1 Vauchez, André, Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages , trans. Birrell, Jean (Cambridge, 1997), 256 table 10. I appreciate the comments of Dyan Elliott, Leah Shopkow, Ann Carmichael, Wolfgang Müller, and the anonymous readers of earlier versions of this article. This study has greatly benefited from their suggestions and advice; any errors or omissions that remain are mine alone. I would also like to thank Barbara Newman for allowing me to read two of her articles used in this study prior to their publication.Google Scholar

2 Michael Goodich discussed how papal canonizations were used to reward loyalty to the pope during the period of papal-imperial struggles in the late Middle Ages (Vita Perfecta: The Ideal of Sainthood in the Thirteenth Century [Stuttgart, 1982], 40). Tore Nyberg identified this requirement with the modern stipulation that the postulant saint be in agreement with “the intentions of the Holy Father” (“The Canonization Process of St. Birgitta of Sweden,” in Medieval Canonization Processes , ed. Klaniczay, Gábor, Collection de l'École française de Rome 30 [Rome, 2004], 80).Google Scholar

3 The extant documents regarding Armanno and his cult are in Modena, Archivio di Stato, Biblioteca, MSS nr. 132, 11v-32r. Most recently Gabriele Zanella edited the documents in his Itinerari ereticali patari e catari tra Rimini e Verona, Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo, Studi Storici 153 (Rome, 1986), 48-102. Although the documents are varied, recent scholarship refers to Zanella's edited collection as “Acta contra Armannum Pungilupum,” a practice I will henceforth follow for ease of reference and to differentiate Zanella's introduction from the sources. Substantial studies of Armanno have been published by Benati, Amedeo, “Armanno Pungilupo nella storia ferrarese del 1200,” Analecta Pomposiana 2 (1966): 85–123, and idem, “Frater Armannus Pungilupus: Alla ricerca di una identità,” Analecta Pomposiana 7 (1982): 7-57, as well as by Zanella, Gabriele, “Armanno Pungilupo, eretico quotidiana,” Rendic. Accad. Bologna 66 (1977-78): 153-64. See also shorter discussions in Thompson, Augustine, Cities of God: The Religion of the Italian Communes, 1125-1325 (University Park, 2005), 270-71, 430-33; Lansing, Carol, Power and Purity: Cathar Heresy in Medieval Italy (New York, 1998), 92-95; and Wessley, Stephen, “Enthusiasm and Heresy in the Year 1300” (PhD diss., Columbia University, 1976), 190-213.Google Scholar

4 “Acta contra Armannum Pungilupum,” 48–90.Google Scholar

5 “E senza dubbio l'avrebbe preso, e forse morto, se non che il Marchese Azzo con molti armati corsero al detto luogo, e fecero ritornare ciascuno indietro” (Bartolomeo of Ferrara, Libro del Polistore ab anno 1287 usque ad 1347 , ed. Muratori, L., Rerum Italicarum Scriptores 24, 2 [Milan, 1738], 707).Google Scholar

6 “Acta contra Armannum Pungilupum,” 93–97.Google Scholar

7 For a description of this development, see Vauchez, , Sainthood, 33-58 and Molinari, Paul, “Saints and Miracles,” The Way 17 (1978): 287–99, at 291.Google Scholar

8 Vauchez, , Sainthood, 99; on the process and power of communal consensus see Kleinberg, Aviad, “Proving Sanctity: Selection and Authentication of Saints in the Later Middle Ages,” Viator 20 (1989): 191–97.Google Scholar

9 The inquisitio also became the means by which heterodoxy was “discovered.” For specific procedures see Kelly, Henry, Inquisitions and Other Trial Procedures in the Medieval West (Aldershot, 2001); and Blaher, Damian Joseph, The Ordinary Processes in Causes of Beatification and Canonization, Catholic University of America Canon Law Studies 268 (Washington, DC, 1949). For similarities between canonization and inquisitorial processes see Annie Cazanave, “Aveu et contrition: Manuels de confesseurs et interrogatories d'Inquisition en Languedoc et en Catalogne (XIIIe-XIVe siècles),” in La piété populaire au moyen âge: actes du Congrès national des sociétés savantes, Besançon, 1974, tome 1 (Paris, 1977), 333-52; and Elliott, Dyan, Proving Woman: Female Spirituality and Inquisitional Culture in the Later Middle Ages (Princeton, 2004), 119-79.Google Scholar

