CHAPTER IV.

ITALY.

In France we have seen the stubbornness of heresy in alliance with

feudalism resisting the encroachments of monarchy. In Italy we meet with

different and more complicated conditions, which gave additional

stimulus to antagonism against the established Church, and rendered its

suppression a work of much greater detail. Here heresy and politics are

so inextricably intermingled that at times differentiation becomes

virtually impossible, and the fate of heretics depends more on political

vicissitudes than even on the zeal of men like St. Peter Martyr, or

Rainerio Saccone.

For centuries the normal condition of Italy was not far removed from

anarchy. Spasmodic attempts of the empire to make good its traditional

claim to overlordship were met by the steady policy of the papacy to

extend its temporal power over the Peninsula. During the century

occupied by the reigns of the Hohenstaufens (1152-1254), when the empire

seemed nearest to accomplishing its ends, the popes sought to erect a

rampart by stimulating the attempts of the cities to establish their

independence and form self-governing republics, and it thus created for

itself a party in all of them. North of the Patrimony of St. Peter the

soil of Italy thus became fractioned into petty states under

institutions more or less democratic. For the most part they were torn

with savage internal feuds between factions which, as Guelf or

Ghibelline, hoisted the banner of pope or kaiser as an excuse for

tearing each other to pieces. As a rule, they were involved in constant

war with each other. Occasionally, indeed, some overmastering necessity

might bring about a temporary union, as when the Lombard League, in

1177, broke the Barbarossa's power on the field of Legnano, but, in

general, the chronicles of that dismal period are a confused mass of

murderous strife inside and outside the gates of every town.

Heresy could scarce ask conditions more favorable for its spread. The

Church, worldly to the core, was immersed in temporal cares and

pleasures, and during the strife between Alexander III. and the four

antipopes successively set up by Frederic I.--Victor, Pascal, Calixtus,

and Innocent--the enforcement of orthodoxy was out of the question.

After the triumph of the papacy, stringent decrees, as we have seen,

were issued by Lucius III., and edicts were promulgated by Henry VI. in

1194, and by Otho IV. in 1210, but they were practically inefficient.

When every town was divided against itself heresy could bargain for

toleration by holding the balance of power, and was frequently able, by

throwing its weight on one side or the other, to obtain a share in the

government. The larger struggles of city against city and of pope

against emperor afforded a still wider field for the exercise of this

diplomatic ability, of which full advantage was taken. When the formulas

of persecution became defined under Honorius III., Gregory IX., and

Frederic II., and fautorship was made equivalent to heresy, the factions

and the nobles who tolerated or protected heretics became involved in

the common anathema, and whole communities were stigmatized as given

over to false idols. Yet although Ghibelline and heretic were frequently

held by the popes to be almost convertible terms, there was in reality

no test capable of universal application. Traditional hostility to the

empire rendered Milan an intensely Guelf community, and yet it was

everywhere recognized as the greatest centre of heresy.

Though heresy was by no means so universal as the papal anathemas would

indicate, yet heretics were quite numerous enough to possess political

importance, and to have some justification for their hopes of eventually

becoming dominant. Little concealment was deemed necessary. When Otho

IV. was in Rome for his coronation in 1209, under the vigilant rule of

Innocent III., the ecclesiastics who accompanied him were scandalized at

finding schools where Manichæan doctrines were openly taught, apparently

without interference. The earlier Dominican persecutors are represented

as constantly holding public disputations with heretics in the most

populous cities of Italy, and the miracles related of them were mostly

occasioned by the taunts and challenges of heretics. Otho, at Ferrara,

in 1210, was obliged to order the magistrates to put to the ban the

Cathari who refused, at the instance of the bishop, to return to the

Church, and also those who publicly supported them.[212]

Although Stephen of Bourbon relates that a converted heretic informed

him that in Milan there were no less than seventeen heterodox sects

which bitterly disputed with each other, yet they can, as in France, be

reduced to two main classes--Cathari, or Patarins, and Waldenses. The

Cathari, it will be remembered, made their appearance in the first half

of the eleventh century, at Monforte, in Lombardy, and they had

continued to multiply since then. About the middle of the thirteenth

century Rainerio Saccone gives us an enumeration of their churches. In

Lombardy and the Marches there were about five hundred perfected Cathari

of the Albanensian sect, more than fifteen hundred Concorrezenses, and

about two hundred Bajolenses. The Church of Vicenza reckoned about a

hundred; there were as many in Florence and Spoleto, and in addition

about one hundred and fifty refugees from France in Lombardy. As he

estimates the total number, from Constantinople to the Pyrenees, at four

thousand, with a countless congregation of believers, it will be seen

that nearly two thirds of the whole number were concentrated in northern

Italy, chiefly in Lombardy, and that they constituted a notable portion

of the population.[213]

Lombardy, in fact, was the centre whence Catharism was propagated

throughout Europe. We have seen above how for more than half a century

it served as a refuge to the persecuted saints of Languedoc, and as a

source whence to draw missionaries and teachers. About 1240 a certain

Yvo of Narbonne was falsely accused of heresy and fled to Italy, where

he was received as a martyr, and had full opportunity of penetrating

into the secrets of the sectaries. In a letter to Géraud, Archbishop of

Bordeaux, he describes their thorough organization throughout Italy,

with ramifications extending into all the neighboring lands. From all

the cities of Lombardy and Tuscany their youth were sent to Paris to

perfect themselves in logic and theology, so as to be able successfully

to defend their errors. Catharan merchants frequented fairs and

obtained entrance into houses where they lost no opportunity of

scattering the seed of false doctrine. Full of zeal and courage, the

Catharan believed his faith to be the religion of the future, and his

ardor courted martyrdom in the effort to spread it everywhere. Milan was

the headquarters whither every year delegates were sent from the

churches throughout Christendom, bringing contributions for the support

of the central organization, and receiving instructions as to the

symbol, changed every twelvemonth, whereby the wandering Patarin could

recognize the houses of his brethren and safely claim hospitality. It

was in vain that, in 1212, Innocent III. warned the heretical city of

the fate of Languedoc, and threatened to send a similar crusade for its

extirpation. Fortunately for the Lombards he had no one to summon to

their destruction, for Germany, however desirous of conquering Italy,

was too distracted for such an enterprise, and the popes dreaded

imperial domination quite as much as heresy. There was bitter irony in

the reply of Frederic II., when, in 1236, he was subduing the rebellious

Lombards, and he answered the clamor of Gregory IX., who called upon him

to transfer his arms to Syria, by pointing out that the Milanese were

much worse than Saracens, and their subjugation much more

important.[214]

We have no means of obtaining an approximate estimate of the Waldenses,

but in some districts they must have been almost as numerous as the

Cathari. The remains of the Arnaldistæ and Umiliati had eagerly welcomed

the missionaries of the Poor Men of Lyons, and had not only adopted

their tenets, but had pushed them to a further development in antagonism

to Rome. As early as 1206 we see Innocent III. alluding to Umiliati and

Poor Men of Lyons as synonymous expressions, and endeavoring with little

success to effect their expulsion from Faenza, where they were spreading

and infecting the people. In Milan they had built a school where they

publicly taught their doctrines; this was at length torn down by a

zealous archbishop, and when, in 1209, Durán de Huesca sought to bring

them back to the fold, a hundred or more of them consented to be

reconciled if the building were restored to them. Evidently they had

little to dread from active persecution, and subsequent letters of

Innocent show them to be still flourishing there. The Waldenses who were

burned at Strassburg in 1212 admitted that their chief resided in Milan,

and that they were in the habit of collecting money and remitting it to

him.[215]

It was, however, in the valleys of the Cottian Alps, to which they

spread from Dauphiné, that they settled themselves most firmly. In those

inhospitable regions, till then almost uninhabited, their marvellous and

self-denying industry occupied every spot where incessant labor could

support life. There they rapidly increased and filled the valleys of

Luserna, Angrogna, San Martino, and Perosa. In 1210 Giacomo di Carisio,

Bishop of Turin, alarmed at the constant growth of this heresy in his

diocese, applied to Otho IV. for aid in its suppression, but the emperor

in reply merely ordered him to use severity in their punishment and

expulsion. Authority for this he already had in abundance under the

canons, but he lacked the physical force to render it effective, and the

imperial rescript went for naught. This shows that the local suzerains

took no measures to enforce persecution, and the heretics continued to

increase. The immediate sovereign of the district most deeply infected

was the Abbey of Ripaille, which found itself unable to control them,

and made over its temporal rights to Tommaso I., Count of Savoy. He

issued an edict, to which I have already referred, imposing a fine of

ten sols for giving refuge to heretics, which proved altogether

ineffective. Thus, in the absence of efficient repression, were

established those Alpine communities whose tenacity of belief supplied

through centuries an unfailing succession of humble martyrs, and who

ennobled human nature by their marvellous example of constancy and

endurance.[216]

Although the Lombard Waldenses admitted their descent from the Poor Men

of Lyons, their more rapid development gave rise to differences, and in

1218 a conference was held at Bergamo between delegates of both parties.

This did not succeed in removing the points of dissidence, and about

1230 the Lombards sent to the brethren in Germany a statement of the

discussion and of their views. It is not our province to enter into

these minute details of faith and Church government, but the affair is

worth alluding to as illustrating the flourishing condition of the

Church, the practical toleration which it enjoyed, and the active

communication which existed between its organizations throughout

Europe.[217]

* * * * *

The aggressiveness of the heretics, the favor shown them by the people,

and the impossibility of any systematic suppression by the Church under

existing political conditions are well exhibited in the troubles which

commenced at Piacenza in 1204. There the heretics were strong enough to

provoke a quarrel between the authorities and Bishop Grimerio, which

resulted in either the withdrawal or the expulsion of the prelate and

all the clergy. The exiles transferred themselves to Cremona, but in

1205 that city likewise quarrelled with its pastors, and the wanderers

were again driven forth, to find a refuge in Castell' Arquato. For

three years and a half Piacenza remained without an orthodox priest, and

deprived of all the observances and consolations of religion. So weak

was the hold of the Church upon the people that this deprivation was

acquiesced in with the utmost indifference. In October, 1206, Innocent

III. sent three Apostolic Visitors to effect a reconciliation, with a

threat of dividing the diocese and apportioning it among the neighboring

sees, but the citizens cared nothing for this, and refused the terms

demanded, which required them to compensate their bishop for the damage

inflicted on him. After some six months wasted in fruitless negotiations

the Visitors departed, and it was not till July, 1207, that another

commission, offering more favorable conditions, succeeded in effecting a

reconciliation which enabled the clergy to return from exile. About the

same period Innocent found himself obliged to use persuasion and

argument in the endeavor to urge the people of Treviso to expel their

heretics. So far from threatening them, he begged them to have faith

that their bishop would reform the excesses of the clergy whose evil

example had disturbed them. It is easy thus to understand the exulting

confidence with which the heretics anticipated the eventual triumph of

their creeds, and the despair which led Abbot Joachim of Flora, in

expounding the Apocalypse, to see in them the locusts with the power of

scorpions who issue from the bottomless pit at the sounding of the fifth

trumpet (Rev. IX. 3, 4). These heretics are the Antichrist; they are to

grow in power and their king is already chosen, that king of the locusts

"whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue

hath his name Apollyon" (Rev. IX. 11). Resistance to them will be in

vain; they are to unite with the Saracens, with whom, in 1195, he says

they are already entering into negotiations.[218]

When Honorius III., in 1220, obtained from Frederic II. the ferocious

coronation-edict against heresy, he may well have imagined that the way

was open for its immediate suppression. If so, he was not long in

discovering his mistake. Whatever professions Frederic might make, or

whatever rigor he might exercise in his Sicilian dominions, it was no

part of his policy to estrange the Ghibelline leaders, or to strengthen

the Guelfic factions in the turbulent little republics which he sought

to reduce to subjection. His whole reign was an internecine conflict,

open or concealed, with Rome, and he was too much of a free-thinker to

have any scruples as to the sources whence he could draw strength for

himself or annoyance for his enemy. In central and upper Italy,

therefore, his laws were for the most part virtually a dead letter.

