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XXIV. Upon the death of CLEMENT V. the PART 11. tumult, which had been appeased by his authority, was revived in France with as much fury as ever. For, in the year 1314, an hundred and twenty of the Spirituals made a violent attack upon the Brethren of the community, drove them out of the convent of Narbonne and Beziers by force of arms, and inflamed the quarrel in a yet higher degree by laying aside their ancient habits, and assuming such as were short, strait, and coarse. They were soon joined by a considerable number from other provinces, and the citizens of Narbonne, where OLIVE was interred, enlisted themselves in the party. JOHN XXII. who was raised to the pontificate in the year 1317, took great pains to heal this new disorder. The first thing he did for this purpose was to publish a special bull by which he ordered the abolition of the Fratricelli, or Minorites, and their Tertiaries, whether Beguines or Beghards, who were a body distinct from the Spirituals [r]. In the next place, he admonished the king of Sicily to expel all the Spirituals, who had taken refuge in his dominions [] and then ordered the French Spirituals to appear at Avignon; where he exhorted them to return to their duty; and, as the first step to it, to lay aside their short, strait habits with the small hoods. The greatest part of them obeyed; but FR. BERNARD DELITIOSI, who was the head of the faction, and twenty-four of the Brethren, boldly refused to submit to the injunction. In vindication of their conduct, they alleged that the rules prescribed by St FRANCIS were the same with the gospel of JESUS CHRIST; that the popes therefore had no authority to alter them; that

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[r] This law is called Sancta Romana, &c. and is to be found among the Extravagantes Johannis XXII. tit. vii. De religiosis domibus. tom. ii. Jur. Canon. p. 1112.

[] WADDINGI Annal. Minor. tom. vi. p. 265. s.

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the popes had acted sinfully in permitting the CENT. Franciscans to have granaries and store-houses; PART II. that they added to their guilt in not allowing those habits to be worn that were enjoined by St FRANCIS. JOHN, highly exasperated by this opposition, gave orders that these obstinate Brethren should be proceeded against as heretics. And surely nothing could make them appear viler heretics in the papal eye, than their daring thus audaciously to oppose the authority and majesty of the Roman see. As for F. DELITIOSI, who was at the head of this sect, and who is sometimes called DELLI CONSI, he was imprisoned, and died in his confinement. Four of his adherents were condemned to the flames, in the year 1318, at Marseilles [t], which odious sentence was accordingly executed without mercy.

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XXV. Thus these unhappy friars, and many culous dismore of their fraternity, who were afterwards cut putes of the off by this cruel persecution, suffered merely for Francistheir contempt of the decisions of the pontifs, and for maintaining that the institute of St FRANCIS, their founder, which they imagined he had established under the direction of an imme-. diate inspiration, was the very Gospel of Christ, and therefore not to be altered by the pope's authority. The controversy, considered in itself, was rather ridiculous than important, since it did not affect religion in the least, but turned wholly on these two points, the form of the habits to be worn by the Franciscan order, and their granaries and store-houses. The Brethren of the community,

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[t] BALUZII Vita Pontif. Avenion. tom. i. p. 116. tom. ii. P. 341. et Miscellan. tom. i. p. 195, 272. WADDINGUS, Annal. Minor. tom. vi. p. 267. s. 316. 5. MARTENE Thesaur. Anecdotor. tom. v. p. 175. MARTINUS Fuldensis, in ECCARD. Corpore Histor. medii ævi, tom. i. p. 1725. et HERM. CORNEIRUS, ibid. tom. ii. p. 981. Histoire generale de Languedoc, tom. iv. p. 179. s. ARGENTRE Collectio Judicior. de nobis errorib, tom. i, p. 294. s.

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CENT. or the less rigid Franciscans, wore long, loose, and PART II. good habits, with ample hoods; but the Spirituals went in strait, short, and very coarse ones, which they asserted to be precisely the dress enjoined by the institute of St FRANCIS, and what therefore no power upon earth had a right to alter. And whereas the Brethren of the community, immediately after the harvest and vintage, were accustomed to lay up a stock of corn and wine in their granaries and cellars, the Spiritual Franciscans resolutely opposed this practice, as entirely repugnant to the profession of absolute poverty, that had been embraced by the Fratricelli or Minorites. In order to put an end to these broils, pope JOHN, this very year, published a long mandatory letter, in which he ordered the contending parties to submit their disputes, upon the two points above mentioned, to the decision of their superiors [u].