10 Vauchez, , Sainthood , 64–67.Google Scholar

11 For general introductions to Catharism see Barber, Malcolm, The Cathars: Dualist Heretics in Languedoc in the High Middle Ages (New York, 2000); Lambert, Malcolm D., Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from the Gregorian Reform to the Reformation, 3rd ed. (Oxford, 2002), 62-69, 115-57; idem, The Cathars (Oxford, 1998); and O'shea, Stephen, The Perfect Heresy: The Revolutionary Life and Death of the Medieval Cathars (New York, 2000).Google Scholar

12 For differences within Cathar beliefs, see of Alexandria, Anselm, Tractatus de hereticis , translated in Wakefield, Walter L. and Evans, Austin P., “An Inquisitor's Notebook, by Anselm of Alessandria,” in Heresies of the High Middle Ages (New York, 1991), 361–72, at 369.Google Scholar

13 “Acta contra Armannum Pungilupum,” 67. For techniques inquisitors used to promote confession and abjuration, see Given, James, Inquisition and Medieval Society (Ithaca, 1997), 52–65; for an overview of the inquisitorial process, see Elliott, , Proving Woman, 121-27; on the necessity of abjuration see Lea, H. C., A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, 3 vols. (New York, 1888; repr. 2005), 1:457-58; on monetary fines as penance see ibid., 1:471-74.Google Scholar

14 “Acta contra Armannum Pungilupum” (n. 3 above), 72. In 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council canon 21 decreed that all Christians must confess and receive the Eucharist at least once a year (Schroeder, H.J., Disciplinary Decrees of the General Councils [St. Louis, 1937], canon 21, 570).Google Scholar

15 “Acta contra Armannum Pungilupum,” 23.Google Scholar

16 The questioning of the first inquisitorial deponents occurred early in 1270.Google Scholar

17 See the discussion of thirteenth-century modes of authenticating miracles in Klaniczay, Gábor, “Proving Sanctity in the Canonization Processes (Saint Elizabeth and Saint Margaret of Hungary),” in idem, Canonization Processes (n. 2 above), 123–24.Google Scholar

18 Pope Gregory IX outlined guidelines for authenticating the veracity of witnessed miracles in his 1232 bull asking for a new investigation for the canonization of Elizabeth of Hungary: “First they [i.e., the witnesses] have to make an oath, then they should be thoroughly examined, [as to] how they got to know about it, what time, which month, which day, in whose presence, in what place, to whose invocation did it happen, what was the wording resorted to, and what was the name of those in whose presence these miracles were said to be accomplished, and if they had seen them [the cured people] when they were ill, and [if so] how long did this illness last, what was the city they originated from, and [the investigators] should ask them diligently about all the circumstances” (Avray, Lucien, ed., Les Registres de Grégoire IX I, 3 [Paris, 1896], col. 548, no. 913, translation following Klaniczay, “Proving Sanctity,” 121-22).Google Scholar

19 “Acta contra Armannum Pungilupum,” 73; for a discussion of the importance of miracles for the establishment of saints' cults see Thompson, , Cities (n. 3 above), 202–6.Google Scholar

20 “Acta contra Armannum Pungilupum,” 76.Google Scholar

21 Ibid., 50.Google Scholar

22 For a contemporary description of these practices, see Gui, Bernard, Practica inquisitionis heretice pravitatis, translated as The Inquisitor's Guide: A Medieval Manual on Heretics , ed. and trans. Shirley, Janet (Welwyn Garden City, UK, 2006), 38–40.Google Scholar

23 “Acta contra Armannum Pungilupum,” 51, 52, 59.Google Scholar

24 For examples of how both the orthodox and the heterodox in communities treated Cathars, see Mark Pegg's study of Bernart de Caux's inquisitional records from southern France; Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie's seminal study of a thirteenth-century Languedocian village ( The Corruption of Angels: The Great Inquisition of 1245-1246 [Princeton, 2001]; and idem, Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error , trans. Bray, Barbara [New York, 1978], respectively).Google Scholar

