THE GUGLIELMITES. 99 nest believers, went to the Franciscan convent, where they learned from Fra Daniele da Ferno that Fra Guidone de Cocchenato and the rest of the inquisitors had no power to act, as their commis- sions had been annulled by the pope, and that Fra Pagano di Pie- tra Santa had a bull to that effect. Some intrigue would seem to be behind this, which it would be interesting to disentangle, for we meet here with old acquaintances. Fra Guidone is doubtless the same inquisitor whom we have seen in 1279 participating in the punishment of Corrado da Yenosta, and Fra Pagano has come before us as the subject of a prosecution for heresy in 1295. Pos- sibly it was this which now stimulated his zeal against the inquisi- tors, for when the Guglielmites called upon him the next day he produced the bull and urged them to appear, and thus afford him evidence that the inquisitors were discharging their functions — evidence for which he said that he would willingly give twenty- five lire. It is a striking proof of the impenetrable secrecy in which the operations of the Inquisition were veiled that he had been anxiously and vainly seeking to obtain testimony as to who were really discharging the duties of the tribunal ; when, latterly, a heretic had been burned at Balsemo he had sent thither to find out who had rendered the sentence, but was unable to do so. Then the Guglielmites applied to the Abbot of Chiaravalle and to one of his monks, Marchisio di Yeddano, himself suspected of Gug- lielmitism. These asked to have a copy of the bull, and one was duly made by a notary and given to them, which they took to the Archbishop of Milan at Cassano, and asked him to place the in- vestigation of the matter in their hands. He promised to inter- vene, but if he did so he was probably met with the information, which had been speedily elicited from the culprits, that they held Boniface VIII. not to be pope, and consequently that the arch- bishop whom he had created was not archbishop. Either in this or in some other way the prelate's zeal was refrigerated, and he offered no opposition to the proceedings.*
- Ogniben, pp. 21, 40, 42, 78-9.
Dionese de' Novati deposed (p. 93) that Maifreda was in the habit of saying that Boniface was not truly pope, and that another pontiff had been created. We have seen that the Spiritual Franciscans had gone through the form of electing a new pope. There was not much in common between them and the Guglielmites, and yet this would point to some relations as existing.
