RESIGNATION OF JOHN OF PARMA. 23 The Spiritual section of the Franciscans was fatally compro- mised, and the worldly party, which had impatiently borne the strict rule of John of Parma, saw its opportunity of gaining the ascendency. Led by Bernardo da Bessa, the companion of Bona- ventura, formal articles of accusation were presented to Alexander IV. against the general. He was accused of listening to no ex- planations of the Rule and Testament, holding that the privileges and declarations of the popes were of no moment in comparison. It was not hinted that he was implicated in the Everlasting Gos- pel, but it was alleged that he pretended to enjoy the spirit of prophecy and that he predicted a division of the Order between those who procured papal relaxations and those who adhered to the Rule, the latter of whom would flourish under the dew of heaven and the benediction of God. Moreover, he was not ortho- dox, but defended the errors of Joachim concerning the Trinity, and his immediate comrades had not hesitated, in sermons and tracts, to praise Joachim immoderately and to assail the leading men of the Order. In this, as in the rest of the proceedings, the studied silence preserved as to the Everlasting Gospel shows how dangerous was the subject, and how even the fierce passions of the strife shrank from compromising the Order by admitting that any of its members Avere responsible for that incendiary production.* Vit. Alex. PP. IV. (Muratori S. R. I. III. i. 593). Cf. Amalr. Auger. Vit. Alex. PP. IV. (lb. III. ii. 404). For the authorship of the Everlasting Gospel, see Tocco, LTHeresia nel Medio Evo, pp. 473-4, and his review of Denifle and Haupt, Archivio Storico Italiano, 1886; Renan,pp. 248, 277; and Denifle, ubi sup. pp. 57-8. One of the accusations brought against William of Saint Amour was that he complained of the delay in condemning the Everlasting Gospel, to which he re- plied with an allusion to the influence of those who defended the errors of Joachim. — Dupin, Bib. des Autenrs fCccles. T. X. ch. vii. Thomas of Cantimpre" assures us that Saint Amour would have won the day against the Mendicant Orders but for the learning and eloquence of Albertus Magnus. — Bonum Universale, Lib. n. c. ix.
- Wadding, ann. 1256, No. 2. — Affo (Lib. n. c. iv.) argues that John of Parma's
resignation was wholly spontaneous, that there were no accusations against him, and that both the pope and the Franciscans were with difficulty persuaded to let him retire. He quotes Salimbene (Chronica p. 137) as to the reluctance of the chapter to accept his resignation, but does not allude to the assertion of the same authority that John was obnoxious to Alexander and to many of the ministers of the Order by reason of his too zealous belief in Joachim (lb. p. 131).