25 “Acta contra Armannum Pungilupum” (n. 3 above), 57.Google Scholar

26 Bernard of Luxembourg, for instance, compared heretics to lepers, both being contagious and a danger to the community (Catalogus haereticorum [Cologne, 1522], fol. 4v). See Moore, R. I., “Heresy as Disease,” in The Concept of Heresy in the Middle Ages (11th-13th c): Proceedings of the International Conference, Louvain, May 13-16, 1973 , ed. Lourdaux, W. and Verhelst, D. (Leuven, 1983), 1–11.Google Scholar

27 “Acta contra Armannum Pungilupum,” 60.Google Scholar

28 Ibid., 55.Google Scholar

29 Ibid., 50, 54.Google Scholar

30 “Quia sancte conversationis et vite dum viveret inditia pretendebat quamquam sub agni spetie lupi astutiam gereret ac sub quodam pietatis aspectus impietatis nequitiam occultaret” (“Acta contra Armannum Pungilupum,” 91).Google Scholar

31 Ibid., 50; discussion in Benati, , “Frater Armannus” (n. 3 above), 15–17.Google Scholar

32 “Acta contra Armannum Pungilupum,” 49.Google Scholar

33 Ibid., 62; see also 50-51, 57, 59. The term “Patarine” (patharenus) originally referred to an eleventh-century Milanese reform movement, but came to designate any type of heretic. As Zanella explained in his introduction to the documents in Armanno's case, “Patarino' doveva ormai [i.e., the thirteenth century] significare semplicemente ogni oppositore del pontefice o del clero, dopo la risonanza delle vicende milanesi” (Zanella, , Itinerari ereticali [n. 3 above], 5). In calling Armanno a Patarine, therefore, the deponent was claiming he was a Cathar heretic, i.e., an orthodox member of the Roman church. On the history of the Patarines, see Lambert, , Medieval Heresy (n. 12 above), 44-45; Moore, R. I., The Origins of European Dissent (New York, 1985), 40; and Violante, Cinzio, “I laici nel movimento patarino,” in idem, Studi sulla christianità medioevale (Milan, 1972), 75-120.Google Scholar

34 Thompson, , Cities (n. 3 above), 432–33.Google Scholar

35 “Acta contra Armannum Pungilupum” (n. 3 above), 105–7.Google Scholar

36 Clarke, Peter D., The Interdict in the Thirteenth Century: A Question of Collective Guilt (New York, 2007), 21–28 on collective guilt, 59-74 on types of interdict, and 130-68 on the terms of an interdict.Google Scholar

37 “Acta contra Armannum Pungilupum,” 86.Google Scholar

38 Ibid., 86, 87, and 88.Google Scholar

39 Ibid., 88.Google Scholar

40 The papal chair had been empty from 1268 until pope Gregory X was elected in December 1271. Gregory X was not consecrated until March 27, 1272; in the meantime, cardinal Orsini appears to have remained in charge of the situation in Ferrara (Benati, , “Frater Armannus,” 12–14). Orsini was later elected pope in 1277, taking the name Nicholas III.Google Scholar

41 The order was read on 4 June 1272 in the chapter of the Dominicans at Bologna (Ferrara, Biblioteca Comunale Ariostea, MS Cl. I, 445/2, 321-3, 286r-287v, transcribed in Benati, , “Frater Armannus,” 43–44 and “Acta contra Armannum Pungilupum,” 105-7).Google Scholar

42 Besides the witnesses questioned in 1270, further testimony against Armanno was taken in 1273, 1274, 1283, 1285, 1288, and 1289.Google Scholar

43 “Acta contra Armannum Pungilupum,” 79–84 for the new testimony; 72-79 and 84-85 for the authenticated earlier testimony.Google Scholar

44 Ibid., 72.Google Scholar

45 Ibid., 94.Google Scholar

46 Ibid., 93–97.Google Scholar

47 A standard study on how torture has been used to discover “truth” is Peters, Edward, Torture (New York 1985; repr. Philadelphia, 1999), especially 40-73.Google Scholar

