Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/301

 THE TWO SICILIES. 285 putant claimed the victory, Simone proceeded to settle the matter by secretly prosecuting his antagonist for heresy. Niccolo got wind of this and at once appealed to Kome, before the Arch- bishop of Palermo, demanding his apostoli — an appeal which Si- mone pronounced frivolous. The revelations made by JSTiccolo as to his antagonists present a most dismal picture of the internal condition of the Church at the time, although Fra Simone's learn- ing and ascetic life won him the popular reputation of a saint, and he obtained the bishopric of Catania, becoming an important political personage. In 1373 Frederic III. issued letters to aU the royal officials ordering them to lend all aid to him and to his famihars, and the Inquisition seems to have been firmly estab- lished, with prisons of its own. In 1375 we find Gregory apply- ing to the king for the confiscations, and procuring from the reve- nues of Palermo an appropriation of twelve ounces of gold, to be applied to the extermination of heresy. In this recrudescence of persecution the Jews appear to have been the principal victims. They appealed to Frederic, who in the same year, 1375, issued let- ters severely blaming the inquisitors and ordering that in future their prisoners should be confined only in the royal jails ; that civil judges should assist in their decisions, and that an appeal should lie to the High Court. This was imposing serious limita- tions on inquisitorial jurisdiction, but no reclamation against it appears to have been made. In JSTaples, letters of Charles III., is- sued in 1382 to Fra Domenico di Astragola and Fra Leonardo di Napoli, show that inquisitors continued to be appointed. In 1389 Boniface IX. seems to unite l^aples with Sicily by appointing Fra Antonio Traverso di Aversa as inquisitor on both sides of the Faro ; but in 1391 another brief of the same pope alludes to the Inquisition of Sicily having become vacant by the death of Fra Francesco da Messina, and as there is customarily but one inquisi- tor there he fills the vacancy by the appointment of Fra Simone da Amatore. Fra Simone had a somewhat stormy career. Al- ready, in 1392, he was replaced by Fra Giuliano di Mileto, after- wards Bishop of Cefalu, but seems to have regained his position, for in 1393 he was obliged by King Martin to refund moneys ex- torted from some Jews whom he had prosecuted for holding iUicit relations with Christian women, and was told not to interfere with matters beyond his jurisdiction. Engaging in treasonable