der, and were thereby involved in difficulties and perplexities of various kinds."

The fate of the fratricelli.

XXI. The more austere and rebellious Franciscans, who, separating themselves from the church, renounced their allegiance to the Roman pontiffs, and were distinguished by the appellation of fratricelli, or minorites, continued, together with their tertiaries, the beghards, to carry on an open war against the court of Rome. Their headquarters were in Italy, in the marquisate of Ancona, and the neighbouring countries; for it was there that their leader and chief ruler resided. They were persecuted, about the middle of this century, with the greatest severity by pope Nicolas V. who employed every method he could think of to vanquish their obstinacy, sending for that purpose successively against them the Franciscan monks, armed hosts, and civil magistrates, and committing to the flames many of those who remained unmoved by all these means of conversion. This heavy

persecution was carried on by the succeeding pontiffs, and by none with greater bitterness and vehemence than by Paul II. though it is said, that this pope chose rather to conquer the headstrong and stubborn perseverance of this sect by imprisonment and exile, than by fire and sword.a The fratricelli, on the other hand, animated by the protection of several persons of great influence, who became their patrons on account of the striking appearance of sanctity which they exhibited to the world, opposed force to force, and went so far as to put to death some of the inquisitors, among whom Angelo of Camaldoli fell a victim to their vengeance." Nor were the commotions raised by this troublesome sect confined to Italy; other countries felt the effects of their petulant zeal; and Bohemia and Silesia, where they preached with warmth their favourite doctrine, that the true imitation of Christ consisted in beggary, and extreme poverty, became the theatre of the

y See the preceding century.

z Mauritius Sartius, De Antiqua Picentum civitate Cupromontana, in Ageli Calogera Raccolta di Opusculi Scientifici, tom. xxxix. p. 39, 81, 97, where we have several extracts from the Manuscript Dialogue of Jacobus de Marchia against the Fratricelli.

a Ang. Mar. Quirini Vila Pauli II. p. 78. Jo. Targionius, Præf. ad Claror. Venetor. Epistolas ad Magliabechium, tom. i. p. 43, where we have an account of the books that were written against the Fratricelli by Nicholas Palmerius and others under the pontificate of Paul II. and which are yet in manuscript.

b See the Acta Sanctor. tom. ii. Maż. p. 356.

spiritual war. The king of Bohemia was well affected to these fanatics, granted them his protection, and was, on that account, excommunicated by Paul II." In France, their affairs were far from being prosperous; such of them as fell into the hands of the inquisitors were committed to the flames," and they were eagerly searched after in the province of Toulouse, and the adjacent countries, where great numbers of them lay concealed, and endeavoured to escape the vigilance of their enemies; while several of their scattered parties removed to England and Ireland. The dreadful series of calamities and persecutions that pursued this miserable sect was not sufficient to extinguish it entirely; for it subsisted until the times of the reformation in Germany, when its remaining votaries adopted the cause, and embraced the doctrine and discipline of Luther.

New orders;

the common

life.

XXII. Of the religious fraternities that were founded in this century, none deserves a more honourable mention, than the brethren and clerks of the com- the brethren mon life, as they called themselves, who lived under and clerks of the rule of St. Augustine, and were eminently useful in promoting the cause of religion, learning, and virtue. This society had been formed in the preceding age by Gerard de Groote, a native of Deventer," and a man remarkable for his fervent piety and extensive erudition; it was not however before the present century, that it received a proper degree of consistence, and having obtained the approbation of the council of Constance, flourished in Holland, the Lower Germany, and the adjacent provinces. It was divided into two classes, the lettered brethren, or clerks, and the illiterate, who though they occupied separate habitations, lived in the firmest bonds of fraternal union. The clerks applied themselves with exemplary zeal and assiduity to the study of polite literature, and to the education of youth. They composed learned works for the instruction of their contemporaries, and erected schools

Jo. Georgii Schelhornii Acta Historica Eccles. part i. p. 66, 283. d Quirini Vita Pauli II. p. 73.

I have in manuscript in my possession, the acts, or decrees of the Inquisition against John Gudulchi de Castellione and Francis de Archata, both of them Fratricelli, who were burnt in France in the year 1454.

f Wood, Antiq. Oxoniens. tom. ii. p. 232.

g The life of this famous Dutchman, Gerard Groote, was written by Thomas a Kempis, and is to be found in his Works. It stands at the head of the lives of eleven of his contemporaries, which were composed by this eminent writer.

VOL. II.

69

The

and seminaries of learning wherever they went. illiterate brethren, on the other hand, were employed in manual labour, and exercised with success the mechanic arts. Neither of the two classes were under the restraint of religious vows; yet they had all things in common, and this community was the great bord of their union. The sisters of this virtuous society lived much in the same manner, and employed the hours, that were not consecrated to prayer and reading, in the education of young girls, and in branches of industry suitable to their sex. The schools, that were erected by the clerks of this fraternity, acquired a great and illustrious reputation in this century. From them issued forth those immortal restorers of learning and taste that gave a new face to the republic of letters in Germany and Holland, such as Erasmus of Rotterdam, Alexander Hegius, John Murmelius, and several others." The institution of the order of the Jesuits seemed to diminish the credit of these excellent schools, which from that period began to decline, and of which there are at this time but very few remaining. The brethren of the common life were frequently called beghards and lollards, appellations that had been given to so many different sects, and were obliged to sustain the insults and opposition of the clergy and monks, who had an inexpressible aversion to every thing that bore the remotest aspect of learning or

taste.'

The Greek writers.

