Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/113

 THE GUGLIELMITES. 97 1324:, confirmed the sentence, he added that Matteo had terrorized the inquisitors to save his son Galeazzo, who was also a Gugliel- mite.* When the heresy became known popular rumor of course at- tributed to it the customary practices of indiscriminate sexual in- dulgence which were ascribed to all deviations from the faith. In the legend which was handed down by tradition there appears the same story as to its discovery which we have seen told at Cologne about the Brethren of the Free Spirit — of the husband tracking his wife to the nocturnal rendezvous, and thus learning the obscene practices of the sect. In this case the hero of the tale is Corrado Coppa, whose wife Giacobba was an earnest be- liever, f It is sufficient to say that the official reports of the trial, in so far as they have reached us, contain no allusions whatever to any licentious doctrines or practices. The inquisitors wasted no time on inquiries in that direction, showing that they knew there was nothing of the kind to reward investigation. Numerically speaking, the sect was insignificant. It is men- tioned that on one occasion, at a banquet in honor of Guglielma, given by the monks of Chiaravalle, there were one hundred and twenty -nine persons present, but these doubtless included many who only reverenced her as a saint. The inner circle of the ini- tiated was apparently much smaller. The names of those incul- pated in the confessions before the Inquisition amount only to about thirty, and it is fair to assume that the number of the sec- taries at no time exceeded thirty-five or forty 4 It is not to be supposed that this could go on for nearly twenty years and wholly escape the vigilance of the Milanese inquisitors. In 1284, but a few years after Guglielma's death, two of the dis- ciples, Allegranza and Carabella, incautiously revealed the myste- ries of their faith to Belfiore, mother of Fra Enrico di Nova, who at once conveyed it to the inquisitor, Fra Manfredo di Dona via. Andrea was forthwith summoned, with his wife Riccadona, his sister, Migliore, and his daughter, Fiord ebellina ; also Maifreda, 1652).— Raynald. ann. 1324, No. 7-11. t Philip. Bergomat. Supplem. Chron. ann. 1298.— Bern. Corio Hist, Milanes. ann. 1300. I Ogniben, op. cit. pp. 1, 2, 34, 74, 110.— Tainburini, op. cit. II. 67-8. III.— 7
 * Ogniben, op. cit. pp. 65-7, 83-4, 90-1, 110.— Ughelli, T. IV. pp. 286-93 (Ed.