Already, in 1221, Ezzelin da Romano, the most powerful Ghibelline in the

March of Treviso, was complained of for the protection which he afforded

to heretics, and his continuing to do so to the end shows that he found

it to be good policy. When, in 1227, Ingheramo da Macerata, the late

podestà of Rimini, was persecuted by the citizens because he had

delivered for burning as heretics some of their daughters and sisters,

and because he had wished to inscribe on their statute-books the

constitutions of Frederic, it was not to the emperor that he applied for

protection, but to Honorius III.[219]

Something more than imperial edicts was plainly necessary, and Honorius,

in casting around for methods to check the spread of heresy, appointed,

in 1224, the Bishops of Brescia and Modena as commissioners with special

powers to exterminate the heretics of Lombardy--as inquisitors, in fact,

this being one of the steps which gradually led to the establishment of

the Inquisition, the usefulness of the Dominicans in this respect not

having yet been divined. The Bishop of Modena, however, undertook a

mission to convert the pagans of Prussia, and the Bishop of Rimini was

substituted in his place. The prelates commenced with Brescia itself,

whose prelate doubtless knew where to strike. They ordered the tearing

down of certain houses where heretical preachers had been accustomed to

hold forth. At once an armed insurrection broke out. The perennial

factions of the city took sides. Several churches were burned, and the

heretics parodied from them the anathema by casting lighted torches from

the windows, and solemnly excommunicating all members of the Church of

Rome. It was not until after a severe and prolonged conflict that the

Catholics obtained the upper hand, and then the terms prescribed by

Honorius were so mild as to indicate that it was not deemed politic to

drive the defeated party to despair. All excommunicates were required to

apply personally for absolution to the Holy See. The fortified houses of

the lords of Gambara, of Ugona, of the Oriani, of the sons of Botatio,

who had been the leader in the troubles, were ordered to be razed to the

ground, never to be rebuilt, while other strongholds, which had been

defended against the Catholics, were to be cut down one-third or

one-half. Benificed clerks who were children of heretics or of fautors

were to be suspended for three years or more as their individual

participation in the troubles might indicate. A levy of three hundred

and thirty lire was ordered on the clergy of Lombardy and the

Trivigiana to recompense the Catholics for the losses endured in

contending with the heretics. So unaccustomed as yet were the Lombards

to persecution that even these conditions were deemed too harsh. The

city of Milan interceded, and finally even the authorities of Brescia

itself urged that moderation would be conducive to peace; and, May 1,

1226, Honorius authorized the bishops to use their discretion in

diminishing the penalties. When, however, the Dominican Guala was

elected Bishop of Brescia in 1230, he speedily succeeded in introducing

in the local statutes the law of Frederic, of March, 1224, which decreed

for heretics the stake or loss of the tongue, and he forced the podestà

to swear to its execution.[220]

Gregory IX. was a man of sterner temper than Honorius, and, despite his

octogenary age, his advent to the pontificate, in 1227, was the signal

for unrelenting war on heresy. Within three weeks of his accession peace

was signed, under the auspices of the papacy, between Frederic II. and

the Lombard League, with provisions for the suppression of heresy.

Gregory immediately, in the most imperious fashion, summoned the

Lombards to perform their duty. Hitherto, he told them, all their

pretended efforts had been fraudulent. No enforcement of the imperial

constitutions had been attempted. If the heretics had at any time been

driven away, it was with a secret understanding that they would be

allowed to return and dwell in peace. If fines had been inflicted, the

money had been covertly refunded. If statutes had been enacted, there

was always a reservation by which they were rendered ineffective. Thus

heresy had grown and strengthened while the liberties of the Church had

been subverted. Heretics had been permitted to preach their doctrines

publicly, while ecclesiastics had been outlawed and imprisoned. All this

must cease, the provisions of the treaty of peace must be enforced, and,

if they continued in their evil courses, the Holy See would find means

to coerce them in their perversity.[221]

These were brave words, though the political condition of Lombardy

rendered them ineffective. Nearer home, however, Gregory had fairer

opportunity of enforcing his will, and we have already seen how

promptly he recognized the utility of the Order of Dominic and laid the

foundations of the Inquisition by his tentative action in Florence.

While this was taking shape his zeal was stimulated by the discovery, in

1231, that in Rome itself heresy had become so bold that it ventured to

assert itself openly, and that many priests and other ecclesiastics had

been converted. Probably the first _auto de fé_ on record was that held

by the Senator Annibaldo at the portal of Santa Maria Maggiore, when

these unfortunates were burned or condemned to perpetual prison, and

Gregory took advantage of the occasion to issue the decretal which

became the basis of inquisitorial procedure, and to procure the

enactment of severe secular laws in the name of the senator. The details

I have already given (Vol. I. p. 325), and they need not be repeated

here; but Gregory did not content himself with what he thus accomplished

in Rome. His aid just then was desirable to Frederic II. in his Lombard

complications, and to Gregory's urgency may doubtless be attributed the

severe legislation of the Sicilian Constitutions, issued about this

time, and the Ravenna decrees of 1232. Shortly afterwards, indeed, we

find Frederic writing to him that they are like father and son; that

they should sharpen the spiritual and temporal swords respectively

committed to them against heretics and rebels, without wasting effort on

sophistry, for if time be spent in disputation nature will succumb to

disease. It is not probable that Gregory counted much on the zeal of the

emperor, but he sent the edict of Annibaldo to Milan, with instructions

that it be adopted and enforced there. Already, in 1228, his legate,

Goffredo, Cardinal of San Marco, had obtained of the Milanese the

enactment of a law by which the houses of heretics were to be destroyed,

and the secular authorities were required to put to death within ten

days all who were condemned by the Church; but thus far no executions

seem to have taken place under it.[222]

It was now that Gregory, seeing the futility of all efforts thus far

save those which the Dominicans were making in Florence, hit upon the

final and successful experiment of confiding to the Order the

suppression of heresy as part of their regular duties. A fresh impulse

was felt all along the line. The Church suddenly found that it could

count upon an unexpected reserve of enthusiasm, boundless and

exhaustless, despising danger and reckless of consequences, which in the

end could hardly fail to triumph. A new class of men now appears upon

the scene--San Piero Martire, Giovanni da Vicenza, Rolando da Cremona,

Rainerio Saccone--worthy to rank with their brethren in Languedoc, who

devoted themselves to what they held to be their duty with a singleness

of purpose which must command respect, however repulsive their labors

may seem to us. On one hand these men had an easier task than their

Western colleagues, for they had not to contend with the jealousy, or

submit to the control, of the bishops. The independence of the Italian

episcopate had been broken down in the eleventh century. Besides, the

bishops naturally belonged to the Guelfic faction, and welcomed any

allies who promised to aid them in crushing the antagonistic party in

their turbulent cities. On the other hand, the political dissensions

which raged everywhere with savage ferocity increased enormously the

difficulties and dangers of the task.

In Italy, as in France, the organization of the Inquisition was gradual.

It advanced step by step, the earlier proceedings, as we have seen both

in Florence and Toulouse, being characterized by little regularity. As

the tribunal by degrees assumed shape, a definite code of procedure was

established which was virtually the same everywhere, except with regard

to the power of confiscation, the application of the profits of

persecution, and the acquittal of the innocent. To these attention has

already been called, and they need not detain us further. The problems

which the founders of the Inquisition had to meet in Italy, and the

methods in which these were met, can best be illustrated by a rapid

glance at what remains to us of the careers of some of the earnest men

who undertook the apparently hopeless task.

The earliest name I have met with bearing the title of Inquisitor of

Lombardy is that of a Frà Alberico in 1232. The Cardinal Legate

Goffredo, whom we have seen busy in Milan, undertook to quiet civil

strife in Bergamo, with the consent of all factions, by appointing as

podestà Pier Torriani of Milan; and at the same time he seized the

opportunity to make a raid on heretics, a number of whom he cast into

prison. No sooner was his back turned than the citizens refused to

receive his podestà, elected in his place a certain R. di Madello, and,

what was worse, set at liberty the captive heretics. Thereupon the

legate placed the city under interdict, which brought the people to

their senses, and they agreed to stand to the mandate of the Church.

Gregory accordingly, November 3, 1232, instructed Alberico, as

Inquisitor of Lombardy, to reconcile the city on condition that the

people refund to Pier Torriani all his expenses and give sufficient

security to exterminate heresy. Here we see how intimate were the

relations between politics and heresy, and what difficulties the

alliance threw in the way of persecution.[223]

Frà Rolando da Cremona we have already met as professor in the inchoate

University of Toulouse, and we have seen how rigid and unbending was his

zeal. Hardly had he quitted Langueduc when we find him, in 1233, already

actively at work in the congenial duty of suppressing heresy at

Piacenza. The twenty-five years which had elapsed since the Piacenzans

had shown themselves so indifferent to their spiritual privileges had

not greatly increased their respect for orthodoxy. Rolando assembled

them, preached to them, and then ordered the podestà to expel the

heretics. The result did not correspond to his expectations. With the

connivance of the podestà, the heretics and their friends arose and made

a general onslaught on the clergy, including the bishop and the friars,

in which a monk of San Sabino was slain and Rolando and some of his

comrades were wounded. The Dominicans carried Rolando half-dead from the

city, which was placed under interdict by the bishop. Then a revulsion

of feeling occurred; Rolando was asked to return, and full satisfaction

was promised. He prudently kept away, but ordered the imprisonment of

the podestà and twenty-four others till the pleasure of the pope should

be known. Gregory took advantage of the opportunity by sending thither

the Archdeacon of Novara, with instructions to place the city under

control of the orthodox party, taking ample security that the heretics

should be suppressed; but this arrangement did not please the citizens,

who rose again and liberated the prisoners. Sharp as was this

experience, it did not dull the edge of Rolando's zeal, for the next

year we find him at work in the Milanese, where he received rough

treatment at the hands of Lantelmo, a noble who sheltered heretics in

his castle near Lodi. For this Lantelmo was condemned to be led through

the streets, stripped and with a halter around his neck, to Rolando's

presence, and there to accept such penance as the friar, at command of

the pope, might enjoin on him. A month later we hear of his seizing two

Florentine merchants, Feriabente and Capso, with all their goods. They

evidently were persons of importance, for Gregory ordered their release

in view of having received bail for them in the enormous sum of two

thousand silver marks.[224]

During this transition period, while the Inquisition was slowly taking

shape, one of the most notable of the Dominicans engaged in the work of

persecution was Giovanni Schio da Vicenza. I have alluded in a previous

chapter to his marvellous career as a pacificator, and it may perhaps

not be unjust to assume that his motive in employing his unequalled

eloquence in harmonizing discordant factions was not only the Christian

desire for peace, but also to remove the obstruction to persecution

caused by perpetual strife, for in almost all these movements we may

trace the connection between heresy and politics. After his wonderful

success at Bologna, Gregory urged him to undertake a similar mission to

Florence, where constant civic war was accompanied by recrudescence of

heresy. In spite of the efforts of the embryonic Inquisition there,

heresy was undisguised, and the ministers of Christ were openly opposed

and ridiculed. Gregory assumed that Giovanni acted under the direct

inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and did not venture to send him orders,

but only requests. He was, like all his colleagues, popularly regarded

as a thaumaturgist, and stories were told of his crossing rivers

dry-shod, and causing vultures to descend from on high at his simple

command. The Bolognese were so loath to part with him that they used

gentle violence to retain him, and only let him go after Gregory had

ordered their city laid under interdict, and had threatened to deprive

of its episcopal dignity any place which should detain him against his

will. After completely succeeding in his mission to Florence he was

despatched on a similar one to Lombardy. The League, which had been so

efficient an instrument in curbing the imperial power, was breaking up.

