Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/190

 17-1 THE FRATICELLI. A religious revival such as this brought into service a class of men who were worthy representatives of the Peter Martyrs and Guillem Arnauds of the early Inquisition. Under their ruthless energy the Fraticelli were doomed to extinction. The troubles of the Great Schism had allowed the heretics to flourish almost unnoticed and unmolested, but after the Church had healed its dissensions at Constance and had entered upon a new and vigor- ous life, it set to work in earnest to eradicate them. Hardly had Martin Y. returned to Italy from Constance when he issued from Mantua, November 14, 1418, a bull in which he deplores the in- crease of the abominable sect in many parts, and especially in the Roman province. Fortified with the protection of the temporal lords, they abuse and threaten the bishops and inquisitors who at- tempt to repress them. The bishops and inquisitors are there- fore instructed to proceed against them vigorously, without re- gard to limits of jurisdiction, and to prosecute their protectors, even if the latter are of episcopal or regal dignity, which suffi- ciently indicates that the Fraticelli had found favor with those of highest rank in both Church and State. This accomplished little, for in a subsequent bull of 1421 Martin alludes to the continued increase of the heresy, and tries the expedient of appointing the by lightning and partially ruined in 1480, remained on this account unrepaired for nearly a hundred years, until the Observantines got the better of their rivals and obtained possession of it. — Dameto, Pro y Bover, Hist, de Mallorca, II. 1064-5 (Palma, 1841). It is related that when Sixtus IV., who had been a Conventual, proposed in 1477 to subject the Observantines to their rivals, the blessed Gia- como della Marca threatened him with an evil death, and he desisted. — (Chron. Glassberger ann. 1477). The exceeding laxity prevailing among the Conventuals is indicated by let- ters granted in 1421 by the Franciscan general, Antonius dc Perreto, to Friar Liebhardt Forschammer, permitting him to deposit with a faithful friend all alms given to him, and to expend them on his own wants or for the benefit of the Order, at his discretion ; he was also required to confess only four times a year. — (Chron. Glassberger ann. 1416). The General Chapter held at Forli in 1421 was obliged to prohibit the brethren from trading and lending money on usury, under pain of imprisonment and confiscation. — (lb. ann. 1421). From the Chapter of Ueberlingen, held in 1426. we learn that there was a custom by which, for a sum of money paid down, Franciscan convents would enter into obligations to pay definite stipends to individual friars. — (lb. ann. 1426). In fact, the efforts of reform at this period, stimulated by the rivalry of the Observantines, reveal how utterly oblivious the Order had become of all the prescriptions of the Rule.