A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume IILea, Henry Charles
History
A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume II
Lea, Henry Charles
Inquisition -- History
To Roselli, however, belongs the credit of raising a question which
inflamed to a white heat the traditional antagonism of the two great
Mendicant Orders. It is worth brief attention as an illustration of the
nicety to which doctrinal theology had attained under the combined
influence of scholastic subtlety in raising questions, and inquisitorial
enforcement of implicit obedience in the minutest articles of faith. In
1351 the Franciscan Guardian of Barcelona, in a public sermon, stated
that the blood shed by Christ in the Passion lost its divinity, was
sundered from the Logos, and remained on earth. The question was a novel
one and a trifle difficult of demonstration, but its raising gave
Roselli a chance to inflict a blow on the hated Franciscans, and he
referred it to Rome. The answer met his most ardent anticipations. The
Cardinal of Sabina, by order of Clement VI., wrote that the pope had
heard the proposition with horror; he had convened an assembly of
theologians in which he himself argued against it, when it was
condemned, and the inquisitors everywhere were ordered to proceed
against all audacious enough to uphold it. Roselli’s triumph was
complete, and the unfortunate guardian was obliged to retract his
speculations in the pulpit where he had promulgated them. The
Franciscans were restless under this rebuff, which they construed as
directed against their Order. In spite of the papal decision the
question remained an open one in the schools, where it was eagerly
debated on both sides. The Franciscans argued, with provoking
reasonableness, that the blood of Christ might well be believed to
remain on earth, seeing that the foreskin severed in the Circumcision
was preserved in the Lateran Church and reverenced as a relic under the
very eyes of pope and cardinal, and that portions of the blood and water
which flowed in the Crucifixion were exhibited to the faithful at
Mantua, Bruges, and elsewhere. After the lapse of a century, the
Franciscan, Jean Bretonelle, professor of theology in the University of
Paris, in 1448 brought the matter before the faculty, stating that it
was causing discussion at Rochelle and other places. A commission of
theologians was appointed, which, after due debate, rendered a solemn
decision that it was not repugnant to the faith to believe that the
blood shed at the Passion remained on earth. Thus encouraged, the
Franciscans grew bolder.
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