Some historians, in their zeal for rigid classification, have regarded
the Fraticelli as a distinct sect, and have attempted to discover its
dogmas and its founder. Some of the contemporaries of these religious
groups fell into the same error, and in this way the vague term
Fraticelli has sometimes been applied to the disciples of Armanno
Pongilupo of Ferrara (d. 1269), who was undoubtedly a Cathar, and to the
followers of Gerard Segarelli and Dolcino, who were always known among
themselves as Apostolic Brethren (Apostolici). Furthermore, it seems
absurd to classify both the Dolcinists and the Spiritual Franciscans as
Fraticelli, since, as has been pointed out by Ehrle (_Arch. f. Lit. u.
Kirchengesch. des Mittelalters_, ii. 107, &c.), Angelo of Clarino, in
his _De septem tribulationibus_, written to the glory of the Spirituals,
does not scruple to stigmatize the Dolcinists as "disciples of the
devil." It is equally absurd to include in the same category the
ignorant Bizocchi and Segarellists and such learned disciples of Michael
of Cesena and Louis of Bavaria as William of Occam and Bonagratia of
Bergamo, who have often been placed under this comprehensive rubric.
The name Fraticelli may more justly be applied to the most exalted
fraction of Franciscanism. In 1322 some prisoners declared to the
inquisitor Bernard Gui at Toulouse that the Franciscan order was divided
into three sections--the Conventuals, who were allowed to retain their
real and personal property; the Spirituals or Beguines, who were at that
time the objects of persecution; and the Fraticelli of Sicily, whose
leader was Henry of Ceva (see Gui's _Practica Inquisitionis_, v.). It is
this fraction of the order which John XXII. condemned in his bull
_Gloriosam Ecclesiam_ (23rd of January 1318), but without calling them
Fraticelli. Henry of Ceva had taken refuge in Sicily at the time of Pope
Boniface VIII.'s persecution of the Spirituals, and thanks to the good
offices of Frederick of Sicily, a little colony of Franciscans who
rejected all property had soon established itself in the island. Under
Pope Clement V., and more especially under Pope John XXII., fresh
Spirituals joined them; and this group of exalted and isolated ascetics
soon began to regard itself as the sole legitimate order of the
Minorites and then as the sole Catholic Church. After being
excommunicated as "schismatics and rebels, founders of a superstitious
sect, and propagators of false and pestiferous doctrines," they
proceeded to elect a general (for Michael of Cesena had disavowed them)
and then a pope called Celestine (L. Wadding, _Annales_, at date 1313).
The rebels continued to carry on an active propaganda. In Tuscany
particularly the Inquisition made persistent efforts to suppress them;
Florence afflicted them with severe laws, but failed to rouse the
populace against them. The papacy dreaded their social even more than
their dogmatic influence. At first in Sicily and afterwards throughout
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