UBERTINO
116
UBERTINO
the Sao Francisco River; south, the Marcella and
Canastra mountain ranges and the Rio Grande; west,
the Paranahyba and Jacare rivers, and the Geral
mountain range. The CathoUc population num-
bered 200,000 souls in 1911. Rt. Rev. Eduardo
Duarte Silva, the first and present bishop, was born at
Florianopolis, 27 Jan., 1852; studied in the Pio-La-
tino College of Rome: was ordained priest, 19 Dec,
1874; chaplain of the Florianopolis hospital and canon
of the imperial chapel; elected Bishop of Goyaz, 23
Jan., 1891, and consecrated on 8 Feb., 1891;preconized
Bishop of Uberaba, 19 Dec, 1908. The following re-
ligious orders are in the diocese: Dominicans, Recol-
lects, Lazarists, Dominican nuns, Franciscan Mission-
ary nuns of Egypt. There are 45 churches. The
Catholic educational institutions are : the Gymnasio
Diocesano, a school of secondary instruction with the
privileges of a federal college, directed by the Marist
Brothers; and the CoUegio de Nossa Senhora das
Dores, for girls, under the Dominican nuns. The
principal CathoUc charitable associations are: the
Sociedade de S. Vicente de Paula; the Irmandade da
Santa Casa de Misericordia; and the A.ssocia^ao das
Damas de Caridade. The official organ of the diocese
is the "Correio Catholico" (Uberaba).
Julian Moreno-Lacalle.
Ubertino of Casale, leader of the Spirituals, b. at Casale of VerceUi, 1259; d. about 1330. He assumed the Franciscan habit in a convent of the province of Genoa In 1273, and was sent to Paris to continue his studies, where he remained nine years, after which he returned to Italy. In 1285 he visited the sanctuaries of Rome, and thence proceeded to Greccio, near Rieti, to see the Blessed John of Parma, who was considered as the patriarch of the Spiritual Friars. Afterwards he settled in Tuscany and in 1287, at Florence, was the companion and disciple of Brother Pierre-Jean Olivi. He held a lectorship at Santa Croce, Florence, but abandoned it after a few years to dedicate himself to preaching, especially at Florence. Being a man of genius, but of an eccen- tric and restless character, he soon became the leader of the famous Spirituals in Tuscany, professed strange ideas regarding evangelical and Franciscan poverty, and attacked the government of the order, although some of these ideas had been reproved by Olivi in his letter of Sept., 1295, to Blessed Com-ado da OfRda, a moderate Zelanle of Franciscan poverty. The Spirituals of Tuscany were so fanatical as pub- licly to blame Gregory IX and Nicholas III, and even to condemn them as heretics, for having interpreted the Rule of St. Francis as regards poverty according to justice and moderation; they also condemned Innocent III, who had strongly disapproved of the teaching of Joachim of Flora, whom they regarded as an oracle of the Holy Ghost, and whose theories were the cause of the discord in the Franciscan Order in the first half of the fourteenth century.
On account of his excessive and satijical criticism, Ubertino was summoned before Benedict XI and for- bidden to preach at Perugia, and was banished to the Convent of La \'(>rna, where in 1305 he conceived and wrote, in only three months .and seven days (if he can be believed on this point), his chief work, "Arbor vita- crucifix:e Jesu Christ i". This work is a collection of allegorical, theological, and political theories regarding civil society and the Church of those days, and ex- pounds also his ideal of the near future. In this work he criticises everything and everyone, the popes and the Church, especially for pretended abuses of riches in the ecclesiastical and civil states, and finally the Franciscan Order for not practising the extremest poverty. In the same work (book I, chap, iv) is the first mention of the legend of the resurrection of St. Francis, as he affirms to have heard from Blessed Conrado da Offida, and the latter from Blessed
Brother Leo, that Christ had raised up St. Francis
with a glorious body to console his poor friars, who,
according to Ubertino, were of course the Spirituals
only. Notwithstanding the Utopian theories of Uber-
tino, he had many protectors and admirers, and in
1307, after having written the "Arbor vitie", he was
cho.sen chaplain and familiar to Cardinal Napoleone
Orsini, nephew of Nicholas III, who had been created
by Celestine V protector of the Spirituals of the
Marches of Ancona, but which protectorate soon
ceased by the election of Boniface VIII in Dec, 1294.
Orsini, who in 1306-08 had been pontifical legate in
central Italy, deputed ITbertino on 10 Sept., 1307, to
absolve the inhabitants of Siena, who had incurred
ecclesiastical censure. When Orsini went to Ger-
many in 130s, ITbertino did not accompany him,
being then called to France. In the years 1309-12,
which witnessed the greatest struggle in the Francis-
can Order, Ubertino was called to Avignon with other
chiefs of the Spirituals to discuss before the pope the
questions at issue between the two part ies in the order.
Four points were discussed, viz. (1) on the relations of the order with the sect of the eo-called Followers of the Free Spirit; (2) on the condemnation and doctrine of Olivi; (3) on the poverty and discipline in the Order of Friars Minor; and (4) on the supposed persecutions of the Spirituals of the order. During the discussions Ubertino behaved in a very boisterous and insolent manner against the whole body of the order, accusing it of many false and imjust things; however, he was forced to acknowledge that regular discipline sub- stantially existed in the order ; but as regards poverty he attacked openly the pontifical declarations as con- trary to the rule and as a cause of ruin to the order. He pretended that the Friars Minor should be com- pelled to observe ad litieram St. Francis's Testament and Rule, and even all the evangehcal counsels taught by Christ. And because all this was not possililc to obtain from the majority of the order, he exacted that convents and provinces should be erected for the reform party. But this was absolutely denied, whilst on the other hand the question of practical observ- ance of poverty was settled by the famous Bull, "Exivi de paradiso", 6 May, 1312, partly called forth by the polemical writings of Ubertino.
Ubertino thereon retired to Avignon in 1313, and stayed w^ith Cardinal Giacomo Colonna till he had obtained from John XXII (1 Oct., 1317) permission to leave the order and to enter the Benedictine Abbey of Gembloux, Diocese of Liege. Some have doubted whether the Benedictines would have received in their community a person of such a restless character, but we are assured of it by Clareno and a notary of King James II of Aragon in the year 1318. Notwithstand- ingthis, Ubertinodid not desist from mixing biniself up in the question that troubled the Franciscan Order t ill he was excommunicated by John XXII. While still a favourite of this pope and a familiar of Cardinal Orsini, he was invited by the sovereign pontiff to give his opinion regarding the other famous question dis- cussed between the Dominicans and Franciscans, that is, concerning the poverty of Jesus Christ and that of the Apostles. This latter question, far more than the one concerning the Spirituals, caused the disas- trous schism in the order headed by M ichael of Cesena, general of the order, and seconded by the rebellious Louis IV of B.avaria. ITbertino was at Avignon in 1322; on the request of the pope he wrote his answer to the (luestion then in controversy, asserting that Christ and the Apostles have to be considered in a two-fold condition: as private persons they had repu- diated all proiierty, hut as ministers of religion they made use of goods and money for necessaries and alms. John XXII was satisfied with the answer, but Ubertino returned again to the service of Canlinal Orsini, and continued by his writings to concern him- self in the question, which meanwhile had been set-
