Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/136

 120 GUGLIELMA AND DOLCINO. influence which he exerted upon his fastness on Monte Rubello. It became known as the Monte dei Gazzari, and to it, as to an accursed spot, priests grew into the habit of consigning demons whom they exorcised on account of hail-storms. The result of this was that the congregated spirits caused such fearful tempests that the neighboring lands were ruined, the harvests were yearly destroyed, and the people reduced to beggary. Finally, as a cure, the inhabitants of Triverio vowed to God and to St. Bernard that if they were relieved they would build on the top of the mountain a chapel to St. Bernard. This was done, and the mountain thus acquired its modern name of Monte San Bernardo. Every year on June 15, the feast of St. Bernard, one man from every hearth in the surrounding parishes marched with their priests in solemn procession, bearing crosses and banners, and celebrating solemn services, in the presence of crowds assembled to gain the pardons granted by the pope, and to share in a distribution of bread pro- vided by a special levy made on the parishes of Triverio and Portola, This custom lasted till the French invasion under Xa- poleon. Renewed in 1S15, it was discontinued on account of the disorders which attended it. Again resumed in 1S39, it was ac- companied with a hurricane which is still in the Yalsesia attributed to the heresiarch, and even to the present day the mountaineers see on the mountain-crest a procession of Dolcinists during the night before its celebration. Dolcino's name is still remembered in the valleys as that of a great man who perished in the effort to free the populations from temporal and spiritual tyranny.- Dolcino and his immediate band of followers were thus ex- terminated, but there remained the thousands of Apostles, scattered throughout the land, who cherished their belief in secret. Under the skilful hand of the Inquisition, the harmless eccentricities of Segarelli were hardened and converted into a strongly antisacer- dotal heresy, antagonistic to Eome, precisely as we have seen the same result with the exaggerated asceticism of the Olivists. There was much in common between the sects, for both drew their inspiration from the Everlasting Gospel. Like the Olivists, the Apostles held that Christ had withdrawn his authority from the 441-2).— Baggiolini, pp. 165-71.
 * A. Artiaco (Rivista Cristiana, 1877, 145-51).— Hist. Dulcin. (Muratori IX.