THE APOSTLES PERSECUTED. 107 for Segarelli, and for his sake protected the Apostles, which serves to account for their uninterrupted growth. In 1286, however, three of the brethren misbehaved flagrantly at Bologna, and were summarily hanged by the podesta. This seems to have drawn at- tention to the sectaries, for about the same time Honorius IV. issued a bull especially directed against them. They were com- manded to abandon their peculiar vestments and enter some recog- nized order ; prelates were required to enforce obedience by im- prisonment, with recourse, if necessary, to the secular arm, and the faithful at large were ordered not to give them alms or hospitality. The Order was thus formally proscribed. Bishop Opizo hastened to obey. He banished the brethren from his diocese and impris- oned Segarelli in chains, but subsequently relenting kept him in his palace as a jester, for when filled with wine the Apostle could be amusing.* For some years we hear little of Segarelli and his disciples. The papal condemnation discouraged them, but it received scant obedience. Their numbers may have diminish ed, and public charity may have been to some extent withdrawn, but they were still nu- merous, they continued lo wear the white mantle, and to be sup- ported in their wandering life. The best evidence that the bull of Honorius failed in its purpose is the fact that in 1291 Nicholas IY. deemed its reissue necessary. They were now in open antagonism to the Holy See — rebels and schismatics, rapidly ripening into her- etics, and fair subjects of persecution. Accordingly, in 1494, we hear of four of them — two men and two women — burned at Parma, and of Segarelli' s condemnation to perpetual imprisonment by Bishop Opizo. There is also an allusion to an earnest missionary of the sect, named Stephen, dangerous on account of the eloquence of his preaching, who was burned by the Inquisition. Segarelli had saved his life by abjuration , possibly after a few years he may have been released, but he did not abandon his errors ; the Inquisi- tor of Parma, Fra Manfredo, convicted him as a relapsed heretic, and he was burned in Parma in 1300. An active persecution fol- lowed of his disciples. Many were apprehended by the Inquisition
- Salimbene, pp. 117, 371. — Mag. Bull. Rom. 1. 158. — At the same time Hono-
rius approved the Orders of the Carmelites and of St. William of the Desert (Raynald. aun. 1286, No. 3G, 37).
