Proving Woman (37 page)

¹⁴³
Bellacara and Stephanus de Crimella both seem to associate the ceremonial garb with the impending canonization (ibid., pp.
64, 234–36), while others were convinced that it was for the resurrection (Girardus, pp. 72, 92, 96–98, 268; cf. Flordebellina,
p. 108). When interrogated on these matters, Myranus of Saint Firmus stipulates that Guglielma would rise from the dead in
the presence of her followers (p. 74; cf. p. 72).

¹⁴⁴
Cf. Newman,
From Virile Woman
, p. 191.

¹⁴⁵
Processi . . . Guglielma
, Myranus of Saint Firmus, p. 74; Bellacara, p. 64; Mayfreda, p. 80; Flordebellina, p. 106; Agnes, p. 110; Jacoba, p. 114;
Petra and Katella, p. 118; Franceschinus, p. 142; Sibilia, p. 156; Ottorinus, son of Gasparrus de Garbagniate, p. 165. Sibilia
reports that when she was suffering from a fever, Mayfreda sent her three such hosts (p. 84).

¹⁴⁶
Andreas later bought the monk a new scapular (ibid., Myranus of Saint Firmus, p. 180). Regarding the water, also see Mayfreda,
p. 80; Flordebellina, p. 106.

¹⁴⁷
Ibid., Myranus of Saint Firmus, p. 74.

¹⁴⁸
Ibid., Stephanus, p. 236; Danisius, p. 240. But despite these seemingly licit venues, the sectarians also camouflaged some
of their devotions, labeling depictions of Guglielma as Saint Catherine (Myranus of Saint Firmus, p. 72). The sectarians also,
of course, had their own private images (Stephanus, p. 272).

¹⁴⁹
Ibid., Alegrantia, p. 136; Andreas, p. 144; Bellacara, p. 146; Stephana, wife of Filixinus Karentanus, pp. 148–50; Taria,
daughter of the late Johannes Pontarius, p. 152; Petra, wife of Myranus de Garbagniate, p. 160; Bonadeus, son of the late
Anselmus Karentanus, p. 184; Johanna, daughter of Bonadeus Karentanus, p. 188; Jacoba, p. 190; Girardus, pp. 268, 270.

¹⁵⁰
Lea,
Inquisition
, 3:102.

¹⁵¹
“Here are many reasons for the devotion to this Albert: because the infirm wished to regain their health, because the curious
merely wanted to see novelties, because the clerks had envy toward the modern religious Orders, and because the bishops and
canons wished to gain money,” Salimbene,
The Chronicle of Salimbene de Adam
, trans. Joseph Baird et al. (Binghamton, N.Y.: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1986), p. 514 [736]. Also see
n. 113, above.

¹⁵²
Newman,
From Virile Woman
, pp. 189–90.

¹⁵³
The designation of “brothers” could be interpreted as signifying the Dominican inquisitors, although they are almost invariably
referred to as
inquisitores
throughout the record. The fact that these events were ostensibly staged in the Cistercian abbey would seem to make the monks
themselves more likely candidates.

¹⁵⁴
Processi . . . Guglielma
, Girardus, p. 96.

¹⁵⁵
Marchixius, son of the late Demianus Sichi, is already arguing that the monks bought Guglielma’s house for her, presumably
in an attempt to forestall its seizure or destruction. The register identifies this witness simply as living in the monastery;
thus Lea assumes he is a monk. But his personal ownership of property suggests a lay status (
Processi . . . Guglielma
, p. 304; see Lea,
Inquisition
, 3:102).

¹⁵⁶
See Lea,
Inquisition
, 3:91–92; Newman is also inclined to see Guglielma as orthodox, though she entertains the other possibility as well (
From Virile Woman
, pp. 187–88). Muraro, however, accepts the testimony of Andreas and Mayfreda and thus assumes that the root of the heresy
originated with Guglielma, but it was elaborated by her followers. See, for example,
Guglielma
e Maifreda
, pp. 26–27, and passim. Wessley also entertains the possibility of Guglielma’s heretical leanings (“Enthusiasm and Heresy,”
pp. 55–57). Also see Wessley’s discussion of the attitude of past scholars (“The Guglielmites,” pp. 290–92).

¹⁵⁷
Mayfreda admitted that she had heard this many times. But the inquisitors inscrutably neither affirmed nor denied the rumor
(
Processi . . . Guglielma
, Mayfreda, p. 102).

¹⁵⁸
Ibid., Andreas, pp. 196–98. This particular tale, however, is told in the course of his fifth interrogation. The third interrogation,
in which he denies that Guglielma had ever made this claim, occurred a week earlier (p. 172).

¹⁵⁹
Cf. Newman,
From Virile Woman
, p. 187; and Muraro,
Guglielma e Maifreda
, pp. 26–28.

¹⁶⁰
Processi . . . Guglielma
, Sibilia, p. 214.

