight. His reputation is illustrated by the story that while laboring

with much success in Tuscany he had been summoned to Rome by Benedict

XI. to answer some accusations brought against him. Soon afterwards the

people of Perugia sent a solemn embassy to the pope with two

requests--one that Ubertino be restored to them, the other that the pope

and cardinals would reside in their city--whereat Benedict smiled and

said, "I see you love us but a little, since you prefer Fra Ubertino to

us." He was a Joachite, moreover, who did not hesitate to characterize

the abdication of Celestin as a horrible innovation, and the accession

of Boniface as a usurpation. Bonagrazia was perhaps superior to his

opponent in learning and not his inferior in steadfast devotion to what

he deemed the truth, though Ubertino characterized him as a lay novice,

skilled in the cunning tricks of the law. We shall see hereafter his

readiness to endure persecution in defence of his own ideal of poverty;

and the antagonism of two such men upon the points at issue between them

is the most striking illustration of the impracticable nature of the

questions which raised so heated a strife and cost so much blood.[62]

The Spirituals failed in their efforts to obtain a decree of separation

which should enable them, in peace, to live according to their

interpretation of the Rule, but in other respects the decision of the

commission was wholly in their favor, in spite of the persistent effort

of the Conventuals to divert attention from the real questions at issue

to the assumed errors of Olivi. Clement accepted the decision, and in

full consistory, in presence of both parties, ordered them to live in

mutual love and charity, to bury the past in oblivion, and not to insult

each other for past differences. Ubertino replied, "Holy Father, they

call us heretics and defenders of heresy; there are whole books full of

this in your archives and those of the Order. They must either allege

these things and let us defend ourselves, or they must recall them.

Otherwise there can be no peace between us." To this Clement rejoined,

"We declare as pope, that from what has been stated on both sides before

us, no one ought to call you heretics and defenders of heresy. What

exists to that effect in our archives or elsewhere we wholly erase and

pronounce to be of no validity against you." The result was seen in the

Council of Vienne (1311-12), which adopted the canon known as _Exivi de

Paradiso_, designed to settle forever the controversy which had lasted

so long. Angelo da Clarino declares that this was based wholly upon the

propositions of Ubertino; that it was the crowning victory of the

Spirituals, and his heart overflows with joy when he communicates the

good news to his brethren. It determined, he says, eighty questions

concerning the interpretation of the Rule; hereafter those who serve the

Lord in hermitages and are obedient to their bishops are secured against

molestation by any person. The inquisitors, he further stated, were

placed under control of the bishops, which he evidently regarded as a

matter of special importance, for in Provence and Tuscany the

Inquisition was Franciscan, and thus in the hands of the Conventuals. We

have seen that Clement delayed issuing the decrees of the council. He

was on the point of doing so, after careful revision, when his death, in

1314, followed by a long interregnum, caused a further postponement.

John XXII. was elected in August, 1316, but he, too, desired time for

further revision, and it was not until November, 1317, that the canons

were finally issued. That they underwent change in this process is more

than probable, and the canon _Exici de Paradiso_ was on a subject

peculiarly provocative of alteration. As it has reached us it certainly

does not justify Angelo's pæan of triumph. It is true that it insists on

a more rigid compliance with the Rule. It forbids the placing of coffers

in churches for the collection of money; it pronounces the friars

incapable of enjoying inheritances; it deprecates the building of

magnificent churches, and convents which are rather palaces; it

prohibits the acquisition of extensive gardens and great vineyards, and

even the storing up of granaries of corn and cellars of wine where the

brethren can live from day to day by beggary; it declares that whatever

is given to the Order belongs to the Church of Rome, and that the friars

have only the use of it, for they can hold nothing, either individually

or in common. In short, it fully justified the complaints of the

Spirituals and interpreted the Rule in accordance with their views, but

it did not, as Angelo claimed, allow them to live by themselves in

peace, and it subjected them to their superiors. This was to remand them

into slavery, as the great majority of the Order were Conventuals,

jealous of the assumption of superior sanctity by the Spirituals, and

irritated by their defeat and by the threatened enforcement of the Rule

in all its rigidity. This spirit was still further inflamed by the

action of the general, Gonsalvo, who zealously set to work to carry out

the reforms prescribed by the canon _Exivi_. He traversed the various

provinces, pulling down costly buildings and compelling the return of

gifts and legacies to donors and heirs. This excited great indignation

among the laxer brethren, and his speedy death, in 1313, was attributed

to foul play. The election of his successor, Alessandro da Alessandria,

one of the most earnest of the Conventuals, showed that the Order at

large was not disposed to submit quietly to pope and council.[63]

As might have been expected, the strife between the parties became

bitterer than ever. Clement's leaning in favor of asceticism is shown by

his canonization, in 1313, of Celestin V., but when the Spirituals

applied to him for protection against their brethren he contented

himself with ordering them to return to their convents and commanding

them to be kindly treated. These commands were disregarded. Mutual

hatreds were too strong for power not to be abused. Clement did his best

to force the Conventuals to submission; as early as July, 1311, he had

ordered Bonagrazia to betake himself to the convent of Valcabrère in

Comminges, and not to leave it without special papal license. At the

same time he summoned before him Guiraud Vallette, the Provincial of

Provence, and fifteen of the principal officials of the Order throughout

the south of France, who were regarded as the leaders in the oppression

of the Spirituals. In public consistory he repeated his commands,

scolded them for disobedience and rebellion, dismissed from office those

who had positions, and declared ineligible those who were not officials.

Those whom he ejected he replaced with suitable persons whom he strictly

commanded to preserve the peace and show favor to the sorely afflicted

minority. In spite of this the scandals and complaints continued, until

the general, Alessandro, granted to the Spirituals the three convents of

Narbonne, Béziers, and Carcassonne, and ordered that the superiors

placed over them should be acceptable. The change was not effected

without the employment of force, in which the Spirituals had the

advantage of popular sympathy, and the convents thus favored became

houses of refuge for the discontented brethren elsewhere. Then for a

while there seems to have been quiet, but with Clement's death, in 1314,

the turmoil commenced afresh. Bonagrazia, under pretext of sickness,

hastened to leave his place of confinement, and joined eagerly in the

renewed disturbance; the dismissed officials again made their influence

felt; the Spirituals complained that they were abused and defamed in

private and in public, pelted with mud and stones, deprived of food and

even of the sacraments, despoiled of their habits, and scattered to

distant places or imprisoned.[64]

It is possible that Clement might have found some means of dissolving

the bonds between these irreconcilable parties, but for the

insubordination of the Italian Spirituals. These grew impatient during

the long conferences which preceded the Council of Vienne. Subjected to

daily afflictions and despairing of rest within the Order, they eagerly

listened to the advice of a wise and holy man, Canon Martin of Siena,

who assured them that, however few their numbers, they had a right to

secede and elect their own general. Under the lead of Giacopo di San

Gemignano they did so, and effected an independent organization. This

was rank rebellion and greatly prejudiced the case of the Spirituals at

Avignon. Clement would not listen to anything that savored of

concessions to those who thus threw off their pledged obedience. He

promptly sent commissions for their trial, and they were duly

excommunicated as schismatics and rebels, founders of a superstitious

sect, and disseminators of false and pestiferous doctrines. Persecution

against them raged more furiously than ever. In some places, supported

by the laity, they ejected the Conventuals from their houses and

defended themselves by force of arms, disregarding the censures of the

Church which were lavished on them. Others made the best of their way to

Sicily, and others again, shortly before Clement's death, sent letters

to him professing submission and obedience, but the friends of the

Spirituals feared to compromise themselves by even presenting them.

