Note 886 — XXI. RESULTS.
Reading edition
Monumenta Franciscana, pp. 602-4.
This testimony concerning the Franciscans is not confined to heretics and laymen. Early in the fifteenth century, a council of Magdeburg took occasion to reprove them for the dissolute and unclerical mode of life of which they offered a conspicuous example. It appears that they dignified with the name of “Marthas” the female companions who, in primitive ages, were known as “agapetæ,” and who had latterly acquired among the secular clergy the title of “focariæ”—“et in domibus suis frequenter soli cum mulieribus quas ipsorum Martas (ut eorum verbis utamur) habitare non verentur.”—Concil. Magdeburg, ann. 1403 Rubr. de Pœnis. (Hartzheim V. 717.)
On the other hand, in the “Creed of Piers Ploughman,” a Franciscan attacks the Carmelites—
They been but jugulers, And japers of kynde; Lorels and lechures, And lemans holden. And that wicked folk Wymmen betraieth, And begileth hem her good With glaverynge wordes, And therwith holden her hous In harlotes warkes. Wright’s Edition, pp. 453-4.