first_page settings Order Article Reprints Font Type: Arial Georgia Verdana Font Size: Aa Aa Aa Line Spacing: Column Width: Background: Open AccessArticle Franciscan Prophets and the Inquisition (1226–1326) by C. Colt Anderson Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education, Fordham University, 441 East Fordham Rd, Bronx, NY 10458, USA Religions 2018, 9(4), 108; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel9040108 Received: 20 January 2018 / Revised: 15 March 2018 / Accepted: 15 March 2018 / Published: 3 April 2018 (This article belongs to the Special Issue Late Medieval Christianity: Religious Cultures, Heresies, and Orthodoxies) Download Download PDF Download PDF with Cover Download XML Download Epub Versions Notes Abstract: This paper examines how Franciscan apologetics and polemics over the status of St. Francis and the Rule of 1223 created a climate of inquisitorial suspicion over prophecy and prophetic claims. Keywords: Franciscans; inquisition; prophecy; heresy; miracles; Francis of Assisi; Thomas of Celano; Bonaventure; Peter Olivi; apocalypticism The idea that claims to prophecy presented an open invitation for inquisitorial investigation and condemnation in the Middle Ages seems obvious. Augustine had established a tradition that once the revelation in Christ had been made manifest, there was no need for prophecy to reveal the unfolding of salvation history in the future. Moreover, he discouraged people from reading the Apocalypse as a prophecy.1 Robert Lerner has argued that this tradition is why very few people claimed the gift of prophecy and instead relied on the idea of an inspired reading of scripture to avoid charges of heresy.2 Lerner distinguished claims to being a prophet from being identified as a prophet by others, such as the way Joachim of Fiore was identified as a prophet. The earliest sources Lerner pointed to as evidence of this general Augustinian suspicion of prophecy, however, are from an anti-Franciscan text written in 1310 and a polemic against the Revelations of St. Bridget in 1389.3Yet when one looks at the role prophecy played in the Franciscan Order from the time of the founder’s death to the condemnation of Peter Olivi’s Lectura super Apocalypsim in 1326, it becomes clear the Franciscans successfully promoted prophetic claims for their founder and their order prior to 1274. It is also clear it was internal divisions among Franciscans over the meaning of poverty and obedience that drew the attention of the inquisition to consider the implications of prophetic claims for papal authority.4 In the end, Franciscan superiors in the early fourteenth century were successful suppressing the prophetic claims of Franciscan rigorists known as the Spirituals and their Beguin supporters in southern France.5 I am using the term “Beguins” as the inquisitors used it, namely to indicate a mixed group of men, women, and tertiaries who supported the Spirituals.6 One consequence of these Franciscan disputes was to create the atmosphere of suspicion over appeals to prophetic authority and to associate such claims with heresy.The Franciscans were not alone in claiming a prophetic origin, as can be seen in the Carmelite Order’s statement in 1280 that its founders were Elijah and Elisha, but their rhetoric was notably uncommon. The Carmelites did not claim to be founded by a modern prophet with an eschatological mission. Nor were Franciscans alone in seeking to predict the future through inspired readings of scripture. Rupert of Deutz (c. 1075–1129), Gerhoh of Reichersberg (c. 1093–1169), and Joachim of Fiore (c. 1135–1202), all claimed to have received a form of spiritual understanding that allowed them to interpret scripture in a way that illumined the future.7 There is one significant difference between these theologians and Francis: they were all educated, ordained, and formed in established orders.The Franciscans identified Francis as a prophet or as having a prophetic spirit in order to explain how Francis of Assisi, who had never been formally educated, could preach and found a new order. Both were contentious claims for the friars to make, particularly after the Fourth Lateran Council declared in 1215 that all new religious orders must use an existing rule and strictly limited who could preach. Francis, who had no formal religious formation wrote his own rule, though it is more accurate to say that he negotiated what would be in the Rule of 1223 with papal advisors and Franciscan theologians.8Given their rather novel claims for their founder and rule, one would expect that they would have provoked a great deal of suspicion and charges of heresy or false prophecy immediately; but there is almost no evidence that their prophetic rhetoric generated much of a reaction before the 1250s.9 Caesar of Heisterbach reported the Friars Minor were being accused of being false prophets as early as 1225 by the Cologne clergy, though the accusation itself was based on