: "Archivium Franciscanum Historicum," Annus III,
Fasc. II, p. 346.]

{49}

How a man so remarkable for learning and virtue as the ex-General
should have provoked such an accusation demands some further
explanation.

In the first place, it must be borne in mind that this was the period
when the Inquisition reigned in all the fervent zeal of its recent
institution. Whatever savoured in the least of heterodoxy, either in
theory or in practice, aroused its vigilance. It was closely
investigated and its author, no matter what admirable qualities he
might otherwise display, was regarded with suspicion and distrust.
This attitude of the ecclesiastical authorities was fully justified by
the prevalence of false mysticism, under the guise of which the
Waldenses and Albigenses were just then putting forth the most
pernicious and subversive doctrines.

True mysticism is the perfection of Christianity. Its essence is union
with God. The more perfectly it accomplishes this union, the more
thoroughly it achieves its end. It is the noblest and most exalted
aspect of religion, but, at the same time, it is attended by very
grave dangers. The mystic sees only God and his own soul--or rather he
has no direct consciousness of anything but God alone. He converses
with God and is guided directly by him--anything else is to a large
extent ignored.

The danger of this state is apparent. The mystic is at the mercy of
his imagination and of a thousand natural influences which he is
liable to {50} mistake for the voice of God. And when he thinks that
God speaks, no matter to what folly or extravagance the imagined voice
may urge him, nor how clearly it may oppose the dictates of obedience,
he considers himself bound to obey it; for is he not sure, even as St.
Peter, that he "must obey God rather than man!" Unless he possess a
sound judgment and a thorough grasp of Catholic doctrine, or, failing
these, unless he be humbly submissive to the teaching of some
competent spiritual guide, he needs must go astray. This danger,
Francis, who was a mystic in the truest sense of the word, avoided
perfectly, but as much cannot be said of some of his earlier
followers. For notwithstanding Pontifical utterances and the
enactments of General Chapters, they persisted in maintaining that
their particular views concerning the observance of the Rule were the
only permissible ones. A mild form of fanaticism seems to have laid
hold of them. Their immoderate re