Lastly, among the Beghards as they were | of them endured the flames with the greatest called, unprincipled and flagitious persons fortitude. One of his most distinguished sometimes lurked, who did not hesi- followers was David Dinant, a Parisian tate by feigned piety to worm themselves into the confidence of the simple and unsuspicious, in order to gratify their own lusts.' 12. To the sect now described undoubtedly belonged Amalric of Bena, the Parisian dialectician and theologian, whose bones were dug up and publicly burned in the year 1209, notwithstanding he had abjured his errors while alive, by command of Innocent III.; and many of whose followers endured at the stake the penalties of their unsound faith. For though the barbarous writers of that age give different and confused statements of his opinions, and attribute some sentiments to him which he never held, yet it is certain he taught this much, that all things are but one, that is, God; that not only the forms of things but also their matter proceeded from God and would all revert back into God; and hence he derived that mistaken piety or religious system of these mystics, maintained that a man may become changed into the divine nature if he will, and proved that all external worship was vain and useless. His disciples were men of very distinguished piety and austerity, and many conscripsit a Deo compulsus, ubi multa ad præsens pertinentia continentur de ecclesiae renovatione et prævia gravi persecutione." According to the doctrine of this sect, the Nine Rocks were so many steps by which the man who desires to rise to God must be doctor, who was accustomed to state the fundamental doctrine of his master in this manner- -God is the original matter of all things. He composed a work called Quaternarii and some other books in a popular style and well calculated to captivate the common people, and saved his life by a timely flight. The bishops who assembled in council at Paris A.D. 1209, supposed that the philosophy of Aristotle gave rise to this impiety, and they therefore prohibited the reading and expounding of his metaphysical and other works.1 13. If what some tell us be true (which however I question), this Amalric and his followers gave credit to those predictions which were circulated as coming from Joachim, abbot of Flora in Calabria, respecting an approaching reformation and purification of the church by the sword, an impending age of the Holy Spirit to suc ceed the ages of the Father and the Son, and similar things with which the Franciscan Spirituals were carried away. This however is certain that some others did suffer themselves to be led by these predictions to found new sects, and to declare war against the reigning church. Wilhelmina, an infatuated and delirious Bohemian woman, who resided in the territory of Milan, took occasion from these predictions concerning an age of the Holy Spirit, of foolishly persuading first herself and then By whom, where, and when, this celebrated sect many others, that the Holy Spirit had aswas first instituted is uncertain. I have before me sumed human nature in her person for the Octoginta Novem Sententia Bechardorum, quos vulgus sake of saving a large part of mankind, for Schwestrones, ipsi vero se de Secta Liberi Spiritus et Voluntaria Paupertatis vocant, cum Confutatione; Christ she said had procured salvation by written by an Inquisitor at Worms at the close of this his blood for all real Christians, and the century. The seventy-ninth of these sayings (sententia) is this: "To say that the truth is in Rhetia, is to Holy Spirit by her would save the Jews, fall into the heresy of Donatus, who said that God the Saracens, and false Christians; and for was in Africa and not elsewhere." From these words this end all the things which befel Christ it appears that Rhetia was the chief seat of the church of the Brethren of the Free Spirit, and that from this when incarnate must also befal her, or province they passed into Germany. Rhetia was not the place where this sect originated; This infatuated woman died at Milan in Yet probably rather the Holy Spirit incarnate in her. I apprehend rather that being expelled from Italy, it took refuge in Rhetia, so that it was Italy which gave the year 1281 with the highest reputation birth to this, as well as to many other parties which for sanctity, and after her death she was seceded from the general church. And there is extant in Raynald's Annales Eccles. tom. xv. ad ann. honoured, as well by her followers who were 1311, sec. 66, p. 90, a long Epistle of the sovereign considerably numerous as by the ignorant pontiff, Clement V. addressed to Raynerius de Casulis, bishop of Cremona, exhorting him to suppress and era- populace, both publicly and privately with dicate the sect of the Free Spirit, resident in certain the highest veneration. But in the year parts of Italy, and particularly in the province of Spo- 1300 the Inquisitors detected her sect, elevated to a union with Him. ieto and the regions adjacent. 