Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/76

 60 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS. and let us defend ourselves, or they must recall them. Otherwise there can be no peace between us." To this Clement rejoined, " We declare as pope, that from what has been stated on both sides before us, no one ought to call you heretics and defenders of heresv. What exists to that effect in our archives or elsewhere we wholly erase and pronounce to be of no validity against you." The result was seen in the Council of Yienne (1311-12), which adopted the canon known as Exivi de Paradiso, designed to settle forever the controversy which had lasted so long. Angelo da Clarino declares that this was based wholly upon the propositions of Ubertino ; that it was the crowning victory of the Spirituals, and his heart overflows with joy when he communicates the good news to his brethren. It determined, he says, eighty questions concerning the interpretation of the Kule ; hereafter those who serve the Lord in hermitages and are obedient to their bishops are secured against molestation by any person. The inquisitors, he further stated, were placed under control of the bishops, which he evidently regarded as a matter of special importance, for in Provence and Tuscany the Inquisition was Franciscan, and thus in the hands of the Conventuals. We have seen that Clement delayed issuing the decrees of the council. He was on the point of doing so, after careful revision, when his death, in 131-1, fol- lowed by a long interregnum, caused a further postponement. John XXII. was elected in August, 1316, but he, too, desired time for further revision, and it was not until November, 1317, that the canons were finally issued. That they underwent change in this process is more than probable, and the canon Exivi de Paradiso was on a subject peculiarly provocative of alteration. As it has reached us it certainly does not justify Angelo's paean of tri- umph. It is true that it insists on a more rigid compliance with the Rule. It forbids the placing of coffers in churches for the collection of money ; it pronounces the friars incapable of enjoying inheritances ; it deprecates the building of magnificent churches, and convents which are rather palaces ; it prohibits the acquisition of extensive gardens and great vineyards, and even the storing up of granaries of corn and cellars of wine where the brethren can live from day to day by beggary ; it declares that whatever is given to the Order belongs to the Church of Rome, and that the friars have only the use of it, for they can hold noth-