MENDIETA
185
MENDIETA
"Fratris Johannis Pecham . . . tractatus tres de
paupertate " (British Society of Franciscan Studies, II,
Aberdeen, 1910). The seculars continued the fight,
even with popular compositions, of which the best
known is the "Roman de la Rose". At the second
Council of Lyons new attempts were made against the
mendicants, partly because of the rise of other men-
dicant bodies, some of which were of objectionable
form, as the "Apostolici" and the "Friars of the
Sack" (Saccati) (see Salimbene, "Mon. Germ. Hist.
Script.", XXXII, 245 sqq.) All mendicants were
abolished, but the four great orders were excepted on
account of the manifest good they wrought. Martin
IV, "Ad fructus uberes", 13 Dec, 12S1, and 10 Jan.,
1282 (Bull. Franc, III, 480) extended the privileges of
the mendicants with regard to preaching and hearing
confessions, a measure which caused much opposition
among the bishops and clergy, especially in France.
Only in late years have we come to know of the exist-
ence of a great transaction on this subject, at Paris,
1290, where Cardinal Gaetano, later on Boniface
VIII, skilfully defended the regulars (see bibliog-
raphy). Boniface VIII revised the legislation re-
garding the privileges of the mendicants in favour of
the clergy. His Bull "Super Cathedram", 18 Feb.,
1300 (c 2 in "Clem.", Ill, 7; "Extravag. com.", cap.
2, III, 6; " Bull Franc", IV, 498) is in substance even
now in force.
The controversies between the mendicants and the secular priests in England and Ireland took an acri- monious form in the fourteenth century. We have a peculiarly interesting instance of this in the case of Richard Fitzralph, Archbishop of Armagh (q. v.), who preached seven or eight times in London against the mendicants and in nine propositions attacked their poverty and their privileges interfering with parochial rights. Denounced at the papal court of Avignon, he was cited by Innocent VI and defended himself in a treatise, which he read in a public consis- tory, 8 Nov., 1357, printed under the title " Defenso- rium Curatorum " in tioldast, " Monarchia S. Romani Imperii . . .", II, Frankfort, 1614, 1391-1410, and in Brown, "Fasciculus rerum", II, 406— 1S7. There is a compendium of the nine propositions in Old Eng- lish in Howlett, "Monumenta Franciscana", II, 276- 77. This curious document might be called a nega- tive exposition of the rule of the Friars Minor. An English Franciscan, Richard Conway, defended the friars against Fitzralph; his treatise is edited by Goldast, op. cit., II, 1410-14. Innocent VI gave a Bull, 1 Oct., 1358, in which he stated that a commis- sion had been named to examine the differences be- tween the .Vrchliishop of Armagh and the mendicants and forbade meanwhile the prelates of England to hin- der the four mendicant orders from exercising their rights (Bull. Franc, VI, 316). In the following year a Bull prescriliing the observance of the Decretal "Super Cathedram" of Boniface VIII was directed to different bisliops of the continent and to the Arch- bishop of York, 26 Nov., 1359 (Bull. Franc, VI, 322). Towards the end of the fourteenth century the mendi- cants in England were attacked more fiercely and on a broader scale by the Wicliffites. Wiclif himself, at first, was not on bad terms with the friars ; his enmity was confined to the last few years of his life. While Wiclif had only repeated the worn-out arguments against the mendicants, his disciples went much far- ther and accused them of the lowest vices. Nor did they confine Iheir calunuiies to learned treatises, but embodied tlieiri in popular poems and songs, mostly English, of which we have many examples in the two volumes pxiWished liy Wright (see bibliography). The chief place of controversy was Oxford, where the friars were accused even of sedition. On 18 Feb., 1382, the heads of the four mendicant orders wrote a joint letter to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, pro- testing against the calumnies of the Wicliffites and
stating that their chief enemy was Nicholas Hereford,
Professor of Holy Scripture, who in a sermon an-
nounced that no religious should be admitted to any
degree at Oxford. This letter is inserted in Thomas
Netter's "Fasciculi Zizaniorum magistri Joh. Wyclif "
(ed. Waddington, Rer. Brit. Script., London, 1858, 292-
95). There are in the fourteenth and fifteenth cen-
turies many other instances of hostility with which
the friars, especially the Minorites, were regarded by
the University of Oxford. Though the Black Death
and the Great Schism had evil effects on their general
discipline, the mendicants, thanks to the rise of nu-
merous branches of stricter observance, on the whole
flourished until the Reformation. Notwithstanding
the heavy losses sustained during that period, the men-
dicants have nevertheless continued to take their
part, and that a considerable one, in the life of the
Church down to the present day.
