Further Observation

"I am of the opinion," writes A. Mellinus, "that this Eckhard is the same German (apostatized) Dominican whom Trithemius mentions in his Register of Ecclesiastical Writers, stating that he was a very learned man, and wonderfully experienced in the Word of God." A. Mell., from Trithem. De Script. Eccles., folio 483.

NOTE. In the year 1336, on the 23rd of June, John de Pistoia was publicly burned at Venice, because he held to the supposed heresy of evangelical poverty. Chron. van den Ondergang, page 689, column 2, compared with Merula, folio 873.

Also in the year 1340, Conrad Hager, having about this time taught for twenty-four years that the mass was by no means a sacrifice, either for the living or the dead, and that the taking of money by the priests for dying men was nothing but theft and sacrilege — as a result of which many departed from obedience to the Roman church — was arrested and secretly murdered. See in the chronicle last mentioned, page 691, column 2, from John Munst., folio 169, Hist. Andr., folio 64, Pac., chapter 11.

Also in the year 1350, John de Landuno, of Ghent, a highly learned man, vigorously attacked and censured the high power, supremacy, and false doctrine of the pope; but what happened to him because of this, our author has not said. Page 703, column 1, compared with Joh. Munst., folio 168.

Also in the year 1360, John de Rupe Scissa publicly spoke against the pope, saying: "Who is there among you, most holy father, and most gracious cardinals (for these were the titles by which they were called), who dares say that Peter or Sylvester (namely, the upright) ever rode with a train of two or three hundred horses, as is now common for you . . . to do? But they were reserved and quiet, and like other pastors and preachers, made no parade or display, and were also well content with simple food and clothing." He also said that the popes used the goods given, or received by them, in pride, wantonness, and tyranny. Who would think that the pope took this candid censure in good part? Compare Joh. Munst. Tract., folio 53, with the account in the Chron. van den Ondergang, page 711, column 2.

In the meantime, we learn that this John de Rupe Scissa was burned at Avignon three years afterward, because he defended the truth. See the chronicle last mentioned, for the year 1363, ex Georg. Pac., chapter 11.