CHAPTEE II. GUGLIELMA AND DOLCINO. The spiritual exaltation which produced among the Franciscans the developments described in the last chapter was by no means confined to the recognized members of that Order. It manifested itself in even more irregular fashion in the little group of sectaries known as Guglieimites, and in the more formidable demonstration of the Dolcinists, or Apostolic Brethren. About the year 1260 there came to Milan a woman calling herself Guglielma. That she brought with her a son shows that she had lived in the world, and was doubtless tried with its vicissi- tudes, and as the child makes no further appearance in her history, he probably died young. She had wealth, and was said to be the daughter of Constance, queen and wife of the King of Bohemia. Her royal extraction is questionable, but the matter is scarce worth the discussion which it has provoked.* She was a woman of pre- eminent piety, who devoted herself to good works, without prac- tising special austerities, and she gradually attracted around her a little band of disciples, to whom such of her utterances as have been recorded show that she gave wholesome ethical instruction.
- Constance, daughter of Bela III. of Hungary, was second wife of Ottokar I.
of Bohemia, who died in 1230 at the age of eighty. She died in 1240, leaving three daughters, Agnes, who founded the Franciscan convent of St. Januarius in Prague, which she entered May 18, 1236; Beatrice, who married Otho the Pious, of Brandenburg, and Ludomilla, who married Louis I. of Bavaria. Gugli- elma can scarce have been either of these (Art de Ver. les Dates, VIII. 17). Her disciple, Andrea Saramita, testified that after her death he journeyed to Bohemia to obtain reimbursement of certain expenses; he failed in his errand, but verified her relationship to the royal house of Bohemia (Andrea Ogniben, I Guglielmiti del Secolo XIII., Perugia, 1867, pp. 10-11). — On the other hand, a German contemporary chronicler asserts that she came from England (Annal. Dominican. Colmariens. ann. 1301— Urstisii III. 33).
