438 Epilogue
These, along with Aimerico, the lector of San Domenico, considered Bom-
pietro relapsed. The canonist Bonincontro, the Dominican Fra Giovanni of
Faenza, and two Franciscans were less certain. Another interrogation before
Fra Guido followed on 7 April.^125 While Bompietro’s status as arelapsus
doomed to the stake may have seemed obvious to the learned canonists, it
was not so evident to those who knew him. At least in his parish, skepticism
about his arrest surfaced almost immediately. Some parishioners, such as the
two sisters Maria and Bitina di Zacarello of Saliceto and Francesca di Bulg-
aro de’ Gattaresi, could not believe he was a heretic. ‘‘If he was a heretic,
the friars could make anyone a heretic,’’ Donna Maria later declared.^126 This
initial incredulity would continue to harden, even if some skeptics, like
Donna Tommasina di Pietro degli Orsi from the parish of San Donato,
decided after his condemnation that he must, in fact, have been guilty.^127
Not all were polite in voicing their disapproval. Francesco di Giacomo
Ramisini from San Benedetto in Galliera had said after the arrest that Bom-
pietro seemed to be a ‘‘good Catholic,’’ and that if he were in Bompietro’s
position, he would take a knife and stab the inquisitor—intemperate words
for which he would later be fined £ 50 bon.^128 Some were even more impru-
dent in expressing their outrage. The merchant Giacomo di Arardo de’ Mu-
soni went to see Bishop Giovanni Savelli at his office in the episcopal palace.
When he heard that the bishop was still in conference with the inquisitor
and his advisors, he let out a stream of oaths. Outside the bishop’s chapel,
in the presence of three messengers of the inquisition, he raged: ‘‘Is that
inquisitor here? I would happily stab him with a knife; I would rather do
that than eat. If I didn’t fear the commune more than God, I’d happily stab
him.’’ When one of the messengers, Milanino of Milan, reprimanded him,
saying such talk was a sin against God, Giacomo said he cared little for God.
He then revealed the reason for his outburst: the newly arrested Bompietro
was a good man. There was no reason to detain him; the inquisition had
done it merely to get his money.^129 Although later (the inquisition only
caught up with Giacomo on 1 June) he claimed to have changed his mind
about Bompietro’s guilt after the sentence, and he insisted that he had only
spoken out of love for the man,^130 Giacomo’s anger was shared by many
more people than the inquisitor probably suspected.
But whatever the talk and threats, Fra Guido soon lost interest in Bompie-
tro. After Bompietro identified Giuliano in March, the inquisition’s attention
- See their ‘‘consilium,’’ inASOB, 2 : 804 , 596. On inquisition experts, see C. Douais, ‘‘La formule
‘communicato bonorum virorum consilio’ des sentences inquisitoriales,’’Compte rendu du quatrieme Congres
scientifique international des catholiques(Fribourg: Oeuvre de Saint-Paul, 1898 ), 316 – 67. - SeeASOB,nos. 347 – 48 , 1 : 227 – 28.
- Ibid., no. 546 , 1 : 290.
- Ibid., no. 503 , 1 : 280.
- Ibid., nos. 328 – 29 , 1 : 219 – 20.
- Ibid., no. 333 , 1 : 223 – 24. He was let go after posting the enormous bond of £ 100 imp. on 2 June,
ibid., no. 345 , 1 : 226 – 27.