g his physical and metaphysical works and their commentaries.
These had come through an Arabic channel. A rescript of Gregory XI.,
A.D. 1231, interdicts those on natural philosophy until they had been
purified by the theologians of the Church. These regulations were
confirmed by Clement IV. A.D. 1265.

CHAPTER III.

THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST--(_Continued_).

OVERTHROW OF THE ITALIAN SYSTEM BY THE COMBINED INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL
ATTACK.

_Progress of Irreligion among the mendicant Orders.--Publication of
heretical Books.--The Everlasting Gospel and the Comment on the
Apocalypse._

_Conflict between Philip the Fair and Boniface VIII.--Outrage upon and
death of the Pope._

_The French King removes the Papacy from Rome to Avignon.--Post-mortem
Trial of the Pope for Atheism and Immorality.--Causes and Consequences
of the Atheism of the Pope._

_The Templars fall into Infidelity.--Their Trial, Conviction, and
Punishment._

_Immoralities of the Papal Court at Avignon.--Its return to
Rome.--Causes of the great Schism.--Disorganization of the Italian
System.--Decomposition of the Papacy.--Three Popes._

_The Council of Constance attempts to convert the papal Autocracy into a
constitutional Monarchy.--It murders John Huss and Jerome of
Prague.--Pontificate of Nicolas V.--End of the intellectual influence of
the Italian System._

[Sidenote: "The Everlasting Gospel."] About the close of the twelfth
century appeared among the mendicant friars that ominous work, which,
under the title of "The Everlasting Gospel," struck terror into the
Latin hierarchy. It was affirmed that an angel had brought it from
heaven, engraven on copper plates, and had given it to a priest called
Cyril, who delivered it to the Abbot Joachim. [Sidenote: Introduction to
it by the General of the Franciscans.] The abbot had been dead about
fifty years, when there was put forth, A.D. 1250, a true exposition of
the tendency of his book, under the form of an introduction, by John of
Parma, the general of the Franciscans, as was universally suspected or
alleged. Notwithstanding its heresy, the work displayed an enlarged and
masterly conception of the historical progress of humanity. In this
introduction, John of Parma pointed out that the Abbot Joachim, who had
not only performed a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but had been
reverenced as a prophet, received as of unimpeachable orthodoxy, and
canonized, had accepted as his fundamental position