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 220 ITALY. PaUavicino, " that enemy of God and the Church," and the Mi- lanese appear to have had no appetite for the enterprise at the time. Mongano continued to be a place of refuge for the perse- cuted untU 1269, when the Milanese were at last stimulated to undertake the siege, and on capturing it handed it over to the Dominicans.*. , -r. , ^ t> <.* Better success awaited Eainerio's efforts with Koberto Patta da Giussano, a Milanese noble who for twenty years had been one of the most conspicuous defenders of heresy in Lombardy. At his castle of Gatta he publicly maintained heretic bishops, aUow- ing them to build houses, and establish schools whence they spread their pernicious doctrines through the land. They had also there a cemetery where, among others, were buried their bishops, Is azario and Desiderio. The place was notorious, and it is related ot ban Piero-Martire, as an instance of his prophetic gifts, that once when passing it he had foretold its destruction and the exhuma- tion of the heretic bones. Koberto had been cited by the arch- bishop and had abjured heresy, but no effective measures had been ventured upon to coerce him from his evil ways, and the heretics of Gatta had continued to enjoy his protection. It was other- wise when, in 1254, Rainerio and Guido summoned him again. On his faihng to appear they summarily condemned him as a heretic, declared his property confiscated and his descendants sub- ject to the usual disabiUties. Roberto saw that the new officials were not to be trifled with. The prospects of the Ghibellmes at the moment were apparently hopeless. He hastened to make his peace, binding himself to submit to any terms which the pope might dictate ; and Innocent doubtless deemed himself merciful when August 19, 125i, he ordered the castle of Gatta and all the heretic houses to be destroyed by fire, the bones in the cenietery to be dug up and burned, and the countto perform such salutary penance as Rainerio might prescribe-f The papal power was now at its height. Conrad I. had died May 20, 1254, not without suspicion of poison; Innocent IV. had seized his Sicihan kingdoms, and for a brief space, until Manfred s romantic adventures and victory of Foggia, he might well imagine • RipoU I. 238, 342-3 ; VII. 31.-Bein. Corio, Hist. Milanese, ann. 1269. t Ripoll I. 254.— Campana, op. cit. p. 114.