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Holy Beggars, Unholy War: The Fraticelli Franciscan War in 14th-Century Avignon and Umbria
Paperback
Series: The Strange and Forbidden Sects of Medieval Europe, Book 12
Medieval & Renaissance HistoryReligion General Italian History
Publisher: Winston Maddox Publishing
Published: Sep 1 2026
Pages: 130
Weight: 0.30
Height: 0.31 Width: 5.00 Depth: 8.00
Language: English
What happens when men who own nothing threaten the richest throne on Earth?
You know the standard history of the 14th century: the Avignon Papacy, the Great Schism, the cold political maneuvers of kings and popes. But beneath the gilded ceilings of Avignon and across the mist-shrouded hills of Umbria, a far deadlier conflict burned. The Fraticelli were not mere dissenters; they were radical Franciscan friars who treated the vow of absolute poverty as a divine mandate. When Pope John XXII declared that Christ owned his own clothes, these monks declared the Pope a heretic and his wealth a blasphemy against God.
Holy Beggars, Unholy War drags you out of comfortable modern retrospectives and drops you into the dirt, smoke, and blood of medieval Europe. Experience the tension as Angelo da Clareno coordinates a subterranean resistance through mountain hermitages. Feel the heat of the inquisitorial bonfires in Marseille and Narbonne, where friars chose the stake over signing papal decrees. Follow the high-stakes escape of Michele da Cesena and William of Ockham across hostile territory to forge a desperate alliance with Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV.
This is history written for those who demand total immersion-the clash of papal armies at Castiglione Del Lago, the secretive midnight trials conducted by inquisitors like Bernard Gui, and the theological battles that shook the holy see to its foundations. Winston Maddox reconstructs this forgotten war with meticulous detail and narrative velocity, painting a world where religious devotion and political survival were indistinguishable.
If you are tired of sanitized medieval histories that treat ideas as abstract footnotes rather than causes worth dying for, this book belongs on your shelf. Step into a world where a frayed wool cord and a pair of wooden sandals were enough to start an all-out war with the Vatican.
Will you stand with the Pope's gold, or burn with the beggars?
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