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
torture confessed to continued heresy. Here was a clear case of relapse,
and accordingly, on March 31, he was abandoned to the secular arm and
all his property declared confiscated to the Inquisition. This proved a
mere _brutum fulmen_, for on May 6 Frà Antonio was obliged to issue a
mandate to Ugonetto Bruno, Lord of Ozasco, ordering him, under pain of a
hundred marks, to capture Lorenzo and present him before the tribunal
the next day, while the treasurer of Ozasco was required, under threat
of excommunication, to appear at the same time with an inventory of all
the convict’s property. As Lorenzo had been handed over to the Castellan
of Pignerol for execution, it is evident that the officials refused to
carry out the sentences of the inquisitor, nor does this new effort
appear to have had any better result. Many of his citations were
disregarded, and when, on May 19, he ordered the lords of Ozasco to
arrest three heretics under penalty of a hundred marks, no attention
seems to have been paid to the command. This insubordination increased,
and as the season advanced we observe that when an accused refuses to
confess, the dread entry “the lord inquisitor is not content” is not
followed by the customary torture, but that the culprit is mercifully
dismissed under bail. One case gave Frà Antonio infinite disgust. On
June 27 he cited Giacomo Do and Sanzio Margarit of Sangano; they did not
appear, but on August 6 he found them in Turin and seized them. For
fifteen days he kept them in chains, when they broke jail, but by the
help of God he caught them again and carried them to the castle of
Avegliana, where they remained ten days. He had been unable to get them
tortured, and they would not confess without it; the magistrates of
Avegliana appealed to Count Amadeo, who ordered them released, and Frà
Antonio records the unwillingness with which he obeyed the command. He
endeavored to turn his stay in Avegliana to account by publishing the
customary monition for all persons to come forward and confess their own
heresy or denounce those who were suspect. For nine days he waited, but
not a soul appeared to accuse himself or his neighbors, and he departed,
grieved at heart over the obduracy of the people, for it was common fame
that there were many heretics there and in the neighborhood, especially
at Coazze and Valgione. The final blow came when in December he issued a
summons to all the officials of Val Perosa, one of the recognized
Waldensian valleys, reciting that their land was full of heretics and
that they must appear before him in Pignerol to purge themselves and
their communities of this infamy. They did not obey, but through the
intervention of the Piedmontese Chancellor, Giovanni di Brayda, and
other courtiers, they agreed to pay Count Amadeo five hundred florins a
year, for which he was to prevent the inquisitor from visiting Val
Perosa, and they were to be exempted from obeying his citations. This
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account