l±± THE FRATICELLI. privileges and subjects them to the ordinary jurisdictions suffi- ciently shows that they were the object of the assault. It is quite possible that this was provoked by some movement among the re- mains of the moderate Spirituals of Italy — men who came to be known as Fraticelli — who had never indulged in the dangerous enthusiasms of the Olivists, but who were ready to suffer martyr- dom in defence of the sacred principles of poverty. Such men could not but have been at once excited by the papal denial of Christ's poverty, and encouraged by finding the Order at large driven into antagonism with the Holy See. Sicily had long been a refuge for the more zealous when forced to flee from Italy. At this time we hear of their crossing back to Calabria, and of John writing to Xiccolo da Reggio, the Minister of Calabria, savage in- structions to destroy them utterly. Lists are to be made out and sent to him of all who show them favor, and King Robert is ap- pealed to for aid in the good work. Robert, in spite of his close alliance with the pope, and the necessity of the papal favor for his ambitious plans, was sincerely on the side of the Franciscans. He seems never to have forgotten the teachings of Arnaldo de Vila- nova, and as his father, Charles the Lame, had interfered to protect the Spirituals of Provence, so now both he and his queen did what they could with the angry pope to moderate his wrath, and at the same time he urged the Order to stand firm in defence of the Rule. In the protection which he afforded he did not discriminate closely between the organized resistance of the Order under its general, and the irregular mutiny of the Fraticelli. His dominions, as well as Sicily, served as a refuge for the latter. AVith the troubles provoked by John their numbers naturally grew. Earnest spirits, dissatisfied with Michele's apparent acquiescence in John's new heresy, would naturally join them. They ranged themselves un- der Henry da Ceva, who had fled to Sicily from persecution un- der Boniface Till. ; they elected him their general minister and formed a complete independent organization, which, when John triumphed over the Order, gathered in its recalcitrant fragments and constituted a sect whose strange persistence under the fiercest persecution we shall have to follow for a century and a half.*
- Wadding, arm. 1317, No. 9 ; arm. 1318, No. 8 ; arm. 1323. No. 16 ; ann. 1325,
No. 6; ann. 1331, No. 3.— Chron. Glassbergerann. 1325,1326, 1330.— Raynald. ann.
