'Therefore may the
earth open and swallow up the wretches alive, with those who protect
them.' In another place Masuccio, speaking of the fact that the
influence of the monks depends chiefly on the dread of another world,
utters the following remarkable wish: 'The best punishment for them
would be for God to abolish Purgatory; they would then receive no more
alms, and would be forced to go back to their spades.'
If men were free to write, in the time of Ferrante, and to him, in this
strain, the reason is perhaps to be found in the fact that the king
himself had been incensed by a false miracle which had been palmed off
on him. An attempt had been made to urge him to a persecution of the
Jews, like that carried out in Spain and imitated by the Popes, by
producing a tablet with an inscription bearing the name of St.
Cataldus, said to have been buried at Taranto, and afterwards dug up
again. When he discovered the fraud, the monks defied him. He had also
managed to detect and expose a pretended instance of fasting, as his
father, Alfonso, had done before him. The Court, certainly, was no
accomplice in maintaining these blind superstitions.
We have been quoting from an author who wrote in earnest, and who by no
means stands alone in his judgement. All the Italian literature of that
time is full of ridicule and invective aimed at the begging friars.
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