ABSTRACT
The likelihood that Eberlin assisted Rot-Locher in the composition of ‘Article 15’ raises the issue of ongoing polemics against the Franciscans by former members of the order after 1523. With the exception of Eberlin, these men dropped the issue as quickly as they had picked it up. Eberlin himself continued to make disparaging remarks about members of the order and, on occasion, revived some of the earlier accusations against the group as a whole. These instances, however, become increasingly isolated in his writings after 1523. Less than a year after he had called St Francis ‘a fool or an arch-rogue,’ Eberlin appealed to the example of his piety:
Saint Francis endeavoured to let no divine visitation pass over without fruit; he waited on it always, and, as he walked in rain or snow, if his heart was excited by God, he stood still and heard what his God spoke to him and did.1
