CommunalPiety and theMendicants 437
belief in Catharism, which had never amounted to anything more theologi-
cally sophisticated than condemning marriage, denying the Eucharist, and
worshiping the perfects. His claim has the ring of truth, since, as Fra Guido
discovered, Bompietro was incapable of distinguishing one Cathar sect from
another. The pursemaker confessed that he could not bring himself to turn
in Giuliano, knowing that his father’s old Cathar friend might end up at the
stake. He ascribed his contact with the other Cathars to his own foolishness
(ex simplicitate). Knowing that his actions were risky, and that he had thereby
incurred excommunication, he had confessed his lapses (probably spontane-
ously) to Fra Guido’s predecessor, the inquisitor Fra Florio of Vicenza. Faced
with such a case, Florio scourged him ‘‘a bit’’ (aliquantulum) on the shoulders
with a rod and gave him absolution, with a warning to watch himself. The
easygoing Florio did not even bother giving him a written copy of the absolu-
tion.^122 One senses that the sterner Guido was not pleased.
Unlike the elderly Cathar Giuliano, Bompietro was well known to his
fellow residents in San Martino dell’Aposa and the surrounding neighbor-
hood. His parish was located off the Market (the Piazza del Mercato, or
Campus Fori) on the north side of Bologna, between the old and new city
walls. San Martino was a center for leatherworking and for Bompietro’s
trade, pursemaking. As well as a pursemaker, Bompietro was a respected
small-scale businessman, a member of the merchants’ society, dealing in
wine. From his own stocks, Bompietro supplied Mass wine to the Carmelite
friars who had established themselves in his parish. He attended the Of-
fice,^123 which the friars sang, along with his friend, the tailor Zambonino di
Bongiovanni from San Bendetto in Galliera.^124 This parish was opposite San
Martino on the northwest corner of the Market. He was established, well
respected, generous, to all appearances a good Catholic—but a Catholic
who gave alms indiscriminately to Catholic and Cathar alike, even after his
second warning by Fra Florio.
After Bompietro’s arrest and two appearances before Fra Guido on 23
and 25 March 1299 , the inquisitor referred Bompietro’s case to a panel of
four experts in canon law. They submitted their opinion on 4 April. The
panel included famous names: Guido of Baiso (known to canon-law history
as ‘‘the Archdeacon’’), Giovanni of Monte Merlo, and Marsilio Manteghelli.
122 .ASOB,no. 12 , 1 : 33. Fra Florio was charged with peculation in 1307 : Zanella, ‘‘Malessere ereti-
cale,’’ 34.
123. Lansing,Power and Purity, 92 – 93 , is willing to consider Bompietro a Cathar ‘‘believer’’ in spite of
his Catholic conformity. I see no particular reason to doubt his good faith; as she admits, ibid., 95 – 96 ,
most Cathars and Catholics had only vague views on abstruse theological constructs and dogma.
124. As we know from a denunciation by Giovanni Bonmercati, a heresy hunter from the Societas
Crucis,ASOB,no. 180 , 1 : 175. He had overheard Zambonino say this in his lamentation over Bompietro’s
death while sitting on a bench outside the church of San Michele del Mercato di Mezzo, just around the
corner from the Palazzo Comunale. On his business connections, see ibid., 1 : 48 n. 1. It appears that Fra
Guido did not have Zambonino summoned. On the Societas Crucis, see Lorenzo Paolini, ‘‘Le origini
della ‘Societas Crucis,’ ’’Rivista di storia e letteratura religiosa 15 ( 1979 ): 173 – 229.