There was prosperity for the inhabitants of the land in the Scaligers’ time, but there was sorrow and mourning too, for the lords of Verona were not always mild rulers, and any opposition to their ideas or wishes was apt to meet with a severity of the harshest kind. Such was the case when the sect known as the Patarins (Patarini, or Catari) set up their religious tenets against those of their liege lords. These tenets (which the historians of Sirmione confess frankly have never met with an exponent who has clearly revealed them) appear to have resembled in some way the doctrines of the Manichæans. They were persecuted, outlawed, and burnt by popes, emperors, and kings. Their courage, or (as their enemies called it) their audacity, made them assert themselves again and again, and, when possible, turn the arm of persecution on their persecutors. They had however need of some spot where they could be safe from their foes, and Sirmione seemed to them a haven where they could retire and pursue their worship unmolested. They reckoned without their host. Mastino I. della Scala, then lord of Verona, and consequently of Sirmione as well, was made aware of the heresy which infected his lands, and which was spreading rapidly round his castle. A commission was formed to inquire into the evil, and to extirpate it if possible. Remonstrance however failed to do much, though a few acknowledged the error of their ways, and were received afresh into the true fold with many injunctions and admonitions, all, we are told, of a most benign and fatherly nature. We can hardly say as much for the punishment meted out to the obdurate. They were condemned to be burnt to death, and no less than a hundred (some say 150, and some 75) men and women were brought to Verona and there suffered at the stake in the Arena (1276). Mastino’s zeal met with a handsome recompense, for the Pope, Nicholas III., bestowed on him the castle of Illasi with its feudal rights and privileges. It is not stated definitely if Dante visited Sirmione, but his knowledge of the country around, of the Benaco, and so forth, may be taken as evidence that he had been there, and spoke of these places from his personal knowledge of them. Sirmione followed the fortunes of Verona. After the fall of the Scaligers (all of whom were liberal and generous patrons of the place), it became subject to the Visconti, then to the Carraresi, and finally it came under the rule of the Venetian Republic.