A Franciscan friar, Fra Tommaso di Mileto, was very barbarously punished
in 1564 by the inquisitors, on a charge of heretical opinions and
practices. Among his offences was a belief that it was not sinful to eat
meat on certain days, that images and relics should not be reverenced,
that there was no virtue in papal indulgences, that priests could not
bind and loose from sin. For this he was sentenced to be walled up alive
within four walls which were built up around him, with no more space to
spare than just enough for him to kneel down before a crucifix, and “out
of that place he was not to stir but there suffer anguish of heart and
shed many tears.” A small aperture was left above through which food
might be dropped down to him. This kind of sepulchre was used in Spain
where many skeletons of persons walled up, _emparedados_, have been
found in places of the character described.
Another notable victim of the Inquisition about this period was Pietro
Carnesecchi, a man of high estate and great learning who had been
protonotary to Clement VII, but had enjoyed the friendship of many of
the reformed faith. He had on one occasion been taken into custody by
the Holy Office. Duke Cosimo of Florence had obtained his release and he
left Rome for France, where he became still more closely attached to the
Protestants. Pope Paul IV, bitterly incensed against him, summoned him
back to Rome, but he replied by a contumacious letter which was
construed into a direct attack upon the pope. In spite of this, he
impudently paid a visit to his friend, the grand-duke at Florence, who
immediately gave him up to Pius V, now pope, saying he would surrender
his own child to the holy father under similar circumstances, and he
went so far as to allow his guest to be arrested at his dinner table.
Carnesecchi met with no mercy. He was speedily tried upon thirty-four
charges and sentenced to be handed over to the secular arm, which
clothed him in the _sanbenito_, the yellow frock of the condemned
heretic, and prepared to burn him at the stake. Duke Cosimo, full of
remorse, vainly strove to move the pope to compassion, but only gained a
respite of ten days, during which Carnesecchi might recant and return to
the bosom of the Church. Several ingenious priests were sent to reclaim
him from the error of his ways, but all argument and exhortation failed
and he went to his fiery death with singular courage and constancy. He
preferred to go on foot to the scaffold, but with a certain pomp,
wearing fine linen under the _sanbenito_ and elegant gloves. Extreme
terror was felt all through Italy at this tragedy. Every one feared for
himself, his relatives and his friends. Pleasant confidential
intercourse ceased and no one dared speak, even in the privacy of the
family circle. No nationality was safe, not even the English. A Mr.
Thomas Reynolds, resident in Naples, was informed against and sent to
Rome a prisoner, where he was laid upon the rack and died under torture.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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