a prophecy made by Hildegard of Bingen rather than Augustinian theology.10 Apparently, the accusation carried little weight with the archbishop, who responded that if it was a divinely inspired prophecy, it had to come to pass regardless.11A century later attitudes had shifted dramatically. At the instigation of Franciscan leadership inquisitors in southern France, some of whom were Franciscan, handed over as many as 82 people to secular authorities to be burned at the stake for defending the idea that Peter Olivi was a prophet from 1318 to 1326.12 It took time for concerns over Franciscan ideas related to prophecy to emerge, but the seeds of the controversy were planted in the first official life of Francis, sprouted in the warmth of the Mendicant Controversy, and bore bitter fruit in the dispute over whether or not usus pauper (poor use) was included in the Franciscan vow of poverty.As we follow the development of Franciscan ideas related to prophecy, it will become clear that initially the inquisition was not particularly concerned with individuals claiming to be prophets. What drew the attention of the inquisition was when an individual or group identified someone as a prophet in order to claim infallibility for their doctrine without explicit papal support. The initial identification of Francis as a prophet with an apocalyptic role is rooted in the earliest hagiographical sources and was promoted with papal support. 1. Franciscan Hagiography 1226–1263In the spring of 1228, Pope Gregory IX commissioned Thomas of Celano to write the first life of Francis. The fact that Celano presented Francis as a preacher with a prophetic mandate for an officially commissioned life is evidence that claims to prophecy were not seen as inherently suspicious in the first half of the thirteenth century. This does not mean such claims were accepted uncritically. Innocent III had written a letter to the Diocese of Metz in which he declared that someone claiming to be sent by God should not be believed without the support of scripture or a clear miracle; however, this is a far cry from Augustine of Ancona’s position in 1310 that advised one to assume that all visionary or prophetic insight is from the devil unless proven otherwise.13Francis had a reputation as a miracle worker during his lifetime and for his miraculous stigmata upon his death. On 19 July 1228 Pope Gregory IX, after acknowledging that Satan can appear as an angel of light, declared that Francis’ life had been confirmed through “numerous and outstanding miracles.”14 With the official recognition of Francis’ miracles and the commission to write Francis’ legend, Celano had license to portray the saint as a prophet. Gregory did not find Celano’s Life of Francis theologically troubling, approved it, and declared it official on 25 February 1229.Celano’s Life of Saint Francis provides a baseline for Franciscan ideas about the prophetic nature of the saint’s mission. He associated Francis’ commission to preach with the commissioning of the prophet Isaiah in chapter 10: “The Lord touched his ‘lips with the coal that cleanses (Isaiah 6:6),’ so that he might speak of Him in words that were sweet and flowing with honey.”15 Because Isaiah was cleansed by a seraph, the allusion foreshadows Francis’ vision of the cruciform seraph and the miracle of the stigmata, which confirmed his preaching mission. Celano said Francis came to understand and interpret scripture without having studied in the same way as the apostles Peter and John, who amazed people with their inspired preaching though they were considered ignorant by the Jewish priests (Acts 4:13).16 In this way Francis’ prophetic mission is symbolically linked with the apostolic mission to preach.Chapter 11 presents evidence of Francis’ prophetic capacity to foretell the future. In a moment of penitential prayer, Francis is caught up in an ecstatic experience where his soul is opened wide and he clearly sees the future. He tells the brothers: “Do not be sad, because you seem so few, and do not let my simplicity discourage you. The Lord has shown me that God will make us grow into a great multitude, and will spread us to the ends of the earth.”17 He also predicted three periods in the life of the brothers: In the beginning of our way of life together we will find fruit that is very sweet and pleasant. A little later fruit that is less pleasant and sweet will be offered. Finally, fruit full of bitterness will be served, which we will not be able to eat. Although displaying some outward beauty and fragrance, it will be too sour for anyone to eat.18 Alluding to the parable of the good and bad fish, Francis predicted that with this growth the friars would become a mixed company of good and bad fish that would need to be sorted out by the Lord. Celano declared that all of these things had come to pass and concluded the chapter writing: “See how the spirit of prophecy rested on St. Francis.”19These prophecies of