A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume ILea, Henry Charles
History
A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume I
Lea, Henry Charles
Inquisition -- History
two parties into which the Church was divided thus expose each other;
and the faithful might well doubt whether salvation was assured with
either.
Yet this wordy war was mere surplusage. On the appearance of St. Amour's
book, St. Louis had hastened to send copies to Alexander for judgment.
The University likewise sent St. Amour at the head of a delegation to
demand the condemnation of the Everlasting Gospel. Albertus Magnus and
Bonaventura came to defend their Orders, and a hot disputation was held
before the consistory. The Everlasting Gospel and its Introduction were
condemned with decent reserve by a special commission assembled at
Anagni, in July, 1255, but St. Amour's book was declared by the bull
_Romanus Pontifex_, October 5, 1256, to be lying, scandalous, deceptive,
wicked, and execrable. It was ordered to be burned before the curia and
the University; every copy was to be surrendered within eight days to be
burned, and any one presuming to defend it was pronounced a rebel. The
envoys of St. Louis and the University were obliged to subscribe to a
declaration assenting to this and to the right of the Mendicants to
preach and hear confessions and to live on alms without labor, William
of St. Amour alone resolutely refusing. Alexander moreover ordered all
teachers and preachers to abstain from reviling the Mendicants and to
retract the abuse they had uttered under pain of loss of preferment--a
command which was but slackly obeyed.[255]
The victory was won for the Mendicants. The University submitted
ungraciously to the irresistible power of the papacy, and the
unconquerable William of St. Amour alone held out. He would make no
acknowledgments, no concessions. He had sworn to abide by the mandates
of the Church, but he refused to recant like his comrades. When about to
return, in August, 1257, Alexander forbade him to go to France and
perpetually interdicted him from teaching, and so great was the dread
which he inspired that the pope wrote to St. Louis asking him to prevent
the inflexible theologian from entering his kingdom. Yet from abroad he
maintained an active correspondence with his old colleagues, and the
University continued in a state of disquiet. It was in vain that
Alexander prohibited all intercourse with him. Though the Mendicants
were allowed to teach, they were ridiculed in indecent rhymes and
lampoons, which were eagerly circulated; and, on Palm Sunday of 1259 the
beadle of the University, Guillot of Picardy, interrupted the preaching
of Thomas Aquinas by publishing a scandalous and libellous book against
the Mendicants. Yet this gradually died out, and the final act of the
quarrel is seen in an epistle of Alexander's, December 3, 1260,
authorizing the Bishop of Paris to absolve those who had incurred
excommunication by keeping copies of St. Amour's book, on their
surrendering them to be burned, the number of these "rebels" apparently
being quite large. Still St. Amour remained steadfast in exile. He was
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