CommunalPiety and theMendicants 441
have been focused on the loggia of the Arenga, from which the podesta
would pronounce his sentence. A number of those waiting in the square
were from Bompietro’s parish and that of Santa Maria della Mascarella, the
parish next to it on the northeast corner of the Market. He had been under
investigation for over a month, and the expectation of his sentence had at-
tracted attention.
Don Ottolino of Mandello then appeared with the friars. Guards brought
Bompietro and Giuliano onto the loggia. Fra Guido formally handed the
prisoners over to the podesta, who judged them as relapsed into heresy and
condemned them to burn at the stake. But Bompietro suddenly cried out in
a loud voice, asking to make his confession as a Catholic and receive Com-
munion. He insisted that although he had been reared in Catharism by
his family, he had abandoned the heresy twenty years earlier.^140 It was an
unforeseen and startling development. Fra Guido refused the request. Not
everyone in the large piazza could hear Bompietro or the inquisitor’s re-
sponse. But word quickly passed through the crowd that Bompietro wanted
to die in the Church and was asking for the body of Christ. Someone in the
crowd began to shout, ‘‘Take Bompietro to the fire!’’ but Ugolino di Mar-
tino, an acquaintance of Bompietro’s from San Martino dell’Aposa, shouted
him down.^141 At least eight men, mostly from Bompietro’s neighborhood,
then began shouting to release Bompietro and let him live because he had
asked for the body of Christ. One cried out, demanding to know why he had
been arrested by the inquisition at all.^142
Fra Guido’s spies or informants would later identify one of these protesters
as of particular importance in inciting the crowd. The butcher Gonto di
Taviano was yelling that since Bompietro wanted Communion, it should be
given to him immediately; otherwise the friars would be committing a great
sin.^143 Witnesses, including a canon lawyer, reported seeing Gonto standing
below the Arenga, shouting at the top of his lungs, ‘‘The inquisitor is doing
this because Bompietro refused to give him his sister, and she would not
consent to the inquisitor either,’’ and then yelling that Bompietro could have
saved himself if he had paid off the inquisition.^144 Gonto’s scurrilous shouts
later earned him a fine of £ 100 and a warning.^145 Perhaps they went unheard
beyond the area around the Arenga and were less significant than his accuser
thought.
- See the testimony on this of Pace of Salicetto,ASOB,no. 23 , 1 : 50.
- See his confession of 12 July, ibid., no. 559 , 1 : 293 , ‘‘ ‘Ducatur Bompetrus ad ignem’: ‘Noli cla-
mare ista.’ ’’ - SeeASOBdeposition numbers 260 ( 1 : 199 ), 267 ( 1 : 201 —which specifically mentions the podesta’s
judgment), 307 ( 1 : 213 —a deposition by two men), 368 ( 1 : 237 —from S. Biagio), 526 ( 1 : 285 —from S. Tecla
in Curia), 558 ( 1 : 293 —an objection to detaining Bompietro in prison).
143 .ASOB,no. 132 , 1 : 155 – 56 ; no. 328 , 1 : 219. - Ibid., no. 139 , 1 : 158 , ‘‘Inquisitor facit hoc quia dictus Bompetrus noluit ei dare sororem suam,
nec consentire eam ipsi inquisitori.’’ And ibid., no. 140 , 1 : 158 – 59. - See his sentence of 22 May, ibid., nos. 246 , 328 , 1 : 196 , 204 – 5.