Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/46

 30 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS. manent and satisfactory settlement. Dissension in the Order could not be healed. In vain Gregory X., about 1275, was ap- pealed to, and decided that the injunction of the Kule against the possession of property, individually or in common, was to be strict- ly observed. The worldly party continued to point out the in- compatibility of this with the necessities of human nature ; they declared it to be a tempting of God and a suicide of the individ- ual ; the quarrel continually grew more bitterly envenomed, and in 1279 Nicholas III. undertook to settle it with a formal declara- tion which should forever close the mouths of all cavillers. For two months he secretly labored at it in consultation with the two Franciscan cardinals, Palestrina and Albano, the general, Bona- grazia, and some of the provincials. Then it was submitted to a commission in which was Benedetto Caietano, afterwards Boni- face VIII. Finally it was read and adopted in full consistory, and it was included, twenty years later, in the additions to the canon law compiled and published by order of Boniface. No ut- terance of the Holy See could have more careful consideration and more solemn authority than the bull known as Emit qui semi- nat, which was thus ushered into the world, and which subsequent- ly became the subject of such deadly controversy.* It declares the Franciscan Kule to be the inspiration of the Holy Ghost through St. Francis. The renunciation of property, not only individual but in common, is meritorious and holy. Such absolute renunciation of possession had been practised by Christ and the apostles, and had been taught by them to their disciples ; it is not only meritorious and perfect, but lawful and possible, for there is a distinction between use, which is permitted, and owner- ship, which is forbidden. Following the example of Innocent IV. and Alexander IV., the proprietorship of all that the Franciscans use is declared to be vested, now and hereafter, in the Koman Church and pontiff, which concede to the friars the usufruct thereof. The prohibition to receive and handle money is to be enforced, and borrowing is especially deprecated ; but, when neces- sity obliges, this may be effected through third parties, although the brethren must abstain from handling the money or adminis- tering or expending it. As for legacies, they must not be left • Li j. v. Sexto xii. 3.— Wadding, ann. 1279, No. 11.