bitterness and corruption were soon carried into the present or projected into the future by disgruntled friars; however, in Celano’s narrative they function to set the stage for Francis to teach the brothers about the Kingdom of God in chapter 12 and to commission them to preach penance in chapter 13. While his description of Francis’ ability to read hearts and to see events at a distance can be found in numerous patristic and medieval sources, his description of the brothers as having merited to receive divine revelations is less common. Celano described Francis as appearing to the brothers as a new Elijah, calling to mind the story of Elijah passing his mantle on to his disciple Elisha and suggesting that Francis’s prophetic spirit had been passed on to at least some members of the community.20 Celano included stories of Francis appearing when friars were preaching in order to open up the “door of eloquence” or to open their minds to scripture.21 His suggestion that the prophetic mantle had in some sense been passed on to some of Francis’ companions inspired the Spirituals as did Francis’ final prophecy: “Live in the fear of God and remain in him always, for a great test will come upon you and tribulation is drawing near! Happy are those who will persevere in what they have begun: many will be separated from them by scandals that are to come.”22Celano clearly identified Francis as a prophet as part of an apologetic for the preaching mission the order had been given by Gregory IX. There does not seem to be much concern over defending poverty or responding to attacks on the validity of the Rule of 1223. Unlike later accounts, there are no overt apocalyptic themes or expectations in Celano’s Life. The liturgical and hagiographical texts produced by Franciscans that followed in the 1230s and the first half of the 1240’s continued to link Francis’ role as a prophet, confirmed by miracles, with his preaching. It was Gregory IX that introduced the idea that Francis had an apocalyptic role in a liturgical sequence that the friars read in masses: Last of the evil dragon’s heads, holding aloft its vengeful sword, against God’s people now stirred up the seventh of its savage wars (Revelation 12:3)…. Francis, chieftain of great renown, carried the regal banner forth, assembled a council of war to move throughout the whole wide world against the rifts the dragon wrought.23 This papal portrait of Francis as arriving at the end of history invited later Franciscans to speculate further on the apocalyptic role of their founder and the order, which is evident in Bonaventure’s Major Legend. Bonaventure made the argument that Francis’ doctrine and rule are infallible and absolutely certain on the basis of his status as a prophet, which had been confirmed both by miracles and by the church. 2. The Major Legend of St. FrancisThe Major Legend was written in the heat of the Mendicant Controversy. The Mendicant Controversy began as a dispute between the Seculars, diocesan clergy on the faculty at the University of Paris, and the mendicants on the faculty. It was also related to apocalyptic expectations and questions of predicting the future through an inspired reading of scripture, which is also known as the Joachite Controversy. The Seculars used the Joachite Controversy as an opportunity to charge the friars with being false prophets. They also challenged the veracity of Francis’ stigmata.24 Rather than abandon prophetic claims for the order, Bonaventure invested more significance into Francis’ prophetic spirit in order to suggest that Francis’ teachings were infallible. To understand how this complex of ideas came together, we need to briefly consider the Joachite Controversy.The Franciscan chronicler Salimbene testified that many Franciscans had been interested in Joachim of Fiore’s exegetical theories and had identified themselves with the spiritual men predicted by Joachim including prominent leaders like Hugh of Digne and John of Parma.25 Joachim did not look to institutional reforms for the church’s betterment; instead, he grounded his reforms in the future age of the Holy Spirit and in a new exegetical method.26 He applied the term status to each of three large blocks of time corresponding to one of the persons of the Trinity. The first status, the time of the Father, is that block of time beginning with Adam and lasting until Christ—when people lived according to the flesh. The second status, the time of the Son, begins with Elisha the prophet and Josiah the king. This period is partly carnal and partly spiritual. Finally, the time of the Holy Spirit would be the time when people would live according to the Spirit. Joachim claimed that this third status had two beginnings with Elisha and St. Benedict, but that it would flourish around 1260.27Joachim had appealed to new senses of scripture revealed to him in a series of visions.28 The central feature of his exegetical method was concordia. Concordia indicated