Cities of God: The Religion of the Italian Communes 1125-1325

(Darren Dugan) #1

CommunalPiety and theMendicants 431 


gilupo of Ferrara.^85 Although a son and relative of Cathars, his neighbors


were sure that Armanno had rejected the false faith from childhood. He


confessed regularly and fervently took Communion until his death in 1269 ,


said his usual confessor, Don Rainaldo of San Nicolo`.^86 At the posthumous


inquest, another priest, Don Alberto, testified to Armanno’s holiness, de-


scribing how he piously confessed to him when sick and during Lent. If


Armanno’s wife was sick, he always sent for a priest.^87 Given his family


background, he had trouble avoiding contact with Cathars. The local inquis-


itor, Fra Aldobrandino of Ferrara, had him arrested and interrogated. Per-


haps he was tortured. Armanno admitted the heretical associations, abjured


all heresy, and paid a fine of £ 100 fer.^88 Inevitably, he had new encounters


with heretics in the 1250 s and 1260 s. But his Catholic devotion seemed im-


peccable. He went to confession regularly at San Nicolo`and, after 1266 ,


took the precaution of confessing to Don Zambono, the bishop of Ferrara’s


own chaplain. Three days before his death he confessed for the last time, to


Don Alberto, another chaplain of the bishop. In some Cathar circles they


called him an apostate and ‘‘worse than a beast.’’^89 To his neighbors, he was


a devout Catholic, loved for his generosity and good works.


After his death on 15 December 1269 , a popular cult sprang up immedi-


ately. The clergy of the duomo and the Augustinians (who were also devotees


of Saint Giovanni Buono) promoted it.^90 The cult spread, only to encounter


resistance. A merchant arrived at Bergamo from Venice, having passed


through Ferrara. Speaking to Fra Arasino of Bergamo in the Franciscan


convent, he reported all the good things happening around Armanno’s tomb


in Ferrara. It seemed that there was a new saint. But Dominicans and Fran-


ciscans, he said, were out to kill the cult—claiming the saint was a heretic.^91


Fra Salimbene, no lover of the Armanno cult, opined that the Ferrara clergy


and laity had cooked up the new saint because they were jealous of how


many saints the Franciscans had produced. Or was Saint Armanno drawing


off donations from Minorite shrines? When a relic of Saint Armanno (the


little toe of his right foot) arrived at Parma, the people formed a procession


to carry the toe to the cathedral and place it on the high altar. There, Don


Anselmo of San Vitale, the episcopal vicar, exposed it for veneration—only



  1. On Armanno, see Amedeo Benati, ‘‘Armanno Pungilupo nella storia religiosa ferrarese del 1200 ,’’
    Atti e memorie della Deputazione della provincia ferrarese di storia patria, 3 d ser., 4 / 1 ( 1966 ): 85 – 123 , and now
    Zanella, ‘‘Armanno Pungilupo, eretico quotidiano,’’Hereticalia, 3 – 14. Zanella,Itinerari, 48 – 102 , edits the
    extant materials on Armanno Pungilupo as they appear in Modena, Archivio di Stato, Bibliotecams 132,
    fols. 11 r– 33 v. I have silently corrected quoted texts from the errata list published in Zanella,Hereticalia,
    225 – 29.

  2. Zanella, ‘‘Armanno Pungilupo,’’ 7 – 8.

  3. ‘‘Acta contra Armanum [Punzilupum],’’ 87.

  4. Ibid., p. 67.

  5. Ibid., pp. 50 – 51 , 57 , 59 , 87 ; on these texts, see Zanella,Itinerari, 16 – 19 , 20 – 21 , 22.

  6. ‘‘Acta contra Armanum [Punzilupum],’’ 79 – 80.

  7. Zanella, ‘‘Armanno Pungilupo,’’ p. 9 ; ‘‘Acta contra Armanum [Punzilupum],’’ 66.

Free download pdf