Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/170

 154 THE FRATICELLI. many the Order was not unanimous, but doubtless the honest Franciscan, John of Winterthur, reflects the feelings of the great body when he says that the reader will be struck with horror and stupor on learning the deeds with which the pope convulsed the Church. Inflamed by some madness, he sought to argue against the poverty of Christ, and when the Franciscans resisted him he persecuted them without measure. The Dominicans encouraged him, and he largely rewarded them. The traditional enmity be- tween the Orders found ample gratification. The Dominicans, to excite contempt for the Franciscans, exhibited paintings of Christ with a purse, putting in his hand to take out mone} r ; nay, to the horror of the faithful, on the walls of their monasteries, in the most frequented places, they pictured Christ hanging on the cross with one hand nailed fast, and with the other putting money in a pouch suspended from his girdle. Yet rancor and religious zeal did not wholly extinguish patriotism among the Dominicans ; they were, moreover, aggrieved by the sentence of heresy passed upon Master Eckart, which may perhaps explain the fact that Tauler supported Louis, as also did Margaret Ebner, one of the Friends of God, and the most eminent Dominican sister of the day. It is true that many Dominican convents were closed for years, and their inmates scattered and exiled for persistently refusing to cele- brate, but others complied unwillingly with the papal mandates. At Landshut they had ceased public service, but when the em- peror came there they secretly arranged with the Duke of Teck to assail their house with torches and threaten to burn it down, so that they might have the excuse of constraint for resuming public worship, and the comedy was successfully carried out. In fact, the General Chapter of 1328 complained that in Germany the brethren in many places were notably negligent in publishing the papal bulls about Louis.* All this, however, was but an episode in the political struggle, which was to be decided by the rivalries between the houses of "Wittelsbach, Hapsburg, and Luxemburg, and the intrigues of France. Louis gradually succeeded in arousing and centring (Eccard. Corp. Hist. I. 1798, 1800, 1844-5, 1871).— Andreas Ratisponens. Chron. ann. 1336 (Ibid. I. 2103-4).— Preger, Der Rirchenpolitische Kampf, pp. 42-5.— Denifle, Archiv fur Litt.- u. Kircbengescbichte, 1886. p. 624.
 * Martene Thesaur. II. 826-8.— Carl Muller, op. cit. I. 239.— Vitodurani Chron.