[48] See Renan, _op. cit._, p. 248; Lea, vol. iii, pp. 22-3 and notes; F. H. Reusch, _Index der verbotenen Bücher_ (Bonn, 1883). _Bücherverbote im Mittelalter_, pp. 18-21; Chronicle of Salimbene in _Monumenta Historica ad provincias Parmensem et Placentiam pertinentia_ (Parma, 1857), pp. 235-6. See _Directorium_, part ii, question ix, pp. 269-72, on the heresies of John of Parma. ‘It is ... the substitution of the idea of the Everlasting Gospel as a written book to supersede the Gospel of Christ, for the original one of the Everlasting Gospel as an unwritten spiritual interpretation based upon that Gospel—that separates Gherardo of Borgo San Donnino and the Joachists from the authentic creed of Joachim himself.’—_Franciscan Essays_, p. 63. The prophecies of Joachim himself were esteemed by the Church; it was the subsequent gloss upon them that was suspect. See Döllinger, _Prophecy and the Prophetic Spirit_ (London, 1873), pp. 121 _et seq._ [49] Rev. xiv, 6. [50] See Lea, vol. iii, pp. 18-19. ‘Unless the universe were a failure, and the promises of God were lies, there must be a term to human wickedness; and as the Gospel of Christ and the Rule of Francis had not accomplished the salvation of mankind, a new gospel was indispensable. Besides, Joachim had predicted that there would arise a new religious Order which would rule the world and the Church in the halcyon age of the Holy Ghost. They could not doubt that this referred to the Franciscans as represented by the Spiritual group, which was striving to uphold in all its strictness the Rule of the venerated founder.’ Salimbene was not a very spiritually-minded Franciscan. That most entertaining chronicler took a not entirely holy delight in the bright and frivolous things of life, and even the gross. But he was very much impressed by the prophecies of the Abbot Joachim. All prophecies appealed to his curious and inquisitive mind, those of Merlin as well as Joachim; but he was genuinely interested in their spiritual significance also, and for a time a professed Joachite. See his Chronicle, especially relating to the testimony of one, Brother Hugo of Montpellier, concerning Joachim, _op. cit._, pp. 97 _et seq._ There is a summary in Taylor, _op. cit._, vol. i, pp. 494-517. The place of poverty in the Franciscan Rule is discussed in _St. Francis and Poverty_—_Franciscan Essays_, pp. 18-30. [51] For the persecution of the Spirituals generally see Lea, vol. iii, pp. 23-89, 129-80; also Döllinger, _Beiträge_, vol. ii, pp. 417-526, a _Chronicle of the Persecution of the Brothers Minor_, also p. 606. See also _Directorium_, on Arnaldo da Villanova, p. 282, Fraticelli, pp. 313-22.