Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/292

 276 "^^^ ^reserved In Tuscany the triumph of orthodoxy had been com- pete A sermon of Fra Giordano da E.valto, in 1304, asserts that Lesy was virtually exterminated: scarce any heretics remaine^, and they were in strict hiding. This is confirmed by ViUam, who teUs us Lt, by the middle of the century, there were no l^.-etics

Florence This is doubtless too absolute an assertion, but the existence of a few scattered Waldenses and Fraticelli offered scant excuse for such an establishment as the inquisitor was accustomed to maintain. In 1837 the papal nuncio, Bertrand, Archb^^hop °t Embrun, took the incumbent of the office severely to task for the abuse of appointing an excessive number of ^^^^^^'^^^f^^^'^ him in future to restrict himself to four counsellors and assesso two notaries, two jailers, and twelve ministers or f^"^."^ '^' J J'^ was by no means a small or inexpensive body of oftculs, the In- nuisition's share of confiscations from the few poverty-stricken her- ^^o could occasionally be picked up evidently -s insjiftcien to maintain such a corps, and means, either fair or foul, must be fid to render the income of the office adequate to the want o^ those who depended upon it for their fortunes. Ho^v this uas done on the one hand by cheating the papal camera, and on the othS bv extorting money on false charges of heresy and by sel - ing o bravoes liLses to carry arms, has already been pointed out The former device was one which, when detected, was diffi- "it to condone, and its discovery caused, in the commencement of 1344 a sudden vacancy in the Florentine Inquisition. The lublic was in the habit of suggesting names to the Franciscan General for appointment, and sometimes its requ^tlhTTrs'- snected In the present case it asked, February 2b, that the 1 us can nquisitor, Fra Giovanni da Casale, be permitted to exercise Z tactions within the city, but the suggestion was unheeded, and in March the post was given to Fra Piero di Aquila. ■ Fra Piero was a distinguished member of the Franciscan Or- der. But two months earlier he had been appointed chaplam to Queen Joanna of Naples, and his Commentaries on the Sentences of Peter Lombard were highly esteemed, receiving, m 1480, the . Prediche di Fret G» ^-«*^^^^'.LL^ ann. 1340, No. ll.-Archivio di Firenze, Riformagioni, D.plomahco, .,, CUsse V. No. 129, fol. 46, 54.