PART II.

CEN T.ian life in a voluntary and absolute poverty [i]. XIV. The Dominicans, on the other hand, as enemies to the Franciscans, and friends to the pope, were treated with great severity by his Imperial majesty, who banished them with ignominy out of several cities [k].

Peace is

tween the

Franciscans and pope.

the

XXXII. The rage of the contending parties made be- subsided greatly from the year 1329. The pope caused a diet of the Franciscans to be held that year at Paris, where by means of cardinal BERTRAND, who was president of the assembly, and the Parisian doctors, who were attached to his interests, he so far softened the resentment of the greatest part of the brethren, that they ceased to defend the conduct of MICHAEL CESENAS and his associates, and permitted another president GERARD ODDO, to be substituted in his room. They also acknowledged JOHN to be a true and lawful pope; and then terminated the dispute concerning the poverty of CHRIST in such an ambiguous manner, that the constitutions and edicts of NICHOLAS III. and JOHN XXII. however contradictory, maintained their authority [4]. But, notwithstanding these pacific and mutual concessions, there were great numbers of the Franciscans in Germany, Spain, and Italy, who would by no means consent to this reconciliation. After the death of JOHN, BENEDICT XII. and CLEMENT VI. took great pains to close the breach, and shewed great clemency and tenderness towards such of the order as thought the institute of their founder more sacred than the papal

bulls,

[i] I have many pieces upon this subject that were never published.

[] MART. DIEFENBACH. De mortis genere, quo Henricus VII. abiit, p. 145. and others.-ECCARDI Corpus Histor. medii avi, tom. i. p. 2103.-BOULAY, Hist. Acad. Paris. tom. iv. p.

220.

[/] WADDINGI Annales, tom. vii. p. 94.-DACHERII Spicilegium, tom. iii. p. 91.

XIV.

bulls. This lenity had some good effects. Many, CENT. who had withdrawn themselves from the society PART II. were hereby induced to return to it, in which number were FRANCIS DE ESCULO, and others, who had been some of JOHN's most inveterate enemies [m]. Even those who would not be prevailed on to return to their order, ceased to insult the popes, observed the rules of their founder in a quiet and inoffensive manner, and would have no sort of connexion with those Fratricelli and Tertiaries in Italy, Spain, and Germany, who condemned the papal authority [n].

were The distheir tresses of Spirituals, rest. Beghards,

Germany.

XXXIII. The German Franciscans, who protected by the emperor LEWIS, held out opposition much longer than any of the But in the year 1347, their imperial patron being &c. in dead, the halcyon days of the Franciscan Spirituals, as also of their associates the Beghards, or Tertiaries, were at an end in Germany. For in the year 1345, his successor CHARLES IV. having been raised to the imperial throne by the interest of the pope, was ready, in his turn, to gratify the desires of the court of Rome, and accordingly supported, both by his edicts and by his arms, the inquisitors who were sent by the Roman pontif against his enemies, and suffered them to apprehend and put to death all of these enemies. that came within their reach. These ministers of papal vengeance exerted their power chiefly in the district of Magdeburg and Bremen, Thuringia, Saxony, and Hesse, where they extirpated all the Beghards, as well as the Beguines, or Tertiaries, the associates of those Franciscans, who held that CHRIST and his apostles had no property in any thing. These

severe

[m] ARGENTRE, Collectio judicior. de novis erroribus, tom. i. P. 343-BOULAY, Hist. Acad. Paris. tom. iv. p. 281.-WADDINGI Annal. tom. vii. p. 313.

[7] WADDINGI Annal. tom. vii. p. 116. 126.-ARGENTRE I. c. tom. i. p. 343, &c.

PART II.

CEN T. severe measures were approved by CHARLES IV. XIV. who then resided in Italy, at Lucca, from whence, in the year 1369, he issued out severe edicts, commanding all the German princes to extirpate out of their dominions the Beghards and Beguines, or, as he himself interpreted the name, the voluntary beggars [0], as enemies of the church and of the Roman empire, and to assist the inquisitors in their proceedings against them. By another edict, published not long after, he gave the houses of the Beghards to the tribunal of the inquisition, ordering them to be converted into prisons for heretics and at the same time, ordered all the effects of the Beguines to be sold publicly, and the profits arising from thence to be equally divided between the inquisitors, the magistrates, and the poor of those towns and cities where such sale shall be made [p]. The Beghards, being reduced to great straits by this and other mandates of the emperor, and by the constitutions of the popes, sought a refuge in those provinces of Switzerland that border upon the Rhine, and also in Holland, Brabant, and Pomerania [q]. But the

[] In high Dutch, Die wilgen Armen.

