§ 71. THE FRANCISCANS. 415
The bull expressly annulled St. Francis' prohibition forbid ding the order to seek privileges from the pope. The Fran ciscan general, Bonagratia, and his two successors, accepted the bull, but Peter Olivi, d. 1298, who had acquired wide influence through his writings, violently opposed it. Coelestin V. sought to heal the division by inviting the Observants to join the order of the Ccelestin hermits which he had founded, and Angelo Clareno, who had been released from prison, took this course. It was opposed by Olivi and the Observant preacher Ubertino da Casale,1 d. after 1330, who remained through much persecution true to the original principles of Francis.
And so the century in which Francis was born went out with the controversy still going on with unabated warmth. A somewhat new aspect was given to the controversy in the fourteenth century. The dogmatic question was then put into the foreground, whether Christ and his Apostles prac tised absolute poverty or not. In 1323 John XXII. sought to put a final stop to the dissension by giving papal authority to the statement that they did not practise absolute poverty. Thus the underlying foundation of the strict Franciscan Rule was taken away.
In another respect the Franciscans departed from the mind of their founder. Francis disparaged learning. In 1220 he reprimanded and then cursed Pietro Staccia, a doctor of laws, for establishing a Franciscan school at Bologna. On hearing of a famous doctor, who had entered the order, he is re ported to have said, " I am afraid such doctors will be the de struction of my vineyard. True doctors are they who with the meekness of wisdom exhibit good works for the betterment of their neighbors." To Anthony of Padua, Francis wrote — and the genuineness of the letter is not disputed — "I am agreed that you continue reading lectures on theology to the brethren provided that kind of study does not extinguish in them the spirit of humility and prayer."2 But Francis'
1 Ubertino, during seven days of rigid seclusion on the Verna, wrote the ascetic work Arbor vitce crucifixes. See Knoth, 9-14.
2 Lempp, Anthony of Padua, p. 439.
416 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
followers departed from his teachings and adapted them selves to the current of that wonderful thirteenth century, established schools in their convents aud were well settled, before the century was half gone, at the chief centres of uni versity culture. In 1255 an order called upon Franciscans, going out as missionaries, to study Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, and other languages.
The order spread rapidly from Palestine to Ireland.1 It was introduced into France by Pacifico and Guichard of Beaujolais, a brother-in-law of the French king. The first successful attempt to establish branches in Germany was made, 1221, by C;esar of Spires, who had been converted by Elias of Cortona on his journey to Syria. He was accompanied by twelve priests and thirteen laymen, among them, Thomas of Celano and Jordan of Giano upon whose account we depend for the facts. The company separated at Trent, met again at Augsburg, and then separated once more, carrying their propaganda along the Rhine and to other parts of the coun try. Houses were established at Mainz, Worms, Spires, and Cologne which in 1522 were united into a custody. The year following four German custodies were added.2 Ciesar of Spires, the flaming apostle of the order in Germany, be longed to the Observant wing, and had to suffer severe per secution and was put to death in prison.
As for England, nine Franciscans, four of them clerics, only one of whom was in priest's orders, landed at Dover, 1224, and went to Canterbury, and then to London. The account of their early labors on English soil, by Thomas of Eccleston, a contemporary,3 is one of the freshest and most
1 The Franciscans became guardians of the holy places in Palestine. In answer to my question put to a Franciscan in Nazareth, whether the Church of the Annunciation there was the veritable place where Mary had received the message of the angel, he replied, " Most certainly ! We Franciscans have been in this land 600 years and have thoroughly investigated all these matters." 2 gee Hauck, IV. pp. 378 sq.
3 All that we know about his life is gotten from his account of the Fran ciscans in England. He died about 1260. Eccleston gives the names of the nine first missionaries. Mon. Franc., pp. 5 sqq. Agnellus of Pisa stood at Jiheir head. Three of the clerics were Englishmen.