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
This was not likely to be effective, and the Signoria made a more
promising effort at self-protection by passing various laws imitated
from those adopted not long before at Perugia. To limit the abuse of
selling licenses to bear arms, the inquisitor, as we have seen, was
restricted to employing six armed familiars. Moreover, it was decreed
that no citizen could be arrested without the participation of the
podestà, who was required to seize all persons designated to him by the
bishop--the inquisitor not being alluded to--which would seem to leave
small opportunity for independent action by the latter, especially as he
was deprived of his private jail and was ordered to send all prisoners
to the public prison. He was further prohibited from inflicting
pecuniary punishments, and all whom he condemned as heretics were to be
burned. This was revolutionary in a high degree, and did not tend to
harmonize the relations between the republic and the papacy. The
desperate quarrel between them which arose in 1375 was caused by
political questions, but it was embittered by troubles arising from the
Inquisition, especially as a demand made by Innocent VI., in 1355, for a
revision of their statutes remained unheeded. In 1372 efforts were made
to obtain the removal of Frà Tolomeo da Siena, the Inquisitor of
Tuscany, who was exceedingly unpopular, but Gregory XI. expressed the
fullest confidence in him and ordered him to be protected by the
Vicar-general, Filippo, Bishop of Sabina. Yet the pope probably yielded,
for I find in 1373 that Frà Piero di Ser Lippo, who had already served
as Tuscan inquisitor in 1371, was again appointed to replace a certain
Frà Andrea di Ricco. With some intervals Frà Piero served until at least
1384, and he proved no more disposed than his predecessors to yield to
the resistance which the methods of the Inquisition inevitably provoked
in the free Italian cities. Pistoia had followed the example of Florence
in endeavoring to protect its citizens by municipal statutes, and in
1375 it was duly placed under interdict and its citizens were
excommunicated. At the same time Frà Piero complained of Florence as
impeding the free action of the Inquisition, and Gregory at once ordered
the Signoria to abrogate the obnoxious statutes. No attention was paid
to these commands by Florence, and when the rupture came the Florentine
mob expressed its feelings by destroying the inquisitorial prison and
driving the inquisitor from the city. It was also alleged that in the
disturbances a monk named Niccolò was tortured and buried alive. These
misdeeds, although denied by the Signoria, were alleged as a
justification of the terrible bull of March 31, 1376, fulminated against
Florence by Gregory. In this he not only excommunicated and interdicted
the city, but specially outlawed the citizens, exposing their property
wherever found to seizure, and their persons to slavery. This shocking
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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