454 Epilogue
Bompietro when she said, ‘‘Those cursed friars should have received him,
because Christ accepts everybody.’’^214 It was the refusal of confession and
Communion that elicited the most violent reactions. Many labeled Fra Gui-
do’s actions a cause of heresy.^215 Yes, the inquisitor was a devil, the Anti-
christ.^216 The aristocratic Donna Lucia, wife of the jurist Pace de’ Paci,
repeated the prophesy that Bompietro’s condemnation would cause such
heresy to flood the world that priests would hide their clerical state, ‘‘just as
Fra Giovanni said.’’^217 The repetition of this prophesy cost her £ 25 bon.
Although twenty-nine mentioned Giuliano in conjunction with Bompie-
tro, only two mentioned the old Cathar in his own right.^218 Many who
showed pity for Giuliano seem only to have done so because they thought
that he too had repented.^219 To burn a convinced Cathar did not trigger
protest. But the burning of Rosafiore’s bones was widely decried (eighty-one
depositions mention it). It seemed pointless, stupid, and, in the popular mind,
perhaps even heretical. Protest against the bone-burning was not localized
in any part of the city—in Rosafiore’s own parish, only four out of the eigh-
teen self-denunciations mentioned it. But the two women who admitted crit-
icizing the fining of her priest, Don Giacomo, for burying her were both
from the parish.^220
The miscarriages of justice not only brought down popular curses on the
heads of the friars, they also brought speculation about why Bompietro had
died. One self-denouncer out of five confessed having voiced the opinion
that the prosecutions were made to seize money or property. One had even
heard that Fra Guido tried to shake Bompietro down for 200 gold florins in
return for acquitting him.^221 Although the ‘‘take’’ of the entire affair, includ-
ing the fining of protesters, would hardly have enriched Fra Guido and his
assistants, the posthumous condemnation of Rosafiore does seem suspicious.
The register contains no accusations or evidence to substantiate her ‘‘re-
lapse.’’ But the property listed in her will was worth less than the bond Guido
exacted from the priest who buried her.^222 The Bolognese inquisition, like all
medieval courts, depended on the fines it levied to pay expenses. To that
extent, the accusation of venality may have a certain basis in truth. Five
women smelled other forms of corruption behind the injustice: the inquisitor
- Ibid., no. 197 , 1 : 180 , ‘‘Illi fratres maledicti debebant recipere eum, quia Christus recipit omnes.’’
- E.g., ibid., nos. 257 , 311.
- Ibid., nos. 158 , 159 , 351.
- Ibid., no. 524 , 1 : 285 , ‘‘Dixit quod venerat id quod dixerat frater Iohamnes, quod mundus veniret
in tanta heresi quod presbiteri cooperirent sibi clericas.’’ Could this ‘‘Fra Giovanni’’ be the Franciscan
apocalypticist Pietro di Giovanni Olivi? Donna Lucia’s husband, Pace, became podesta of Padua in 1305 ;
seeLiber Regiminum Padue, 347 ;CCB:Vill., 268.
218 .ASOB,nos. 398 , 399. - E.g., ibid., no. 341 , 1 : 225 – 26.
- Ibid., nos. 297 , 298.
- Ibid., no. 165 , 1 : 169 – 70.
- See Paolini,Eresia, 108 – 10.