48 Lansing, Carol (Power and Purity [n. 3 above], 93) described the documents regarding Armanno as presenting “a sort of Sic et Non,” referring to the famed twelfth-century work of Abelard, in which he presented contrasting viewpoints on Christian doctrine made by Church authorities. Abelard's contention was that these differences should be reconciled, using human reason to underscore faith. Abelard, however, did not himself attempt to resolve the discrepancies, so what he left was a list of contradictory opinions. Similarly, the surviving documents regarding Armanno present contrasting opinions with no resolution that accounts for all the evidence.Google Scholar

49 For examples of these motivations in an earlier historical context, see Geary, Patrick, Furta Sacra: Thefts of Relics in the Central Middle Ages (Princeton, 1978; repr. 1990), 58–74.Google Scholar

50 Melloni, G. B., Atti e memorie degli uomini illustri in santità nati o morti in Bologna (Bologna, 1773), 378–79; discussed in Benati, , “Armanno Pungilupo” (n. 3 above), 118.Google Scholar

51 “È umano che i canonici portuensi, che in Ferrara possedevano l'importante priorato di S. Maria in Vado, considerassero quella cessione come un sopruso compiuto ai loro danni dall'invadenza dei Domenicani” (ibid., 118-19).Google Scholar

52 The tertiary orders were penitent laypersons who took limited vows of poverty and chastity. For their history, see Meersseman, G. G., Dossier de l'Ordre de la pénitence au XIIIe siècle (Fribourg, 1961; repr. 1982); Vauchez, André, The Laity in the Middle Ages: Religious Beliefs and Devotional Practices (Notre Dame, 1993), 119-27; and idem, “Pénitents au Moyen Age,” in Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique: doctrine et histoire, 17 vols. (Paris, 1984), 12:1010-23.Google Scholar

53 It was not until Pope Boniface VIII's decree of 1301, Super Cathedram, that friars were officially required to first obtain the local bishop's permission to preach (Douie, Decima, The Conflict between the Seculars and the Mendicants at the University of Paris in the Thirteenth Century , The Aquinas Society of London, Aquinas Paper 23 [London, 1954], 4).Google Scholar

54 Ibid., 3–4.Google Scholar

55 Paolini, Lorenzo and Orioli, Raniero, eds., Acta S. Officii Bononie ab anno 1291 usque ad annum 1310 , 2 vols., Fonti per la storia d'Italia 106 (Rome, 1982-84), 1:151 for the cleric who helped the charged heretic, and 1:38-39 for the burial of Rosaflora. Discussions of these cases can be found in Lorenzo Paolini, “L'eresia catara alla fine del duecento,” in Paolini and Raniero Orioli, L'eresia a Bologna fra XIII e XIV secolo, Studi storici 93-96 (Rome, 1975), 44-45, 135-36; Lansing, , Power and Purity, 151-52; and Thompson, , Cities (n. 3 above), 433-35.Google Scholar

56 Lawrence, C. H., Medieval Monasticism (New York, 1984; repr. 1989), 268.Google Scholar

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58 An oratory for penitents on a nearby mountain also became the property of the Augustinians after his death ( Meco del Sacco , ed. DeSantis, , 36, 53).Google Scholar

59 Meco's successful appeal of his sentence occurred in 1338; a decision in the Augustinian's favor in the lawsuit was reached in 1341 (“Inquisizione … Meco,” 290-93).Google Scholar

60 “Acta contra Armannum Pungilupum” (n. 3 above), 86.Google Scholar

61 Wessley, , “Enthusiasm and Heresy” (n. 3 above), 202 n. 4; Benati, , “Armanno” (n. 3 above), 90-91. Bad blood between the orders continued, for in 1292 there was discord between the Benedictine abbey of Pomposa and the Franciscans (Benati, , “Armanno,” 118-20).Google Scholar

62 In 1240, Azzo VII d'Este had seized total power of Ferrara, in essence signaling the end of communal rule (in which his ancestors had participated, serving as podestà) and ushering in the period of “perpetual lordship” (the lord in question is often misleadingly referred to as a “despot” in English). Many of these signori sought to expand their control over not just the contado or countryside but also over neighboring towns. For a discussion of this process see Jones, Philip, The Italian City-State: From Commune to Signoria (Oxford, 1997), 619–50.Google Scholar

63 Partner, Peter, The Lands of St. Peter: The Papal States in the Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance (London, 1972), 291.Google Scholar

