674 M O 
Mendicant, in this volume. They ought at leaft to 
have reduced the hierarchy to two diftinct orders of men i 
the fecular priefts, deftined to inftruCV and ferve the peo¬ 
ple ; and the monks , who fliould live entirely feparated 
from the world, and wholly occupied in working out 
their own falvation in filence and retirement. The 
Egyptian monks, who inhabited the barren deferts, were 
obliged to labour for their fubfiftence; but the new-mo¬ 
delled focieties of the 13th age preferred mendicity to 
labour. Yet this did not meet with univerfal approba¬ 
tion. The venerable Guiges, in his Conftitutions of the 
Carthufians, calls begging an odious employment; and 
the council of Paris, 1212, ordains that religious perfons, 
when travelling from home, ffiould be allowed a fufficient 
maintenance, that they might not be obliged to beg, “ to 
the difgrace of the Lord and of their order.” Indeed, 
Francis of AlTylium enjoined his difciples manual labour, 
and only permitted them to beg as a Iaft refource, in cafe 
thofe who purchafed their work refufed to pay them their 
ltipulated price. He even forbade them, in his laft tefta- 
ment, ever to apply to Rome for any privilege whatever, 
or to give any comment upon the Ample rule which he 
had prefcribed them. But he had fcarcely been dead 
four years, when the friar minors aflembled in chapter in 
1230, obtained of pope Gregory IX. a bull, which de¬ 
clared that they were not bound to obferve this laft tefta- 
ment of their founder, nor the rule he had given them. 
The confequence of this was a great relaxation, and many 
abufes, within a few years after their inftitution. 
Under pretext of charity, they often undertook the 
management both of public and private affairs, which in¬ 
volved them in all the bufy concerns of life. Befides, 
even in the fervice of the inquifition, they were employed 
in various ways. For, however this may be efteemed an 
ecclefiaftical tribunal; yet, as the difcharge of it was ne- 
cefiarily accompanied with informations, feizures, prifons, 
confifcations, tortures, See. thefe religious were alfo ne- 
cefl'arily transformed into magijlrates, with various beadles, 
informers, and other officers, under their command, and 
confiderable revenues in their coffers. See the Hiftory of 
the Inquifition by the learned Limborch, printed at Am- 
fterdam in 1692, in which are colleCled all the fentences 
pronounced by that Tribunal from 1303 to 1333, with 
many other curious particulars. Thofe who are not fa- 
tisfied with the account given of it by this great man, may 
confult the Schema Sandce Congregationis publiffied by 
father Macedo, a Cordelier, in 1676, wherein we are al¬ 
lured “ that this tribunal was firft eftablilhed in the ter- 
reftrial paradife, where God himfelf began to difcharge 
the functions of inquifitor, which he afterwards exercifed 
with equal feverity on Cain, and on thofe who undertook 
to ereCt the tower of Babel, &c &c.” 
This terrible court, though firft eftablilhed in France, 
has long fince been execrated in that kingdom, as well as 
almoft in every other part of the known world. It was 
not only calculated to produce ignorance and hypocrify; 
but evidently trampled on the moft facred rights of hu¬ 
manity. To this is chiefly to be attributed the exceffive 
rigour which is ufed with refpeCt tofuch as were efteemed 
heretics, under various arbitrary pretences ; and every 
member of fociety was obliged to denounce both him¬ 
felf and his deareft friends, if he fufpefted that either his 
own or their fentiments, in religious matters, were not 
entirely conformable to the orthodoxy of the times. This 
is exprefsly ordered in the thirty-feven laws drawn up in 
the Council of Narbonne at Beziers, in 1246, which 
have ever lince been efteemed the bafts of all the proceed¬ 
ings of this tyrannical court. We can therefore no 
longer wonder, when we read of biffiops and abbots at the 
head of armies of deluded fanatics, who, from a principle 
of religion, roved about the world in queft of heretics ; 
or that thefe pious crufaders, as often as any were unfor¬ 
tunate enough to.fallinto their mercilefs clutches, threw 
them into the flames with every demonftration of outra¬ 
geous joy, as we are affured by Peter de Vaux. Cernay, a 
*■ ' 
N K. 
monk of Citeaux, in his Hiftory of the Albigenfes. Sa 
alfo in the diocefe of Chalons, in the prefence of the king 
of Navarre, the archbiffiop of Rheims, nineteen biffiops, 
and many other ecclefiaftics, they burnt at once two hun¬ 
dred Manichees at the inftigation and purfuit of a Domi¬ 
nican inquifitor. 