For full bibliography see the several Mendicant Orders. RiPOLL. BuUarium Ordinis FF. Praedicalorum (8 vols., Rome, 1729 sqq.): 8baralea-Eubel. JBuZZan'um i^ranctscaTium (7 vols. Rome, 1759 sqq.); Denifle-Chatelaik, Chartularium Univer- sitahs Parisicnsis (Paris, 1889 sqq.); WmanT, PoUlical Poems and Songs relating to English History in Rer. Brit. Script., 2 vols. (London. 1859-61): Brewer, Monumenta Franciscana, I (Lon- don, 1858), II (ed. Howlett, London, 1882); Little, The Grey Friars in Oxford (London, 1892); Bryce, The Scottish Grey Friars, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1909): Denifle, Die Constitutionen des Prediger-Orclens vom Jahre 1 ZZS \n Archiv fur Lilteralur und Kirchengeschichte, I (Berlin, 1885), 165-227, cf. V (Freiburg, 1889), 530-64; Mortier, Histoire des Maitrcs Gencraux de I'ordre des Fri res Prccheurs, i vo]s. (P.iri.'i. in0;i-09); Holzap- FEL, Maniwle HistorioB Ordinis Frafi-iioi ^f,'r. ■:!),!} (Freiburg, 1909): German ed., ibid.; KocH.D/' ' ' ' \ "Irrlassungen derMinorilen ifn Rheingebiete und i/<: ■ i i ufd.kirch.u.
polit. Leben {heipxi^, 1881); Paulu.s, II . </ v/;/ m,,/, usklerusbeim Ausgang des XIII. Jahrhunderts im Kanipi*- am. die Pfarr- Rechte (Essen-Ruhr, 1900); Ott, Thomas -non Aquin und das Mendikantentum (Freiburg, 1908); Wiesehoff, Die Stellung der Bettelorden in den deutschen freien Reichsstddien im Mitielal- ter (Leipzig. 1905) ; Finke, Das Pariser Nalionalkomil vom Jahre 1290, ein Beitrag zur Geschichte Bonifaz VIII und der Pariser Universitrit in RumischeQuartaUchrift, IX (Rome, 1895), 171-82; Idem, Aus denTagen Bonifaz VIII, III-VII (Munstcr. 1902), 9-24; Mattioli, Antologia Agostiniana, I, Studio critico sopra Egidio Romano Colonna (Rome, 1896), 52-64; Eubel, Zu den Streitigkeiten beziiglich des jus parochiale im Mittelalter in Riim- ische Quartahchrift, IX (Rome, 1895), 395-405; Idem. Die Stellung des Wiirzburger Pfarrklerus zu den }fr'!,h:h!r»frT-ordcn wahrenddesMittelaltersinPassaucrtheologi^h r ■■' ' ■ ^t.mat- scAri/i, I, 481-94; BERNoriLLi,Z>z> KircAf/M/' /; ^r.vnr
der Reformation (Ba.sle, 1895); Rashdall, //. / /,,,,,,,,,,< „/ Europe in the Middle Ages, I (Oxford, IS'j.si, ,^t,i'pi..i,r. Uer Kampf der B'ftfhiriliii un drr Universitat Paris scit der Mitte des 13. Jahrhundi rt^. piirt 1 \n Kirchengeschichtliche Abhandlungen, ed. Sdralek. Ill (Hn-.shiu, 1905), 197-244; part 11, ibid.,\l (Breslau, 190.S), 73-140.
LiVARIUS OUGEH.
Mendieta, Jer('>nimo, Spanish missionary; b. at Vitoria, Spain, 1525; d. in the City of Mexico^ 9 May, 1604. While still a youth he took the habit of St. Francis at Bilbao, and arrived in New Spain at the end of June, 1554. Being desirous of helping in the conversion of the Indians, he applied himself with zeal to study the Mexican language, and it is said that, al- though a natural defect interfered with his speaking Castilian and kept him from preaching to Spaniards, yet, when he mounted the pulpit to address the In- dians in their language, he spoke clearly and without stammering. At Tlaxcala he probably had for his father guardian F. Toribio de Alotolinia, the last sur- vivor of the first band of twelve Franciscans. He was so liighlyesteemed in his province that the provincials, Diego de Olarte and Miguel Navarro, took him with them on their visitation of the convents and the In- dians, while the entire province, assembled in chapter, judged him capable of .selecting at his own individual discretion all the j>rovinci:il officers, a selection which in the event proved sat i.sfactory to all.
In 1569 Mendieta accompanied Miguel Navarro on his way to the general chapter in France, and while on his journey he remained in his native town, Vitoria. Here he put him.self in commum'eution with .Juan de Ovanflo, the distinguished magis- trate of the Council of the Inquisition, who h.-ul been nominated visitor of the Council of the Indies and was