XXVI. The effects of this letter, and of other Excite grievous com decrees were prevented by the unseasonable and motions. impious severity of JOHN XXII. whose cruelty was condemned and detested even by his adherents. For the Spiritual Franciscans and their votaries, being highly exasperated at the cruel death of their brethren, maintained, that JOHN XXII. by procuring the destruction of these holy men, had rendered himself utterly unworthy of the papal dignity, and was the true Antichrist. They moreover revered their four brethren, who were burnt at Marseilles, as so many martyrs, paying religious veneration to their bones and ashes and inveighed yet more vehemently than ever against long habits, large hoods, granaries, and store-houses. The inquisitors on the other hand, having, by the pope's order, apprehended as many of

[u] It may seen in the Jus Canon. inter Extravag. communes de verbor. signif. opp. i. See also WADDINGI Annal. Mior. tom. vi. p. 273.

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of these people as they could find, condemned C E N T. them to the flames, and sacrificed them without PART II. mercy to papal resentment and fury. So that from this time a vast number of those zealous defenders of the institute of St Francis, viz. the Minorites, Beghards, and Spirituals, were most barbarously put to death, not only in France, but also in Italy, Spain, and Germany [w].

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XXVII. This dreadful flame continued to spread A new dis till it invaded the whole Franciscan order, which, concerning in the year 1321, had revived the old contentions the pover concerning the poverty of CHRIST and his apos-Christ. ty of tles. A certain Beguin, or monk of the third order of St Francis, who was apprehended this year at Norbonne, taught, among other things," That "neither Christ, nor his apostles, ever possessed "any thing, whether in common or personally, by right of property or dominion." JOHN DE BELNA, an inquisitor of the Dominican order, pronounced this opinion erroneous; but Berengarius Taloni, a Franciscan, maintained it to be orthodox, and perfectly consonant to the bull, Exit qui seminet, of NICOLAS III. The judgment of the former was approved by the Dominicans; the determination of the latter was adhered to by the Franciscans. At length the matter was brought before the pope, who prudently endeavoured to. put an end to the dispute. With this view he called

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[w] Besides many other pieces that serve to illustrate the intricate history of this persecution, I have in my possession a treatise, entitled, Martyrologium Spiritualium et Fratricellorum, which was delivered to the tribunal of the inquisition at Carcassone, A. D. 1454. It contains the names of an hundred and thirteen persons of both sexes, who, from the year 1318, to the time of INNOCENT VI. were burnt in France and Italy, for their inflexible attachment to the poverty of St FRANCIS. I reckon that, from these and other records, published and unpublished, we may make out a list of two thousand martyrs of this kind. Compare Codex Inquis. Tholosanæ, à LIMBORCHIO editus, p. 298. 302. 319. 327, &c.

CEN T.into his council UBERTINUS DE CASALIS, the paPART II, tron of the Spiritual, and a person of great weight

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and reputation. This eminent monk gave captious, subtile, and equivocal answers to the questions that were proposed to him. The pontif, however, and the cardinals, persuaded that his decisions, equivocal as they were, might contribute to terminate the quarrel, acquiesced in them, seconded them with their authority, and enjoined, at the same time, silence and moderation on the contending parties [x].

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XXVIII. But the Dominicans and Franciscans were so exceedingly exasperated against each other, that they could by no means be brought to conform themselves to this order JOHN XXII. perceiving this, permitted them to renew the controversy in the year 1322; nay, he himself proposed to some of the most celebrated divines of the age, and especially to those of Paris, the determination of this point, viz. "Whether or no "those were to be deemed heretics who maintained "that Jesus Christ, and his apostles, had no common or personal property in any thing they possessed?" The Franciscans, who held an assembly this year at Perugia, having got notice of this proceeding, unanimously decreed, that those who held this tenet were not heretics, but maintained an opinion that was holy and orthodox, and perfectly agreeable tothe decisions and mandates of the popes. They also sent a deputy to Avignon, to defend this unanimous determination of their whole order against all opponents whatever. The person they commissioned for this purpose was F. BONAGRATIA, of Bergamo, who also went by the name of BONCORTESE [y], one of their fraternity, and a man famous

[x] WADDINGI Annal. Minor. tom. vi. p. 361. STEPH. BALUZII Miscellan. tom. i. p. 307. GERH. DU Bois, Histor. Eccles. Paris. p. 611. s.

[y] I insert this caution, because I have observed that some eminent writers, by not attending to this circumstance, have taken these two names for two different persons.

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