Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/74

 58 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS. where they were ordered to draw up in writing the points which they deemed requisite for the reformation of the Order. To en- able them to perform this duty in safety they were taken under papal protection by a bull which shows in its minute specifications how real were the perils incurred by those who sought to restore the Order to its primitive purity. Apparently stimulated by these warnings, the general, Gonsalvo, at the Chapter of Padua in 1310, caused the adoption of many regulations to diminish the luxury and remove the abuses which pervaded the Order, but the evil was too deep-seated. He was resolved, moreover, on reducing the Spir- ituals to obedience, and the hatred between the two parties grew bitterer than ever.* The articles of complaint, thirty-five in number, which the Spirituals laid before Clement V. in obedience to his commands formed a terrible indictment of the laxity and corruption which had crept into the Order. It was answered but feebly by the Con- ventuals, partly by denying its allegations, partly by dialectical subtleties to prove that the Kule did not mean what it said, and partly by accusing the Spirituals of heresy. Clement appointed a commission of cardinals and theologians to hear both sides. For two years the contest raged with the utmost fury. During its con- tinuance Eaymond Gaufridi, Gui de Mirepoix, and Bartolommeo Sicardi died — poisoned by their adversaries, according to one ac- count, worn out with ill-treatment and insult according to another. Clement had temporarily released the delegates of the Spirituals from the jurisdiction of their enemies, who had the audacity, March 1, 1311, to enter a formal protest against his action, alleg- ing that they were excommunicated heretics under trial, who could not be thus protected. In this prolonged discussion the opposing leaders were Ubertino da Casale and Bonagrazia (Bon- Rayrn. de Fronciacho (lb. 1887, p. 18).— Eymerich p. 316.— Angeli Clarini Litt. Excus. (Archiv, 1885, pp. 531-2).— Wadding, ann. 1210, No, 6.— Regest. Clem- ent. PP. V. T. V. pp. 379 sqq. Romas, 1887). At the same time that the general, Gonsalvo, was seeking to repress the ac- quisitiveness of the friars they were procuring from the Emperor Henry VII. a decree annulling a local statute of Nuremberg which forbade any citizen from giving them more than a single gold piece at a time, or a measure of corn.— Chron. Glassberger ann. 1310.
 * 1) Franz Ehrle (Archiv fur Litt.- u. K. 1886, pp. 380-1, 384, 386 ; 1887, p. 36).—