Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/227

 PIER-MARTIRE AT FLORENCE. 211 ing of the spoliation and gratification of private feuds which could not fail to involve the innocent with the guilty in a persecution of such extent so recklessly pursued. On the other hand, the persecutors were maddened with excitement and with the pros- pects of at last triumphing over the adversaries who had so long defied them. Innocent lY. wrote pressingly to the Signoria com- manding energetic support for the inquisitor, and he summoned from Lombardy Piero da Verona to lend his aid in the approach- ing struggle. Towards the end of 1244 Piero hastened to the con- flict, and his eloquence drew such crowds that the Piazza di Santa Maria JN'ovella had to be enlarged to accommodate the multitude. He utilized the enthusiasm by enrolling the orthodox nobles in a guard to protect the Dominicans, and formed a military order under the name of the Societa de' Capitani di Santa Maria, uni- formed in a white doublet with a red cross, and these led the organization known as the Compagnia della Fede, sworn to defend the Inquisition at all hazards, under privileges granted by the Holy See. Thus encouraged and supported, Kuggieri pushed for- ward the trials, and numbers of victims were burned. This was a challenge which the heretics could only decline under pain of annihilation. They hkewise organized under the lead of the Baroni, and it was not difiicult to persuade the podesta, Ser Pace di Pesannola of Bergamo, recently appointed by Frederic IL, that the interest of his master required him to protect them. Thus the perennial quarrel betAveen the Church and the empire filled the streets of Florence with bloodshed under the banners of ortho- doxy and heterodoxy. Kuggieri provoked the conflict without flinching. He cited the Baroni before him, and when they contemptuously refused to ajv pear he procured a special mandate from Innocent*^ I Y. This they obeyed ^vith the utmost docility, about August 1, 1245, swearing to stand to the mandates of the Church, and depositing one thou- sand fire as security ; but when they understood that he was about to render sentence against them, they appealed to the podesta. Ser Pace thereupon sent his oflicers, August 12, to Euggieri, order- ing him to annul the proceedings as contrary to the mandate of the emperor, to return the money taken as ^ bail, and, in case of contumacy, to appear the next day before the podesta under pen- alty of a thousand marks. Ruggieri's onlv notice of this was a