After the accession of John XXII. they made another attempt to reach the

pope, but by that time the Conventuals were in full control and threw

the envoys into prison as excommunicated heretics. Such of them as were

able to do so escaped to Sicily. It is worthy of note that everywhere

the virtues and sanctity of these so-called heretics won for them

popular favor, and secured them protection more or less efficient, and

this was especially the case in Sicily. King Frederic, mindful of the

lessons taught him by Arnaldo de Vilanova, received the fugitives

graciously and allowed them to establish themselves, in spite of

repeated remonstrances on the part of John XXII. There Henry da Ceva,

whom we shall meet again, had already sought refuge from the persecution

of Boniface VIII. and had prepared the way for those who were to follow.

In 1313 there are allusions to a pope named Celestin whom the "Poor Men"

in Sicily had elected, with a college of cardinals, who constituted the

only true Church and who were entitled to the obedience of the faithful.

Insignificant as this movement may have seemed at the time, it

subsequently aided the foundation of the sect known as Fraticelli, who

so long braved with marvellous constancy the unsparing rigor of the

Italian Inquisition.[65]

Into these dangerous paths of rebellion the original leaders of the

Italian Spirituals were not obliged to enter, as they were released from

subjection to the Conventuals, and could afford to remain in obedience

to Rome. Angelo da Clarino writes to his disciples that torment and

death were preferable to separation from the Church and its head; the

pope was the bishop of bishops, who regulated all ecclesiastical

dignities; the power of the keys is from Christ, and submission is due

in spite of persecution. Yet, together with these appeals are others

which show how impracticable was the position created by the belief in

St. Francis as a new evangelist whose Rule was a revelation. If kings or

prelates command what is contrary to the faith, then obedience is due to

God, and death is to be welcomed. Francis placed in the Rule nothing but

what Christ bade him write, and obedience is due to it rather than to

prelates. After the persecution under John XXII. he even quotes a

prophecy attributed to Francis, to the effect that men would arise who

would render the Order odious, and corrupt the whole Church; there would

be a pope not canonically elected who would not believe rightly as to

Christ and the Rule; there would be a split in the Order, and the wrath

of God would visit those who cleaved to error. With clear reference to

John, he says that if a pope condemns evangelical truth as an error he

is to be left to the judgment of Christ and the doctors; if he

excommunicates as heresy the poverty of the Gospel, he is excommunicate

of God and is a heretic before Christ. Yet, though his faith and

obedience were thus sorely tried, Angelo and his followers never

attempted a schism. He died in 1337, worn out with sixty years of

tribulation and persecution--a man of the firmest and gentlest spirit,

of the most saintly aspirations, who had fallen on evil days and had

exhausted himself in the hopeless effort to reconcile the

irreconcilable. Though John XXII. had permitted him to assume the habit

and Rule of the Celestins, he was obliged to live in hiding, with his

abode known only to a few faithful friends and followers, of some of

whom we hear as on trial before the Inquisition as Fraticelli, in 1334.

It was in the desert hermitage of Santa Maria di Aspro in the

Basilicata; but three days before his death a rumor spread that a saint

was dying there, and such multitudes assembled that it was necessary to

place guards at the entrance of his retreat, and admit the people two by

two to gaze on his dying agonies. He shone in miracles, and was finally

beatified by the Church, which through the period of two generations had

never ceased to trample on him, but his little congregation, though lost

to sight in the more aggressive energy of the Fraticelli, continued to

exist, even after the tradition of self-abnegation was taken up under

more fortunate auspices by the Observantines, until it was finally

absorbed into the latter in the reorganization of 1517 under Leo X.[66]

* * * * *

In Provence, even before the death of Clement V., there were ardent

spirits, nursing the reveries of the Everlasting Gospel, who were not

satisfied with the victory won at the Council of Vienne. When, in 1311,

the Conventuals assailed the memory of Olivi, one of their accusations

was that he had given rise to sects who claimed that his doctrine was

revealed by Christ, that it was of equal authority with the gospel, that

since Nicholas III. the papal supremacy had been transferred to them,

and they consequently had elected a pope of their own. This Ubertino did

not deny, but only argued that he knew nothing of it; that if it were

true Olivi was not responsible, as it was wholly opposed to his

teaching, of which not a word could be cited in support of such

insanity. Yet, undoubtedly there were sectaries calling themselves

disciples of Olivi among whom the revolutionary leaven was working, and

they could recognize no virtue or authority in the carnal and worldly

Church. In 1313 we hear of a Frère Raymond Jean, who, in a public sermon

at Montréal, prophesied that they would suffer persecution for the

faith, and when, after the sermon, he was asked what he meant, boldly

replied in the presence of several persons, "The enemies of the faith

are among ourselves. The Church which governs us is symbolled by the

Great Whore of the Apocalypse, who persecutes the poor and the ministers

of Christ. You see we do not dare to walk openly before our brethren."

He added that the only true pope was Celestin, who had been elected in

Sicily, and his organization was the only true Church.[67]

Thus the Spirituals were by no means a united body. When once the

trammels of authority had been shaken off, there was among them too much

individuality and too ardent a fanaticism for them to reach precisely

the same convictions, and they were fractioned into little groups and

sects which neutralized what slender ability they might otherwise have

had to give serious trouble to the powerful organization of the

hierarchy. Yet, whether their doctrines were submissive like those of

Angelo, or revolutionary like those of Raymond Jean, they were all

guilty of the unpardonable crime of independence, of thinking for

themselves where thought was forbidden, and of believing in a higher law

than that of papal decretals. Their steadfastness was soon to be put to

the test. In 1314 the general, Alessandro, died, and after an interval

of twenty months Michele da Cesena was chosen as his successor. To the

chapter of Naples which elected him the Spirituals of Narbonne sent a

long memorial reciting the wrongs and afflictions which they had endured

since the death of Clement had deprived them of papal protection. The

nomination of Michele might seem to be a victory over the Conventuals.

