54 THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS. nacria applied to him to expound his dream,he seized the opportunity to invoke the monarch's commiseration for their sufferings, by ex- plaining to him how, when they sought to appeal to the Holy See, their brethren persecuted and slew them, and how evangelical pov- erty was treated as the gravest of crimes. He used his influence similarly at the court of jSTaples, thus providing for them, as we shall see, a place of refuge in their necessity.* With his impulsive temperament it was impossible for him to hold aloof from the bitter strife then raging. Before the thir- teenth century was out he addressed letters to the Dominicans and Franciscans of Paris and MontpeUier, to the Kings of France and Aragon, and even to the Sacred College, announcing the approach- ing end of the world ; the wicked Catholics, and especially the clergy, were the members of the coming Antichrist. This aroused an active controversy, in which neither party spared the other. After a war of tracts the Catalan Dominicans formally accused him before the Bishop of Girona, and he responded that they had no standing in court, as they were heretics and madmen, dogs and jugglers, and he cited them to appear before the pope by the fol- lowing Lent. It could only have been the royal favor which pre- served him from the fate at the stake of many a less audacious controversialist ; and when, in 1300, King Jayme sent him on a mis- sion to Philippe le Bel, he boldly laid his work on the advent of Antichrist before the University of Paris. The theologians looked askance on it, and, in spite of his ambassadorial immunity, on the eve of his return he was arrested without warning by the episco- pal Official. The Archbishop of Xarbonne interposed in vain, and he was bailed out on security of three thousand livres, furnished by the Yiscount of Xarbonne and other friends. Brought before the masters of theology, he was forced by threats of imprisonment to recant upon the spot, without being allowed to defend himself, and one can well believe his statement that one of his most eaerer judges was a Franciscan, whose zeal was doubtless inflamed by the portentous appearance of another Olivi from the prolific South.f A formal appeal to Boniface was followed by a personal visit
- Pelayo, I. 454, 458, 464-6, 468-9, 730-1, 779.— Franz EUrle, Archiv fur Litt.-
und Kirchengesclnchte, 1886, 327-8. t Pelayo, I. 460, 464-8, 739-45.
