Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/88

 72 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS. tors of Languedoc to denounce as heretics all who styled them- selves Fraticelli or Fratres de paupere vita. Then, April 13, he had issued the constitution Quorumdam, in which he had definite- ly settled the two points which had become the burning questions of the dispute — the character of vestments to be worn, and the legality of laying up stores of provisions in granaries, and cellars of wine and oil. These questions he referred to the general of the Order with absolute power to determine them. Under Mi- chele's instructions, the ministers and guardians were to determine for each convent what amount of provisions it required, what por- tion might be stored up, and to what extent the friars were to beg for it. Such decisions were to be implicitly followed without thinking or asserting that they derogated from the Eule. The bull wound up with the significant words, " Great is poverty, but greater is blamelessness, and perfect obedience is the greatest good." There was a hard common-sense about this which may seem to us even commonplace, but it decided the case against the Spirituals, and gave them the naked alternative of submission or rebellion.* This bull was the basis of the inquisitorial process against the twenty-five recalcitrants. The case was perfectly clear under it, and in fact all the proceedings of the Spirituals after its issue had been flagrantly contumacious — their refusal to change their vest- ments, and their appeal to the pope better informed. Before handing them over to the Inquisition they had been brought be- fore Michele da Cesena, and their statements to him when read before the consistory had been pronounced heretical and the au- thors subject to the penalty of heresy. Efforts of course had been made to secure their submission, but in vain, and it was not until November 6, 1317, that letters were issued by John and by Michele da Cesena to the Inquisitor Michel, directing him to proceed with the trial. Of the details of the process we have no knowledge, but it is not likely that the accused were spared any of the rigors customary in such cases, when the desire was to break the spirit and induce compliance. This is shown, moreover, in the fact that the proceedings were protracted for exactly six months, the sen- tence being rendered on May 7, 1318, and by the further fact that Coll. Doat, XXXIV. 147.— Extrav. Joann. XXII. Tit. xiv. cap. 1.