He was a distinguished theologian, of resolute and unbending temper, and

resolved on enforcing the strict observance of the Rule. Within three

months of his election he issued a general precept enjoining rigid

obedience to it. The vestments to be worn were minutely prescribed,

money was not to be accepted except in case of absolute necessity; no

fruits of the earth were to be sold; no splendid buildings to be

erected; meals were to be plain and frugal; the brethren were never to

ride, nor even to wear shoes except under written permission of their

convents when exigency required it. The Spirituals might hope that at

last they had a general after their own heart, but they had

unconsciously drifted away from obedience, and Michele was resolved that

the Order should be a unit, and that all wanderers should be driven back

into the fold.[68]

A fortnight before the issuing of this precept the long interregnum of

the papacy had been closed by the election of John XXII. There have been

few popes who have so completely embodied the ruling tendencies of their

time, and few who have exerted so large an influence on the Church, for

good or for evil. Sprung from the most humble origin, his abilities and

force of character had carried him from one preferment to another, until

he reached the chair of St. Peter. He was short in stature but robust in

health, choleric and easily moved to wrath, while his enmity once

excited was durable, and his rejoicing when his foes came to an evil end

savored little of the Christian pastor. Persistent and inflexible, a

purpose once undertaken was pursued to the end regardless of opposition

from friend or enemy. He was especially proud of his theologic

attainments, ardent in disputation, and impatient of opposition. After

the fashion of the time he was pious, for he celebrated mass almost

every day, and almost every night he arose to recite the Office or to

study. Among his good works is enumerated a poetical description of the

Passion of Christ, concluding with a prayer, and he gratified his vanity

as an author by proclaiming many indulgences as a reward to all who

would read it through. His chief characteristics, however, were ambition

and avarice. To gratify the former he waged endless wars with the

Visconti of Milan, in which, as we are assured by a contemporary, the

blood shed would have incarnadined the waters of Lake Constance, and the

bodies of the slain would have bridged it from shore to shore. As for

the latter, his quenchless greed displayed an exhaustless fertility of

resource in converting the treasures of salvation into current coin. He

it was who first reduced to a system the "Taxes of the Penitentiary,"

which offered absolution at fixed prices for every possible form of

human wickedness, from five grossi for homicide or incest, to

thirty-three grossi for ordination below the canonical age. Before he

had been two years in the papacy he arrogated to himself the

presentation to all the collegiate benefices in Christendom, under the

convenient pretext of repressing simony, and then from their sale we are

told that he accumulated an immense treasure. Another still more

remunerative device was the practice of not filling a vacant episcopate

from the ranks, but establishing a system of promotion from a poorer see

to a richer one, and thence to archbishoprics, so that each vacancy gave

him the opportunity of making numerous changes and levying tribute on

each. Besides these regular sources of unhallowed gains he was fertile

in special expedients, as when, in 1326, needing money for his Lombard

wars, he applied to Charles le Bel for authority to levy a subsidy on

the churches of France, Germany being for the time cut off by his

quarrel with Louis of Bavaria. Charles at first refused, but finally

agreed to divide the spoils, and granted the power in consideration of a

papal grant to him of a tithe for two years--as a contemporary remarks,

"_et ainsi sainete yglise, quant l'un le tont, l'autre l'escorche_."

John proceeded to extort a large sum; from some he got a full tithe,

from others a half, from others again as much as he could extract, while

all who held benefices under papal authority had to pay a full year's

revenue. His excuse for this insatiable acquisitiveness was that he

designed the money for a crusade, but as he lived to be a nonagenary

without executing that design, the contemporary Villani is perhaps

justified in the cautious remark--"Possibly he had such intention."

Though for the most part parsimonious, he spent immense sums in

advancing the fortunes of his nephew--or son--the Cardinal-legate Poyet,

who was endeavoring to found a principality in the north of Italy. He

lavished money in making Avignon a permanent residence for the papacy,

though it was reserved for Benedict XII. to purchase and enlarge the

enormous palace-fortress of the popes. Yet after his death, when an

inventory of his effects came to be made, there was found in his

treasury eighteen millions of gold florins, and jewels and vestments

estimated at seven millions more. Even in mercantile Florence, the sum

was so incomprehensible that Villani, whose brother was one of the

appraisers, feels obliged to explain that each million is a thousand

thousands. When we reflect upon the comparative poverty of the period

and the scarcity of the precious metals, we can estimate how great an

amount of suffering was represented by such an accumulation, wrung as it

was, in its ultimate source, from the wretched peasantry, who gleaned at

the best an insufficient subsistence from imperfect agriculture. We can,

perhaps, moreover, imagine how, in its passage to the papal treasury, it

represented so much of simony, so much of justice sold or denied to the

wretched litigants in the curia, so much of purgatory remitted, and of

pardons for sins to the innumerable applicants for a share of the

Church's treasury of salvation.[69]

The permanent evil which he wrought by his shameless traffic in

benefices, and the reputation which he left behind him, are visible in

the bitter complaints which were made at the Council of Siena, a century

later, by the deputies of the Gallican nation. They refer to his

pontificate as that in which the Holy See reserved all benefices to

itself, when graces, expectatives, etc., were publicly sold to the

highest bidder, without regard to qualification, so that in France many

benefices were utterly ruined by reason of the insupportable burdens

laid upon them. It is no wonder, therefore, that when St. Birgitta of

Sweden was applied to, in the latter half of the fourteenth century, by

some Franciscans to learn whether John's decretals on the subject of the

poverty of Christ were correct, and she was vouchsafed two visions of

the Virgin to satisfy their scruples, the Virgin reported that his

decretals were free from error, but discreetly announced that she was

not at liberty to say whether his soul was in heaven or in hell. Such

was the man to whom the cruel irony of fate committed the settlement of

the delicate scruples which vexed the souls of the Spirituals.[70]

John had been actively engaged in the proceedings of the Council of

Vienne, and was thoroughly familiar with all the details of the

question. When, therefore, the general, Michele, shortly after his

accession, applied to him to restore unity in the distracted Order, his

imperious temper led him to take speedy and vigorous action. King

Frederic of Trinacria was ordered to seize the refugees in his

dominions, and deliver them to their superiors to be disciplined.

Bertrand de la Tour, the Provincial of Aquitaine, was instructed to

reduce to obedience the rebels of the convents of Béziers, Narbonne,

and Carcassonne. Bertrand at first tried persuasion. The outward sign of

the Spirituals was the habit. They wore smaller hoods, and gowns

shorter, narrower, and coarser than the Conventuals; and, holding this

to be in accordance with the precedent set by Francis, it was as much an

article of faith with them as the absence of granaries and wine-cellars

and the refusal to handle money. When he urged them to abandon these

vestments they therefore replied that this was one of the matters in

which they could not render obedience. Then he assumed a tone of

authority under the papal rescript, and they rejoined by an appeal to

the pope better informed, signed by forty-five friars of Narbonne, and

fifteen of Béziers. On receipt of the appeal, John peremptorily ordered,

April 27, 1317, all the appellants to present themselves before him

within ten days, under pain of excommunication. They set forth,

seventy-four in number, with Bernard Délicieux at their head, and on

reaching Avignon did not venture to lodge in the Franciscan convent, but

bivouacked for the night on the public place in front of the papal

doors.[71]

They were regarded as much more dangerous rebels than the Italian

Spirituals. The latter had already had a hearing in which Ubertino da

Casale confuted the charges brought against them, and he, Goffrido da

Cornone, and Philippe de Caux, while expressing sympathy and readiness

to defend Olivi and his disciples, had plainly let it be seen that they

regarded themselves as not personally concerned with them. John drew the

same distinction; and though Angelo da Clarino was for a while

imprisoned on the strength of an old condemnation by Boniface VIII., he

was soon released and permitted to adopt the Celestin habit and Rule.