the parallels between the people, orders and events of the Old Testament, New Testament, and the time of the church. Concordia was not, however, a spiritual interpretation of scripture; instead, it is an improved or extended literal sense of scripture.29 These parallels are so precise, according to Joachim, that one can use them to plot out the future with mathematical precision.30 Using his method, he predicted that the new age would be ushered in by a group of barefoot, preaching monks. Before this transition to a spiritual church took place, he predicted that a “Beast ascending from the earth” who would be like “Simon Magus and like a universal pope” would be defeated by an angelic pope with the aid of the last world emperor followed by a period of peace in the third status.31 Though various aspects of Joachim’s ideas were promoted among some of the friars, very few seem to have adopted his theology as a whole.The Franciscan Gerard of Borgo San Donnino, however, claimed that Joachim was a prophet and elevated his writings to the level of scripture. While this may seem extreme, prophecy was a topic of interest in the universities and was considered by many theologians to be infallible.32 Moreover, many important friars including the minister general, John of Parma, had publicly promoted Joachite prophecies about the Franciscans.33 In 1254 he published his Eternal Gospel, which contained a compilation of Joachim’s works including the Book of Concord. Gerard’s introduction, which is no longer extant, reportedly announced the beginning of the third status and claimed that St. Francis was the Angel of the Sixth Seal in Revelation 7:2. Gerard reportedly had identified his Eternal Gospel as a third testament superseding the Old and New Testaments.34William of St. Amour seized upon the work as a weapon to be used against the Mendicants. He excerpted 31 suspect propositions and sent them to the pope with his own work, Liber de antichristo. William identified the friars as the false prophets who precede the Antichrist. Pope Alexander IV, who retained his office of protector of the Franciscan Order, directed an inquisitorial commission established by Innocent to condemn the Eternal Gospel without discrediting the Franciscans.35 The commission wrote a report known as the Protocols of Anagni, which took issue with the possibility of a time within history when the church will be purified. The commission cited Augustine against Joachim’s prediction of the purgation of the church and universal peace during the third status.36 This longstanding position was based on Christ’s teaching that the wheat and the tares would remain together in the church until Christ’s return at the end of history. They concluded that it was not possible to know the times and challenged the very idea that one could know when the end is near. It was clear, according to the commission, that Joachim and Gerard proposed false and new opinions out of a desire for preeminence. They were charged with incredibly exalting their own orders above all others, even above the entire church.37According to the commission, Joachim and Gerard fit Augustine’s definition of a heretic in the first book of De utilitate credenda: “The heretic, in my opinion, is one who for some temporal advantage, especially for the sake of glory and preeminence, originates or follows new opinions.”38 They also cited Gratian’s claim that the spirit of heresy can be seen when a group claims some type of superiority and excuses itself from discipline.39 Joachim’s appeal to a new sense of scripture provided the commission with additional ammunition for the charge of heresy from Gratian’s Decretis.40 Even more damaging was their discovery of Joachim’s advice to teach his doctrines in secret, in the manner of the heretics, in order to prevent the masters from reviewing them.41Though the commissioners labeled Joachim’s theology as suspect and pernicious, it was not condemned; however, Gerard was found to be a heretic and was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment. Perhaps his fate would have been better if he had not claimed that the abhominatio desolationis (abomination of desolation), which referred to a simoniacal pope, would take place by 1260. Given that Alexander IV most likely expected to be pope in 1260, Gerard’s prediction could not have been well-received. Gerard’s alleged claim that Joachim’s predictions concerning how the papacy, symbolically represented by Peter, was to be succeeded by a spiritual father, represented by John, also presented a direct and immediate challenge to papal authority.42 As far as we know, Gerard did not claim to be a prophet, but it was his belief that Joachim was a divinely inspired prophet that led to his downfall.William of St. Amour, in turn, produced another apocalyptic attack on the friars reinforcing the idea that only members of the clergy can work to reform the church. The Tractatus de periculus, which circulated