(Mediolanum) [Mediolanensis; Millan; Millaine; Miliane; Millayne; Millen]
Lombardy, Italy
Coordinates: 45° 28' 0" N, 9° 10' 0" E
Cathedral city
MarginaliaWilful beggery not to be promised. Prouerb. 30. saith: O Lord, beggery and riches geue me not, but onely sufficiency to liue vpon: least if I haue to much, I be driuen to deny thee, & say: who is the Lord. Agayne, if I haue to litle, I be forced thereby to steale, and to periure the name of my God, wherfore sayth Eccle. 27. For need many haue offēded. And thefore they that chuse wilfull pouerty, take to them great occasion of tempatiō.
[Back to Top]3. Item, they that take wilfull pouerty vpon them when they need not induce themselues voluntaryly to break the commaundemēt of God: Thou shalt not couet thy neighbours house. ac. Agayne, where it is commaunded, there shalbe no begger among you. &c.
4. Item, he that taketh vpon him needles and wilfully to beg, maketh himselfe vnapt to receiue holy orders, hauing (as is sayd) no sufficient title thereunto, according to the lawes of the Church.
MarginaliaThe 8. conclusion of Armachanus against the Friers.The 8. conclusiō of this matter: That it is not agreing to the rule of the Friers obseruant, to obserue wilfull beggery. Which (saith he) may be proued, for that Frier Frances, both in his rule and in his Testamēt, being left to his Franciscans, doth plainly preferre labor before begging.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe 9. conclusion of Armachanus. The 9. and last conclusion of this matter is. That the bull of pope Alexander the 4. which condemneth the booke of the maisters of Paris, MarginaliaTouching this booke of the maisters of Paris condemned, looke pag. 404.impugneth none of these conclusions premised. For the proofe therof, he thus inferred.
[Back to Top]Marginalia Ex Clement. Quia quorundaā. Pope Nicolas the 3. reuoketh the Bul of pope Alexander the fourth. 1. First, that Pope Iohn the 24. in his constitutiō, beginning thus: Quia quorundam, affirmeth expresly, how Pope Nicholas the 3. reuoked and called backe the sayd Bull of Pope Alexander the 4. and all other writings of his: touching all such articles, which in the same foresayd constitution of this Pope Iohn be cōteined and declared. Wherin also is declared, how strayt the pouerty of the friers ought to be, which they call wifull pouerty.
[Back to Top]2. Item, it is manifest and notorious to all men, how the sayd Pope Nicholas the 3. in his declaratiō sheweth, how the friers both ought to labor with their handes and how moreouer the sayd Friers ought not to preach within the dioces of any bishop, wheresoeuer they be resisted. Which being so, the conclusion appereth, that the bull of Pope Alexander the 4. as touching these articles, is voyde and of none effect. Beside the which articles, there is nothing els in the sayd Bull of Alexander (that I remember) which impugneth any of these conclusions premised.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe ende and conclusionof this Oration of Armachanus before the pope. Ex defensorio curatorum. Many things mo (sayd he) I had beside these, both to obiect and to aunswere again to the same: and to confirme more surely and firmely these my reasons and assertions premised. But I haue already to much weried your holynesse, and your reuerend Lordships here present. Wherefore I conclude and humbly and deuoutly beseech you, according to my former petetion premised in the beginning of this matter: that you iudge not after the outward face, but iudge ye true iudgement. Iohn. 7. Ex libro Armachani, cui titulus Defensorium Curatorum.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaNotes to be obserued
In these notes, which are entirely his own composition, Foxe's makes it clear why he devoted so much space to Fitzralph and the 'Defensio curatorum': Foxe regarded it as a faithful description of the corruption not only of the mendicant orders but of the entire medieval church.
MarginaliaWhether the Fryers make vp the bodie of Antechrist or not. All these things wel cōsidered, now remaineth in the church to be marked: that forsomuch as these Friers (with theyr new foūd testament of Frier Fraunces) not beeing contented with the testamēt of God in his sonne Christ, began to spring the same time, when as Satan was prophesied to be let loose, by the order of the Scripture, whether therfore it is to be doubted, that these Friers make vp the body of Antechrist, which is prophesied to come in the Church, or not: so much more to be doubted, because who so list to trie shall finde, that of all other enemies of Christ, of whomsome be manifest, some be priuy, all be together cruel: yet is there no such sort of enemies which more sleightly deceiueth the simple christian, or more deepely drowneth him in damnation, then doth this doctrine of the Friers.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe death of godly Armachanus. The testimony of a Cardinall vpon Armachanus. But of this Oration of Armachanus enough
The remaining biographical material on Fitzralph and the descriptions of those who oppossed him all come from Bale, Catalogus, p. 445.
