Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/388

 3Y2 GERMANY. mind is seen in the current report that on his death-bed Clement bitterly repented of three things— that he had poisoned the Em- peror Henry YII. and that he had destroyed the Orders of the Templars and of the Beguines.^ The Church had declared, in the great Council of Lateran, that no congregations should be allowed to exist save under some ap- proved rule. The Beguines had gradually, almost unconsciously, grown up in practical contravention of this canon. The solution of their present difficulties lay in attaching themselves to some recognized Order, and John XXII., in 1319, recognizing the mis- chief wrought by the heedless legislation of Yienne, promised exemption from further persecution of those who would become Mendicant Tertiaries. Large numbers of them sought this refuge, though their adhesion was more nominal than real. They preserved their self-government, their habits of labor, and their ownership of individual property. In a bull of December 31, 1320, and oth- ers of later date, John drew the distinction between those who lived piously and obediently in their houses, and those who wan- dered around disputing on matters of faith. The former, he is told, amount to two hundred thousand in Germany alone, and he bitterly reproached the bishops who were disturbing them on ac- count of the comparatively small number whose misconduct had drawn forth the misinterpreted condemnation of Clement. They are in future to be left in peace. This, at least, put an end, in 1321, to the persecution of those of Strassburg.f The innocent Beguines thus obtained a breathing-space, and the gaps in their ranks were soon fiUed up. The obnoxious mem- bers^ however, felt the effects of the Clementine canon as severely as the habitual sloth and indifference of the German prelates in such matters would permit. Archbishop Henry, of Cologne, was

No. 11 ; Ejusd. Regest. Johann. PP. XXII. No. 81.-Vitodurani Chron. ann. 1317 (Eccard. Corp. Hist. I. 1785-6).— Chron. Sanpetrin. Erfurt, ann. 1315 (Menken. Ill 325).— Chron. Magdeburgens. ann. 1317 (Meibom. Rer. German. II. 337).- Chron. Egmondan. ann. 1317 (Matthaei Analect. IV. 161).-Mosheim de Beghar- dis, pp. 251, 269. t Mosheim, pp. 189-90.— Martini Append, ad Mosheim, pp. 630-2, 638-40- C. 1 Extrav. Commun. iii. 9.-Ripoll II. 169-70.-Haupt, Zeitschrift fur K. G. 1885, pp. 517, 524.
 * Guill. Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1317.-Ripoll 11. 169. -Wadding, ann. 1319,