64 For a general discussion, see Webb, Diana, Patrons and Defenders: The Saints in the Italian City-States (New York, 1996).Google Scholar

65 “Sed propter multitudinem populi undique confluentis ad ipsum tangendum, pluribus diebus inhumatum nec fuit sepulturae traditum” (Gorini, Joannes, “Beati Petri de Fulgineo Confessons,” Analecta Bollandiana 8 [1889]: 358–69, here 369).Google Scholar

66 Vatican City, Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Congregazione dei Riti, il processo della canonizzazione 3021 (Henry of Bolzano, 1768), article VIII, 40 (contemporary pagination).Google Scholar

67 Vatican City, Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Congregazione dei Riti , il processo della canonizzazione 1315 (Zita of Lucca, 1694-95), fol. 132r.Google Scholar

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72 On the practice of general amnesty, see Vauchez, , Sainthood , 153.Google Scholar

73 His vita is published in the AS, I Aug. 3 col. 160-63.Google Scholar

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75 Both inquiries were halted when the lord Cangrande della Scala attacked Treviso (ASV, Congregazione dei Riti [n. 66 above], proc. 3021, testimony of Pietro Domenico Monigo, p. lx of depositions).Google Scholar

76 Vauchez, André, ed., “Sainteté laïque aux XIIIe siècle: la vie du bienheureux Facio de Crémone,” Mélanges d'École française de Rome: Moyen Âge 84 (1972): 13–55.Google Scholar

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78 No canonizations at all occurred during this time (Vauchez, , Sainthood [n. 1 above], tables 10-18, 257–74).Google Scholar

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80 The inquisitorial process is edited by Benedetti, Marina, Milano 1300: I processi inquisitoriali contro le devote e i devoti di santa Guglielma (Milan, 1999). The scholarship on the Guglielmites has been growing. The most recent work on the group includes Benedetti, Marina, Io non sono Dio: Guglielma di Milano e i Figli dello Spirito santo (Milan, 1998); Barbara Newman's studies “The Heretic Saint: Guglielma of Bohemia, Milan, and Brunate,” Church History 74 (2005): 1-38; and “Agnes of Prague and Guglielma of Milan,” in The Yale Guide to Medieval Holy Women , ed. Voaden, Rosalynn and Minnis, Alastair (New Haven, forthcoming 2008); and Peterson, Janine Larmon, “Social Roles, Gender Inversion, and the Heretical Sect: The Case of the Guglielmites,” Viator 35 (2004): 203-19.Google Scholar

81 Wessley, , “Enthusiasm” (n. 3 above), 184.Google Scholar

82 The same year he also oversaw the dismantling of a lay penitent movement headed by Gerard Segarelli. For discussion see Wessley, Stephen, “Enthusiasm,” 214–59; Carniello, Brian, “Gerardo Segarelli as the Anti-Francis: Mendicant Rivalry and Heresy in Medieval Italy 1260-1300,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 57 (2006): 226-51; Goodich, , Vita Perfecta (n. 2 above), 198-203; Lambert, , Medieval Heresy, 219-22; and Lea, , Inquisition (n. 3 above), 3:103-9.Google Scholar

83 “Acta contra Armannum Pungilupum,” 71.Google Scholar

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86 Bartolomeo of Ferrara, Polistore , ed. Muratori, (n. 5 above), 706. This is a different Beatrice from the previously mentioned Beatrice II d'Este who was venerated as a saint.Google Scholar

87 Within twenty years of the Visconti-Este marriage the Estes had switched sides, and the heads of the family, Rainaldo and Obizzo, were themselves charged with heresy by Pope John XXII. Matteo and Galeazzo Visconti would become the subjects of an inquisitorial investigation about the same time. For the Este trial, see Bock, F., ed., “Der Este-Prozess von 1321,” Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 7 (1937): 41–111. For the Visconti, see Michel, Robert, ed., “Le procès de Matteo et de Galeazzo Visconti,” Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire 19 (1909): 269-327; and also Besozzi, L., “I processi canonici contro Galeazzo Visconti,” Archivio storico Lombardo 107 (1981): 235-45.Google Scholar

88 For the increased importance of the act of canonization during this period see Vauchez, , Sainthood (n. 1 above), 61–84.Google Scholar

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