[p] I have in my possession this edict, with other laws of CHARLES IV. enacted on this occasion, as also many of the papal constitutions, and other records which illustrate this affair, and which undoubtedly deserve to see the light. It is certain, that CHARLES IV. himself, in his edicts and mandates, clearly characterizes these people, whom he there styles Beggards and Beguines, as Franciscan Tertiaries, belonging to that party of the order then at variance with the pope. They are (to use the emperor's own words, in his edict issued out at Lucca, and bearing date the 16th of June, 1369) a pernicious sect, who pretend to a sacrilegious and heretical poverty, and who are under a vow that they neither ought to have, nor will have, any property, whether special or common, in the goods they use," (this is the poverty of the Franciscan institute, which JOHN XXII. so strenuously opposed) "which they extend even to their wretched habits."-For so the spirituals and their associates used to do.

[9] See ODOR. RAYNALDUS, Annal. Eccles. ad A. 1372. sect. xxxiv. p. 513. See also the books of FFLIX MALEOLUS, written in the following century against the Begghards in Switzerland.

XIV.

the edicts and mandates of the emperor, together C E N T. with the papal bulls and inquisitors, followed PARTI them wherever they went, and distressed them in their most distant retreats; so that, during the reign of CHARLES IV. the greatest part of Germany (Switzerland, and those provinces that are contiguous to it, excepted) was thoroughly purged of the Beghards, or rebellious Franciscans, both perfect and imperfect.

sions so far

proceed

ciscan or

considera

XXXIV. But neither edicts, bulls, or inquisi- Their divitors, could entirely pluck up the roots of this from being inveterate discord. For so ardently were many of extinguish the brethren bent upon observing, in the most ed by these perfect and rigorous manner, the institute of Stings, that FRANCIS, that numbers were to be found in all the Franplaces who either withstood the president of the der is split society, or, at least, obeyed him with reluctance. into two At once therefore to satisfy both the laxer and ble parties. more rigid party, after various methods had been tried to no purpose, a division of the order was agreed to. Accordingly, in the year 1368, the president consented that PAULUTIUS FULGINAS, who was the chief of the more rigid Franciscans in Italy, together with his associates, who were pretty numerous, should live separately from the rest of the brethren, according to the rules and customs they had adopted, and follow the institute of their founder in the strictest and most rigorous manner. The Spirituals, and the followers of OLIVE, whose scattered remains were yet observable in several places, joined themselves gradually and imperceptibly to this party. And as the number of those who were fond of the severer discipline continually encreased in many provinces, the popes thought proper to approve that institute, and to give it the soleren sanction of their authority. In consequence of this, the Franciscan order was divided into two large bodies, which subsist, to this day, viz. the Conventual Brethren, VOL. III.

Аа

and

XIV.

CEN T. and the Brethren of the observation. Those who PART II gave up the strict sense of the expressions in which the institute of their founder was conceived, and adopted the modifications that were given of them by the pontifs, were called by the former name; and the council of Constance conferred the latter upon those who chose to be determined by the words of the institute itself, rather than by any explications of it [r]. But the Fratricelli, together with the Beghards, whom we have frequently had occasion to mention, absolutely rejected this reconciliation, and persisted in disturbing the peace of the church during this and the following century, in the marquisate of Ancona, and in other places.

New reli

are founded.

XXXV. This century gave rise to other relicus orders gious societies, some of which were but of short duration, and the rest never became famous. JOHN COLOMBINI, a nobleman of Sienna, founded, in the year 1308, the order of the Apostolic Clercs, who, because they frequently pronounced the name of JESUS, were afterwards called Jesuates. This institution was confirmed by URBAN V. the following year, and subsisted till the last century, when it was abolished by CLEMENT IX. [s]. The brethren belonging to it professed poverty, and adhered to the institute of St AUGUSTIN. They were not, however, admitted to holy orders, but assisted the poor by their prayers, and other pious offices, and prepared medicines for them, which they distributed gratis [t]. But these statutes were in a manner abrogated when CLEMENT dissolved the order.

XXXVI.

[r] See WADDINGI Annal. Minor. tom. viii. p. 209. 298. 326. 336. tom. ix. p. 59. 65. 78. &c. [] In the year 1668.

[HIPP. HELYOT, Hist. des Orares, tom. iii. P. 411. S.FRANC. PAGI Breviar. Pontif. tom. iv. p. 189. s.—] -BONNANI, and others, who have compiled histories of the religious orders.