Ubertino was told that if he would return for a few days to the

Franciscan convent proper provision would be made for his future. To

this he significantly replied, "After staying with the friars for a

single day I will not require any provision in this world from you or

any one else," and he was permitted to transfer himself to the

Benedictine Order, as were likewise several others of his comrades. He

had but a temporary respite, however, and we shall see hereafter that

in 1325 he was obliged to take refuge with Louis of Bavaria.[72]

The Olivists were not to escape so easily. The day after their arrival

they were admitted to audience. Bernard Délicieux argued their case so

ably that he could only be answered by accusing him of having impeded

the Inquisition, and John ordered his arrest. Then François Sanche took

up the argument, and was accused of having vilified the Order publicly,

when John delivered him to the Conventuals, who promptly imprisoned him

in a cell next to the latrines. Then Guillaume de Saint-Amand assumed

the defence, but the friars accused him of dilapidation and of deserting

the Convent of Narbonne, and John ordered his arrest. Then Geoffroi

attempted it, but John interrupted him, saying, "We wonder greatly that

you demand the strict observance of the Rule, and yet you wear five

gowns." Geoffroi replied, "Holy Father, you are deceived, for, saving

your reverence, it is not true that I wear five gowns," John answered

hotly, "Then we lie," and ordered Geoffroi to be seized until it could

be determined how many gowns he wore. The terrified brethren, seeing

that their case was prejudged, fell on their knees, crying, "Holy

Father, justice, justice!" and the pope ordered them all to go to the

Franciscan convent, to be guarded till he should determine what to do

with them. Bernard, Guillaume, and Geoffroi, and some of their comrades

were subjected to harsh imprisonment in chains by order of the pope.

Bernard's fate we have already seen. As to the others, an inquisition

was held on them, when all but twenty-five submitted, and were

rigorously penanced by the triumphant Conventuals.[73]

The twenty-five recalcitrants were handed over to the Inquisition of

Marseilles, under whose jurisdiction they were arrested. The inquisitor

was Frère Michel le Moine, one of those who had been degraded and

imprisoned by Clement V. on account of their zeal in persecuting the

Spirituals. Now he was able to glut his revenge. He had ample warrant

for whatever he might please to do, for John had not waited to hear the

Spirituals before condemning them. As early as February 17, he had

ordered the inquisitors of Languedoc to denounce as heretics all who

styled themselves Fraticelli or _Fratres de paupere vita_. Then, April

13, he had issued the constitution _Quorumdam_, in which he had

definitely settled the two points which had become the burning questions

of the dispute--the character of vestments to be worn, and the legality

of laying up stores of provisions in granaries, and cellars of wine and

oil. These questions he referred to the general of the Order with

absolute power to determine them. Under Michele's instructions, the

ministers and guardians were to determine for each convent what amount

of provisions it required, what portion might be stored up, and to what

extent the friars were to beg for it. Such decisions were to be

implicitly followed without thinking or asserting that they derogated

from the Rule. The bull wound up with the significant words, "Great is

poverty, but greater is blamelessness, and perfect obedience is the

greatest good." There was a hard common-sense about this which may seem

to us even commonplace, but it decided the case against the Spirituals,

and gave them the naked alternative of submission or rebellion.[74]

This bull was the basis of the inquisitorial process against the

twenty-five recalcitrants. The case was perfectly clear under it, and in

fact all the proceedings of the Spirituals after its issue had been

flagrantly contumacious--their refusal to change their vestments, and

their appeal to the pope better informed. Before handing them over to

the Inquisition they had been brought before Michele da Cesena, and

their statements to him when read before the consistory had been

pronounced heretical and the authors subject to the penalty of heresy.

Efforts of course had been made to secure their submission, but in vain,

and it was not until November 6, 1317, that letters were issued by John

and by Michele da Cesena to the Inquisitor Michel, directing him to

proceed with the trial. Of the details of the process we have no

knowledge, but it is not likely that the accused were spared any of the

rigors customary in such cases, when the desire was to break the spirit

and induce compliance. This is shown, moreover, in the fact that the

proceedings were protracted for exactly six months, the sentence being

rendered on May 7, 1318, and by the further fact that most of the

culprits were brought to repentance and abjuration. Only four of them

had the physical and mental endurance to persevere to the last--Jean

Barrani, Déodat Michel, Guillem Sainton, and Pons Rocha--and these were

handed over the same day to the secular authorities of Marseilles and

duly burned. A fifth, Bernard Aspa, who had said in prison that he

repented, but who refused to recant and abjure, was mercifully condemned

to prison for life, though under all inquisitorial rules he should have

shared the fate of his accomplices. The rest were forced to abjure

publicly and to accept the penances imposed by the inquisitor, with the

warning that if they failed to publish their abjuration wherever they

had preached their errors they would be burned as relapsed.[75]

Although in the sentence the heresy of the victims is said to have been

drawn from the poisoned doctrine of Olivi, and though the inquisitor

issued letters prohibiting any one from possessing or reading his books,

there is no allusion to any Joachite error. It was simply a question of

disobedience to the bull _Quorumdam_. They affirmed that this was

contrary to the Gospel of Christ, which forbade them to wear garments of

other fashion than that which they had adopted, or to lay up stores of

corn and wine. To this the pope had no authority to compel them; they

would not obey him, and this they declared they would maintain until the

Day of Judgment. Frivolous as the questions at issue undoubtedly were,

it was on the one hand a case of conscience from which reason had long

since been banished by the bitterness of controversy, and on the other

the necessity of authority compelling obedience. If private judgment

were allowed to set aside the commands of a papal decretal, the moral

power of the papacy was gone, and with it all temporal supremacy. Yet,

underlying all this was the old Joachitic leaven which taught that the

Church of Rome had no spiritual authority, and thus that its decrees

were not binding on the elect. When Bernard Délicieux was sent, in 1319,

from Avignon to Castelnaudari for trial, on the road he talked freely

with his escort and made no secret of his admiration for Joachim, even

going so far as to say that he had erased from his copy of the Decretum

the Lateran canon condemning Joachim's Trinitarian error, and that if

he were pope he would abrogate it. The influence of the Everlasting

Gospel is seen in the fact that of those who recanted at Marseilles and

were imprisoned, a number fled to the Infidel, leaving behind them a

paper in which they defiantly professed their faith, and prophesied that

they would return triumphantly after the death of John XXII.[76]

Thus John, ere yet his pontificate was a year old, had succeeded in

creating a new heresy--that which held it unlawful for Franciscans to

wear flowing gowns or to have granaries and cellars. In the multiform

development of human perversity there has been perhaps none more

deplorably ludicrous than this, that man should burn his fellows on such

a question, or that men should be found dauntless enough to brave the

flames for such a principle, and to feel that they were martyrs in a

high and holy cause. John probably, from the constitution of his mind

and his training, could not understand that men could be so enamoured of

holy poverty as to sacrifice themselves to it, and he could only regard

them as obstinate rebels, to be coerced into submission or to pay the

penalty. He had taken his stand in support of Michele da Cesena's

authority, and resistance, whether active or passive, only hardened him.

