35 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS. them with hermitages. Thus they were fairly out of the Order; they were not even to call themselves Minorites or Franciscans, and it might be supposed that their brethren would be as glad to get rid of them and their assumption of superior sanctity as they were to escape from oppression.* Yet the hatred provoked by the quarrel was too deep and bit- ter to spare its victims, and the breathing-space which they en- joyed was short. Celestin's pontificate came to an abrupt termi- nation. Utterly unfitted for his position, speedily made the tool of designing men, and growing weary of the load which he felt him- self unable to endure, after less than six months he was persuaded to abdicate, in December, 1294, and was promptly thrown into pris- on by his successor, Boniface Till., for fear that he might be led to reconsider an abdication the legality of which might be ques- tioned. All of Celestin's acts and grants were forthwith annulled, and so complete was the obliteration of everything that he had done, that even the appointment of a notary is found to require confirmation and a fresh commission. Boniface's contempt for the unworldly enthusiasm of asceticism did not lead him to make any exception in favor of the Spirituals. To him the Franciscan Or- der was merely an instrument for the furtherance of his ambitious schemes, and its worldliness was rather to be stimulated than re- pressed. Though he placed in his Sixth Book of Decretals the bull Exiit qui seminat, his practical exposition of its provisions is seen in two bulls issued July 17, 1200, by one of which he as- signs to the Franciscans of Paris one thousand marks, to be taken from the legacies for pious uses, and by the other he converts to them a legacy of three hundred livres bequeathed by Ada, lady of Pernes, for the benefit of the Holy Land. Under such auspices the degradation of the Order could not but be rapid. Before his first year was out, Boniface had determined upon the removal of the general, Kaymond. October 29, 1295, he offered the latter the bishopric of Pa via, and on his protesting that he had not strength for the burden, Boniface said that he could not be fit for the heavier load of the generalate, of which he relieved him on the spot. ^Ye can understand the insolence which led a party of the
- Angel. Clarin. Epist. (cp. cit. 1885, p. 526) ; Hist. Tribulationum (lb. 188G,
pp. 308-9).
