164: THE FRATICELLI. scription of their holding assemblies in which they read Olivi's " Postil on the Apocalypse " and his other works, but chiefly the. ac- count of his death, is rather borrowed from Bernard Gui's account of the Spirituals of Languedoc, than a correct statement of the customs of the Fraticelli of his time." Of the final shape which the heresy assumed we have an au- thoritative account from its ruthless exterminator, the Inquisitor Giacomo della Marca. In his " Dialogue with a Fraticello," written about 1450, there is no word about the follies of the Spirituals, or any extraneous dogmas. The question turns wholly on the pov- erty of Christ and the heresy of John's definitions of the doctrine. The Fraticelli stigmatize the orthodox as Joannistae, and in turn are called Michaelistae, showing that by this time the extrava- gances of the Spirituals had been forgotten, and that the heretics were the direct descendants of the schismatic Franciscans who followed Michele da Cesena, The disorders and immorality of the clergy still afforded them their most effective arguments in their active missionary work. Giacomo complains that they abused the minds of the simple by representing the priests as simonists and concubinarians, and that the people, imbued with this poison, lost faith in the clergy, refused to confess to them, to attend their masses, to receive their sacraments, and to pay their tithes, thus becoming heretics and pagans and children of the devil, while fancying themselves children of God.t The Fraticelli thus formed one or more separate organizations, each of which asserted itself to be the only true Church. In the scanty information which we possess, it is impossible to trace in detail the history of the fragmentary parts into which they split, and we can only say in general terms that the sect did not consist simply of anchorites and friars, but had its regular clergy and laity, its bishops and their supreme head or pope, known as the Bishop of Philadelphia, that being the name assigned to the com- munity. In 1357 this position was filled by Tommaso, the ex- Bishop of Aquino ; chance led to the discovery of such a pope in Perugia in 1374 ; in 1429 we happen to know that a certain Eai- naldo filled the position, and shortly after a frate named Gabriel.
- Martini Append, ad Mosheirn de Beghardis p. 505.
t Jac. de Marchia Dial. (Baluz. et Mansi II. 595 sqq.).
