A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume IILea, Henry Charles
History
A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume II
Lea, Henry Charles
Inquisition -- History
On the mainland, in spite of the vigilance of the Inquisition, Cathari
continued to exist in Piedmont. In 1388 Frà Antonio Secco of Savigliano
had the good-fortune to lay hands on one of the active members of the
sect, Giacomo Bech of Chieri, near Turin. The report of his examination
before the inquisitor and the Bishop of Turin, which has been printed by
Sig. Girolamo Amati, gives full details of the condition of the sect.
After his tongue had been loosened by repeated applications of torture,
his confession shows that it was numerous in the vicinage, and that it
comprised members of many noble families--the Patrizi, Bertoni, Petiti,
Narro, and ancestors of Balbi and Cavour. Although in Italy, as in
France, the name of Waldenses had become applicable to all heretics, and
they were commonly designated by this name, they retained the moderated
dualism of the Lombard Cathari. Satan fell from heaven, created the
visible universe, and will finally return to glory. The law of Moses was
dictated by him, and Moses was the greatest of sinners. Human souls are
fallen demons, who transmigrate into other human bodies, or into those
of animals, until released by death-bed _consolamentum_. The purity of
the faith was maintained by occasional intercourse with its headquarters
in Bosnia. Giacomo Bech was converted by a Slavonian missionary, in
conjunction with Jocerino de’ Balbi and Piero Patrizi, and the latter
gave him ten florins and sent him to Bosnia to perfect himself in the
doctrines, though he was compelled by ill-fortune at sea to return
without accomplishing his pilgrimage. Forty years before one of the
Balbi had gone thither for the same purpose; in 1360 a Narro and a
Benso, Piero Patrizi himself in 1377, and Berardo Rascherio in 1380.
Evidently the little community of Chieri maintained active relations
with the heads of the Church. In 1370 Bech had fallen into the hands of
the inquisitor, Frà Tommaso da Casacho, had been forced to confess, and
had been released after abjuration in reward for his betraying his
fellow-disciples.[288]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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