448 Epilogue
Asked whether they had been making noise (faciendo rumorem) or shouting
(clamando), or had heard anyone voicing support for Bompietro or Giuliano,
each one denied it. They knew nothing.
As these fruitless interrogations were going on, the Dominican Fra Boni-
facio di Leonardo of Bologna arrived at the tribunal and made a deposition
accusing a barber from San Vitale, just outside the old walls beyond San
Bartolo, of praising Bompietro. He had threatened the friar and his compan-
ion, Fra Giovanni Gosberti, saying, ‘‘You clergy are going to have your turn
too.’’^188 Fra Bonifacio did not know the man’s name. By the next morning,
the barber had been identified as Bartolomeo di Gianni. Summoned in mid-
morning, he scornfully refused to come. Unidentified measures were taken,
and within hours the suspect appeared before Fra Guido. He denied making
any threats but reported that a certain Francesco di Gerardello of Budrio
had yelled that the friars ought to be flogged.^189 Depositions were received
against two other suspects. Valeriano di Guido, the man who had been seen
sobbing at the sentencing, was summoned and denied having said anything
in favor of the heretics, as did Alberto di Lorenzo from San Damiano par-
ish.^190 The inquisitor’s patience was now wearing thin. He threatened both
men with prison and demanded £ 100 bon. security from each.
Two other accusations were the only other business that day. A man re-
ported that the notary Francesco di Pasquale of Gubbio had been in the
piazza, shouting in favor of the heretics and urging that San Domenico be
burned. This may have seemed a more promising lead, but no charges were
filed. Finally Fra Giovanni, who appears to have been roaming the city look-
ing for clues and waiting to be insulted, returned to report that Donna
Contessa Ravagnani had yelled at him, ‘‘Believe you me, whatever contrada
you friars go to, you will be butchered.’’^191 When she later appeared before
the tribunal, she also admitted mocking friars passing through her neighbor-
hood, yelling, ‘‘Don’t bother looking in this house; it may be large, but there
is not much in it, and if I were a man.. .’’^192 Guido was not amused; he
fined her £ 100 bon., thereby certainly confirming her in the suspicion that
the friars were after people’s property. Three days’ work had borne no fruits
other than the punishment of random insults, the collection of worthless tips,
and the identification of one hysteric. The inquisitor would certainly not
have suspected that the next day would bring a startling new development.
On Sunday, 17 May 1299 , the notary Alberto arrived for the principal
Mass at the church of San Martino dell’Aposa to read, after the Gospel, the
condemnation of Bompietro and Giuliano and to declare the seizure of their
- Ibid., nos. 144 – 45 , 1 : 161 – 62 , ‘‘Vos habebitis una vice super clerichatas.’’
- Ibid., no. 146 , 1 : 162.
- Ibid., nos. 147 – 48 , 1 : 162 – 63.
- Ibid., no. 149 , 1 : 163.
- Ibid., no. 154 , 1 : 166 , ‘‘Dixit, ‘Nolite respicere in domum, quia domus magna est, tamen parum
est in ea et si essem homo,’ et ulterius non processit in verbis.’’