Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/219

GIOVANNI DA VICENZA. 003 prisoners. Sharp as was this experience, it did not dull the edge of Rolando's zeal, for the next year we find him at work in the Milanese, where he received rough treatment at the hands of Lantelmo, a noble who sheltered heretics in his castle near Lodi -tor this Lantelmo was condemned to be led through the streets stripped and with a halter around his neck, to Eolando's presence' and there to accept such penance as the friar, at command of the pope, might enjoin on him. A month later we hear of his seizin., two Florentine merchants, Feriabente and Capso, with all their goods. They evidently were persons of importance, for Greo-orv ordered their release in view of having received bail for them in the enormous sum of two thousand silver marks.* During this transition period, while the Inquisition was slowly taking shape, one of the most notable of the Dominicans eno-a^ed m the work of persecution was Giovanni Schio da Vicenza° I have alluded m a previous chapter to his marvellous career as a pacificator, and it may perhaps not be unjust to assume that his motive in employing his unequalled eloquence in harmonizing dis- cordant factions was not only the Christian desire for peace" but also to remove the obstruction to persecution caused byperiietual strife, for in almost all these movements we mav tra^e the con nection between heresy and politics. After his wonderful success at Bologna, Gregory urged him to undertake a similar mission to Horence, where constant civic war was accompanied by recrudes cence of heresy. In spite of the efforts of the embryonic Inquisi- tion there, heresy was undisguised, and the ministers of Clirist were openly opposed and ridiculed. Gregory assumed that Gio- vanni acted under the direct inspiration of the Holy Ghost and did not venture to send him orders, but only requests. He 'was, like all his colleagues, popularly regarded as a thaumaturgist, and ^^^ « Epistt. S.C. XIII. T. I. No. 559. - Raynald. ann. 1333, No. 40. - Ripol, I. Probably about this period may have occurred the incident related of Mone a the d ,e of St, Dominic, whose efforts against the heretics of LonCy are sa.d to have aroused their animosity to the point that a noble named Pe do hired an assass.n to despatch him. Word was brought to Moueta who se z 1 ! crucfix and assembled a band of the faithful, with "whom he capt^^ed P do and the bravo, delivered them to tl>e secular authorities, and they wefe I 'h burned alive.-Ricchini Vit. Monet*, p. viii. ^