Fitzralph died in Avignon (three, not seven or eight years) after he made his final voyage there, but he was not in exile. Rather he was prosecuting his case in the papal court against the mendicant orders.
MarginaliaEx Chron. reg. Rich. 2. After the death of Armachanus, the Friers had contētion likewise with the monkes of Benedictes order about the same yeare, 1360. and so remoued theyr cause both against the monkes and agaynst the vniuersity of Oxford, vnto the court of Rome, wherin seyth the author, they lacked an other Richard. Ex Botonero. MarginaliaFryers against the vnuiersitie of Oxforde.By this appeareth to be true, which is testified in the first tome of Wald. that lōg debate continued betwene the friers and the vniuersity of Oxford: MarginaliaEnglishe writers against the Friers.Against whom first stood Robert Grosted bishop of Lincolne aboue mentioned: Then Seuallus of Yorke. Afterward Ioannes Bachothorpe, and now this Armachanus, of whom here presently we entreate. And after hym agayne Iohn Wickliffe, of whom (Christ willing) we will speake hereafter. Ex Waldeno. MarginaliaFriers that write against Armachanus.Against this foresayd Armachanus wrote diuers Friers, Roger Conaway a Franciscan, Iohn Heyldeshā Carmelite, Galfridus Hardby frier Augustine. Also frier Engelbert a Dominican, in a booke intituled, Defensorium priuilegiorum, and diuers other. MarginaliaTestified by certayne Englishmen which are yet aliue & haue seene it.I credibly heare of certyane old Irish Bibles translated long since into the Irish toung, which if it true, it is not other like but to be the doing of this Armachanus
This information about the Irish Bibles is Foxe's own addition to the account, as is his completely unfounded surmise that Fitzralph had something to do with them.
MarginaliaPope Vrbane. 5. Anno. 1360. After the death
Foxe’s version of the sermon of Nicole Oresme is taken entirely from Matthias Flacius, Catalogus testium veritatis (Strasbourg, 1562), pp. 512-519. Nicole Oresme (c. 1320-1382) was a cleric and scholar, most famous today for his writings on mathematics, astronomy and economics. He was also a protégé of Charles V and John the Good. In preaching this sermon to Urban V, Oresme was preaching to the choir; Urban vigorously tried to reform the abuses Oresme described. Ironically, the more reform-minded medieval clerics denounced ecclesiastical abuses, the more they supplied Foxe and Flacius with material to characterize the papacy and the medieval church as inherently evil.
[Back to Top]Thomas S. Freeman
University of Sheffield
Foxe is taking his account of Urban V from Bale, Catalogus, pp. 437-8. Guillaume de Gimoard, who became Urban V, was a Frenchman with a distinguished career as a scholar and a diplomat. Because England, at this time controlled much of what is now south-western France, Guillaume’s father was an English subject, but he was not English.
[Back to Top]At this time, the papal court was in Avignon, not Rome.
MarginaliaEx Sabel. Enead 9. lib. 8. This Pope mayntayned
This description of the wars of Urban V comes from Sabellicus, in his Enneads (see Sabellicus, Opera omnia [Basel, 1560], cols. 817-21). Bale had referred to this account (Catalogus, p. 438), but he had not provided the details. Foxe felt that the issue of papal territorial aggression was sufficiently important for him to look up Bale’s source for himself.
[Back to Top]This is Cardinal Gil Álvarez Caurillo de Albornoz, whom Pope Urban V placed in charge of restoring papal control over the papal territories in Italy. While the papacy was in Avignon, its control over central Italy had been lost..
This description of the wars of Urban V comes from Sabellicus, in his Enneads (see Sabellicus, Opera omnia [Basel, 1560], cols. 817-21). Bale had referred to this account (Catalogus, p. 438), but he had not provided the details. Foxe felt that the issue of papal territorial aggression was sufficiently important for him to look up Bale’s source for himself.
[Back to Top]Everything that follows to the end of Oresme’s sermon is a direct translation of Matthias Flacius, Catalogus testium veritatis (Strasbourg, 1562), pp. 512-519.
Actually 1363.