2 This did not escape the notice of those enemics of the Brethren of the Free Spirit or Bechards, the Inquisitors. Hence the sixty-eighth of the eighty-nine MS. sayings of the Bechards, with their confutation, is this: To say that all creatures are God is the heresy of Alexander (that Epicurean whom Plutarch mentions in his Symposium), who said, "Materiam primam et Deum et hominem, hoc est, mentes esse in substantia;" which afterwards one David de Dinant followed, who in our times filed from France on account of this heresy, and would have been duly punished if he had been caught. 3 See the Hareses pro quibus sacerdotes Parisiis (A.D. 1209) igne consumpti sunt, in Martene's Thesanrus Anecdot. tom. iv. p. 163, &c.; Natalis Alexander, Hist. Eccles. sæcul. xiii. cap. iii. art. il. p. 76, &c.; Gerh. du Bois, Hist. Eccles. Paris, tom. ii. p. 244, &c.; Bulus, Hist. Acad. Paris. tom. lii. p. 24, 48, 53; Thomasius, De Exustione Mundi Stoica, p. 199, &c. 4 Launol, De Varia Aristotelis Fortuna in Acad. Paris. p. 127, &c. destroyed her splendid tomb, and commit- the horrid death of Dulcinus the sect long ted her bones and with them the leaders of existed in France, Germany, and other the party of both sexes to the flames.1 countries; nor could it be wholly extir14. Similar predictions were the foun-pated till the times of Bonifacc IX. in the dation of the sect of the Apostles, a sect beginning of the fifteenth century.2 which made little change in the received religion, but aimed to revive the apostolical mode of life. Its founder, Gerhard Sagarellus of Parma, ordered his followers to travel up and down the world in the manner of the apostles, clad in white, with heads bare, beards and hair long, and attended by women whom they called sisters; to possess no property at all, but to live upon the voluntary gifts of the pious; and publicly to exhort the people to repent, but in their private meetings to announce the impending downfal of the utterly deformed Romish church, and the rise of a new, purer, and holier church, according to the prophecies of the abbot Joachim. This Gerhard being burned at the stake at Parma A.D. 1300, his successor, Dulcinus of Novara, a bold and energetic character and familiar with the Scriptures, preached much more boldly, that the Roman pontiff, Boniface VIII. and all the flagitious priests and monks would shortly be slain by the emperor Frederick III. son to Peter the king of Aragon, and that a new and most holy pontiff would be placed over the church. For in many of the predictions ascribed to the abbot Joachim it was announced that an einperor called Frederick III. would complete what the emperor Frederick II. had left unfinished. With this Dulcinus, who was both the general and the prophet of this sect of the apostles, and who had collected an armed force, Raynerius, bishop of Vercelli, waged fierce war in behalf of the pontiff for more than two years; and at length after several battles Dulcinus was taken alive and was executed with exquisite tortures at Vercelli, A.D. 1307, together with Margaretha, the sister whom he had chosen according to the practice of his sect. After 1 The Milanese historians, Bernhard Corio and others, give an account of this woman. But their statements differ widely from those of Muratori (Antiq. Ital. Medii Evi, tom. v. p. 95, &c.) derived from the record of the judicial proceedings. He also informs us that a learned man named Puricelli composed a history of Wilhelmina and her sect, which still exists in manuscript. [She pretended to be the daughter of Constantia, queen of Primislaus, king of Bohemia; and that her birth was announced to her mother by the angel Raphael just as the birth of Christ was announced to Mary by the angel Gabriel. Her most noted followers were one Andrew and a nun named Mayfreda. As Christ appointed Peter his vicegerent and the head of his church on earth, so she appointed Mayfreda her vicegerent and placed her on a footing of equality with the Romish popes. She promised her followers to appear to them before the day of judgment. See Muratori, ubi supra.