¹⁶¹
Ibid., Francischus, p. 220 (on the political context that may have prompted Guglielma to make such a remark, see Wessley,
“The Guglielmites,” pp. 297–98). Andreas said that Guglielma used the same words as Christ regarding his death and resurrection:
namely, “A little while, and now you shall not see me; and again a little while, and you shall see me” (John 16.16). Andreas
was not actually present at the time but heard of this utterance through Jacobus de Ferno (
Processi
. . . Guglielma
, p. 170).

¹⁶²
Processi . . . Guglielma
, Andreas, p. 196.

¹⁶³
See the testimonies of Alegrantia, ibid., p. 224; Jacobus, p. 230; Stephanus, pp. 234, 270, 278–80. Only Aydelina, wife of
Stephanus de Crimella, and Carabella refer to the visionary context (pp. 244, 246).

¹⁶⁴
Ibid., Mayfreda, p. 102. She goes on to say that Andreas claimed he had once heard Guglielma acknowledge that she was the
Holy Spirit. This interrogation occurred on 6 August. Mayfreda had been questioned four days earlier (pp. 78–80) as well as
during the previous April, although this latter testimony no longer exists.

¹⁶⁵
Ibid., Alegrantia, pp. 226–28.

¹⁶⁶
Ibid., Danisius, son of the late Sarandus Cotte, pp. 278–80; Marchixius, p. 304.

167 Wessley, “Enthusiasm and Heresy,” pp. 155–57, 148–51. Although there is no record of torture being applied in the course
of this inquisition, no scholar seems to doubt that it was used, and used freely. This is the only way to explain some of
the dramatic reversals in confession that occur over a relatively short time. Lea describes it as customary to omit from the
record all mention of torture (
Inquisition
, 3:100).

¹⁶⁸
Andreas and Mayfreda complained to the witness, Jacobus de Ferno, about their earlier denunciation some seventeen years before
(
Processi . . . Guglielma
, p. 230). Mayfreda also describes how the inquisitor absolved her by hitting her with a stick or a rod between the shoulders—a
penance that, according to liturgist William Durand (d. 1296), should be performed when the stigma of major excommunication
is lifted (p. 78; Bellacara, p. 64; William Durand,
Le Ponti
fi
cal
romain au MoyenAge
3.8.6 [Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1940], pp. 610–11). Also see Girardus de Novazano’s testimony in n. 176,
below. With regard to the inquisition of 1296, witnesses are repeatedly asked why they failed to make certain disclosures
to the earlier inquisitor, Thomas of Como (e.g., Girardus, pp. 266, 272). Thomas will surface as one of the inquisitors later
on in the current trial. In their preamble to the record, the inquisitors also make reference to an earlier inquisition in
Milan, where a number of the present suspects had already abjured their heresy (p. 52). But nothing else remains of these
earlier inquisitions.

¹⁶⁹
See Gui,
Practica
5.4.12, p. 287. The exhumation occurred in 1318. As Gui reports, his followers, the Beguins of southern France discussed below,
had their own account of his death read reverently at their meetings.

¹⁷⁰
Marchixius follows his rather bold contention with the conciliatory reflection that “the inquisitors were wise and that those
things that were done concerning Guglielma were done legally [
de jure
]” (
Processi . . . Guglielma
, Marchixius, p. 304).

¹⁷¹
See chap. 3, p. 101, above.

¹⁷²
Caesarius of Heisterbach,
Dialogus miraculorum
5.21, ed. Joseph Strange (Cologne, Bonn, Brussels: J. M. Heberle, 1851), 1:302; trans. H. Von E. Scott and C. C. Swinton Bland,
The Dialogue on Miracles
(London: Routledge, 1929), 1:346–47; see Lea,
Inquisition
, 1:154. Although recognizing the impossibility of proving the authenticity of these famous words, Jacques Berlioz argues
that the spirit of the remarks is in keeping with what is known about Crusade and crusaders alike. See
Tuezles tous, Dieu reconna
î
tra les siens: le massacre de B
è
ziers (22 juillet 1209) et la croisade contre les Albigeois vus par C
è
saire de Heisterbach
(Portetsur-Garonne: Loubati[egrave]res, 1994). Cf. the response of Conrad Dorso and John (two confederates of Conrad of Marburg)
to public outcry over their excesses: “We would prefer to burn one hundred innocent among whom there is one guilty” (
Annales Wormatiensis
ann. 1231, ed. G. H. Pertz,
MGH SS
, 17:39).

¹⁷³
Battista Piergili,
Vita della B. Chiara detta della Croce da Montefalco
3.8 (Foligno: Ago-stino Alterij, 1640), pp. 237–38. The term “Fraticelli” refers to the Beguins of southern France, discussed
below.

¹⁷⁴
Ibid. 3.9, pp. 238–40.

¹⁷⁵
Gregory the Great,
Moralia in Iob
32.15.24, ed. Mark Adriaen,
CCSL
143b (Turnhout: Brepols, 1985), p. 1648.

