Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/255

 PERSISTENCE OF HERESY. 239 quisitor of the Eoman province, made various ineffectual attempts to prosecute him, and in 1278 Nicholas III. sent his notary, Master Benedict, with offers of pardon in return for obedience, but the heretics were obdurate, and Nicholas was forced to order Orso Or- sini. Marshal of the Church in Tuscany, to levy troops and give -tra Smibaldo armed assistance sufficient to enable him to coerce them to penitence. A similar enterprise against the Viterbian noble, Capello di Chia, in 1260, has already been described (Vol. I. p. 342). In this case the zeal of the Yiterbians, who levied an army to assist the inquisitor, must have had some political motive, for their city was of evil repute in the matter of heresv. In 1265 en «ouraged by the assistance of Manfred, the people had risen against the Inquisition and had only been subdued after a bloody fight in which two friars were slain. In 1279 Nicholas expresses his re- gret that although, while he had been inquisitor-general, he had labored strenuously to purge Viterbo of heresy, his labors had been unsuccessful. Heretics were still concealed there, and the whole city was infected. Frji Sinibaldo was therefore ordered to go thither to make a thorough inquisition of the place.* Earnest and unsparing as were the labors of the inquisitors it seemed impossible to eradicate heresy. Its open manifestations were readily suppressed when the Ghibelline chiefs who protected It were destroyed, but in secret it still flourished and maintained its organization. In the inquest held on the memory of Armanno Pongilupo of Ferrara there is a good deal of testimony which shows not only the activity and success of the Inquisition of that city, but the continued existence of heresy throughout the whole region. There are allusions to numerous heretics in Vicenza Ber gamo Rimini, and Verona. In the latter city a lady-in-waiting of the Marchesa d'Este, named Spera, was burned in 1270, and about the same time there were two Catharan bishops there, Alberto and Bonaventura Belesmagra. In 1273 Lorenzo was Bishop of Sermi one, and Giovanni da Casaletto was Bishop of Mantua. There was a secret organization extending through all the Italian cities with visitors ^nAfil^^ majares performing their rounds, and messengers Sw n /flit r, • !"■ '"'■ "-''"^- '^""- «o-- ^- "8.-M;rtene inesaur. ll. 191.— Raynald. ann. 1278, Ko. 78.