We need only read the decrees of the various council* 
of the 13th century, to be perfuaded of the falfe maxims 
and diforders which prevailed univerfally amongft the 
clergy, as well fecular as regular. As to the mendicant 
orders, the various abufes which were introduced amongft 
them were chiefly owing to the negleCt of manual labour. 
When this was fet afide, they loft the greater part of their 
time in idle difeuffions, inactivity, and floth. We might 
cite, in proof of this affertion, a thoufand inftances from 
the cafuifts and fcholaftics, which are perfedrly ridiculous, 
and to which thofe may have recourfe who can read with 
patience fuch abfurdities ; but we ffiall content ourfelves 
with referring to the Hiftory of Nofes, in a book entitled 
Laus Brevitatis; a fatire againft the Dominicans, publiffied 
under the name of Petrus a Valle Claul'a; and the Trinitas 
Patriarcharum; all three written by the learned Jel'uit 
Raynaud, who died in 1663. It is in the laft-mentioned 
of thefe works that he ferioufly propofes the queftion, 
whether a Carthufian, who by his rule is forbidden the 
ufe of fleffi meat, even to fave his life, may occafionally 
ufe any kinds of clyfters prepared from fuch broths and 
j uices. This he determines in the negative, “ unlefs it be 
abfolutely requifite to prolong his daysin which cafe, 
fays'he, he may be allowed the ufe of thefe nouriffiing re¬ 
medies either by way of clyfter, or in the form of a plafter 
applied to the region of the ftomach. 
But it was not only within the walls of convents that 
they were thus employed : their labours were equally 
ufeful in their various rambles about the world under pre¬ 
tence of begging alms. Their undaunted refolution in 
exhorting the gratuitous oblations of the faithful was 
fuch, that Bonaventure, the general of the order, allures 
us that their very encounter w\as dreaded as much as 
that of highwaymen. And it is indeed natural that this 
vagabond kind of life fliould foon diveft them of' every 
remnant of modefty and Ihame, as well as expofe them to 
every fpecies of temptation and immorality. In lliort, 
the picture which he has given us of them in his writings, 
as it is without reply, fo it is as full as fevere as could have 
been traced by their moft inveterate enemies. Yet they 
had not, in his days, arrived at the fummitof folly. Re¬ 
laxations and divifions were afterwards carried to much 
greater lengths; which we muft aferibe chiefly to the 
fcholaftic difputes to which thefe brothers were perpetu¬ 
ally trained and exercifed. Each day gave rife to fome 
new queftion of weighty moment, and every art of chica¬ 
nery was difplayed in thefe quibbling controverfies,. the 
efleCts of which were fometimes of moft ferious confe¬ 
quence. Thus, when John XXII. condemned fome doc¬ 
trines they had advanced ; the Francifcans, in revenge, 
declared the pope to bean heretic; as fuch, proceeded to 
depofe him, and fubftituted one of their own creatures in 
his place. This was the conclufion of that boafted pro- 
fc-ffion of humility, and poverty, which was introduced 
into the Chriftian fcheme in the 13th century; and thefe 
religious wars produced the moft deplorable effeCts, both 
with regard to difeipline and doCtrine. As to their own 
private debates under the above-mentioned pope, they 
were perfectly ludicrous; yet they occaftoned fuch divi¬ 
fions amongft them, as had like to havecaufed afehifm in 
the order. It was difculfed whether Chrift and his apof- 
tles had any pofleffions, either in common or in particu¬ 
lar ; at what moment, or whether at any time, the meat 
they fwallowed became their own, as by a vow of poverty 
they had diverted themfelves of every kind of property ; 
whether their habit ought to be white, black, grey ; of 
ferge or of cloth, long or fnort; whether their hood was 
to be round or pointed, wide or narrow, &c. And thefe 
grave impertinencies produced as many congregations, 
chapters,. 
