156 THE FRATICELLI. himself is the Church. The dithyrambic palinode which passes as his death-bed recantation is clearly a forgery, and there can be no doubt that Michele persisted to the end. When dying he handed the seal of the Order over to William of Ockham, who used it as Vicar-general ; he had already, in April, 1342, appointed two citizens of Munich. John Schito and Grimold Treslo, as syn- dics and procurators of the Order, the latter of whom subsequent- ly assumed the generalate. Bonagrazia died in June, 1347, de- claring with the last breath of his indomitable soul that the cause of Louis was righteous. The date of William of Ockham's death is uncertain, but it occurred between 1347 and 1350. - Thus dropped off, one by one, the men who had so gallantly defended the doctrine of the poverty of Christ. As regards the political conceptions which were the special province of Marsiglio and Ockham. their work was done, and they could exercise no further influence over the uncontrollable march of events. With the death of Benedict XII., in 1342, Louis made renewed efforts for pacification, but John of Bohemia was intriguing to secure the succession for his house, and they were fruitless, except to strength- en Louis by demonstrating the impossibility of securing terms tolerable to the empire. Still the intrigue went on. and in July, 1346, the three ecclesiastical electors, Mainz, Treves, and Cologne, with Kodolph of Saxony, and John of Bohemia, assembled at Rhense under the impulsion of Clement VI. and elected the son of John, Charles Margrave of Moravia, as a rival king of the Bomans. The movement, however, had no basis of popular sup- port, and when Louis hastened to the Bhinelands all the cities and nearly all the princes and nobles adhered to him. Had the election been postponed for a few weeks it would never have taken place, for the next month occurred the battle of Crecy, where the gallant knight, John of Bohemia, died a chivalrous death, Charles, the newly-elected king, saved his life by flight, and French influence was temporarily eclipsed. Thus unauspiciously commenced, the reign of Charles IY. had little promise of duration, when, in Octo-
- Vitoduran Chron. (Eccard. 1. 1844). — Sachsische Weltchronik. dritte bairisch
Fortsetzung No. 9 (Pertz II. 346).— Baluz. et Mansi III. 349-55.— Muratori S. R. I. III. ii. 513-27.— Jac. de Marchia Dial. (Bal. et Mansi II. 600).— Preger, op. cit pp. 35-6.— Carl Miiller, op. cit. I. 370-2.— Chron. Glassberger ann. 1342, 1347.
