is: Their adversaries were men of
repute and learning--doctors and professors of the most renowned
Theological School of Christendom. Thoroughly versed in all the {18}
wiles of controversy, and apparently animated by religious zeal, they
were unscrupulous in their methods, and frequently had recourse to
slander and falsehood. The conflict was thorough and decisive. Issuing
triumphant from such an ordeal the Mendicant Orders proved once and
for all that their position in the Church of Christ is impregnable. So
important an incident ought not to be lightly dismissed.

Various causes tended to create a spirit of opposition to the Friars.
Jealousy at their success, and a spirit of worldliness to which their
lives was a constant reproach, appear to be the chief. The Friars
succeeded in attracting universal admiration. Their professors were
the most brilliant in the University; their lecture halls the best
appointed; their audience the most enthusiastic. They enjoyed the
favour of the Pope and of the King, both of whom conferred many
privileges on them. They possessed neither money nor lands, yet they
stood in need of nothing. They had renounced the pomp and glory of the
world, but the world ran eagerly after them. Their preaching attracted
immense crowds and their confessionals were thronged. They were the
least by profession but the greatest by repute. To some extent they
supplanted the secular clergy. The bishops and the Faithful found
themselves less dependent upon the latter, for the Friars formed
willing and efficient substitutes for them in almost every capacity.
The spirit of {19} the secular clergy of Paris at that period was not
such as to enable them to view this new development without hostility.
An indevout and worldly spirit reigned amongst them, and they were
profoundly indifferent to the highest maxims of the Gospel. This we
learn from the strain in which Pope Alexander [Footnote 9] writes to the
Bishop of Paris in the year 1256: "Concerning certain masters and
scholars of Paris it is notorious that they glory not in being
considered the children of peace but rather in being the authors of
scandal; they glory not in being called the sons of God, but of Satan.
So great is their disorder that they hinder piety not only in
themselves but also in others, and impede the salvation of souls which
we so greatly desire."

[Footnote 9: Cf. "Wadding," Tom. IV, Anno 1256. No. 23.]

The smouldering elements of discord w