Fears were entertained that Frederic would soon return from Germany with

an army, and a portion of the Lombard cities and nobles were disposed to

invite him. Some countervailing influence was required, and nothing more

effective than Giovanni's eloquence could be resorted to. At Padua,

Treviso, Conigliano, Ceneda, Oderzo, Belluno, and Feltre he preached on

the text "Blessed are the feet of the bearers of peace" with such

effect that even the terrible Ezzelin da Romano is said to have twice

burst into tears. The whole land was pacified, save the ancestral

quarrel between Ezzelin and the counts of Campo San Piero, which

unpardonable wrongs had rendered implacable. After a visit to Mantua,

the apostle of peace went to Verona, then besieged by an army of

Mantuans, Bolognese, Brescians, and Faenzans, where he persuaded the

assailants to withdraw, and the Veronese, in gratitude, proclaimed him

podestà by acclamation. He promptly made use of the position to burn in

the market-place some sixty heretics of both sexes, belonging to the

noblest families of the city. Then he summoned to a great assembly in a

plain hard by all the confederate cities and nobles. Obedient to his

call there came the Patriarch of Aquileia, the Bishops of Mantua,

Brescia, Bologna, Modena, Reggio, Treviso, Vicenza, Padua, and Ceneda,

Ezzelin da Romano, the Marquis of Este, who was Lord of Mantua, the

Count of San Bonifacio, who ruled Ferrara, and delegates from all the

cities, with their carrochi. The multitude was diversely estimated at

from forty thousand to five hundred thousand souls, who were wrought by

his eloquence to the utmost enthusiasm of mutual forgiveness. After

denouncing as rebels and enemies of the Church all who adhered to

Frederic or invited him to Italy, Giovanni induced his auditors to swear

to accept such settlement of their quarrels as he should dictate, and

when he announced the terms they unanimously signed the treaty.[225]

So great became his reputation that Gregory IX. was seriously disturbed

at a report that Giovanni contemplated making himself pope. A consistory

was assembled to consider the advisability of excommunicating him, and

that step would have been taken had not the Bishop of Modena sworn upon

a missal that he had once seen an angel descend from heaven while

Giovanni was speaking, and place a golden cross upon his brow. A

confidential mission was sent to Bologna to investigate his career

there, which returned with authentic accounts of numberless miracles

performed by him, among them no less than ten resuscitations of the

dead. So holy a man could not well be thrust from the pale of the

Church, and the project was abandoned.[226]

Meanwhile he had visited his native place, Vicenza, on invitation of the

bishop, and had so impressed the people that they gave him their

statutes to revise at his pleasure, and proclaimed him duke, marquis,

and count of the city--titles which belonged to the bishop, who also

offered to make over the episcopate to him. As at Verona, he used his

power to burn a number of heretics. During his absence at Verona,

Uguccione Pileo, an enemy of the Schia family, induced the people to

revolt, when Giovanni hastened back and suppressed the rebellion,

putting to death, with torture, a number of citizens, who are charitably

supposed to have been heretics. Uguccione brought up reinforcements; a

fierce battle was fought in the streets, and Giovanni was worsted and

taken prisoner. A letter of condolence, addressed to him in prison, by

Gregory, under date of September 22, 1233, serves to fix the date of

this, and to show how powerless was the papacy to protect its agents in

the fierce dissensions of the period. Giovanni was obliged to ransom

himself and return to Verona, and thence to Bologna. The peace which he

had effected was of short duration. The chronic wars broke out afresh,

and Giovanni, at the instance of Gregory, came again to pacify them. In

this he succeeded, but no sooner was his back turned than hostilities

were renewed. Gregory made a third attempt, through the Bishops of

Reggio and Treviso, who induced the warring factions to lay down their

arms for a while; but the main object, of presenting a united front and

keeping Frederic out of Italy, was lost, Ezzelin and a number of the

cities urged his coming, and the decisive victory of Cortenuova, in

November, 1237, dissolved the Lombard League which had so long held the

empire in check, and made him master of Lombardy.[227]

During all this time Gregory had been untiring in his efforts to subdue

heresy in Lombardy, undeterred by the disheartening lack of result. All

his legates to that province were duly instructed to regard this as one

of their chief duties. In May, 1236, he had even attempted to establish

there a rudimentary Inquisition, but, in the existing condition of the

land, even he could hardly have expected to accomplish anything.

Frederic came with professions that the extirpation of heresy was one of

the motives impelling him to the enterprise; and when Gregory reproached

him with suppressing the preaching of the friars and thus favoring

heresy, he astutely retorted, with a reference to Giovanni, by alluding

to those who, under pretext of making war on heresy, were busy in

establishing themselves as potentates, and were taking castles as

security from those suspect in faith. Gregory, in reply, could only

disclaim all responsibility for the acts of the adventurous friar. Yet

Gregory himself, when it suited his Lombard policy, did not hesitate to

relax his severity against the heretics, and it became a popular cry in

Germany that he had been bribed with their gold.[228]

For some years Giovanni Schio led a comparatively quiet existence in

Bologna, but in 1247, by which time the Inquisition was fairly taking

shape, Innocent IV. appointed him perpetual inquisitor throughout

Lombardy, arming him with full powers and releasing him from all

subjection or accountability to the Dominican general or provincial. In

the existing condition of the north of Italy the commission was

virtually inoperative, and its only interest lies in its terms, which

show that up to this time there was no organized Inquisition there. We

hear nothing further of his activity, even after the death of Frederic,

in 1250, until, in 1256, the long-delayed crusade was undertaken against

Ezzelin da Romano. By his fiery eloquence he raised in Bologna a

considerable force of crusaders, at whose head he marched against the

tyrant of the Trevisan, but, disgusted with the quarrels of the leaders,

he returned to Bologna before the final catastrophe, and he is supposed

to have perished, in 1265, in the crusade against Manfred, when there

was a contingent of ten thousand Bolognese in the army of Charles of

Anjou.[229]

Yet the most noteworthy in all respects of the dauntless zealots who

fought the seemingly desperate battle against heresy was Piero da

Verona, better known as St. Peter Martyr. Born at Verona in 1203 or

1206, of a heretic family, his legend relates that he was divinely led

to recognize their errors. When a schoolboy of only seven years of age

his uncle chanced to ask him what he learned, and he repeated the

orthodox creed. His uncle thereupon told him he must not say that God

created the heaven and the earth, for he was not the creator of the

visible universe; but the child, filled with the Holy Ghost, overcame

his elder in argument, who thereupon urged the parents to remove him

from school, but the father, who hoped to see him become a leader of the

sect, allowed him to complete his education. His orthodox zeal grew with

his growth, and in 1221 he entered the Dominican Order. His confessor

testified that he never committed a mortal sin, and the bull of his

canonization bears emphatic evidence to his humility, his meek

obedience, his sweet benignity, his exhaustless compassion, his

unfailing patience, his wonderful charity, his passionate supplications

to God for martyrdom, and the innumerable miracles which illustrated his

life.[230]

Before the Dominicans were armed with the power of persecution Piero

earnestly devoted himself to the original function of the Order, that of

controverting heresy, and preaching against heretics. In this the

success of the young apostle was marvellously aided by his thaumaturgic

development. At Ravenna, Mantua, Venice, Milan, and other places,

numerous wonders are related of his performance. Thus, at Cesena, the

success of his efforts at conversion irritated the heretics, who, on one

occasion, interrupted his preaching in the public square by volleys of

filth and stones discharged from a house near by. He several times

mildly entreated them to desist, but in vain, when, inspired by divine

wrath, he launched a terrible imprecation against them. Instantly the

house crumbled in ruin, burying the sacrilegious wretches, nor could it

be rebuilt until long afterwards.[231]

When the Dominicans were charged with the duty of persecution his

earnest zeal naturally caused him to be selected as one of the earliest

laborers. In 1233 he was sent to Milan, where, thus far, all the efforts

of papal missives and legates had proved ineffectual to rouse the

authorities and the citizens to undertake the holy work. The laws which,

in 1228, Cardinal Goffredo had inscribed on the statute-book had

remained a dead letter. All this was changed when Piero da Verona made

his influence felt. Not only did he cause Gregory's legislation of 1231

to be adopted in the municipal law, but he stimulated the podestà,

Oldrado da Tresseno, and the archbishop, Enrico da Settala, to work in

earnest. A number of heretics were burned, who were probably the first

victims of fanaticism which Milan had seen since the time of the Cathari

of Monforte. So strong was the impression made by these executions that

they earned for the podestà Oldrado the honor of an equestrian portrait

in bas-relief, with the inscription, "_Qui solium struxit, Catharos ut

debuit uxit_," which is still to be seen adorning the wall of the Sala

del Consiglio, now the Archivio pubblico. It fared worse with the

archbishop, who was rendered so unpopular that he was banished, for

which the magistracy was duly excommunicated; but he, too, had

posthumous reward, for his tomb bore the legend "_instituto inquisitore

jugulavit hoereses_." Piero likewise founded in Milan a company, or

association, for the suppression of heresy, which was taken under

immediate papal protection--the model of that which ten years later did

such bloody work in Florence. We may safely assume that his fiery

activity continued unabated, though we hear nothing of him until 1242,

when we again find him in Milan so vigorously at work that he is said

to have caused a sedition which nearly ruined the city.[232]

Two years later we meet him fighting heresy in Florence. That city, it

will be remembered, was the subject of the earliest inquisitorial

experiments, Frà Giovanni di Salerno, Prior of Santa Maria Novella,

having been commissioned to prosecute heretics in 1228, and being

succeeded after his death, in 1230, by Frà Aldobrandini Cavalcante, and

about 1241 by Frà Ruggieri Calcagni. The first two of these accomplished

little, being, in fact, rather preachers than inquisitors. The heretics

were protected by the Ghibelline faction and the partisans of Frederic

II., and heresy, far from decreasing, spread rapidly in spite of

occasional burnings. When the Catharan Bishop Paternon fled, his

position was successively held by three others, Torsello, Brunnetto, and

Giacopo da Montefiascone. Many of the most powerful families were

heretics or open defenders of heresy--the Baroni, Pulci, Cipriani,

Cavalcanti, Saraceni, and Malpresa. The Baroni built a stronghold at San

Gaggio, beyond the walls, which served as a refuge for the Perfected,

and there were plenty of houses in the town where they could hold their

conventicles in safety. The Cipriani had two palaces, one at Mugnone and

the other in Florence, where troops of Cathari assembled under the

leadership of a heresiarch named Marchisiano, and there were great

schools at Poggibonsi, Pian di Cascia, and Ponte a Sieve.[233]

The whole of central Italy, in fact, was almost as deeply infected with

heresy as Lombardy, and little had as yet been done to purify it. That

as late as 1235 no comprehensive attempt had been made to establish the

Inquisition is shown by a papal brief addressed in that year to the

Dominicans of Viterbo, empowering them, in all the dioceses of Tuscany,

Viterbo, Orta, Balneoreggio, Castro, Soano, Amerino, and Narni, to

absolve heretics not publicly defamed for heresy, who should

spontaneously accuse themselves, provided the bishops assented and

sufficient bail were given; and the bishops were ordered to co-operate.

