The
Inquisitors were in some instances satisfied with the most superficial
retraction, in others it even happened that the victim was saved out of
their hands on the way to the place of execution. In Bologna (1452) the
priest Niccolo da Verona had been publicly degraded on a wooden
scaffold in front of San Domenico as a wizard and profaner of the
sacraments, and was about to be led away to the stake, when he was set
free by a gang of armed men, sent by Achille Malvezzi, a noted friend
of heretics and violator of nuns. The legate, Cardinal Bessarion, was
only able to catch and hang one of the party; Malvezzi lived on in
peace.
It deserves to be noticed that the higher monastic orders-- e.g.
Benedictines, with their many branches--were, notwithstanding their
great wealth and easy lives, far less disliked than the mendicant
friars. For ten novels which treat of 'frati' hardly one can be found
in which a 'monaco' is the subject and the victim. It was no small
advantage to these orders that they were founded earlier, and not as an
instrument of police, and that they did not interfere with private
life. They contained men of learning, wit, and piety, but the average
has been described by a member of it, Firenzuola, who says: 'These
well-fed gentlemen with the capacious cowls do not pass their time in
barefooted journeys and in sermons, but sit in elegant slippers with
their hands crossed over their paunches, in charming cells wainscoted
with cyprus-wood.
Pages:
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527