in an early edition in 1255 before being published in its final form in 1256, was so popular and influential it was still being printed almost 400 years after its composition and its condemnation by Pope Alexander IV.43 His polemic asked people to distinguish between the true apostles and disciples, who have been succeeded by the bishops and priests, from the false prophets or preachers, who are the mendicant orders.The apocalyptic rhetoric of William of St. Amour and his disciples attacking the legitimacy of Franciscan ministry led Bonaventure to formulate an apocalyptic counteroffensive. In 1262 Bonaventure preached at the University of Paris that Francis was like the angel ascending from the rising sun with the seal of the living God in Revelation 7:2. This was a provocative strategy given that Gerard had actually identified Francis as the angel. Bonaventure argued the angel of the sixth seal was an appropriate symbol for Francis because he was sealed in the form of the cross by the stigmata.44 He had employed the same strategy of appealing to miracles at the height of the initial outbreak of the Mendicant Controversy in 1255, preaching: “Saint Paul exhorted Timothy to remain steadfast in what he had learned because he knew and was certain through signs and miracles that the teaching he had learned was for salvation.”45 In other words, the way to distinguish between the false prophets of 2 Timothy 3:1–9 and true disciples was by the miracles associated with their teaching. “Moreover,” he continued, “it pleased the Lord to endorse and confirm the teaching and Rule of St. Francis, not only by miraculous signs, but also by the marks of his own stigmata, so that no true believer could possibly call them into question on external or internal evidence.”46 Both Francis’ teaching and Rule are therefore confirmed as divine revelation.Many of the themes in the sermons Bonaventure gave in this polemical context appear in the Major Legend of St. Francis. The prologue distills the prophetic themes into a concentrated apologetic. Francis preached the Gospel like the prophet John the Baptist, who practiced poverty in the desert and who preached repentance by word and deed. Lifted up in a fiery chariot, Bonaventure claimed it is reasonably accepted that “he came in the spirit and power of Elijah.”47 Bonaventure concluded that this is why Francis is considered “to be like the angel ascending from the rising of the sun bearing a seal of the living God.”48 Just as this angel signed people with the cross, so too Francis signed people with the Tau of a penitential cross. Bonaventure wrote: This conviction should be faithfully and devotedly in the forefront of our minds: not only does this advance the mission he held of calling to weep and mourn, to shave one’s head and wear sackcloth, and to sign the Tau on the foreheads of those moaning and grieving with a sign of a penitential cross; even more, it confirms with the irrefutable testimony of truth that the seal of the likeness of the living God, that is, of Christ crucified, was imprinted on his body, not by natural forces or human skill, but by the wondrous power of the Spirit of the living God.49 Defending the stigmata against the attacks of the order’s opponents was a critical element of Bonaventure’s apologetic for Francis’ prophetic status.50At the outset of the Major Legend, Bonaventure described Francis as being filled with the spirit of the prophets, proclaiming peace, and preaching salvation in accordance with Isaiah 52:7.51 Immediately other friars manifested prophetic or visionary qualities. Bernard and Francis consulted the Gospels by opening them three times to confirm what Bernard should do, which was to sell all that he had and give it to the poor.52 This is the first of several stories of friars exercising a prophetic reading of scriptures. Giles, although simple and unlearned, was raised to exalted contemplation. Sylvester joined Francis as the result of a vision he had of Francis defeating a dragon that was encircling the town of Assisi.53Bonaventure described Francis as being so overcome with the news of Sylvester’s vision that he clearly saw the future of the order. Bonaventure gave this rendition of Francis’ prophecy concerning the order: “Be strong, my beloved ones, and rejoice in the Lord. Do not be sad because you are so few, nor afraid because of my simplicity or yours. For the Lord has shown me in truth that he will make us grow into a great multitude and will spread us in countless ways by the grace of his blessing.”54 Bonaventure omitted the material concerning the decline of purity as the order would grow, most likely to avoid giving further ammunition to the order’s detractors. When he brought up Francis predicting trial and tribulation, he presented it as an exhortation to persevere rather than a prophecy of something more specific.55The stories of Francis appearing to the brothers in a brilliant fiery chariot and of his ability to