Heretics not thus voluntarily confessing were to be dealt with according

to the papal statutes. At Viterbo dwelt Giovanni da Benevento, who was

called the pope of the heretics, but it was not until Gregory went

thither in 1237 and undertook the task of purifying the place himself

that any efficient action was taken; he condemned Giovanni and many

other heretics, and ordered the palaces of some of the noblest families

of the city to be torn down, as having afforded refuge to heretics. At

the same time the Bishop of Padua was urged to persevere in the good

work, and at Parma the Knights of Jesus Christ were instituted with the

same object by Jordan, the Dominican general. All this indicates the

commencement of systematic operations, and the pressure grew stronger

year by year. Under the energetic management of Ruggieri Calcagni the

Florentine Inquisition rapidly took shape and executions became

frequent, while in the confessions of the accused allusions are made to

heretics burned elsewhere, showing that persecution was becoming active

wherever political conditions rendered it possible. Thus in a confession

of 1244 there is a reference to two, Maffeo and Martello, burned not

long before at Pisa.[234]

In Florence Frà Ruggieri's vigor was reducing the heretics to

desperation. Each trial revealed fresh names, and as the circle spread

the prosecutions became more numerous and terrible. The Signoria was

coerced by papal letters to enforce the citations of the inquisitor, and

as the prisoners multiplied and their depositions were taken, fully a

third of the citizens, including many nobles, were found to be involved.

Excited by the magnitude of the developments, Ruggieri determined to

strike at the chiefs, and, invoking the aid of the Priors of the Arts,

he seized a number of them and condemned to the stake those who proved

contumacious. The time had evidently come when they must choose between

open resistance and destruction. The Baroni assembled their followers,

broke open the jails, and carried off the prisoners, who were

distributed through various strongholds in the Florentine territory,

where they continued to preach and spread their doctrines.

Matters were rapidly approaching a crisis. On the one hand it was

impossible for so large a body as the heretics to permit themselves to

be slaughtered in detail with impunity, to say nothing of the

spoliation and gratification of private feuds which could not fail to

involve the innocent with the guilty in a persecution of such extent so

recklessly pursued. On the other hand, the persecutors were maddened

with excitement and with the prospects of at last triumphing over the

adversaries who had so long defied them. Innocent IV. wrote pressingly

to the Signoria commanding energetic support for the inquisitor, and he

summoned from Lombardy Piero da Verona to lend his aid in the

approaching struggle. Towards the end of 1244 Piero hastened to the

conflict, and his eloquence drew such crowds that the Piazza di Santa

Maria Novella had to be enlarged to accommodate the multitude. He

utilized the enthusiasm by enrolling the orthodox nobles in a guard to

protect the Dominicans, and formed a military order under the name of

the Società de' Capitani di Santa Maria, uniformed in a white doublet

with a red cross, and these led the organization known as the Compagnia

della Fede, sworn to defend the Inquisition at all hazards, under

privileges granted by the Holy See. Thus encouraged and supported,

Ruggieri pushed forward the trials, and numbers of victims were burned.

This was a challenge which the heretics could only decline under pain of

annihilation. They likewise organized under the lead of the Baroni, and

it was not difficult to persuade the podestà, Ser Pace di Pesannola of

Bergamo, recently appointed by Frederic II., that the interest of his

master required him to protect them. Thus the perennial quarrel between

the Church and the empire filled the streets of Florence with bloodshed

under the banners of orthodoxy and heterodoxy.

Ruggieri provoked the conflict without flinching. He cited the Baroni

before him, and when they contemptuously refused to appear he procured a

special mandate from Innocent IV. This they obeyed with the utmost

docility, about August 1, 1245, swearing to stand to the mandates of the

Church, and depositing one thousand lire as security; but when they

understood that he was about to render sentence against them, they

appealed to the podestà. Ser Pace thereupon sent his officers, August

12, to Ruggieri, ordering him to annul the proceedings as contrary to

the mandate of the emperor, to return the money taken as bail, and, in

case of contumacy, to appear the next day before the podestà under

penalty of a thousand marks. Ruggieri's only notice of this was a

summons the next day to Ser Pace to appear before the Inquisition as

suspect of heresy and fautorship, under pain of forfeiture of office.

The fervid rhetoric of Frà Piero poured oil upon the flames, and the

city found itself divided into two factions, not unequally matched and

eager to fly at each other. Taking advantage of the assembling of the

faithful in the churches on a feast-day, the podestà sounded the tocsin,

and many unarmed Catholics are said to have been slaughtered before the

altars. Then on St. Bartholomew's day (August 24) Ruggieri and Bishop

Ardingho, in the Piazza di S. Maria Novella, publicly read a sentence

condemning the Baroni, confiscating their possessions, and ordering

their castles and palaces to be destroyed, which naturally led to a

bloody collision between the factions. Piero then placed himself at the

head of the Compagnia della Fede, carrying a standard like the other

captains, among whom the de' Rossi were the most conspicuous. Under his

leadership two murderous battles were fought, one at the Croce al

Trebbio and the other in the Piazza di S. Felicità, in both of which the

heretics were utterly routed. Monuments still mark the scene of these

victories; and, until recent times, the banner which San Piero gave to

the de' Rossi was still carried by the Compagnia di San Piero Martire

on the celebration of his birthday, April 29, while the one which he

bore himself is preserved among the relics of Santa Maria Novella and is

publicly displayed on his feast-day.

Thus was destroyed in Florence the power of the heretics and of the

Ghibellines. Ruggieri, for his steadfast courage, was rewarded, before

the close of 1245, with the bishopric of Castro, and was succeeded as

inquisitor by San Piero himself, whose indefatigable zeal allowed the

heretics no rest. Many of them, recognizing the futility of further

resistance, abandoned their errors; others fled, and when Piero left

Florence he could boast that heresy was conquered and the Inquisition

established on an impregnable basis; though Rainerio's estimate of the

Florentine Cathari, some years later, shows that it still had an ample

harvest to reward its labors.[235]

While Ruggieri, in the summer of 1245, was precipitating the conflict in

Florence, Innocent IV., in the Council of Lyons, was passing sentence of

dethronement on Frederic II. and trying to find some aspirant hardy

enough to accept the imperial crown. Frederic laughed the sentence to

scorn and easily disposed of his would-be competitors, but he was

obliged to struggle hard to maintain his Italian possessions, and his

death, December 13, 1250, relieved the papacy from the most formidable

antagonist which its ambitious designs had ever encountered. Skilled

equally in the arts of war and peace, untiring in activity, dismayed by

no reverses, intellectually far in advance of his age, and encumbered

with few scruples, Frederic's brilliant abilities and indomitable

courage had been the one obstacle in the papal path towards domination

over Italy and the foundation on that basis of a universal theocratic

monarchy. His son, Conrad IV., a youth of twenty-one, was scarce to be

dreaded in comparison, though Innocent cautiously waited for a while in

Lyons before venturing into Italy. After reaching Genoa, June 8, 1251,

he addressed to Piero da Verona and Viviano da Bergamo a brief which

shows that the intervening six months had not sufficed to dull the sense

of rejoicing at the death of his great opponent, and that no more time

was to be lost in taking full advantage of the opportunity. A

dithyrambic burst of exultation is followed by the declaration that

thanks to God for this inestimable mercy are to be rendered not so much

in words as in deeds, and of these the most acceptable is the

purification of the faith. Frederic's favor towards heretics had long

impeded the operations of the Inquisition throughout Italy, and now that

he is removed it is to be put into action everywhere with all possible

vigor. Inquisitors are to be sent into all parts of Lombardy; Piero and

Viviano are ordered to proceed forthwith to Cremona, armed with all

necessary powers; rulers who do not zealously assist them will be

coerced with the spiritual sword, and, if this proves insufficient,

Christendom will be aroused to destroy them in a crusade. This bull was

followed by a rapid succession of others addressed to the Dominican

provincials and to potentates, ordering strenuous co-operation, and the

inscription in all local statutes of the constitutions of the dead

emperor and of the popes--bulls issued in such haste that, June 13,

1252, the pope was obliged to explain that the blunders and omissions

arising from the hurried work of the scribes are not to invalidate them.

The whole was crowned, May 15, 1252, by the issue of the bull _Ad

extirpanda_, of which I have given an abstract in a former chapter. This

sought to render the civil power completely subservient to the

Inquisition, and prescribed the extirpation of heresy as the chief duty

of the State.[236]

Innocent's mandate probably found Piero at the convent of San Giovanni

in Canali at Piacenza, of which he was prior in 1250, and where his

austerities so impressed his brethren that they begged his friend,

Matteo da Correggio, pretor of the city, to induce him to moderate them,

lest the flesh which he so persistently macerated should give way under

the ardent spirit within. If, in fact, we are to believe the statement

that he habitually never broke his fast before sunset, and that he

passed most of the night in prayer, restricting his sleep to the least

that was compatible with life, his career becomes easily intelligible.

Deficiency of nourishment, replaced by unceasing and unnatural nervous

exaltation, must have rendered him virtually an irresponsible

being.[237]

We have no details of what he accomplished as inquisitor at Cremona, or

at Milan to which he was afterwards transferred. It is presumable,

however, that his relentless activity fully responded to the

expectations of those who had selected him as the fittest instrument to

take advantage, in the headquarters of heresy, of the unexpected

opportunity to visit the now defenceless heretics with the wrath of God.

