Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/142

 126 GUGLIELMA AND DOLCINO. about the fate of his disciples it may be assumed that they escaped by abjuration. He is usually classed with the Fraticelli, but the errors attributed to him bear no resemblance to those of that sect, and are evidently exaggerations of the doctrines of the Spirit of Liberty.* Before dismissing the career of Dolcino, it may be worth while to cast a passing glance at that of a modern prophet which, like the cases of the modern Guglielmites, teaches us that such spiritual phenomena are common to all ages, and that even in our colder and more rationalistic time the mysteries of human nature are the same as in the thirteenth century. Dolcino merely organized a movement which had been in prog- ress for nearly half a century, and which was the expression of a widely diffused sentiment. David Lazzaretti of Arcidosso was both founder and martyr. A wagoner in the mountains of south- ern Tuscany, his herculean strength and ready speech made him widely known throughout his native region, when a somewhat wild and dissipated youth was suddenly converted into an ascetic of the severest type, dwelling in a hermitage on Monte Labbro, and honored with revelations from God. His austerities, his visions, and his prophecies soon brought him disciples, many of whom adopted his mode of life, and the peasants of Arcidosso revered him as a prophet. He claimed that, as early as 1848, he had been called to the task of regenerating the world, and that his sudden conversion was caused by a vision of St. Peter, who imprinted on his forehead a mark (0 + C) in attestation of his mission. He was by no means consistent in his successive stages of develop- ment. A patriot volunteer in 1860, he subsequently upheld the cause of the Church against the assaults of heretic Germany, but in 1876 his book, " My Struggle with God," reveals his aspirations towards the headship of a new faith, and describes him as carried to heaven and discoursing with God, though he still professed himself faithful to Rome and to the papacy. The Church dis- dained his aid and condemned his errors, and he became a heresi- 1311, No. 66-70 : aim. 1318, No. 44.— Archiv. di Firenze, Prov. S. Maria Novella, 1327, Ott. 31.— Franz Ehrle, Archiv fur Lit.- n. Kirchengeschichte, 1885, p. 160. — D'Argentre I. i. 33G-7.— Cantu, Eretici d'ltalia, 1. 133..
 * Archiv fur Litt.- u. Kirchengeschichte, 1887, pp. 51, 144-5. — Raynald. aim.