-Mur. 15. This Joachim, abbot of Flora, whose prophecies induced so many honest people to menace the Romish church with a reformation by the sword, as the phrase was, and the pontiff's with great disasters, and to proclaim open war against them, was himself brought under suspicion of heresy, not indeed on account of these predictions, but on account of a new explication of the doctrine of three persons in the Godbead. He wrote a book against Peter Lombard, the master of the Sentences, because the latter distinguished the divine essence from the three persons in the Godhead; for Joachim supposed that this distinction introduced a fourth subject into the divine Trinity, namely, this essence. But his ignorance of dialectics led him in this discussion to use less caution than the subject demanded. For he denied that there was in the sacred Trinity a something or an essence which was common to the three persons; from which position it seemed to follow that the union of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is not a simple or natural union, but merely a moral union like that of several persons all having the same views and opinions. As this sentiment in the view of many appeared to approach very near to the doctrine of Arius, Innocent in the Lateran council of 1215 condemned not indeed the man but his opinions. Joachim however even to the present day has many patrons and advocates, especially among those Franciscans who are called Observants, some of whom maintain that his book was altered by his enemies, and others that his opinions were misunderstood.3 ? I have composed in the German language a parti cular history of this famous sect so imperfectly known in our age, in three books, which was published at Helmstadt, 1746, 4to. I could now add some things to that history. That the sect continued to exist in Germany and other countries down to the times of Boniface IX. we are informed by Coerner, in his Chronicle published in Eccard's Corpus Historicum Medii Eci, tom. i. p. 906. And the fact may be corroborated by many proofs. In the year 1402, an apostle named William was burned at Lubec. See Coerner, ubi supra, P. 1185. The Germans, who called all that affected uncommon piety and sought a reputation for sanctity by begging, Beghards, gave this appellation also to the Apostoli. 3 Sec Papebroch's Disquis. Histor. de Florensi Ordine, prophetiis, doctrina B. Joachimi, in the Acta Sanctor. Maii, tom. vi. p. 456, &c. where is a life of Joachim written by Syllanæus, a Greek, and some other documents. Natalis Alexander, Hist. Eccles. sec. xiii. Diss. ii. p. 331, &c.; Wadding's Annales Minorum, tom. iv. p. 6, &c. CENTURY FOURTEENTH. PART I. THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. CHAPTER I. pointed commander-in-chief. THE PROSPEROUS EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF them all with their commander to return to THE CHURCH. 1. SOME of the Latin kings, being admonished by the Roman pontiffs, thought several times of renewing the war against the Turks and Saracens and of rescuing Syria from their hands. In particular the pontiffs who resided at Avignon in France omitted no motive which they thought would induce the kings of France and England to engage in such a military enterprise. But from various causes their expectations were always disappointed. Clement V. urged this holy war with great energy in the years 1307 and 1308, and appropriated to it a vast sum of moncy.' John XXII. in the year 1319 fitted out a fleet of ten ships for transporting an army to Palestine; and in order to raise the money necessary for so great an enterprise, in the years 1322 and 1323 he commissioned certain nuncios to offer everywhere great indulgences to the liberal who should contribute to it. But the emperor Lewis of Bavaria and others complained that he used the pretext of a crusade to gratify his own avarice and ambition. Nor does his character shield him from such a charge. Under Benedict XII. in the year 1330, Philip de Valois, king of France, collected a large army for such a holy expedition as it was called; but when he was about to embark, impending dangers from his neighbour, the king of England, induced him to abandon the enterprise. In the year 1345 Clement VI. at the request of the Venetians, persuaded a vast multitude by his indulgences to embark for Smyrna, over whom Guido, dauphin of Vienne, was ap Baluze, Vita Pontif. Avenion. tom. i. p. 14, 594, tom. ii. p. 55, 57, 374, 391, &c.; Matthæus, Analecta Vet. Evi, tom. ii. p. 577. Baluze, Vita Pontif. Avenion. tom. i. p. 122, tom. ii. p. 515. 3 Baluze, ubi supra, tom. i. p. 175, 786; Matthæus, Analect. Vet. Evi, tom. il. p. 595, 598. Baluze, ubi supra, tom. i. p. 200. 