Within nine months after he had been summoned to action he had already

become such an object of terror that in despair a plot was laid for his

assassination. The matter was intrusted to Stefano Confaloniero, a noble

of Aliate, and the hire of the assassins, twenty-five lire, was

furnished by Guidotto Sachella. The week before Easter (March 23-30),

1252, Stefano proposed the murder to Manfredo Clitoro of Giussano, who

agreed to do it, and associated with him Carino da Balsamo. At the same

time Giacopo della Chiusa undertook to go to Pavia to slay Rainerio

Saccone, and made the journey, but failed to accomplish his mission. The

other conspirators were more successful. Frà Piero at that time was

Prior of Como, and went thither to pass his Easter. He was obliged to

return to Milan on Low Sunday, April 7, as on that day expired the term

of fifteen days which he had assigned to a contumacious heretic. During

Easter week Stefano, with Manfredo and Carino, went to Como and awaited

Piero's departure. It shows the fearlessness and the austerity of the

man that he set out on foot, April 7, though weakened with a quartain

fever, and accompanied only by a single friar, Domenico. Manfredo and

Carino followed them as far as Barlassina, and set upon them in a lonely

spot. Carino acted as executioner, laying open Piero's head with a

single blow, mortally wounding Domenico, and then, finding that Piero

still breathed, plunging a dagger in his breast. Some passing travellers

carried the body of the martyr to the convent of San Sempliciano, while

Domenico was conveyed to Meda, where he died five days afterwards. As

for the conspirators, I have already alluded to the strange delay which

postponed for forty-three years the final sentence of Stefano

Confaloniero, and to the repentance and beatification of Carino, who

became St. Acerinus. Daniele da Giussano, another of the confederates,

also repented and entered the Dominican Order. Giacopo della Chiusa

seems to have escaped, and Manfredo and a certain Tommaso were captured

and confessed. Manfredo admitted that he had been concerned in the

murder of two other inquisitors, Frà Pier di Bracciano and Frà Catalano,

both Franciscans, at Ombraida in Lombardy. He was simply ordered to

present himself to the pope for judgment, but in place of obeying he

very naturally fled, and there is no record of his subsequent fate. No

one seems to have been put to death, and common report asserted that the

assassins found a safe refuge among the Waldenses of the Alpine valleys,

which is not improbable.[238]

In fact, the Church made much shrewder use of the martyrdom than the

exaction of vulgar vengeance. Its whole machinery was set to work at

once to impress the populations with the sanctity of the martyr.

Miracles multiplied around him. When the General Chapter of the Order

assembled at Bologna in May, Innocent wrote to them in terms of the most

extravagant hyperbole respecting him, and urged them to fresh exertions

in the cause of Christ. By August 31, he ordered the commencement of

proceedings of canonization, and before a year had elapsed, March 25,

1253, the bull of canonization was issued--I believe the most speedy

creation of a saint on record. It would be difficult to exaggerate the

cult which developed itself around the martyr. Before the century was

out, Giacopo di Voragine compared his martyrdom with that of Christ,

establishing many similitudes between them, and he assures us that the

disappearance of heresy in the Milanese was owing to the merits of the

saint--indeed, already, in the bull of canonization it is asserted that

many heretics had been converted by his death and miracles. It is true

that when, in 1291, Frà Tommaso d'Aversa, a Dominican of Naples, in a

sermon on the feast of San Piero dared to compare his wounds with the

stigmata of St. Francis--saying that the former were the signs of the

living God and not of the dead, while the latter were those of the dead

God and not of the living--it is true that the expression was thought to

savor of blasphemy. The existing pope, Nicholas IV., chanced to be a

Franciscan, so Tommaso was summoned before him, forced to confess, and

was sent back to his provincial with orders to subject him to a

punishment that would prevent a repetition of the sacrilege. Yet

successive popes encouraged the cult of San Piero until Sixtus V., in

1586, designated him as the second head of the Inquisition after St.

Dominic, and as its first martyr, and in 1588 granted plenary indulgence

to all who should visit for devotion the Dominican churches on the days

of St. Dominic, Peter Martyr, and Catharine of Siena. In the seventeenth

century an enthusiastic Spaniard declared that he was crowned with three

crowns, "_como Emperador de Martyres_." In 1373, Gregory XI. granted

permission to erect a small oratory on the spot of the murder, which

grew to be a magnificent church with a splendid convent, through the

offerings of the innumerable pilgrims who flocked thither. The

authenticity of the martyr's sanctity was proved when, in 1340,

eighty-seven years after death, the body was translated to a tomb of

marvellous workmanship, and was found in a perfect state of

preservation; and when the sepulchre was opened in 1736 it was still

found uncorrupted, with wounds corresponding exactly to those described

in the annals.[239]

The enthusiasm excited by the career of San Piero was turned to

practical account by the organization in most of the Italian cities of

_Crocesegnati_, composed of the principal cavaliers, who swore to defend

and assist the inquisitors at peril of their lives, and to devote person

and property to the extermination of heretics, for which service they

received plenary remission of all their sins. These associations were

wont to assemble on the feast of San Piero in the Dominican churches,

which were the seats of the Inquisition, and hold aloft their drawn

swords during the reading of the Gospel, in testimony of their readiness

to crush heresy with force. They continued to exist until the last

century, and Frà Pier-Tommaso Campana, who was inquisitor at Crema,

relates with pride how, in 1738, he presided over such a ceremony in

Milan. The Crocesegnati, moreover, furnished material support to the

inquisitors, supplying them when necessary with both men and money for

the performance of their functions. In fact, they were subject to

excommunication if they refused to give money when called upon by the

inquisitor. It can readily be conceived how greatly the effectiveness of

the Inquisition was increased by such an organization.[240]

If the heretics had hoped to strike their persecutors with terror they

were short-sighted. The fanaticism of the Order of Dominic furnished an

unfailing supply of men eager for the crown of martyrdom and unsparing

in their efforts to earn it. Hardly were the splendid obsequies of San

Piero completed when his place was occupied by Guido da Sesto and

Rainerio Saccone da Vicenza. The latter had been high in the Catharan

Church, when, divinely illuminated as to his errors, he was converted

and expiated his past life by entering the strict Dominican Order. It

was possibly in his favor that in 1246 Innocent IV. authorized the

Dominican prior at Milan to admit repentant heretics into the Order

without requiring the year's novitiate that was imposed on Catholics.

Thoroughly acquainted with all the secrets of heresy, he could render

invaluable aid in persecuting his old associates, whom he pursued with

all the ruthless bigotry of an apostate. He was speedily made an

inquisitor, and earned an enviable reputation among the faithful by his

vigor and success in exterminating heresy. The fact that, as we have

seen, he was singled out with San Piero by the conspirators to be slain

shows how thoroughly he had earned the hate of the persecuted. We know

nothing of the details of the attempt upon his life save that Giacopo

della Chiusa returned from Pavia with his errand unaccomplished.

Rainerio was at once transferred to Milan as the man best fitted to

replace the martyr, and he justified the selection by the unbending

firmness with which he vindicated the authority of his office. It was

still a novelty in Lombardy, and a man of his keen intelligence,

strength of purpose, and self-devotion was required to organize it and

establish it among a recalcitrant population.[241]

Heretics, in fact, were more numerous than ever in Lombardy, for the

active work carried on in Languedoc by Bernard de Caux and his

colleagues had caused a wholesale emigration. Until the death of

Frederic, Lombardy was regarded as a secure haven; colonies established

themselves there, and even after the Lombard Inquisition was thoroughly

organized the persecuted wretches continued for half a century to seek

refuge there, nor do we often hear of their being detected.[242] All of

Rainerio's resolution and energy were required for the work before him.

In the March of Treviso, Ezzelin da Romano, whose influence extended far

to the west, continued openly to protect heresy, and even in Lombardy

the hopes excited by Frederic's death threatened to prove fallacious. In

1253, when Conrad IV. passed through Treviso to recover possession of

his Sicilian kingdom, he appointed as his Lombard vicar-general Uberto

Pallavicino, who soon became as obnoxious to the Church as Ezzelin

himself; and, though Conrad died in 1254, and Innocent IV. seized Naples

as a forfeited fief of the Church, Pallavicino's power continued to

increase, and he soon established relations with Manfred, Frederic's

illegitimate son, who wrested Naples from the papacy and became the

chief of the Ghibelline faction. Even more threatening was the revulsion

of feeling in Milan itself, when its ardent Guelfism was changed to

indifference by Innocent's indiscreet assertion of certain

ecclesiastical immunities which touched the pride of the citizens. The

heads of the hydra might well seem indestructible.

One of Rainerio's first enterprises, in 1253, was summoning Egidio,

Count of Cortenuova, before his tribunal, as a fautor and defender of

heresy. The castle of Cortenuova, near Bergamo, had been razed as a nest

of heretics, and its reconstruction prohibited, but the count had seized

the castle of Mongano, which was claimed by the Bishop of Cremona, and

had converted it into a den of heretics, who enjoyed immunity under his

protection. He disdained to obey the citation and was duly

excommunicated. He paid no attention to this, and on March 23, 1254,

Innocent IV. ordered the authorities of Milan, under pain of

ecclesiastical censures, to take the castle by force and deliver its

inmates to the inquisitors for trial. The count, however, was in close

alliance with Pallavicino, "that enemy of God and the Church," and

the Milanese appear to have had no appetite for the enterprise at the

time. Mongano continued to be a place of refuge for the persecuted until

1269, when the Milanese were at last stimulated to undertake the siege,

and on capturing it handed it over to the Dominicans.[243]

Better success awaited Rainerio's efforts with Roberto Patta da

Giussano, a Milanese noble who for twenty years had been one of the most

conspicuous defenders of heresy in Lombardy. At his castle of Gatta he

publicly maintained heretic bishops, allowing them to build houses, and

establish schools whence they spread their pernicious doctrines through

the land. They had also there a cemetery where, among others, were

buried their bishops, Nazario and Desiderio. The place was notorious,

and it is related of San Piero-Martire, as an instance of his prophetic

gifts, that once when passing it he had foretold its destruction and the

exhumation of the heretic bones. Roberto had been cited by the

archbishop and had abjured heresy, but no effective measures had been

ventured upon to coerce him from his evil ways, and the heretics of

Gatta had continued to enjoy his protection. It was otherwise when, in

1254, Rainerio and Guido summoned him again. On his failing to appear

they summarily condemned him as a heretic, declared his property

confiscated and his descendants subject to the usual disabilities.

Roberto saw that the new officials were not to be trifled with. The

prospects of the Ghibellines at the moment were apparently hopeless. He

hastened to make his peace, binding himself to submit to any terms which

the pope might dictate; and Innocent doubtless deemed himself merciful

when, August 19, 1254, he ordered the castle of Gatta and all the

heretic houses to be destroyed by fire, the bones in the cemetery to be

dug up and burned, and the count to perform such salutary penance as

Rainerio might prescribe.[244]

The papal power was now at its height. Conrad IV. had died May 20, 1254,

not without suspicion of poison; Innocent IV. had seized his Sicilian

kingdoms, and for a brief space, until Manfred's romantic adventures and

victory of Foggia, he might well imagine himself on the eve of becoming

the undisputed temporal as well as spiritual head of Italy. Every effort

was made to perfect the Inquisition and to render it efficient both as a

political instrument and as a means of bringing about the long-desired

uniformity of belief. On March 8 Innocent had taken an important step in

its organization by ordering the Franciscan Minister of Rome to appoint

friars of his Order as inquisitors in all the provinces south of

Lombardy. On May 20 he reissued his bull _Ad extirpanda_; on the 22d he

sent the constitutions of Frederic II. to all the Italian rulers, with

orders to incorporate them in the local statutes, and informed them that

the Mendicants were instructed to coerce them in case of disobedience.

