Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/231

 MURDER OF SAN PIERO. 215 to slay Eainerio Saccone, and made the journey, but failed to ac- complish his mission. The other conspirators were more success- ful. Frd Piero at that time v^as Prior of Como, and went thither to pass his Easter. He was obliged to return to Milan on Low Sunday, April 7, as on that day expired the term of fifteen days which he had assigned to a contumacious heretic. During Easter v^eek Stefano, with Manfredo and Carino, went to Como and awaited Piero's departure. It shows the fearlessness and the austerity of the man that he set out on foot, April 7, though weakened with a quartain fever, and accompanied only by a sinSe friar, Domenico. Manfredo and Ca.rino followed them' as far'^as Barlassma, and set upon them in a lonely spot. Carino acted as executioner, laying open Piero's head with a single blow, mortal- ly wounding Domenico, and then, finding that Piero still breathed plunging a dagger in his breast. Some passing travellers carried the body of the martyr to the convent of San Semphciano, while Domenico was conveyed to Meda, where he died ^ve days after- wards. As for the conspirators, I have already alluded to the strange delay which postponed for forty-three vears the final sen- tence of Stefano Confaloniero, and to the repentance and beatifica- • tion of Carino, who became St. Acerinus. Daniele da Giussano another of the confederates, also repented and entered the Domm- ican Order. Giacopo della Chiusa seems to have escaped, and Manfredo and a certain Tommaso were captured and confessed Manfredo admitted that he had been concerned in the murder of two other inquisitors, Era Pier di Bracciano and Era Catalano, both Eranciscans, at Ombraida in Lombardv. He was simply ordered to present himself to the pope for judgment, but in place of obev- mg he very naturally fled, and there is no record of his subsequent fate. -No one seems to have been put to death, and common re- port asserted that the assassins found a safe refuge amono- the Waldenses of the Alpine valleys, which is not improbable.* ° J ^^^"- <^«"«' Hist. Milanese, anu. 1253.-Giialvaneo Flammac. 286 (Muratori pp. 118-20, 125, 128-9, 132-33.-Annal. Mediolanens. c. 24 (Muratori XVI 656^' -Tamburmi, Storia dell' Inquisizione, I. 492-502. -Wadding Annal ann l->84 ^L^'^^t""^^^ ^'"'- ^'P^'- ^'^^- ^^^- '■ ^^^- 126.-Raynald. Annal. ann' 1403, JNo. 24. There is a Daniele da Giussano who appears as inquisitor in Lombardv in
 * .c^n ^^^^-^^P^^^ I- 224, 244, 389.-Campana, Vita di San Piero-Martire'