5 Europe. Again in the year 1363 at the solicitation of Urban V. a great army was collected to sail to Palestine, of which John, king of France, was appointed commander. But he dying soon after, the army dispersed." 2. The missionaries sent by the Roman pontiffs in the preceding century to the Chinese, the Tartars, and the adjacent countries, continued to gather numerous and large congregations among those nations. In the year 1307 Clement V. constituted John de Monte Corvino archbishop of Cambalu, that is, Peking; for it is now beyond a doubt that the celebrated city of Cathai, then called Cambalu, is the same with Peking the modern capital of China. The same pontiff sent seven new bishops, all of them Franciscans, into those regions." John XXII. appointed Nicolaus de Bentra to succeed John de Monte Corvino in the year 1333, and also sent letters to the emperor of the Tartars who was then the sovereign of China. Benedict XII. in the year 1338 sent new nuncios into China and Tartary, after being honoured with a solemn embassy from the Tartars which he received at Avignon. So long as the Tartar empire in China continued, not only the Latins but the Nestorians also had liberty to profess their religion freely all over northern Asia, and to propagate it far and wide. 3. Among the European princes, Jagello, duke of Lithuania and the adjacent terri Ital. Medii Evi, iii. p. 368. 5 Fragmenta Historiæ Romanæ, in Muratori, Antiq. • Baluze, Vita Pontif. Avenion. tom. I. p. 366, 386, 371, 401, &c. 7 Wadding's Annales Ord. Min. tom. vi. ad ann. 1305, sec. xil. p. 69, and ad ann. 1307, p. 91, and p. 368, tom. vii. p. 53, 221, tom. viii. p. 235; Asseman, Biblioth. Orient. l'at. tom. iii. sec. ii. p. 521, &c. Add Echard's Scriptores Prædicator. tom. i. p. 537; Acta Sanctor. tom. i. Januarii, p. 984, &c. and Mosheim's Hist. Tartarorum Eccles. 8 Baluze, Vita Pontif. Avenion, tom. i. p. 242. tories, was nearly the only one who still vast sway in Asia, and who assailed on the adhered to the idolatry of his ancestors. one hand the Greeks and on the other the In the year 1386 he embraced the Christian Saracens and Mamelukes, wholly extirrites, was baptized with the assumed name pated the Christian religion in many cities of Uladislaus, and persuaded his subjects and provinces, and caused the religion of to do the same thing. For Lewis, king of Mohammed to be inculcated on the people Poland, dying in the year 1382, among the in its stead. The nation of the Tartars, in candidates for the crown Jagello offered his which such numbers once professed Chrisname, nor were the Poles averse from tianity or at least tolerated it, after the having so potent a prince for their king. commencement of this century universally But neither Hedwig, the youngest daughter submitted to the Koran. And this religion of the deceased king and by a decree of the though somewhat corrupted was embraced senate heiress of the kingdom, would con- by that most potent emperor of the Tartars sent to marry, nor would the Poles consent Timur Beg, or as he is commonly called to obey a man who rejected Christianity. Tamerlane.3 Having subjugated the greatHe must therefore change his religion.' est part of Asia by his arms, and even The remains of the old religions which still conquered the Turkish sultan Bajazet, and existed in Prussia and Livonia were extir- moreover caused the terrors of his name to pated by the Teutonic knights and the pervade Europe, his mere nod was sufficrusaders with war and massacres. We cient to cause vast multitudes to abandon are likewise informed that many Jews in Christianity. But he also employed vioone place and another made profession of lence and the sword. For being persuaded, Christianity. They were rendered docile as the most credible historians of his life by the exquisite punishments everywhere inform us, that it was the duty of every inflicted upon them, especially in France true disciple of Mohammed to make war and Germany. For a rumour being spread, upon Christians, and that those who should either truly or calumniously, that they had compel many of them to embrace the relipoisoned the public fountains, had mur-gion of the Koran might expect high dered the infants of Christians and drunk rewards from God,' he inflicted numbertheir blood, had treated with extreme less evils on persevering Christians, cruelly contumely what were called the hosts [the butchering some and dooming others to consecrated wafers of the eucharist], and perpetual slavery." had committed other crimes equally heinous, the most severe and cruel tortures which could be devised were decreed against that miserable race. 4. In Spain the Saracens still held the sovereignty of Granada, Andalusia, and