On the 29th he proceeded to reorganize the Lombard Inquisition by

instructing the provincial to appoint four inquisitors whose power

should extend from Bologna and Ferrara to Genoa. Under this impulsion

and the restless energy of Rainerio no time was lost in extending the

institution in every direction save where Ghibelline potentates such as

Ezzelin and Uberto prevented its introduction. We chance to have an

illustration of the process in the records of the little republic of

Asti, on the confines of Savoy. It is recited that in 1254 two

inquisitors, Frà Giovanni da Torino and Frà Paulo da Milano, with their

associates, appeared before the council of the republic and announced to

them that the pope enjoined them to admit the Inquisition within their

territories. Thereupon the Astigiani made answer that they were ready to

obey the pontiff, but they had no laws providing for persecution and it

would be necessary to frame one. Accordingly an _ordenamento_ was drawn

up prescribing obedience to the constitutions of Innocent IV. and

Frederic II., and it was forthwith added to the local statutes. Similar

action was doubtless taking place in every quarter where the people had

thus far remained in ignorance of the new doctrine that the suppression

of heresy was the first duty of the government.[245]

The death of Innocent IV., December 7, 1254, whether it was the result

of Dominican litanies or of mortification at Manfred's success, made no

difference in the energy with which the progress of the Inquisition was

pushed. The accession of Alexander IV. was signalized by a succession of

bulls repeating and enforcing the regulations of his predecessor, and

urging prelates and inquisitors to increased activity. To overcome the

resistance of such cities as were slack in the duty of capturing and

delivering all who were designated for arrest by the inquisitors, the

latter were empowered to punish such delinquency with the heavy fine of

two hundred silver marks. Under this impulsion Rainerio assembled the

people of Milan, August 1, 1255, in the Piazza del Duomo, read to them

his commission, and gave them notice that, although he had hitherto

acted with great mildness, the time had passed for trifling. Many

citizens, he said, openly derided the Inquisition in the public streets;

others caused scandal by opposing and molesting it. He therefore gave

three formal warnings, attested by a notarial instrument duly witnessed,

that all who should continue to indulge in detraction or should in any

way impede the Inquisition were excommunicate as fautors of heresy, and

would be prosecuted to such penalties as their audacity deserved.[246]

As the Inquisition warmed to its work, the four inquisitors provided for

Lombardy by Innocent IV. proved insufficient, and, March 20, 1256,

Alexander IV. ordered the provincial to increase the number to eight. He

appears to have been somewhat dilatory in obedience, for in 1260 he was

sharply reminded of the command and enjoined no longer to postpone its

fulfilment. Possibly the delay may have arisen from the fact that in

January, 1257, Rainerio had risen to the position of supreme inquisitor

over the whole of Lombardy and the Marches of Genoa and Treviso, with

power to appoint deputies. He thus was doubtless practically emancipated

from the control of the provincial, and was able to supply any

deficiency in the working force with those who were absolutely dependent

upon himself. In March, 1256, the prelates had been required in the most

urgent terms to render all aid and support to the inquisitors; and in

January, 1257, this was emphasized by informing them that those who

manifested neglect should not escape punishment, while those who showed

themselves zealous would find the Holy See benignant to them in their

"opportunities." The significance of this is not to be mistaken, and

it would be difficult to set limits to the power thus concentrated in

the hands of the ex-Catharan.[247]

Territorially, however, his authority was circumscribed by the

possessions of Uberto and Ezzelin, within which no inquisitor dared

venture. In this very year, 1257, Piacenza, which had fallen under

control of Uberto, was placed in such complete hostility to the Church

that it was deprived of its episcopate, and its bishop, Alberto, was

transferred to Ferrara. In Vicenza, which was ruled by Ezzelin, matters

were even worse. There the heretics had a recognized chief named Piero

Gallo, of the Borgo di San Piero, whose name was adopted by them as a

rallying cry, to which the Catholics responded with "_viva Volpe_!"--a

member of the family of Volpe being the leader of their faction; and so

thoroughly did this become encrusted in the habits of the people that we

are told in the seventeenth century that the cry of the citizens of the

Borgo (then corruptly called Porsampiero) was still "_viva Gallo_!"

while that of the dwellers in the Piazza and Porta Nuova was "_viva

Volpe_!" Ezzelin would permit no persecution, and when the blessed

Bortolamio di Breganze, one of the immediate disciples of St. Dominic,

was made Bishop of Vicenza, in 1256, he was reduced to seeking

conversions by persuasion. After preaching for a while with little

effect he had a public discussion with Piero Gallo, and so impressed him

by argument that the heretic was converted. We may reasonably doubt the

assertion that Ezzelin's displeasure at this feat was the cause of

Bortolamio's banishment from his see, but, whatever was the motive, he

was consoled by Alexander IV., who sent him as nuncio to England. During

his absence, in 1258, his archdeacon, Bernardo Nicelli, was bolder, and

made a capture of importance in the person of the Catharan Bishop,

Viviano Bogolo. He endeavored to convert his prisoner, but his powers of

persuasion were insufficient, and Ezzelin interfered and set the heretic

at liberty.[248]

So long as these Ghibelline chiefs retained power it was evident that

the foothold of heresy was secure, and that the hopes based on the death

of Frederic II. were not destined to fruition. Every motive had long

conspired to render the Church eager for the destruction of Ezzelin, who

was its most dreaded antagonist, and every expedient had been tried to

reduce him to subjection. As far back as 1221 Gregory IX., then legate

in Lombardy, had extorted from him assurances of his hatred of heresy.

In 1231 his sons, Ezzelin and Alberico, were at the papal court

expressing horror at his crimes and promising to deliver him up for

trial as a heretic if he would not reform, in order to escape the

disinheritance which they would otherwise incur under Frederic's laws.

They pledged themselves, moreover, to deliver to him letters from

Gregory, dated September 1, in which he was bitterly reproached for his

protection of heretics, and told that if he would humbly acknowledge his

errors and expel all heretics from his lands he might come within two

months to the Holy See, prepared to obey implicitly all commands laid

upon him; otherwise heaven and earth would be invoked against him, his

lands should be abandoned to seizure, and he, who was already a scandal

and a horror to men, should become an eternal opprobrium.[249]

Whether the sons dutifully presented to their father this portentous

epistle does not appear, nor is it of any importance save as showing how

Ezzelin was already regarded as the mainstay of heresy, and how

habitually zeal for the faith was made to cover the ambitious political

designs of the Church. Ezzelin's courage never wavered, and his

adventurous career was pursued with scarce a check. When Frederic II.

overcame the resistance of Lombardy, he gave, in 1238, his natural

daughter Selvaggia to Ezzelin in marriage and created him imperial

vicar. The unanimous testimony of the ecclesiastical chroniclers

represents him as a monster whose crimes almost transcend the capacity

for evil of human nature, but the unrelieved blackness of the picture

defeats the object of the painter. Possibly he may have been among the

worst of the Italian despots of the time, when faithlessness and

contempt for human suffering were the rule, but the long unbroken

success which attended him shows that he must have had qualities which

attached men to him, and the report that he was twice moved to tears by

the eloquence of Frà Giovanni Schio indicates a degree of sensibility

impossible in one utterly depraved. In fact, the anecdote related by

Benvenuto da Imola, that he carried on his back his sister's lover

Sordello to and from the place of assignation, and then gave the

frightened troubadour a friendly warning, presupposes a character wholly

at variance with that currently attributed to him. Some of the stories

circulated to excite odium against him are so absurdly exaggerated as to

cast doubt upon all the accusations of the papalist writers.[250]

Gregory's letters of September 1, 1231, were simply a ruse. So far was

he from awaiting the two months' delay for Ezzelin to present himself,

that three days later, on September 4, he executed his threat by

ordering the Bishops of Reggio, Modena, Brescia, and Mantua to offer

Ezzelin's lands to the spoiler, and to preach the cross against him,

with the same indulgences as for the Holy Land. This proved a failure,

and when Frà Giovanni Schio was sent on his mission of peace, in 1233,

Ezzelin's absolution was included in the general pacification, though he

had not abandoned the protection of heresy, which had been the

ostensible reason for assailing him. While Frederic was at peace with

the Church, Ezzelin appears to have been let alone; and when the quarrel

broke out afresh, after the emperor's subjugation of Lombardy, Ezzelin

was again attacked. Frederic's excommunication of April 7, 1239, was

followed, November 20, by that of Ezzelin. This time there is no mention

of fautorship of heresy, but only of his encroachments on the church of

Treviso and of his remaining under excommunication for more than three

years. A month is given to him to submit, after which he is to be

proceeded against as a heretic, for the Church had already discovered

the convenience of treating disobedience as heresy. Nothing came of

this, and in 1244 Innocent IV. resolved to see whether the Inquisition

could not be used to better effect. Frà Rolando da Cremona, whose

dauntless energy we have witnessed, was commissioned to make inquest on

him as on one suspected and publicly defamed for heresy by reason of

his association with heretics; and as the accused was "terrible and

powerful," the inquisitor was empowered to publish the legal citations

in any place where he could do so in safety. The result of this trial

_in absentia_ was conclusive. It was found that he was the son of a

heretic, that his kinsmen were heretics, that under his protection

heresy had spread throughout the March of Treviso, and it was decided

that he did not believe in the faith of Christ, and must be held suspect

of heresy. In March, 1248, Innocent pronounced his condemnation as a

manifest heretic to receive the reward of damnation incurred by damned

heretics, but promised him that he would learn the abundant clemency of

the Church if he would present himself in person by the next Ascension

day (May 28). The wary old chief did not allow his curiosity as to the

extent of papal clemency to overcome his caution, and abstained from

placing his person in Innocent's power. He sent envoys, however, who

offered to purge him of the suspicion of heresy by swearing to his

orthodoxy; but Innocent held that he must appear in person, and offered

him a safe-conduct in coming and going. There was no security promised

in staying, however, and Ezzelin was cautious. The term allowed him

passed away, and he was duly excommunicated. After two years more he was

notified that unless he appeared by August 1, 1250, he would be

subjected to the statutes against heresy. The obdurate sinner was

equally unmoved by this, and in June, 1251, the Bishop of Treviso and

the Dominican Prior of Mantua were ordered to summon him personally

again to appear by a given time, offering him ample security for his

safety: if he disobeyed, his subjects of Treviso were commanded to

coerce him, and if this failed a crusade was to be preached against

him.[251]

To a pope desirous of extending his temporal sway it was exceedingly

convenient to condemn his political opponents for heresy, and

exceedingly economical to pay for their subjugation by lavishing the

treasures of salvation. Thus, in April, 1253, Innocent IV., as an

episode in his quarrel with Brancaleone, Senator of Rome, ordered the

Dominicans of the Roman province to preach a crusade, with Holy-Land

indulgences, against the so-called heretics of Tuscany. Preparations

were similarly made, on a larger scale, to crush those of Lombardy,

where heresy was described as being more rampant and aggressive than

ever. For two years a succession of bulls was issued directing all

prelates, and especially the inquisitors, to preach the cross against

them, with a most liberal assortment of indulgences. In one of these

absolution was actually offered to those who held property wrongfully

acquired, provided they contributed its value in aid of the crusade,

thus deliberately rendering the Church an accomplice in robbery. In

another, all persons or communities neglecting to aid the crusade were

ordered to be prosecuted by the inquisitors as fautors of heresy. As a

formal preliminary, Ezzelin was again cited, April 9, 1254, to present

himself for judgment by the next Ascension day (May 21), failing which

he was sentenced as a manifest heretic, to be dealt with as such. In all

these proceedings the curious travesty of an inquisitorial trial shows

us the influence which the Inquisition was already exercising on the

minds of churchmen, and the employment of inquisitors proves how useful

the institution was becoming as a factor in advancing the power of the

Holy See.[252]

