Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/94

 73 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS. that in 1323 there were one hundred and fourteen burned by Fran- ciscan inquisitors alone. The Inquisition at Marseilles, in fact, which was in Franciscan hands, had the reputation of being exces- sively severe with the recalcitrant brethren of the Order. In a case occurring in 1329 Frere Guillem de Salvelle, the Guardian of Beziers, states that their treatment there was very harsh and the imprisonment of the most rigorous description. Doubtless Angelo da Clarino has justification for the assertion that the Conventuals improved their triumph over their antagonists like mad dogs and wolves, torturing, slaying, and ransoming without mercy. Trivial as may seem to us the cause of quarrel, we cannot but respect the simple earnestness which led so many zealots to seal their convic- tions with their blood. Many of them, we are told, courted mar- tyrdom and eagerly sought the flames. Bernard Leon of Mon- treal was burned for persistently declaring that, as he had vowed poverty and chastity, he would not obey the pope if ordered to take a wife or accept a prebend.* Ferocious persecution such as this of course only intensified the convictions of the sufferers and their antagonism to the Holy See. So far as regards the ostensible subject of controversy, we learn from Pierre Tort, when he was before the Inquisition of Toulouse in 1322, that it was allowable to lay in stores of corn and wine sufficient for eight or fifteen days, while of salt and oil there might be provision for half a year. As to vestments, Michele da Cesena had exercised the power conferred on him by the bull Quorumdam by issuing, in 1317, a precept requiring the gown to be made of coarse stuff, reaching down to cover only half the foot, while the cord was to be of hemp and not of flax. Although he seems to have left the burning question of the hood untouched, this regula- tion might have satisfied reasonable scruples, but it was a case of conscience which admitted of no compromise. The Spirituals de- clared that they were not bound to abandon the still shorter and Santa Croce, Feb. 1322. — S. Th. Aquin. Summ. Sec. Sec. Q. lxxxviii. Art. xi. ; Q. clxxxvi. Art. viii. ad 3. — Franz Ehrle (Archiv fur Litt.- u. Kirchengeschichte, 1887, p. 156).— Lib. Sententt. Inq. Tolos. pp. 300, 313, 381-93.— Coll. Doat, XXVII., XXVIIL— Mosheim de Beghardis pp. 499, 632.— Vaissette, IV. 182-3.— Wadding, ann. 1317, No. 45.— Hist. Tribulat. (loc. cit. p. 149).— Arch, de 1' Inq. de Carcass. (Doat, XXVII. 162).— Johann. S. Victor. Chron. ann. 1316-19.
 * 1) Raynald ann. 1322, No. 51. — Archivio di Firenze, Prov. del Convento di