Murcia; and against them the Christian kings of Castile, Aragon, and Navarre, waged perpetual war, though not always successfully. The kings of Morocco in Africa sent aid to the Saracens against the Christians. The Roman pontiff's roused and encouraged the Christians by subsidies and by their counsels and promises, to unite and drive the Saracens from Spain. The difficult enterprise proceeded but slowly; yet it became evident in this century that the time was approaching when the Christians would triumph and become sole masters of Spain.2 CHAPTER II. ADVERSE EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 2. The Christian religion was likewise overthrown in the parts of Asia inhabited by the Chinese, the Tartars, the Moguls, and other nations, whose history is yet imperfectly known. At least no mention has been found of any Latin Christians resident in those countries subsequent to the year 1370. Nor has it yet been ascertained what became of the Franciscan missionaries sent thither from Rome. But of the Nesto. rians living in China some traces can be found, though not very clear, as late as the sixteenth century. There can be little 6 various passages; Fragmenta Hist. Rom. in Muratori's Antiq. Ital. Medii Emi, tom. iii. p. 319, where however true and false are blended. Baluze, Miscella nea, tom. ii. p. 267. 3 The great Tamerlane, whose name struck terror even long after his death, wished to be regarded as belonging to the sect of the Sonnites, and to be an enemy of the Schiites. See Petit Croix, Hist. de Timur- Bec, tome ii. p. 151, tome iii. p. 228. But what his religion was is very doubtful, although he professed that of Mohammed. See Mosheim's Hist. Tartarorum Eccles. p. 124, &c. 4 Petit Croix, Hist. de Timur-Bec, tome ii. p. 329, tome iii. p. 9, 137, 243, 265, &c. 5 Examples are given in the Hist. de Timur-Bec (taken from the Persian writer Scherifeddin), tome ii. 1. THE Turks and the Tartars who had p. 376, 384, 386. tome iii. p. 243, tome iv. p. 111, 115, 1 Raynald, Annales Eccles. ad ann. 1286, sec. iv.; Wadding's Annales Min. tom. ix. p. 71; Solignac, Hist. de Pologne, tome iii. p. 241, &c. ? Jo. de Ferreras, Hist. Hispaniæ, tom. iv. v. vi. in 117, ed. Delft, 1723, in 4 vols. 8vo; Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient. article Timur, p. 877. 6 Trigaut, De Christiana Expeditione apud Sinas, lib. i. cap. xi. p. 116, &c.; Asseman, Biblioth. Orient. Vatic. tom. iii. par. i. p. 592, &c. and par. ii. p. 445, doubt that this fall of Christianity was a consequence of the wars of the Tartars with the Chinese and with other nations. For in the year 1369 the last Tartar emperor of the family of Genghis Kan was driven out of China and the Mim family was placed on the throne, who have excluded all foreigners from entering China. PART II. THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. CHAPTER I. THE STATE OF LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. 1. THE Greeks, though greatly oppressed with both external and internal troubles, did not suffer literature and science to become wholly prostrate, as is manifest from the number of learned men among them in this century. The liberal arts, antiquities, criticism, and grammar, were reputably prosecuted by Nicephorus Gregoras, Manuel Chrysoloras,2 Maximus Planudes, and many others. History was 536, &c.; Du Halde, Description de la Chine, tome i. p. 175. 1 Nicephorus Gregoras or son of Gregory, was born at Heraclea in Pontus about A.D. 1295, studied under the best masters at Constantinople, became a teacher there, and acquired the title of the Philosopher. He was one of the ambassadors to the prince of the Servians. In the year 1328, when the younger Andronicus dethroned his grandfather, Andronicus Palæologus, Nicephorus not only lost his patron, but suffered otherwise. Yet he continued a teacher and had eminent men for pupils. Theodorus Metochita made him overseer of a monastery. He engaged in the public controversies between Barlaam and Palamas, became a monk, and retired from court. He died soon after A.D. 1359. Besides some orations and smaller tracts, he wrote a valuable history of the Byzantine empire, from A.D. 1204, where Nicetas Acominatus ends, to the year 1359, in 38 books. The first 24 books, reaching to A.D. 1351, were published, Gr. and Lat. by Boivin, Paris, 1702, and Venice, 1729, 2 vols. fol.