The bull _Quorumdam_ had created no little stir. A defence of it,

written by an inquisitor of Carcassonne and Toulouse, probably Jean de

Beaune, shows that its novel positions had excited grave doubts in the

minds of learned men, who were not convinced of its orthodoxy, though

not prepared to risk open dissent. There is also an allusion to a priest

who persisted in maintaining the errors which it condemned and who was

handed over to the secular arm, but who recanted ere the fagots were

lighted and was received to penance. To silence discussion, John

assembled a commission of thirteen prelates and doctors, including

Michele da Cesena, who after due consideration solemnly condemned as

heretical the propositions that the pope had no authority to issue the

bull, and that obedience was not due to prelates who commanded the

laying aside of short and narrow vestments and the storing up of corn

and wine. All this was rapidly creating a schism, and the bull _Sancta

Romana_, December 30, 1317, and _Gloriosam ecclesiam_, January 23, 1318,

were directed against those who under the names of Fraticelli, Beguines,

Bizochi, and _Fratres de paupere vita_, in Sicily, Italy, and the south

of France, were organizing an independent Order under the pretence of

observing strictly the Rule of Francis, receiving multitudes into their

sect, building or receiving houses in gift, begging in public, and

electing superiors. All such are declared excommunicate _ipso facto_,

and all prelates are commanded to see that the sect is speedily

extirpated.[77]

Among the people, the cooler heads argued that if the Franciscan vow

rendered all possession sinful it was not a vow of holiness, for in

things in which use was consumption, such as bread and cheese, use

passed into possession. He who took such a vow, therefore, by the mere

fact of living broke that vow, and could not be in a state of grace. The

supreme holiness of poverty, however, had been so assiduously preached

for a hundred years that a large portion of the population sympathized

with the persecuted Spirituals; many laymen, married and unmarried,

joined them as Tertiaries, and even priests embraced their doctrines.

There speedily grew up a sect, by no means confined to Franciscans, to

replace the fast-vanishing Cathari as an object for the energies of the

Inquisition. It is the old story over again, of persecuted saints with

the familiars ever at their heels, but always finding refuge and

hiding-place at the hands of friendly sympathizers. Pierre Trencavel, a

priest of Béziers, may be taken as an example. His name recurs

frequently in the examinations before the Inquisition as that of one of

the principal leaders of the sect. Caught at last, he was thrown into

the prison of Carcassonne, but managed to escape, when he was condemned

in an _auto de fé_ as a convicted heretic. Then a purse was raised among

the faithful to send him to the East. After an absence of some years he

returned and was as active as ever, wandering in disguise throughout the

south of France and assiduously guarded by the devotees. What was his

end does not appear, but he probably perished at length at the stake as

a relapsed heretic, for in 1327 we find him and his daughter Andrée in

the pitiless hands of Michel of Marseilles. Jean du Prat, then

Inquisitor of Carcassonne, wanted them, in order to extort from them the

names of their disciples and of those who had sheltered them. Apparently

Michel refused to surrender them, and a peremptory order from John XXII.

was requisite to obtain their transfer. In 1325 Bernard Castillon of

Montpellier confesses to harboring a number of Beguines in his house,

and then to buying a dwelling for them in which he visited them. Another

culprit acknowledges to receiving many fugitives in his house at

Montpellier. There was ample sympathy for them and ample occasion for

it.[78]

The burning of the four martyrs of Marseilles was the signal for active

inquisitorial work. Throughout all the infected region the Holy Office

bent its energies to the suppression of the new heresy; and as

previously there had been no necessity for concealing opinions, the

suspects were readily laid hold of. There was thus an ample harvest,

and the rigor of the inquisition set on foot is shown by the order

issued in February, 1322, by John XXII., that all Tertiaries in the

suspected districts should be summoned to appear and be closely

examined. This caused general terror. In the archives of Florence there

are preserved numerous letters to the papal curia, written in February,

1322, by the magistrates and prelates of the Tuscan cities, interceding

for the Tertiaries, and begging that they shall not be confounded with

the new sect of Beguines. This is doubtless a sample of what was

occurring everywhere, and the all-pervading fear was justified by the

daily increasing roll of martyrs. The test was simple. It was whether

the accused believed that the pope had power to dispense with vows,

especially those of poverty and chastity. As we have seen, it was a

commonplace of the schools, which Aquinas proved beyond cavil, that he

had no such power, and even as recently as 1311 the Conventuals, in

arguing before Clement V., had admitted that no Franciscan could hold

property or take a wife under command from the pope; but things had

changed in the interval, and now those who adhered to the established

doctrine had the alternative of recantation or the stake. Of course but

a small portion of the culprits had the steadfastness to endure to the

end against the persuasive methods which the Inquisition knew so well

how to employ, and the number of the victims who perished shows that the

sect must have been large. Our information is scanty and fragmentary,

but we know that at Narbonne, where the bishops at first endeavored to

protect the unfortunates, until frightened by the threats of the

inquisitors, there were three burned in 1319, seventeen in Lent, 1321,

and several in 1322. At Montpellier, persecution was already active in

1319. At Lunel there were seventeen burned; at Béziers, two at one time

and seven at another; at Pézénas, several, with Jean Formayron at their

head; in Gironde, a number in 1319; at Toulouse, four in 1322, and

others at Cabestaing and Lodève. At Carcassonne there were burnings in

1319, 1320, and 1321, and Henri de Chamay was active there between 1325

and 1330. A portion of his trials are still extant, with very few cases

of burning, but Mosheim had a list of one hundred and thirteen persons

executed at Carcassonne as Spirituals from 1318 to about 1350. All these

cases were under Dominican inquisitors, and the Franciscans were even

more zealous, if we may believe Wadding's boast that in 1323 there were

one hundred and fourteen burned by Franciscan inquisitors alone. The

Inquisition at Marseilles, in fact, which was in Franciscan hands, had

the reputation of being excessively severe with the recalcitrant

brethren of the Order. In a case occurring in 1329 Frère Guillem de

Salvelle, the Guardian of Béziers, states that their treatment there was

very harsh and the imprisonment of the most rigorous description.