The Neapolitan conquest and the death of Innocent IV. postponed the

organization of the crusade, but at length, in June, 1256, it set out

from Venice under the leadership of the Legate Filippo, Archbishop-elect

of Ravenna. The capture by assault of Padua, Ezzelin's most important

city, was an encouraging commencement of the campaign, but the

seven-days' sack, to which the unfortunate town was abandoned, showed

that the soldiers of the cross were determined to make the most of the

indulgences which they had earned. Under its incompetent captain the

crusade dragged on without further result, in spite of reiterated bulls

offering salvation, until, in 1258, the legate was utterly routed near

Brescia and captured, together with his astrologer, the Dominican

Everard. Brescia fell into Ezzelin's hands, who, more powerful than

ever, entertained designs upon Milan, where he had relations with the

Ghibelline faction. When all danger seemed to him past, however, there

was a sudden revulsion of fortune. The Ghibelline chiefs of Lombardy,

Uberto Pallavicino and Buoso di Dovara, lords of Cremona, had been in

alliance with him; they had aided in the capture of Brescia, with the

understanding that they were to share in its possession, but he had

monopolized the conquest, and they were resolved on revenge. June 11,

1259, they signed a treaty against Ezzelin with the Milanese and with

Azzo d'Este, the head of the Lombard Guelfs. Ezzelin took the field with

a heavy force, hoping to gain possession of Milan through the

intelligences which he had within the walls, but on the march he was

attacked by Uberto, Buoso, and Azzo, who by skilful strategy dispersed

his troops and captured him, grievously wounded. His savage pride would

not brook this degradation: he tore the bandages from his wound, refused

all aid, and died in a few days.[253]

No greater service could have been rendered to the Church than that

performed by Uberto, who had been in field and council the soul of the

alliance that destroyed the dreaded Ezzelin and threw open, after thirty

years of fruitless effort, the March of Treviso to the Inquisition. Some

show of favor in return for such services would not have been amiss;

would perhaps, indeed, have been wise, as it might have won over the

powerful Ghibelline chief. In the treaty of June 11, however, the allies

had alluded to Manfred as King of Sicily, and had pledged themselves to

labor for his reconciliation with the pope. No service, especially after

it had become irrevocable, could overbalance this recognition of the

hated son of Frederic. Uberto, Buoso, and the Cremonese had been

absolved from excommunication when they entered the alliance, but

Alexander IV. wrote, December 13, 1259, to his legate in Lombardy that

the absolution was worthless because it had not been administered by a

Dominican or a Franciscan, who alone were empowered to grant it; if,

however, the allies would repudiate Manfred and give sufficient security

to obey the mandates of the Church and to restore all Church property,

they might still be absolved.[254]

Apparently Alexander's head had been turned by the triumph over Ezzelin,

but he knew little of the man whom he thus treated with such

supercilious ingratitude. By intrigues with the Torriani and other

powerful nobles of Milan, Uberto created for himself a party in that

city, and in 1260 he procured his election as podestà for five years.

Rainerio Saccone vainly endeavored to prevent a consummation so

deplorable. He assembled the citizens, denounced Uberto as vehemently

suspected of heresy and as a manifest defender of heretics, and

threatened that if it was persisted in he would ring all the church

bells, and summon the people and clergy and Crocesegnati to oppose it by

force. Unfortunately the citizens did not take in good part this

somewhat insolent interference of a stranger with their internal

affairs; or, as Alexander IV. describes it, "this wholesome counsel

given in the spirit of humility and kindness." In wrath they assembled

and rushed to the Dominican convent, where they gave Rainerio the

alternative of leaving the city or faring worse. He chose the wiser

alternative and departed.[255]

It was in vain that Alexander, in the bull detailing these griefs,

ordered Rainerio and the other inquisitors to prosecute the guilty

parties. It was in vain also that he approved, October 14, 1260, the

statutes of an association of Defenders of the Faith recently formed in

Milan in honor of Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin, St. John the

Baptist, and St. Peter Martyr, whose members pledged themselves to give

assistance, armed or otherwise, to the Inquisition in its labors for the

extermination of heresy. Uberto was now the most powerful man in

Lombardy, and wherever his influence extended he prohibited inquisitors

from performing their functions. Heretics were safe under his rule, and

they flocked to his territories from other parts of Lombardy and from

Languedoc and Provence. One of his confidential servitors was a certain

Berenger, who had been condemned for heresy. Alexander lost no time in

repeating with him the comedy of an inquisitorial trial, which we have

seen performed with Ezzelin. December 9, 1260, he addressed instructions

to the inquisitors of Lombardy to cite him, from some safe place, to the

papal presence within two months, offering him a safe-conduct for coming

(but not for going), when if he can prove his innocence he will be

admitted to swear obedience to the papal mandates. If he does not

appear, he is to be proceeded against inquisitorially.[256]

Uberto cared as little as Ezzelin for the impotent papal thunder, and

quietly went on strengthening his position and adding city after city to

his dominions, in spite of Alexander's instructions to Rainerio and his

inquisitors to act vigorously and to preach a crusade. Between his

success in the north, and the daily extending influence of Manfred's

wise and vigorous rule in the south, it looked for a while as though the

ambitious designs of the papacy were permanently crushed, and that the

Italian Inquisition might come to an untimely end. Inquisitors were no

longer able to move around in safety, even in the Roman province, and

prelates and cities were ordered to provide them with a sufficient guard

in all their journeys. An indication of the popular feeling is afforded

by the action taken in 1264 by the people of Bergamo, greatly to the

indignation of the Roman curia, to defend themselves against the

arbitrary methods of inquisitorial procedure. They enacted that any one

cited or excommunicated for heresy or fautorship might take an oath

before the prosecutor or bishop that he held the faith of the Church of

Rome in all its details, and then another oath before the podestà

binding himself to pay one hundred sols every time that he deviated from

it; after this he could not be cited outside of the city, and was

eligible to any municipal office within it, while the magistrates were

to defend him at the public expense against any such citation or

excommunication. Yet outside of Uberto's territories and influence the

business of the Inquisition in Lombardy went steadily on. In 1265 and

1266 Clement IV. is found issuing instructions as to the duties and

appointment of inquisitors as vigorously as though there were no

impediments to their functions. It seemed only a question of time,

however, when the districts yet open should be closed to them.[257]

There have been few revolutions more pregnant with results than that

which occurred when the popes, renouncing the hope of acquiring for

themselves the kingdom of Sicily, and vainly tempting Edmond, son of

Henry III. of England, succeeded in arousing the ambition of Charles of

Anjou, and caused a crusade to be preached everywhere in his behalf. The

papacy fully recognized the supreme importance of the issue, and staked

everything upon it. The treasures of salvation were poured forth with

unstinted hand, and plenary indulgences were given to all who would

contribute a fourth of their income or a tenth of their property. The

temporal treasury of the Church was drawn upon with equal liberality.

Three years' tithe of all ecclesiastical revenues in France and

Flanders were granted to Charles, and when all this proved insufficient,

Clement IV. sacrificed the property of the Roman churches without

hesitation. An effort to raise one hundred thousand livres by pledging

it brought in only thirty thousand, and then he pawned for fifty

thousand more the plate and jewels of the Holy See. He could truly

answer Charles's increasing demands for money to support his naked and

starving crusaders by declaring that he had done all he could, and that

he was completely exhausted--he had no mountains and rivers of gold, and

could not turn earth and stones into coin. So utter was his penury that

the cardinals were reduced to living at the expense of the monasteries;

and when the Abbot of Casa Dei complained of the number quartered on

him, he was told that he would be relieved of the Cardinal of Ostia, but

that he must support the rest. More permanent relief, however, was found

at the expense of the foreigner by assigning to them revenues on

churches abroad on the liberal scale of three hundred marks a year

apiece.[258]

Vainly Pallavicino sought to prevent the passage of the crusaders

through Lombardy. The fate of Italy--one may almost say of the

papacy--was decided, February 26, 1266, on the plain of Benevento, where

Guelf and Ghibelline from all portions of the Peninsula faced each

other. Had Charles been defeated it would have fared ill with the Holy

See. Europe had looked with aversion on the prostitution of its

spiritual power to advance its temporal interests, and success alone

could serve as a justification, in an age when men looked on the battle

ordeal as recording the judgment of God. In the previous August, Clement

had despairingly answered Charles's demands for money by declaring that

he had none and could get none--that England was hostile, that Germany

was almost openly in revolt, that France groaned and complained, that

Spain scarce sufficed for her internal necessities, and that Italy did

not furnish her own share of expenses. After the battle, however, he

could exultingly write, in May, to Cardinal Ottoboni of San Adriano, his

legate in England, that "Charles of Anjou holds in peace the whole

kingdom of that pestilent man, obtaining his putrid body, his wife, his

children, and his treasure," adding that already the Mark of Ancona had

returned to obedience, that Florence, Siena, Pistoja, and Pisa had

submitted, that envoys had come from Uberto and Piacenza, and that

others were expected from Cremona and Genoa; and on June 1 he announced

the submission of Uberto and of Piacenza and Cremona.[259]

Although one by one Pallavicino's cities revolted from him in the

general terror, his submission was only to gain time, and in 1267 he

risked another cast of the die by joining in the invitation to Italy of

the young Conradin, but the defeat and capture of that prince at

Tagliacozza, in August, 1268, followed by his barbarous execution in

October, extinguished the house of Suabia and the hopes of the

Ghibellines. Charles of Anjou was master of Italy; he was created

imperial vicar in Tuscany; even in the north we find him this year

appointing Adalberto de' Gamberti as podestà in Piacenza. Before the

close of 1268 Pallavicino died, broken with age and in utter misery,

while besieged in his castle of Gusaliggio by the Piacenzans and

Parmesans. For a presumed heretic he made a good end, surrounded by

Dominicans and Franciscans, confessing his sins and receiving the

viaticum, so that, as a pious chronicler observes, we may humbly believe

that his soul was saved. Despite the calumnies of the papalists, he left

the reputation of a man of sterling worth, of lofty aims, and of great

capacity. As for Rainerio Saccone, the last glimpse we have of him is in

July, 1262, when Urban IV. orders him to come with all possible speed

for consultation on a matter of moment, defraying, from the proceeds of

the confiscations, all expenses for horses and other necessaries on the

journey. His expulsion from Milan had evidently not diminished his

importance.[260]

Under these circumstances, the long interregnum of nearly three years,

which occurred after the death of Clement IV., in 1268, made little

difference. Henceforth there was to be no refuge for heresy. The

Inquisition could be organized everywhere, and could perform its

functions unhampered. By this time, too, its powers, its duties, and its

mode of procedure had become thoroughly defined and universally

recognized, and neither prelate nor potentate dared to call them in

question. As already stated, in 1254, Innocent IV. had divided the

Peninsula between the two Orders, giving Genoa and Lombardy to the

Dominicans, and central and southern Italy to the Franciscans. To the

provinces of Rome and Tuscany were allotted two inquisitors each, while

for that of St. Francis, or Spoleto, one was deemed sufficient, but in

1261 each inquisitor was furnished with two assistants, and the

provincials were instructed to appoint as many more as might be asked

for, so that the holy work might be prosecuted with full vigor.

