Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/108

 92 GUGLIELMA AND DOLCINO. nantly replied that she was flesh and bone, that she had brought a son with her to Milan, and that if they did not do penance tor uttering" such words they would be condemned to hell. Yet, to minds familiar with the promises of the Everlasting Gospel, it might well seem that the era of the Holy Ghost would be ushered in with such an incarnation." Guglielma died August 24, 1381, leaving her property to the great Cistercian house of Chiaravalle, near Milan, where she de- sired to be buried. There was war at the time between Milan and Lodi ; the roads were not safe, and she was temporarily interred in the city, while Andrea and Dionisio Cotta went to the Marquis of Montferrat to ask for an escort of troops to accompany the cortege. The translation of the body took place in October, and was con- ducted with great splendor. The Cistercians welcomed the oppor- tunity to add to the attractions and revenues of their establish- ment. At that period the business of exploiting new saints was exceedingly profitable, and was prosecuted with corresponding energy. Salimbene complains bitterly of it in referring to a speculation made in 1279, at Cremona, out of the remains of a drunken vintner named Alberto, whose cult brought crowds of devotees with offerings, to the no small gain of all concerned. Such things, as we have seen in the case of Armanno Pongilupo and others, were constantly occurring, though Salimbene declares that the canons forbade the veneration of any one, or picturing him as a saint, until the Roman Church had authoritatively passed upon his claims. In this Salimbene was mistaken. Zanghino Ugolini, a much better authority, assures us that the worship of uncanonized saints was not heretical, if it were believed that their miracles were worked by God at their intercession, but if it were believed that they were worked by the relics without the assent of God, then the Inquisition could intervene and punish ; but so long as a saint was uncanonized his cult was at the discretion of the bishop, who could at any time command its cessation, and the Dr. Andrea Ogniben, to whom we are indebted for the publication of the fragmentary remains of the trial of the Guglielmites, thinks that Maifreda di Pirovano was a cousin of Matteo Visconti, through his mother, Anastasia di Pirovano (op. cit. p. 23). The Continuation of Nangis calls her his half-sister (Guillel. Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1317).
 * Ogniben. op. cit. pp. 12. 20-1, 35-7. 69. 70. 74, 76, 82, 84-6, 101, 104-6, 116.