Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/182

 166 THE FRATICELLI. ment of sufficient importance for him to publicly proclaim sym- pathy with them, to collect them around him, and have Tommaso of Aquino celebrate mass for him. Francesco Marchisio, Arch- deacon of Salerno, was a Fraticello, in spite of which he was ele- vated to the see of Trivento in 1362, and occupied it till his death about twenty years later. In 1372 Gregory XI. was shocked to learn that in Sicily the bones of Fraticelli were venerated as the relics of saints, that chapels and churches were built in their honor, and that on their anniversaries the populace flocked thither with candles to worship them ; but it is not likely that his instructions to the inquisitors to put an end to these unseemly manifestations of mistaken piety were successful. At Perugia, in 1368, the mag- istrates were induced to throw many of the Fraticelli into prison, but to so little purpose that the people persisted in regarding them as the true children of St. Francis and in giving them shelter, while the Franciscans were despised on account of the laxity of their observance, the luxury of their houses, the costliness of their vest- ments, and the profusion of their table. They were ridiculed and insulted in the streets until they scarce dared to venture in public ; if one chanced to let the collar of his shirt show above his gown, some one would pull up the linen and ask the jeering crowd if this was the austerity of St. Francis. As a last resort, in 1374, they sent for Paoluccio of Foligno and a public disputation was arranged with the Fraticelli. Paoluccio turned the tide of popular favor by proving that obedience to the pope was of greater moment than obedience to the Eule, and the Fraticelli were driven from the town. Even then the Inquisition seems not to have dared to pros- ecute them.* The proselyting efforts of the Fraticelli were by no means con- fined to Italy. Believing themselves the only true Church, it was their duty to carry salvation throughout the world, and there were No. 16; ann. 1372, No. 36.— Wadding, ann. 1374, No. 19-23.— Pet. Rodulphii Hist. Seraph. Relig. Lib. n. fol. 154 a. Perugia at this period was a centre of religious excitement. A certain Piero Garigh, who seems to have been in some way connected with the Fraticelli, gave himself out as the Son of God, and dignified his disciples with the names of apostles. In the brief allusion which we have to him he is said to have obtained ten of these and to be in search of an eleventh. His fate is not recorded. — Pro- cessus contra Valdenses (Archivio Storico Italiano, 1865, No. 39, p. 50).
 * Tocco, Archivio Storico Napoletano, 1887, Fasc. 1. — Raynald. ann. 1368,