Doubtless Angelo da Clarino has justification for the assertion that the

Conventuals improved their triumph over their antagonists like mad dogs

and wolves, torturing, slaying, and ransoming without mercy. Trivial as

may seem to us the cause of quarrel, we cannot but respect the simple

earnestness which led so many zealots to seal their convictions with

their blood. Many of them, we are told, courted martyrdom and eagerly

sought the flames. Bernard Léon of Montréal was burned for persistently

declaring that, as he had vowed poverty and chastity, he would not obey

the pope if ordered to take a wife or accept a prebend.[79]

Ferocious persecution such as this of course only intensified the

convictions of the sufferers and their antagonism to the Holy See. So

far as regards the ostensible subject of controversy, we learn from

Pierre Tort, when he was before the Inquisition of Toulouse in 1322,

that it was allowable to lay in stores of corn and wine sufficient for

eight or fifteen days, while of salt and oil there might be provision

for half a year. As to vestments, Michele da Cesena had exercised the

power conferred on him by the bull _Quorumdam_ by issuing, in 1317, a

precept requiring the gown to be made of coarse stuff, reaching down to

cover only half the foot, while the cord was to be of hemp and not of

flax. Although he seems to have left the burning question of the hood

untouched, this regulation might have satisfied reasonable scruples, but

it was a case of conscience which admitted of no compromise. The

Spirituals declared that they were not bound to abandon the still

shorter and more ungainly gowns which their tradition attributed to St.

Francis, no matter what might be commanded by pope or general, and so

large was the importance attributed to the question that in the popular

belief the four martyrs of Marseilles were burned because they wore the

mean and tightly-fitting garments which distinguished the

Spirituals.[80]

Technically they were right, for, as we have seen above, it had hitherto

been generally admitted that the pope could not dispense for vows; and

when Olivi developed this to the further position that he could not

order anything contrary to an evangelical vow, it was not reckoned among

his errors condemned by the Council of Vienne. While all this, however,

had been admitted as a theoretical postulate, when it came to be set up

against the commands of such a pope as John XXII. it was rebellious

heresy, to be crushed with the sternest measures. At the same time it

was impossible that the sufferers could recognize the authority which

was condemning them to the stake. Men who willingly offered themselves

to be burned because they asserted that the pope had no power to

dispense from the observance of vows; who declared that if there were

but one woman in the world, and if she had taken a vow of chastity, the

pope could give her no valid dispensation, even if it were to prevent

the human race from coming to an end; who asserted that John XXII. had

sinned against the gospel of Christ when he had attempted to permit the

Franciscans to have granaries and cellars; who held that although the

pope might have power over other Orders he had none over that of St.

Francis, because his Rule was divine revelation, and not a word in it

could be altered or erased--such men could only defend themselves

against the pope by denying the source of his authority. All the latent

Joachitic notions which had been dormant were vivified and became the

leading principles of the sect. John XXII., when he issued the bull

_Quorumdam_, became the mystical Antichrist, the forerunner of the true

Antichrist. The Roman Church was the carnal Church; the Spirituals would

form the new Church, which would fight with Antichrist, and, under the

guidance of the Holy Ghost, would usher in the new age when man would

be ruled by love and poverty be universal. Some of them placed this in

1325, others in 1330, others again in fourteen years from 1321. Thus the

scheme of the Everlasting Gospel was formally adopted and brought to

realization. There were two churches--one the carnal Church of Rome, the

Whore of Babylon, the Synagogue of Satan, drunk with the blood of the

saints, over which John XXII. pretended to preside, although he had

forfeited his station and become a heretic of heretics when he consented

to the death of the martyrs of Marseilles. The other was the true

Church, the Church of the Holy Ghost, which would speedily triumph

through the arms of Frederic of Trinacria. St. Francis would be

resurrected in the flesh, and then would commence the third age and the

seventh and last state of mankind. Meanwhile, the sacraments were

already obsolete and no longer requisite for salvation. It is to this

period of frenzied exaltation that we may doubtless attribute the

interpolations of Olivi's writings.[81]

This new Church had some sort of organization. In the trial of Naprous

Boneta at Carcassonne, in 1325, there is an allusion to a Frère Guillem

Giraud, who had been ordained by God as pope in place of John XXII.,

whose sin had been as great as Adam's, and who had thus been deposed by

the divine will. There were not lacking saints and martyrs, besides

Francis and Olivi. Fragments of the bodies and bones of those who

perished at the stake were treasured up as relics, and even pieces of

the stakes at which they suffered. These were set before altars in their

houses, or carried about the person as amulets. In this cult, the four

martyrs of Marseilles were pre-eminently honored; their suffrages with

God were as potent as those of St. Laurence or St. Vincent, and in them

Christ had been spiritually crucified on the four arms of the cross. One

poor wretch, who was burned at Toulouse in 1322, had inserted in his

litany the names of seventy Spirituals who had suffered; he invoked them

among the other saints, attaching equal importance to their

intervention; and this was doubtless a customary and recognized form of

devotion. Yet this cult was simpler than that of the orthodox Church,

for it was held that the saints needed no oblations, and if a man had

vowed a candle to one of them or to the Virgin, or a pilgrimage to

Compostella, it would be better to give to the poor the money that it

would cost.[82]

The Church composed of these enthusiastic fanatics broke off all

relations with the Italian Spirituals, whose more regulated zeal seemed

lukewarmness and backsliding. The prisoners who were tried by Bernard

Gui in 1322 at Toulouse described the Franciscan Order as divided into

three fragments--the Conventuals, who insisted on having granaries and

cellars, the Fraticelli under Henry da Ceva in Sicily, and the

Spirituals, or Beguines, then under persecution. The two former groups

they said did not observe the Rule and would be destroyed, while their

own sect would endure to the end of the world. Even the saintly and

long-suffering Angelo da Clarino was denounced as an apostate, and there

were hot-headed zealots who declared that he would prove to be the

mystical Antichrist. Others were disposed to assign this doubtful honor,

or even the position of the greater Antichrist, to Felipe of Majorca,

brother of that Ferrand whom we have seen offered the sovereignty of

Carcassonne. Felipe's thirst for asceticism had led him to abandon his

brother's court and become a Tertiary of St. Francis. Angelo alludes to

him repeatedly, with great admiration, as worthy to rank with the

ancient perfected saints. In the stormy discussions soon after John's

accession he had intervened in favor of the Spirituals, petitioning that

they be allowed to form a separate Order. After taking the full vows, he

renewed this supplication in 1328, but it was refused in full

consistory, after which we hear of him wandering over Europe and living

on beggary. In 1341, with the support of Robert of Naples, he made a

third application, which Benedict XII. rejected for the reason that he

was a supporter and defender of the Beguines, whom he had justified

after their condemnation by publicly asserting many enormous heretical

lies about the Holy See. Such were the men whose self-devotion seemed to

these fiery bigots so tepid as to render them objects of

detestation.[83]

