Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/222

 206 "^^^'• Greo-ory made a third attempt, through the Bishops of Reggio and Treviso who induced the warring factions to lay down their arms for a while; but the main object, of presenting a united front and keepino- Frederic out of Italy, was lost. Ezzelin and a number of the°cities urged his coming, and the decisive victory of Corte- nuova in November, 1237, dissolved the Lombard League which had so long held the empire in check, and made him master of Lombardy.* . . ' ■, • at During aU this time Gregory had been untiring m his efforts to subdue heresy in Lombardy, undeterred by the disheartemng lack of result. AU his legates to that province were duly in- structed to regard this as one of their chief duties. In May, 1236, he had even attempted to establish there a rudimentary Inqmsi- tion but, in the existing condition of the land, even he could hardlv have expected to accomplish anything. Frederic came with professions that the extirpation of heresy was one of the motives impelling him to the enterprise ; and when Gregory re- proached him with suppressing the preaching of the friars and thus favoring heresy, he astutely retorted, with a reference to Giovanni, by alluding to those who, under pretext of making war on heresv, were busy in establishing themselves as potentates, and were taking castles as security from those suspect m faith. Greg- ory in reply, could only disclaim all responsibility for the acts ot the' adventurous friar.' Yet Gregory himself, when it suited his Lombard pohcy, did not hesitate to relax his severity against the heretics, and it became a popular cry in Germany that he had been bribed with their gold.f For some years Giovanni Schio led a comparatively qmet ex- istence in Bologna, but in 1247, by which time the Inquisition was fairly taking shape. Innocent IV. appointed him perpetual inquisi- tor throughout Lombardy, arming him with full powers and re- leasing him from all subjection or accountability to the Dominican ..eneral or provincial. In the existing condition of the north of Italy the commission was virtually inoperative, and its only mter- ' RiDoU I 60-1.— Barbarano de' Mironi op. cit. 11. 86, 91-3. + gZ PP IX Bull, nie humani generis, 30 Maii, 1236 (RipoH I. 95, g.vcB tins i! 187 protl^y a reissue). - Bpistt. S.cul. XIII. T. I. No. 693, 700, , 704 Im t Diplom. Frid. 11. T. IV. P. a. pp. 907-8.-Schmidt, Cathares, I. 161.