444 Epilogue
the scaffold being prepared for the execution.^162 At San Martino, Donna
Tommasina di Bonaiolo suggested that the inquisitor was himself a heretic
and that those who gave alms to the friars would have a year of bad luck.^163
Bologna being a male-dominated society, this probably amounted to little
more than wishful thinking in the kitchen or at the water fountain, but such
feelings seem to have been prevalent throughout the city.
The mood of many in the city became obvious to the friars as they re-
turned home. Don Nicola di Guido de’ Borromei was sitting under the por-
tico of his house, a couple of blocks from the Palazzo Comunale, near San
Bartolo di Porta Ravennate, when a throng including three of his friends
arrived with news of the events in the piazza. A heated discussion ensued,
during which two Dominicans, Fra Giacomo Casotti and Fra Albergitto of
Bologna, passed by and overheard Nicola ranting against the inquisition and
in favor of the condemned. Someone said that if Bompietro had given the
friars £ 40 bon. as a payoff, they would not have condemned him, and that
it would be better if the friars were burned in his stead. The friars turned
Nicola in. He appeared before the tribunal on 14 May, and Fra Guido gave
him three days to prepare his defense.^164 Although Nicola then disappears
from our records, similar incidents multiplied as word spread. On the very
day of the sentence, one woman was overheard praising Bompietro and
damning the inquisitor and the friars to hell in the very church of San Do-
menico.^165
In the twenty-four hours that separated the condemnation from the exe-
cution, older grievances merged with the anger against the treatment of
Bompietro. Although it was forgotten during the clamor in the piazza, Fra
Guido had earlier that year begun the posthumous investigation of a woman
from the parish of San Tommaso del Mercato. Rosafiore di Nicola of Verona
was the widow of the well-known Cathar Bonigrino Delay, who had been
sent to the stake as relapsed on 12 September 1297 , the first execution re-
corded in the register.^166 She and her husband had been investigated in 1287
for receiving heretics and sentenced to wear crosses. Although her husband
relapsed into his old ways, Rosafiore watched herself. She seems to have
become close to her parish priest, Don Giacomo Benintendi, who visited her
when sick, heard her confession, and gave her Communion.^167 On 3 April
- Ibid., no. 438 , 1 : 260.
- Ibid., no. 155 , 1 : 166 – 67.
- On Nicola, see ibid., nos. 127 – 30 , 1 : 152 – 54.
- Ibid., no. 420 , 1 : 255 – 56.
- Ibid., no. 10 , 1 : 20 – 25 ; on Bonigrino and Rosafiore, see Paolini,Eresia, 96 – 110 , and id., ‘‘Boni-
grino da Verona e sua moglie Rosafiore,’’Medioevo ereticale,ed. Ovidio Capitani (Bologna: Il Mulino,
1977 ), 213 – 44. Bonigrino’s process and condemnation are continued inASOB,nos. 3 – 10 , 1 : 11 – 25. On the
significance of Rosafiore’s legal condition as a ‘‘convicted’’ heretic, see O. Ruffino, ‘‘Ricerche sulla con-
dizione giuridica degli eretici nel pensiero dei glossatori,’’Rivista di storia del diritto italiano 46 ( 1973 ): 30 – 190. - Giacomo appears in the 1300 tithe list for Bologna as rector of San Tomasso; see Sella, ‘‘Diocesi
di Bologna,’’ 107. He paid 30 s. bon., which suggests his parish was one of the larger in the city, although
not among the largest.