The heights of exaltation reached in their religious delirium are

illustrated by the career of Naprous Boneta, who was reverenced in the

sect as an inspired prophetess. As early as 1315 she had fallen into the

hands of the Inquisition at Montpellier, and had been thrown into

prison, to be subsequently released. She and her sister Alissette were

warmly interested in the persecuted Spirituals and gave refuge to many

fugitives in their house. As persecution grew hotter, her exaltation

increased. In 1320 she commenced to have visions and ecstasies, in which

she was carried to heaven and had interviews with Christ. Finally, on

Holy Thursday, 1321, Christ communicated to her the Divine Spirit as

completely as it had been given to the Virgin, saying, "The Blessed

Virgin Mary was the giver of the Son of God: thou shalt be the giver of

the Holy Ghost." Thus the promises of the Everlasting Gospel were on the

point of fulfilment, and the Third Age was about to dawn. Elijah, she

said, was St. Francis, and Enoch was Olivi; the power granted to Christ

lasted until God gave the Holy Spirit to Olivi, and invested him with as

much glory as had been granted to the humanity of Christ. The papacy has

ceased to exist, the sacraments of the altar and of confession are

superseded, but that of matrimony remains. That of penitence, indeed,

still exists, but it is purely internal, for heartfelt contrition works

forgiveness of sins without sacerdotal intercession or the imposition of

penance. One remark, which she casually made when before her judges, is

noteworthy as manifesting the boundless love and charity of these poor

souls. The Spirituals and lepers, she said, who had been burned were

like the innocents massacred by Herod--it was Satan who procured the

burning of the Spirituals and lepers. This alludes to the hideous

cruelties which, as we have seen, were perpetrated on the lepers in 1321

and 1322, when the whole of France went mad with terror over a rumored

poisoning of the wells by these outcasts, and when, it seems, the

Spirituals were wise enough and humane enough to sympathize with them

and condemn their murder. Naprous, at length, was brought before Henri

de Chamay, the Inquisitor of Carcassonne, in 1325. Sincere in the

belief of her divine mission, she spontaneously and fearlessly related

her history and stated her faith, and in her replies to her examiners

she was remarkably quick and intelligent. When her confession was read

over to her she confirmed it, and to all exhortations to retract she

quietly answered that she would live and die in it as the truth. She was

accordingly handed over to the secular arm and sealed her convictions

with her blood.[84]

Extravagances of belief such as this were not accompanied with

extravagance of conduct. Even Bernard Gui has no fault to find with the

heretics' mode of life, except that the school of Satan imitated the

school of Christ, as laymen imitate like monkeys the pastors of the

Church. They all vowed poverty and led a life of self-denial, some of

them laboring with their hands and others begging by the wayside. In the

towns and villages they had little dwellings which they called Houses of

Poverty, and where they dwelt together. On Sundays and feast-days their

friends would assemble and all would listen to readings from the

precepts and articles of faith, the lives of the saints, and their own

religious books in the vulgar tongue--mostly the writings of Olivi,

which they regarded as revelations from God, and the "_Transitus Sancti

Patris_" which was a legendary account of his death. The only external

signs by which Bernard says they were to be recognized were that on

meeting one another, or entering a house, they would say, "Blessed be

Jesus Christ," or "Blessed be the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." When

praying in church or elsewhere they sat with hooded heads and faces

turned to the wall, not standing or kneeling, or striking their hands,

as was customary with the orthodox. At dinner, after asking a blessing,

one of them would kneel and recite _Gloria in excelsis_, and after

supper, _Salve Regina_, This was all inoffensive enough, but they had

one peculiarity to which Bernard as an inquisitor took strong

exceptions. When on trial they were ready enough to confess their own

faith, but nothing would induce them to betray their associates. In

their simplicity they held that this would be a violation of Christian

charity to which they could not lawfully be compelled, and the

inquisitor wasted infinite pains in the endeavor to show that it is

charity to one's neighbor, and not an injury, to give him a chance of

conversion.[85]

* * * * *

Evidently these poor folk would have been harmless enough if let alone,

and their persecution could only be justified by the duty of the Church

to preserve erring souls from perdition. A sect based upon the absolute

abnegation of property as its chief principle, and the apocalyptic

reveries of the Everlasting Gospel, could never become dangerous, though

it might be disagreeable, from its mute--or perhaps vivacious--protest

against the luxury and worldliness of the Church. Even if let alone it

would probably soon have died out. Springing as it did in a region and

at a period in which the Inquisition was thoroughly organized, it had no

chance of survival, and it speedily succumbed under the ferocious energy

of the proceedings brought to bear against it. Yet we cannot fix with

any precision the date of its extinction. The records are imperfect, and

those which we possess fail to draw a distinction between the Spirituals

and the orthodox Franciscans, who, as we shall see, were driven to

rebellion by John XXII. on the question of the poverty of Christ. This

latter dogma became one of so much larger importance that the dreams of

the Spirituals were speedily lost to view, and in the later cases it is

reasonable to assume that the victims were Fraticelli. Still, there are

several prosecutions on record at Carcassonne in 1329, which were

doubtless of Spirituals. One of them was of Jean Roger, a priest who had

stood in high consideration at Béziers; he had been an associate of

Pierre Trencavel in his wanderings, and the slight penance imposed on

him would seem to indicate that the ardor of persecution was abating,

though we learn that the bones of the martyrs of Marseilles were still

handed around as relics. John XXII. was not disposed to connive at any

relaxation of rigor, and in February, 1331, he reissued his bull _Sancta

Romana_, with a preface addressed to bishops and inquisitors in which he

assumes that the sect is flourishing as vigorously as ever, and orders

the most active measures taken for its suppression. Doubtless there were

subsequent prosecutions, but the sect as a distinctive one faded out of

sight.[86]

During the period of its active existence it had spread across the

Pyrenees into Aragon. Even before the Council of Béziers, in 1299, took

official cognizance of the nascent heresy, the bishops of Aragon,

assembled at Tarragona in 1297, instituted repressive measures against

the Beguines who were spreading errors throughout the kingdom, and all

Franciscan Tertiaries were subjected to supervision. Their books in the

vulgar tongue were especially dreaded, and were ordered to be

surrendered. These precautions did not avert the evil. As we have seen,

Arnaldo de Vilanova became a warm advocate of the Spirituals; his

indefatigable pen was at their service, his writings had wide

circulation, and his influence with Jayme II. protected them. With his

death and that of Clement V. persecution commenced. Immediately after

the latter event, in 1314, the Inquisitor Bernardo de Puycerda, one of

Arnaldo's special antagonists, undertook their suppression. At their

head stood a certain Pedro Oler, of Majorca, and Fray Bonato. They were

obstinate, and were handed over to the secular arm, when all were burned

except Bonato, who recanted on being scorched by the flames. He was

dragged from the burning pile, cured, and condemned to perpetual

imprisonment, but after some twenty years he was found to be still

secretly a Spiritual, and was burned as a relapsed in 1335. Emboldened

by the accession of John XXII., in November, 1316, Juan de Llotger, the

inquisitor, and Jofre de Cruilles, provost of the vacant see of

Tarragona, called together an assembly of Dominicans, Franciscans, and

Cistercians, who condemned the apocalyptic and spiritualistic writings

of Arnaldo, which were ordered to be surrendered within ten days under

pain of excommunication. The persecution continued. Durán de Baldach was

burned as a Spiritual, with a disciple, in 1325. About the same time

John XXII. issued several bulls commanding strict inquisition to be made

for them throughout Aragon, Valencia, and the Balearic Isles, and

subjecting them to the jurisdiction of the bishops and inquisitors in

spite of any privileges or immunities which they might claim as

Franciscans. The heresy, however, seems never to have obtained any firm

foothold on Spanish soil. Yet it penetrated even to Portugal, for Alvaro

Pelayo tells us that there were in Lisbon some pseudo-Franciscans who

applauded the doctrine that Peter and his successors had not received

from Christ the power which he held on earth.[87]

