Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/297

Rh INSUBORDINATION IN TUSCANY. 281 Frà Piero complained of Florence as impeding the free action of the Inquisition, and Gregory at once ordered the Signoria to abro- gate the obnoxious statutes. No attention was paid to these com- mands by Florence, and when the rupture came the Florentine mob expressed its feelings by destroying the inquisitorial prison and driving the inquisitor from the city. It was also alleged that in the disturbances a monk named Niccolò was tortured and buried alive. These misdeeds, although denied by the Signoria, were al- leged as a justification of the terrible bull of March 31, 1376, ful- minated against Florence by Gregory. In this he not only ex- communicated and interdicted the city, but specially outlawed the citizens, exposing their property wherever found to seizure, and their persons to slavery. This shocking abuse was the direct out- growth of the long series of legislation against heresy, and was sanctioned by the public law of the period; everywhere through- out Christendom the goods of Florentines were seized and the merchants were glad to beg their way home, stripped of all they possessed. Not all were so fortunate, as some pious monarchs, like Edward III., in addition reduced them to servitude. No com- mercial community could long endure a contest waged after this fashion, and, as before, Florence was compelled to submit. In the peace signed July 28, 1378, the republic agreed to annul all laws restricting the Inquisition and interfering with the liberties of the Church, and it authorized a papal commissioner to expunge them from the statute-book. The Great Schism, however, weakened for a time the aggressive energy of the papacy, and much of the ob- noxious legislation reappears in the revised code of 1415. The career of Tommasino da Foligno, who died in 1377, has