¹⁷⁶
Girardus de Novazano had discovered this comment in the margin when he borrowed the psalter some fifteen years earlier. He
thought it referred to the Guglielmites’ earlier brush with the inquisition (
Processi . . . Guglielma
, pp. 94, 268).

¹⁷⁷
On the church’s eventual decision not to heed the vox populi, see Vauchez,
Sainthood
, pp. 414–24.

¹⁷⁸
Hostiensis,
Commentaria
ad X.3.45.1, no. 3, fol. 172; no. 8, p. 172a. This helps explain the tentativeness of Gerson’s challenge to Bridget of Sweden’s
canonization. See chap. 7, pp. 282–83, below.

¹⁷⁹
Vauchez,
Sainthood
, p. 337; cf. Goodich, “The Politics of Canonization in the Thirteenth Century,” pp. 176–77.

¹⁸⁰
Auvray, 31 March 1237, no. 3593.

¹⁸¹
AndréVauchez, “Les stigmates de Saint Fran ç ois et leurs detracteurs,”
MEFRM
80 (1968): 599. Richard Trexler argues that the earliest accounts of the stigmata make no mention of their divine origin,
reflecting the probability that they were self-inflicted, in keeping with ascetical precedents, such as Mary of Oignies. See
“The Stigmatized Body of Francis of Assisi: Conceived, Processed, and Disappeared,” in
Fro
ï
mmigkeit im Mittelalter: Politischsoziale Kontexte, visuelle
Praxis, ko
ï
rperliche Ausdrucksformen
, ed. Klaus Schreiner and Marc Münz (Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 2002), pp. 463–97, esp. 480 ff.

¹⁸²
Vauchez, “Les stigmates,” pp. 600–604.

¹⁸³
There are only two other such quodlibets from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. See Gaudens Mohan’s preface to his
edition of this quodlibet in “Petrus Thomae on the Stigmata of St. Francis,”
Franciscan Studies
8 (1948): 285; and Vauchez, “Les stigmates,” p. 609.

¹⁸⁴
Mohan, “Petrus Thomae,” Declaratio 1, 1–6, pp. 286–88. For some interesting reflections on imaginative distortions, medieval
and modern, see CarolineWalker Bynum, “The Woman with the Pearl Necklace,”
Common Knowledge
8 (2002): 282–83.

¹⁸⁵
Mohan, “Petrus Thomae,” Dubitatio, ad 3, p. 289–90.

¹⁸⁶
Ibid., Conclusio 1, p. 290.

¹⁸⁷
Ibid., Conclusio 2, p. 291. Mohan also notes the indebtedness to Bonaventure’s vita of Saint Francis (p. 292; see Bonaventure,
Legenda Sancti Francisci
13.9–10, in
Opera omnia
, ed. Fathers of the College of Saint Bonaventure [Florence: College of Saint Bonaventure, 1898], 8:544–45).

¹⁸⁸
Mohan, “Petrus Thomae,” Conclusio 2, p. 291.

¹⁸⁹
Ibid., Conclusio 4, p. 292.

¹⁹⁰
Livarius Oliger, ed., “Acta inquisitoris Umbriae Fr. Angeli de Assisio contra stigmata S. Francisci negantem contra fraticellos
aliosque, a. 1361,”
AFH
24 (1931): Sr. Ludovica, p. 70; Sr. Iohanna, p. 72; Sr. Helena, p. 71.

¹⁹¹
Sr. Ludovica seems to have already heard Leonardus express himself on this subject (ibid.,p. 70).

¹⁹²
Ibid., Sr. Ludovica, p. 70.

¹⁹³
Ibid., Sr. Pucciarella, p. 70.

¹⁹⁴
Ibid.

¹⁹⁵
Ibid., Sr. Helena, p. 71.

¹⁹⁶
Ibid., Sr. Pucciarella, p. 70; cf. Sr. Thomassutia, p. 71; Sr. Andrea, p. 71.

¹⁹⁷
Ibid., p. 72; for his penance, see pp. 73–74.

¹⁹⁸
Bernard Gui,
De fundatione et prioribus conventuum provinciarum Tolosanae et provinciae
Ordinis Praedicatorum
, ed. P. A. Amargier, Monumenta Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum Historica, 24 (Rome: Institutum Historicum Fratrum Praedicatorum,
1961), pp. 202–4; see Alan Fried-lander’s
The Hammer of the Inquisitors: Brother Bernard D
è
licieux and the Struggle against the
Inquisition in Fourteenth-Century France
(Leiden: Brill, 2000), pp. 105, 300.

¹⁹⁹
See the brief interrogatory designed for questioning Cathars, the Concorrezo (a particular sect of Cathars), and Waldensians
(Ignatius von Doïllinger, ed.,
Beitra
ï
ge zur Sektengeschichte des
Mittelalters
[Munich: C. H. Beck’sche, 1890], no. 20, 2:319).