Note 9 — Chapter I · THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.

Thomæ de Ecclest. Collat. VIII., XII.—Wadding, ann. 1242, No. 2; ann. 1245, No. 16.—Potthast No. 10825.—Angeli Clarinens. Epist. Excusator (Franz Ehrle, Archiv für Litt-u. Kirchengeschichte, 1885, p. 535; 1886, pp. 113, 117, 120).—Hist. Tribulation. (Ib. 1886, pp. 256 sqq.).

The Historia Tribulationum reflects the contempt of the Spirituals for human learning. Adam was led to disobedience by a thirst for knowledge, and returned to grace by faith and not by dialectics, or geometry or astrology. The evil industry of the arts of Aristotle, and the seductive sweetness of Plato’s eloquence are Egyptian plagues in the Church (Ib. 264-5). It was an early tradition of the Order that Francis had predicted its ruin through overmuch learning (Amoni Legenda S. Francisci, App. cap. xi.).

Karl Müller (Die Anfänge des Minoritenordens, Freiburg, 1885, p. 180) asserts that the election of Crescenzio was a triumph of the Puritans, and that he was known for his flaming zeal for the rigid observance of the Rule. So far from this being the case, on the very night of his election he scolded the zealots (Th. Eccleston Collat. XII.), and the history of his generalate confirms the view taken of him by the Hist. Tribulationum. Affò (Vita di Gioanni di Parma, pp. 31-2) assumes that he endeavored to follow a middle course, and ended by persecuting the irreconcilables.