examine the consciences of others provided Bonaventure an opportunity to present Francis’ teaching and way of life as infallibly certain. When Francis disclosed many things that transcended human reason about the future of the order, Bonaventure concluded that “the Spirit of the Lord had come to rest upon him in such fullness that it was absolutely safe for them to follow his life and teaching.”56 At this time, Bonaventure noted, Francis called their way of life the Order of the Brothers of Penance because it admitted laity and clerics as well as the married and unmarried. Just as Bonaventure had suggested that prophetic action had passed from Francis to some of his followers, now he pointed to the miracles performed by the members as proof of the merit of the order.57After recounting several miracles, visions, and apparitions, Bonaventure turned to the composition of the rule. In his account, Francis had a revelation from God that he should gather together crumbs and form a host out of them. Then he should feed the host to all who wanted to eat. When they ate without devotion or showed contempt for the host they received, they appeared to have leprosy to him. Bonaventure wrote that God revealed the meaning of the vision directly to Francis: “Francis, the crumbs of last night are the words of the Gospel; the host is the rule and the leprosy is wickedness.”58 Thereupon he is led by the Holy Spirit up Fonte Colombo with two brothers to condense the rule into a shorter version as dictated by the vision. “There he fasted, content with only bread and water,” Bonaventure continued, “and dictated the rule as the Holy Spirit suggested it to him while he was praying.”59 When the document was lost after a few days, Francis miraculously reproduced it in the same manner as if the words came directly from God.The rule is the result of a direct revelation from God in the Major Legend. Lest anyone miss the absolute authority of the rule, Bonaventure wrote: Fervently exhorting the brothers to observe this rule, Francis used to say that nothing of what he placed there came from his own efforts but that he dictated everything just as it had been revealed by God. To confirm this with greater certainty by God’s own testimony, when only a few days had passed, the stigmata of our Lord Jesus were imprinted upon him by the finger of the living God, as the seal of the supreme Pontiff, Christ, for the complete confirmation of the rule and the commendation of its author…60 Bonaventure presented Francis as having two mutually reinforcing claims to authority. Francis carried the seal of Christ in the stigmata, which was a sign from heaven to preach, and he had been given the authority to preach by the pope, who also approved his Rule of 1223.Whereas scripture calls for two or three witnesses, Bonaventure reminded his audience that Francis had a multitude of witnesses providing superabundant testimony to the stigmata so that he was overwhelmingly credible. He pointed to the quality and great number of witnesses to the stigmata including Brother Illuminato, Cardinal Hugolino (Pope Gregory IX), Cardinal Thomas of Capua, Cardinal Rainerio Capoci of Viterbo, and Pope Alexander IV.61 He concluded that Francis’ life and example showed with such clarity Gospel perfection that “no truly devout person can reject this proof of Christian wisdom”, “no truly believing person can attack it”, and “no truly humble person can belittle it”.62Rather than retreat from the claim that Francis was a prophet, Bonaventure advanced the claim on the basis of miracles, particularly the stigmata. Moreover, he made it clear that some of the other original companions also manifested prophetic powers and performed miracles. Finally, he claimed that the spirit of prophecy is widely diffused into the souls of the holy, even outside of the order.63 Bonaventure developed all of these themes in his final series of sermons in 1273, the Collations on the Six Days, in a way that encouraged resistance to attacks on poverty and that explicitly taught that prophecy is infallible. 3. Prophecy in the Collations on the Six DaysBonaventure largely moved away from identifying Francis as a prophet in the four sermons he preached on Francis in Paris in 1266 and 1267. Instead, he began to advance an argument that Francis was like another St. Paul as a justification for Franciscan preaching. He also claimed St. Paul as a precedent for Francis’ stigmata based on Galatians 6:17. But in the Collations on the Six Days, a series of doctrinal sermons delivered in the spring of 1273, Bonaventure returned to presenting Francis as a prophet and the Friars Minor as an order distinguished by prophetic action (habitus). Though there is no clear evidence of why he returned to his prophetic apologetic, the reemergence of the Mendicant Controversy and growing opposition from the bishops most likely played some role.There were multiple problems emerging with the bishops in the 1260s and 1270