Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/384

308 GERMANY. Mendicants. AU this shows the absence of any papal inquisition and an enjoyment of practical toleration unknown outside of the boundaries of Germany, but it may be assumed that the Beghards did not publicly reveal their more dangerous and repulsive doctrines, for the enumeration of their errors by the council presents them in a very moderate form. Still, the archbishop pronounced them excommunicated heretics, to be suppressed by the secular arm un- less they recanted within fifteen days. A month was given them to abandon their garments and mode of life, after which they were to earn their bread by honest labor. This was well-inten- tioned legislation, but it seems to have remained whoUy inopera- tive. The Beghards continued to assail the Mendicants with such ardor and success that the Franciscans, who were crippled by the death of their lector in 1305, applied for succor to their general, Gonsalvo. The necessity must have been pressing, for in 1308 he sent to their assistance the greatest schoolman of the Order, Duns Scotus. He was received with the enthusiasm which his eminence merited, but, unfortunately, he died in November of the same year, and the Beghards were able to continue their proselytism without efficient opposition.^ About this time their missionary labors seem to have become particularly active and to have attracted wide attention. We have seen how, in 1310, the Beguine, Marguerite Porete of Hainault, was burned in Paris, and bore her martyrdom with unshrinking firm- ness. In the same year occurred the Council of Mainz already referred to, and also a council of Treves, in which their unauthor- ized exposition of Scripture was denounced, and all parish priests were required to summon them to abandon their evil ways within a fortnight, under pain of excommunication. In 1309 we hear of certain wandering hypocrites called Lollards, who, throughout Hainault and Brabant, had considerabje success in obtaining con- verts among noble ladies.f This missionary fervor seems to have attracted attention to the sect, leading to special condemnation under the authority of the - Concil. Colon, ann. 1306, c. 1, 2 (Hartzheim IV. 100-2).-Wadding. ann. 1305, No. 12.— Mosheim de Beghardis pp. 232-4. t Concil. Trevirens. ann. 1310 c. 51 (Martene Thesaur. IV. 250).-Hocsemii Gest. Pontif. Leod. Lib. i. c 31 (Cbapeaville, II. 350).