XXIII. Of the Greeks, who acquired a name by their learned productions, the most eminent were, Simeon of Thessalonica, the author of several treatises. and among others of a book against the heresies that had troubled the church; to which we may add his writings against the Latins, which are not extant;"

h Accounts of this order have been given by Aub. Mireus, in his Chronicon. ad A. 1384, and by Helyot, in his History of the Religious Orders, tom. iii. But, in that which I have here given, there are some circumstances taken from ancient records not yet published. I have in my possession several manuscripts, which furnish materials for a much clearer and a more circumstantial account of the institution and progress of this order, than can be derived from the books that have hitherto appeared on that subject.

i We read frequently, in the records of this century, of schools erected by the Lol fards, and sometimes by the Beghards, at Deventer, Brunswic, Konigsberg, and Munster, and many other places. Now these Lollards were the clerks of the common life, who, on account of their virtue, industry, and learning, which rendered them so useful in the education of youth, were invited by the magistrates of several cities to reside among them.

k Jo. Alb. Fabricius, Bibl. Græc. vol. xiv. p. 49. Rich. Simon, Critique de la Bibliotheque Eccles, par M. Du Pin, tom. i. p. 400.

Josephus Bryennius, who wrote a book Concerning the Trinity, and another against the Latins;

Macarius Macres, whose animosity against the Latins was carried to the greatest height;

George Phranza, whose historical talent makes a figure in the compilation of the Byzantine historians;

Marcus Ephesius, who was an obstinate enemy to the council of Florence;

Cardinal Bessarion, the illustrious protector and supporter of the Platonic school, a man of unparalleled genius and erudition; but much hated by the Greeks, because he seemed to len to the party of the Latins, and proposed a union of the two nations to the prejudice of the former;" George Scholarius, otherwise called Gennadius, who wrote against the Latins, and more especially against the council of Florence, with more learning, candour, and perspicuity than the rest of his countrymen;"

George Gemistius Pletho, a man of eminent learning, who excited many of the Italians to the study, not only of the Platonic philosophy in particular, but of Grecian literature in general;

George of Trapezond, who translated several of the most eminent Grecian authors into Latin, and supported the cause of the Latins against the Greeks by his dexterous and eloquent pen ;

George Codinus, of whom we have yet remaining several productions relating to the Byzantine history.

Latin writers.

XXIV. The tribe of Latin writers that adorned or dishonoured this century is not to be numbered. We shall therefore confine ourselves to the enumeration of those who wrote upon theological matters, and even of these we shall only mention the most eminent. At their head we may justly place John Gerson, chancellor of the university of Paris, the most illustrious ornament that this age can boast of, a man of the greatest influence and authority, whom the council of Constance looked upon as its oracle, the lovers of liberty as their patron, and

1 Rich. Simon, l. e. tom. i. p. 431.

m For an account of Bessarion, and the other learned men here mentioned, see Bornerus and Hody, in their histories of the restoration of letters in Italy, by the Greeks that took refuge there after the taking of Constantinople; add to these the Bibliotheca Græca of Fabricius.

n Rich. Simon, Croyance de l'Eglise Orientale sur la Transubstantiation, p. 97, and Critique de M. Du Pin, tom. i. p. 438.

whose memory is yet precious to such among the French as are at all zealous for the maintenance of their privileges against papal despotism. This excellent man published a considerable number of treatises that were admirably adapted to reform the corruptions of a superstitious worship, to excite a spirit of genuine piety, and to heal the wounds of a divided church; though, in some respects he does not seem to have understood thoroughly the demands and injunctions of the gospel of Christ. The most eminent among the other theological writers were,

Nicolas de Clemangis, a man of uncommon candour and integrity, who lamented in the most eloquent and affecting strains, the calamities of the times, and the unhappy state of the Christian church ;P

Alphonsus Tostatus, bishop of Avila, who loaded the Holy Scriptures with an unwieldy and voluminous Commentary, and composed also other works, in which there is a great mixture of good and bad;

Ambrose of Camalduli, who acquired a high degree of reputation by his profound knowledge of the Greek language, and his uncommon acquaintance with Grecian literature, as also by the zeal and industry he discovered in the attempts he made to effectuate a reconciliation between the Greeks and Latins ;

Nicolas de Cusa, a man of vast erudition, and no mean genius, though not so famed for the solidity of his judgment, as may appear from a work of his, entitled Conjectures concerning the last day;"

John Nieder, whose writings are very proper to give us an accurate notion of the manners and spirit of the age in which he lived, and whose voyages and transactions have rendered him famous;

John Capistran, who was in high esteem at the court of Rome, on account of the ardour and vehemence with

o See Du Pin, Gersonianorum Libri iv. which are prefixed to the edition of the works of Gerson, which we owe to that laborious author, and which was published at Antwerp in five volumes folio, in the year 1706. See also Jo. Launoii Historia Gymnasii Regii Navarreni, part iii. lib. ii. cap. i. p. 514, tom. iv. part i. opp. Herm. van der Hardt, Acta Concil. Constant, tom. i. part iv. p. 26.

P See Launoii Histor. Gymnas. Navarr. part iii. lib. ii. cap. iii. p. 555. Longueval, Hist. de P'Eglise Gallicane, tom, xiv. p. 436. The works of Clemangis were published, some pieces excepted, at Leyden, with a glossary, in the year 1631, by Lydius.

q Bayle, Reponse aux Questions d'un Provincial, tom. ii. cap. cxvii. p. 517. The works of Nicolas was published, in one volume, at Basil, in the year 1565.