-Mur. 2 Manuel Chrysoloras, one of the first and most active of the Greeks who promoted learning in the West, was born of noble parentage at Constantinople, about the middle of the fourteenth century, and for some time taught literature and science in his native city. About A.D. 1393 the Greek emperor, Manuel Palæologus, sent him twice as an ambassador to various European kingdoms to solicit aid against the Turks. After visiting the English and various other courts, he took up his residence in Italy, and taught Greek to several of the first scholars of that age in the West. He gave instruction at Florence, Milan, Venice, Pavia, and Rome. In the year 1409 the pope sent him to Constantinople to negotiate a union between the Greek and Latin churches. In the year 1413 he was sent to the emperor Sigismund, to settle arrangements for the general council of Constance in the following year. He attended that council and died shortly after, in the year 1415. Eneas Sylvius and Poggio give him very high commendations in their notices of his death. Among his pupils in the West were Leonard Aretinus, Francis Barbarus, Guarinus of Verona, Poggio, and Philelphus. His only work which has been published was his Erotemata Grammatica, which was the first good Greek grammar among the Europeans, and was that studied by Erasmus and Reuchlin.-Mur. [The reader will see some very interesting facts relative to the revival of Greek literature in Europe, in Hallam's Intro. to the Liter. of Europe, 1st edit. vol. 1. p. 131, &c.-R. Maximus Planudes was a learned Greek monk of Constantinople, well acquainted with the Latin lan prosecuted, though with different degrees of success, by Theodorus Metochita,1 John Cantacuzenus, Nicephorus Gregoras, and by several others of less note. An ecclesiastical history was composed by Nicephorus Callisti, which although it contains many fabulous and superstitious accounts, throws light on a number of subjects." guage. In the year 1327 the Greek emperor sent hir with others on an embassy to Venice. He suffered considerably for his attachment to the cause of the popes; but afterwards he changed sides and espoused that of the Greeks. He appears to have died soon after A.D. 1353. He translated from Latin into Greck the writings of Cicero, Cæsar, Ovid, Cato, and Boëthius, with Augustine's fifteen books on the Trinity; he composed a life of Esop, and compiled a Greek Anthology in seven books. He likewise wrote against the Latins, composed some orations, and many letters and smaller pieces.-Mur. 4 Theodorus Metochita was a learned Greek of the kindred of the emperor, and the favourite and prime minister of Andronicus Palæologus. In the latter part of the preceding century, the emperor sent him with John Glycas to conduct Maria, sister of the German emperor, who was espoused to the oldest son of the Greek emperor, to Constantinople. It was about the year 1314 he was made prime Logotheta, and took nearly the whole government of the empire on his shoulders. But about A.D. 1328, Andronicus senior being dethroned by his grandson, Andronicus junior. Metochita of course fell into disgrace, and was made a state prisoner till his death A.D. 1333. He transcribed the third book of Glycas' Annals, which Meursius published in 1648 as an original work, entitled a Compendium of Roman History from Julius Cæsar to Constantine the Great. He wrote comments on Aristotle's eight books of Physics, besides some historical tracts never published. He was esteemed one of the most learned Greeks of his age.― Mur. 5 John Cantacuzenus was of the illustrious family of the Cantacuzeni on the father's side, and of that of the Palæologi on the side of his mother. His youth was devoted to literature and arms. He then became a statesman under the elder Andronicus. In the year 1320 he was found to be a partisan of the younger Andronicus, and fell under displeasure. But his friend supported him; and on the elevation of his friend to the throne Cantacuzenus was loaded with honours and offices. On the death of Andronicus junior A.D. 1341, Cantacuzenus was made regent of the empire and guardian of the prince, John Palæologus, then nine years old. But the empress-mother and others became jealous of him, and a civil war ensued. Cantacuzenus was victorious, and in 1347 concluded a peace, by which he and John Palæologus were to be Joint emperors. Civil war again broke out; and in 1355 Cantacuzenus resigned the purple and voluntarily retired to Mount Athos, where he became a monk, and spent the remainder of his days in literary pursuits and monastic devotions. Here he wrote the history of the empire during the reigns of the two Andronici and himself, or from A.D 1320 to 1357, published Gr. and Lat. with notes, Paris, 1645, 3 vols. fol. He also wrote three orations and some tracts against the Mohammedans, which are extant.-Mur. Nicephorus Callisti, i.e. the son of Callistus, lived |