Lombardy, as we have seen, had eight inquisitors, and when the

Dominicans divided that province, in 1304, the number was increased to

ten, seven being assigned to Upper and three to Lower Lombardy. For a

while the March of Treviso and Romagnola were intrusted to the

Franciscans, but, as stated above (Vol. I. p. 477), their extortions

were so unendurable that, in 1302, Boniface VIII. transferred these

districts to the Dominicans, without thereby relieving the people.[261]

No time had been lost in enforcing unity of belief in the territories

redeemed from Ghibelline control. As early as February, 1259, the

Franciscan Minister of Bologna was ordered to appoint two friars as

inquisitors in Romagnola. At Vicenza, no sooner was quiet restored after

the death of Ezzelin than Frà Giovanni Schio was sent thither to remove

the excommunication incurred by the people in consequence of their

subjection to Ezzelin. The ceremony was symbolic of the scourging

inflicted on penitents. The podestà and council assembled at the usual

place of meeting, whence they marched in pairs to the cathedral. At the

south portal stood Giovanni with seven priests, and as the magistrates

entered they touched each one lightly with rods, after which the rites

of absolution were solemnly performed. The exiled bishop, Bortolamio, on

his return from England had tarried with St. Louis, whose confessor he

had been in Palestine, where he had served as papal legate during the

saintly king's crusade. As soon as he heard of the death of Ezzelin he

hastened homeward, bearing with him the priceless treasures of a thorn

of the crown and a piece of the cross which St. Louis had bestowed upon

him in parting. At once he commenced to build the great Dominican church

and convent of the Santa Corona. The site chosen was on the most

elevated spot in the city, known as the Colle, and among the buildings

destroyed to give place for it was the church of Santa Croce, which had

been occupied by the heretics as their place of assembly and worship. We

are told that the presence of the relics worked the miracle of relieving

the city of its three leading sins--avarice, heresy, and discord. As for

heresy, the miracle lay in the unlooked-for conversion of the chief

heretic of the district, Gieremia, known as the Archbishop of the Mark,

who, with his son Alticlero, made public recantation. The heretic

bishop, Viviano Bogolo, fled to Pavia, where he was recognized and

burned. His two deacons, Olderico da Marola and Tolomeo, with eight

others, probably Perfects, were obstinate, and were promptly burned.

These examples were sufficient. The "credentes" furnished no further

martyrs, and heresy, at least in its outward manifestation, was

extinguished.[262]

In some places, unblessed with such wonder-working relics, however, the

Inquisition had much greater trouble in establishing orthodoxy. In

Piacenza it is said to have found the burning of twenty-eight wagon

loads of heretics necessary. At Sermione for sixteen years the

inhabitants defiantly refused to allow persecution. Though Catholic

themselves, they continued to afford protection to heretics, who

naturally flocked thither as one refuge after another was rendered

unsafe by the zeal of the inquisitors. It was in vain that Frà Timedeo,

the inquisitor, obtained evidence by sending there a female spy, named

Costanza da Bergamo, who pretended to be a heretic, received the

_consolamentum_, and was then unreservedly admitted to their secrets. At

last the scandal of such ungodly toleration became unendurable, and the

Bishop of Verona prevailed upon Mastino and Alberto della Scala of

Verona, and Pinamonte de' Bonacolsi of Mantua, to reduce Sermione to

obedience. It was obliged to submit in 1276, delivering up no less than

one hundred and seventy-four perfected heretics, and humbly asking to be

restored to Catholic unity, with a pledge to stand to the mandates of

the Church. Frà Filippo Bonaccorso, the Inquisitor of Treviso, applied

to John XXI. for instructions as to the treatment of the penitent

community. The pope was a humane and cultured man who cared more for

poetry than theology, and he was disposed to be lenient with repentant

sinners. He instructed Frà Filippo to remove the interdict if the town

would appoint a syndic to abjure heresy in its name, and to swear in

future to seize all heretics and deliver them to the Inquisition, any

infraction of the oath to work a renewal, _ipso facto_, of the

interdict. Every inhabitant was then to appear personally before the

inquisitor, and make full confession of everything relating to heresy,

to abjure, and to accept such penance as might be assigned--all infamous

penalties, disabilities, imprisonment, and confiscation being mercifully

excluded. Full records were to be kept of each case, and any

withholding of the truth or subsequent relapse was to expose the

delinquent to the full rigor of the law. Obstinate heretics were to be

dealt with according to the canons, and of these there were found

seventy, whom Frà Filippo duly condemned, and had the satisfaction of

seeing burned. To insure the future purity of the faith, in 1278 a

Franciscan convent was built at Sermione with the proceeds of a fine of

four thousand lire levied upon Verona as one of the conditions of

removing the interdict incurred by its upholding the cause of the

unfortunate Conradin; and in 1289 Ezzelin's castle of Illasio was given

to some of the nobles who had been conspicuous in the reduction of

Sermione, as a reward for their service, and to stimulate them in the

future to continue their support of the Inquisition.[263]

Thus heresy, deprived of all protection, was gradually stamped out, and

the Inquisition established its power in every corner of the land. How

that power was abused to oppress the faithful with ingeniously devised

schemes of extortion we have already seen. In fact, in the territories

which had once been Ghibelline, it was impossible for any man, no matter

how rigid his orthodoxy, to be safe from prosecution if he chanced to

provoke the ill-will of the officials, or possessed wealth to excite

their cupidity. So successful had the Church been in confounding

political opposition with heresy that the mere fact of having adhered of

necessity to Ezzelin during the period of his unquestioned domination

long continued sufficient to justify prosecution for heresy, entailing

the desirable result of confiscation. When Ezzelin's generation passed

away, the memory of the dead was assailed and the descendants were

disinherited. In all this there was no pretence of errors of faith, but

the men to whom the Church intrusted the awful powers of the Inquisition

seemed implacably determined to erase from the land every trace of those

who had once dared to resist its authority. At last, in 1304, the

authorities of Vicenza appealed to Benedict XI. no longer to allow the

few survivors of Ezzelin's party and their descendants to be thus

cruelly wronged, and the pope graciously granted their petition. By this

time the empire was but a shadow; Ghibellinism represented no living

force that the papacy could reasonably dread, and its persecution had

long been merely the gratification of greed or malice.[264]

The triumph of the Inquisition had not been effected wholly without

resistance. In 1277 Frà Corrado Pagano undertook a raid against the

heretics of the Valtelline. It was, doubtless, organized on an extended

scale, for he took with him two associates and two notaries. This would

indicate that heretics were numerous; the event showed that they did not

lack protectors, for Corrado da Venosta, one of the most powerful nobles

of the region, cut short the enterprise by slaughtering the whole party,

on St. Stephen's day, December 26. Pagano had been a most zealous

persecutor of heresy, and when his body was brought to Como it lay there

for eight days before interment, with wounds freshly bleeding, showing

that he was a martyr of God, and justifying the title bestowed on him by

his Dominican brethren of St. Pagano of Como. His relics are still

preserved there and are the objects of a local cult. Nicholas III. made

every effort to avenge the murder, even invoking the assistance of

Rodolf of Hapsburg, and his joy was extreme when, in November, 1279, the

podestà and people of Bergamo succeeded in capturing Corrado and his

accomplices. He at once ordered their delivery, under safe escort, to

the inquisitors, Anselmo da Alessandria, Daniele da Giussano, and

Guidone da Coconate, who were instructed to inflict a punishment

sufficient to intimidate others from imitating their wickedness, and all

the potentates of Lombardy were commanded to co-operate in their safe

conveyance.[265]

The same year that justice was thus vindicated, a popular ebullition in

Parma shows how slender was the hold which the Inquisition possessed on

the people. Frà Florio had been diligent in the exercise of his

functions, and we are told that he had burned innumerable heretics,

when, in 1279, he chanced at Parma to have before him a woman guilty of

relapse. It was a matter of course to condemn her to relaxation, and she

was duly burned. In place of being piously impressed by the spectacle

the Parmesans were inspired by Satan to indignation which expressed

itself by sacking the Dominican convent, destroying the records of the

Inquisition, and maltreating the friars so that one of them died within

a few days. The Dominicans thereupon abandoned the ungrateful city,

marching out in solemn procession. The magistrates showed singular

indifference as to punishing this misdeed, and when summoned by the

Cardinal Legate of Ostia, the representatives who presented themselves

lacked the necessary authority, so that, after vainly waiting for

satisfaction, he laid an interdict upon the city. This was not removed

till 1282, and even then the guilty were not punished. In 1285 we find

Honorius IV. taking up the matter afresh and summoning the Parmesans to

send delegates to him within a month to receive sentence; what that

sentence was does not appear, but in 1287 the humbled citizens

petitioned the Dominicans to return, received them with great honor, and

voted them one thousand lire, in annual instalments of two hundred lire,

wherewith to build a church. So stubborn was the opposition elsewhere to

the Inquisition and its ways, that in 1287 the Provincial Council of

Milan still deemed it necessary to decree that any member of a municipal

government in any city within the province who should urge measures

favoring heretics should be deemed suspect of heresy, and should forfeit

any fiefs or benefices held of the Church.[266]

Even in the Patrimony of St. Peter resistance was not wholly at an end.

In 1254, when the papacy was triumphant, Innocent IV. urged the

inquisitors of Orvieto and Anagni to take advantage of the propitious

time and act with the utmost vigor. In 1258 Alexander IV. sounded the

alarm that heresy was increasing even in Rome itself, and he pressingly

urged increased activity on the inquisitors and greater zeal in their

support by the bishops. Their efforts were not wholly successful. Twenty

years later a knight named Pandolfo still made his stronghold of Castro

Siriani, near Anagni, a receptacle of heretics. Frà Sinibaldo di Lago,

the inquisitor of the Roman province, made various ineffectual attempts

to prosecute him, and in 1278 Nicholas III. sent his notary, Master

Benedict, with offers of pardon in return for obedience, but the

heretics were obdurate, and Nicholas was forced to order Orso Orsini,

Marshal of the Church in Tuscany, to levy troops and give Frà Sinibaldo

armed assistance sufficient to enable him to coerce them to penitence. A

similar enterprise against the Viterbian noble, Capello di Chia, in

1260, has already been described (Vol. I. p. 342). In this case the zeal

of the Viterbians, who levied an army to assist the inquisitor, must

have had some political motive, for their city was of evil repute in the

matter of heresy. In 1265, encouraged by the assistance of Manfred, the

people had risen against the Inquisition and had only been subdued after

a bloody fight in which two friars were slain. In 1279 Nicholas

expresses his regret that although, while he had been inquisitor-general,

he had labored strenuously to purge Viterbo of heresy, his labors had

been unsuccessful. Heretics were still concealed there, and the whole

city was infected. Frà Sinibaldo was therefore ordered to go thither to

make a thorough inquisition of the place.[267]