Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/24

 g THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS. and its needs were constantly increasing. A bull of Gregory IX. in 1239, authorizing the Franciscans of Paris to acquire additional land with which to enlarge their monastery of Saint-Germain-des- Pres, is an example of what was going on all over Europe. In 124:4:, at the chapter which elected Crescenzio, the Englishman, John Kethene, succeeded, against the opposition of nearly the whole body of the assembly, in obtaining the rejection of Greg- ory's definition, but the triumph of the Puritans was short-lived. Crescenzio sympathized with the laxer party, and applied to In- nocent IV. for relief. In 1245 the pope responded with a decla- ration in which he not only repeated the device of Gregory IX. by authorizing deposits of money with parties who were to be re- garded as the agents of donors and creditors, but ingeniously as- sumed that houses and lands, the ownership of which was forbid- den to the Order, should be regarded as belonging to the Holy See, which granted their use to the friars. Even papal authority could not render these transparent subterfuges satisfying to the consciences of the Spirituals, and the growing worldliness of the Order provoked continuous agitation. Crescenzio before taking the vows had been a jurist and physician, and there was further complaint that he encouraged the brethren in acquiring the vain and sterile science of Aristotle rather than in studying divine wis- dom. Under Simone da Assisi, Giacopo Manf redo, Matteo da Monte Eubiano, and Lucido, seventy-two earnest brethren, finding Cres- cenzio deaf to their remonstrances, prepared to appeal to Innocent. He anticipated them, and obtained from the pope in advance a decision under which he scattered the recalcitrants in couples throughout the provinces for punishment. Fortunately his reign was short. Tempted by the bishopric of Jesi, he resigned, and in 1248 was succeeded by Giovanni Borelli, better known as John of Parma, who at the time was professor of theology in the University of Paris.* 1245, No. 16. — Potthast No. 10825.— Angeli Clarinens. Epist. Excusator (Franz Ehrle, Archiv fur Litt.- u. Kirchengeschichte, 1885, p. 535; 1886, pp. 113, 117, 120).— Hist. Tribulation. (lb. 1886, pp. 256 sqq.). The Historia Tribulationum reflects the contempt of the Spirituals for human learning. Adam was led to disobedience by a thirst for knowledge, and returned to grace by faith and not by dialectics, or geometry or astrology. The evil in*
 * Thoinae de Ecclest. Collat. vin., xn.— Wadding, aun. 1242. No. 2; ann.