Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/107

 THE GUGLIELM1TES. 91 They adopted the style of plain broAvn garment which she habitu- ally wore, and seem to have formed a kind of unorganized congre- gation, bound together only by common devotion to her.* At that period it was not easy to set bounds to veneration ; the spiritual world was felt to be in the closest relation with the ma- terial, and the development of Joachitism shows how readily re- ceived were suggestions that a great change was impending, and a new era about to open for mankind. Guglielma's devotees came to regard her as a saint, gifted with thaumaturgic power. Some of her disciples claimed to be miraculously cured by her — Dr. Giacobbe da Ferno of an ophthalmic trouble, and Albertono de' Novati of a fistula. Then it was said that she had received the supereminent honor of the Stigmata, and although those who pre- pared her body for the grave could not see them, this was held to be owing to their unworthiness. It was confidently predicted that she would convert the Jews and Saracens, and bring all man- kind into unity of faith. At last, about 1276, some of the more enthusiastic disciples began to whisper that she was the incarna- tion of the Holy Ghost, in female form — the Third Person of the Trinity, as Christ was of the Second, in the shape of a man. She was very God and very man ; it was not alone the body of Christ which suffered in the Passion, but also that of the Holy Ghost, so that her flesh was the same as that of Christ. The originators of this strange belief seem to have been Andrea Saramita, a man of standing in Milan, and Suor Maifreda di Pirovano, an Umiliata of the ancient convent of Biassono, and a cousin of Matteo Yisconti. There is no probability that Guglielma countenanced these absurd stories. Andrea Saramita was the only witness who asserted that he had them from her direct, and he had a few days before testified to the contrary. The other immediate disciples of Guglielma stated that she made no pretensions to any supernatural character. When people would ask her to cure them or relieve them of trouble she would say, " Go, I am not God." When told of the strange beliefs entertained of her she strenuously asserted that she was only a miserable woman and a vile worm. Marchisio Secco, a monk of Chiaravalle, testified that he had had a dispute with Andrea on the subject, and they agreed to refer it to her, when she indig-
 * Ogniben, op. cit. pp. 56, 73-5, 103-4.