DOLCINO'S DOCTRINES. 109 had to remain covered in bed until it was dried. Like the Wal- denses and Cathari, the Apostles seem to have considered the use of the oath as unlawful. They were accused, as usual, of incul- cating promiscuous intercourse, and this charge seemed substan- tiated by the mingling of the sexes in their wandering life, and by the crucial test of continence to which they habitually exposed themselves, in imitation of the early Christians, of lying together naked ; but the statement of their errors drawn up by the inquisi- tors who knew them, for the instruction of their colleagues, shows that license formed no part of their creed, though it would not be safe to say that men and women of evil life may not have been attracted to join them by the idleness and freedom from care of their wandering existence.* By the time of Grherardo's death, however, persecution had been sufficiently sharp and long-continued to drive the Apostles into denying the authority of the Holy See and formulating doctrines of pronounced hostility to the Church. An epistle written by Fra Dolcino, about a month after Segarelli's execution, shows that minds more powerful than that of the founder had been at work framing a body of principles suited to zealots chafing under the domination of a corrupt church, and eagerly yearning for a higher theory of life than it could furnish. Joachim had promised that the era of the Holy Ghost should open with the year 1260. That prophecy had been fulfilled by the appearance of Segarelli, whose mission had then commenced. Tacitly accepting this coincidence, Dolcino proceeds to describe four successive states of the Church. The first extends from the Creation to the time of Christ ; the sec- ond from Christ to Silvester and Constantine, during which the Church was holy and poor ; the third from Silvester to Segarelli, during which the Church declined, in spite of the reforms intro- duced by Benedict, Dominic, and Francis, until it had wholly lost
- Salimbene, pp. 113, 117, 121.— Lib. Sententt. Inq. Tolos. pp. 360-1.— Mura-
tori S. R. I. IX. 455-7.— Bern. Guidon. Practica P. v. — Eymeric. P. n. Q. 11. The test of continence was regarded with horror by the inquisitors, and yet when practised by St. Aldhelm it was considered as proof of supereminent sanctity (Girald. Cambrens. Gemm. Eccles. Dist. n. c. xv.). The coincidence, in fact, is remarkable between the perilous follies of the Apostles and those of the Christian zealots of the third century, as described and condemned by Cyprian (Epist. rv. ad Pompon.).
