Four Persons, Called Brothers of the Poor Life, or Waldenses, in the Year 1317

Now when the light of the Gospel began to break forth greatly from the doctrine of the Waldenses, which fought against the papal inventions, this showed itself also in a monastery, among the Franciscan monks; so that four in particular of the order of the Minorites, their eyes being opened, separated from monasticism, and at the same time from the superstitions of popery, desiring from then on to follow and serve Jesus Christ, their Savior, not in a pretended, but in true poverty, with, in, or among the cross-bearing church of God, called the Poor Men of Lyons, Brothers of the Poor Life, or Waldenses; who also opposed infant baptism, the swearing of oaths, revenge against enemies, and other articles of the Roman church.

Against this, Pope John the Twenty-second issued a papal decree, directed against the Fratricelli (Little Brothers) or the Brothers of the Poor Life, forbidding them to hold secret or public assemblies, to elect pastors or teachers over them, or to practice their worship; because they despised the sacraments of the (Roman) church, and had departed from the Roman Catholic faith; so they were excommunicated by him together with all those who in any way defended or followed them, and were therefore handed over to the inquisitors, to be examined concerning their faith. See Bzov., in the year 1317, Article 18. [n480-1]

In the meantime, it appears, the four persons named above, refusing to turn from the truth which they had confessed and accepted, were condemned to death as heretics, and, having committed their souls to God, were burned alive.

Concerning this, the papist writer Vignier says: "In the same year (in the year 1317) four Minorite friars were burned alive on Saint Michael's eve, at Marseilles, in France, because they maintained against the pope the heresy of poverty." Also, A. Mell., second book, folio 480. [n480-2]

NOTE. As regards their faith, the aforementioned Pope John the Twenty-second, who had first excommunicated them, made, the following year, in the year 1318, in a certain decree, among other things, this statement: "Their third error agrees with the error of the Waldenses; because they maintained that men ought not to swear on any account, teaching that it is a sin leading to death." Bzov. Annal., volume 14, in the year 1318, Article 1.

At the close of the fourth article are these words: "So that it appears from this, that these Franciscan monks had apostatized from popery to the doctrine of the Waldenses." A. Mell., second book, folio 480.