A somewhat different development of the Joachitic element is seen in the

Franciscan Juan de Pera-Tallada or de Rupescissa, better known perhaps

through Froissart as Jean de la Rochetaillade. As a preacher and

missionary he stood pre-eminent and his voice was heard from his native

Catalonia to distant Moscow. Somewhat given to occult science, various

treatises on alchemy have been attributed to him, among which Pelayo

tells us that it is difficult to distinguish the genuine from the

doubtful. Not only in this did he follow Arnaldo de Vilanova, but in

mercilessly lashing the corruptions of the Church, and in commenting on

the prophecies of the pseudo-Joachim. No man of this school seemed able

to refrain from indulging in prophecy himself, and Juan gained wide

reputation by predictions which were justified by the event, such as the

battle of Poitiers and the Great Schism. Perhaps this might have been

forgiven had he not also foretold that the Church would be stripped of

the superfluities which it had so shockingly abused. One metaphor which

he employed was largely quoted. The Church, he said, was a bird born

without feathers, to which all other fowls contributed plumage, which

they would reclaim in consequence of its pride and tyranny. Like the

Spirituals he looked fondly back to the primitive days before

Constantine, when in holy poverty the foundations of the faith were

laid. He seems to have steered clear of the express heresy as to the

poverty of Christ, and when he came to Avignon, in 1349, to proclaim his

views, although several attempts to burn him were ineffectual, he was

promptly thrown into jail. He was "_durement grand clerc_," and his

accusers were unable to convict him, but he was too dangerous a man to

be at large, and he was kept in confinement. When he was finally

liberated is not stated, but if Pelayo is correct in saying that he

returned home at the age of ninety he must have been released after a

long incarceration.[88]

The ostensible cause of his punishment was his Joachitic speculation as

to Antichrist, though, as Wadding observes, many holy men did the same

without animadversion, like St. Vicente Ferrer, who in 1412 not only

predicted Antichrist, but asserted that he was already nine years old,

and who was canonized, not persecuted. Miliez of Cremsier also, as we

have seen, though persecuted, was acquitted. Fray Juan's reveries,

however, trenched on the borders of the Everlasting Gospel, although

keeping within the bounds of orthodoxy. In his prison, in November,

1349, he wrote out an account of a miraculous vision vouchsafed him in

1345, in return for continued prayer and maceration. Louis of Bavaria

was the Antichrist who would subjugate Europe and Africa in 1366, while

a similar tyrant would arise in Asia. Then would come a schism with two

popes; Antichrist would lord it over the whole earth and many heretical

sects would arise. After the death of Antichrist would follow fifty-five

years of war; the Jews would be converted, and with the destruction of

the kingdom of Antichrist the Millennium would open. Then the converted

Jews would possess the world, all would be Tertiaries of St. Francis,

and the Franciscans would be models of holiness and poverty. The

heretics would take refuge in inaccessible mountains and the islands of

the sea, whence they would emerge at the close of the Millennium; the

second Antichrist would appear and bring a period of great suffering,

until fire would fall from heaven and destroy him and his followers,

after which would follow the end of the world and the Day of

Judgment.[89]

Meditation in prison seems to have modified somewhat his prophetic

vision, and in 1356 he wrote his _Vade mecum in Tribulatione_, in which

he foretold that the vices of the clergy would lead to the speedy

spoliation of the Church; in six years it would be reduced to a state of

apostolical poverty, and by 1370 would commence the process of

recuperation which would bring all mankind under the domination of

Christ and of his earthly representative. During the interval there

would be a succession of the direst calamities. From 1360 to 1365 the

worms of the earth would arise and destroy all beasts and birds; tempest

and deluge and earthquake, famine and pestilence and war would sweep

away the wicked; in 1365 Antichrist would come, and such multitudes

would apostatize that but few faithful would be left. His reign would be

short, and in 1370 a pope canonically elected would bring mankind to

Christianity, after which all cardinals would be chosen from the Greek

Church. During these tribulations the Franciscans would be nearly

exterminated, in punishment for their relaxation of the Rule, but the

survivors would be reformed and the Order would fill the earth,

innumerable as the stars of heaven; in fact, two Franciscans of the most

abject poverty were to be the Elias and Enoch who would conduct the

Church through that disastrous time. Meanwhile he advised that ample

store should be made in mountain caves of beans and honey, salt meats,

and dried fruits by those who desired to live through the convulsions of

nature and society. After the death of Antichrist would come the

Millennium; for seven hundred years, or until about A.D. 2000, mankind

would be virtuous and happy, but then would come a decline; existing

vices, especially among the clergy, would be revived, preparatory to the

advent of Gog and Magog, to be followed by the final Antichrist. It

shows the sensitiveness of the hierarchy that this harmless nympholepsy

was deemed worthy of severe repression.[90]

The influence of the Everlasting Gospel was not yet wholly exhausted. I

have alluded above to Thomas of Apulia, who in 1388 insisted on

preaching to the Parisians that the reign of the Holy Ghost had

commenced, and that he was the divinely commissioned envoy sent to

announce it, when his mission was humanely cut short by confining him as

a madman. Singularly identical in all but the result was the career of

Nicholas of Buldesdorf, who, about 1445, proclaimed that God had

commanded him to announce that the time of the New Testament had passed

away, as that of the Old had done; that the Third Era and Seventh Age of

the world had come, under the reign of the Holy Ghost, when man would be

restored to the state of primal innocence; and that he was the Son of

God deputed to spread the glad tidings. To the council still sitting at

Basle he sent various tracts containing these doctrines, and he finally

had the audacity to appear before it in person. His writings were

promptly consigned to the flames and he was imprisoned. Every effort was

made to induce him to recant, but in vain. The Basilian fathers were

less considerate of insanity than the Paris doctors, and Nicholas

perished at the stake in 1446.[91]

A last echo of the Everlasting Gospel is heard in the teaching of two

brothers, John and Lewin of Würzburg, who in 1466 taught in Eger that

all tribulations were caused by the wickedness of the clergy. The pope

was Antichrist, and the cardinals and prelates were his members.

Indulgences were useless and the ceremonies of the Church were vanities,

but the time of deliverance was at hand. A man was already born of a

virgin, who was the anointed of Christ and would speedily come with the

third Evangel and bring all the faithful into the fold. The heresy was

rapidly and secretly spreading among the people, when it was discovered

by Bishop Henry of Ratisbon. The measures taken for its suppression are

not recorded, and the incident is only of interest as showing how

persistently the conviction reappeared that there must be a final and

higher revelation to secure the happiness of man in this world and his

salvation in the next.[92]