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Resumen

This study enquires into the topic of the familia inquisitionis/inquisitoris - the entourage operating alongside inquisitors, during inquiries into matters of faith (XIII-XIV c.). Through a review of primary sources coming from authorities (papal documents) and practitioners (manuals and financial records), it tries to uncover the varied makeup of this group of collaborators. By a reading of the terminology, it wishes to overturn the common opinion of ‘inconsistency’ of recording practices, and to highlight shades and meaning of the words used by notaries to indicate people and their functions. A parallel between Italian and French tribunals helps understanding how political issues and differences in practice had shaped the way in which these collaborators were employed, and their numbers. This has shown the main role played by the confiscation of heretical goods (bona hereticorum): where they were handled by the inquisitors themselves, inflation in number of collaborators occurred; where – instead – these goods benefited only the lay authorities, there was additional pressure to keep expenses and numbers of officers down.

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  • 1 Research work for this article has been made possible by a Fellowship granted by AHRC (January-June (...)

Familia petit uestiarium uictumque ;
tot uentres auidissimorum animalium tuendi sunt,
emenda uestis et custodiendae rapacissimae manus
et flentium detestantiumque ministeriis utendum.
Quanto ille felicior, qui nihil ulli debet nisi cui facillime negat, sibi !
(L. A.
Seneca, De tranquillitate animi, VIII.8)

Introduction

  • 2 See for instance the eight cult-novels written by V. Evangelisti, around the character of Catalan i (...)
  • 3 See for instance L. Albaret, Les inquisiteurs. Portraits de défenseurs de la foi en Languedoc (XIII (...)
  • 4 This concern has also been indicated as the starting point for the operation of ideological and his (...)

1It is inquisitors that sell, these days: marketing builds upon visual imagination and curiosity, but is also driven by some sort of fascination with these controversial and ultimately incomprehensible individuals who pursued religious non-conformity as a crime.2 As the trend impacts upon academic research, this has begun to focus on individuals, investigating prosopographically the medieval officers of faith.3 It is, in both cases, an attempt to give them a voice, a face, perhaps with the purpose of unearthing and understanding the hidden, inaccessible recess of their minds, what made their belief compatible with their choices, and ultimately their actions.4

2Despite having produced rigorous results, this curiosity risks deflecting the attention away from equally important actors: those who made a concrete matter out of a complex theoretical, theological and juridical set of ideas and prescriptions. Men and women who, together with the inquisitors, translated principles and regulations into actions, words and money: the familia, that is, the entourage of the inquisitors.

  • 5 Thus, for instance, M. Bellomo, Giuristi e inquisitori del Trecento. Ricerca su testi di Iacopo Bel (...)
  • 6 Lea 1887, I, p. 381; da Alatri 1987 shares this view at p. 58, where he calls the familiares « wret (...)

3It is important to point out that this study is an attempt at discerning clearer competences and functions behind a hazy category of familiares or officiales, often the only words found in the records. This of grouping various roles and capacities into one definition has marred research so far, and still does to an extent, as roles and capacities are in fact very much still unclear. For instance, often officiales are taken to identify jurists tout court, while records are much more and multi-faceted, as will be demonstrated in paragraph 5, below.5 We are trying to detangle meanings which are – to us – clear-cut, while Late Medieval inquisitorial sources show us how often these meanings could be overlapping, or – more often – co-existing. Perhaps this is also a symptom of how « experimental » the process of establishing an « Inquisition » was, how its development proceeded inconsistently, patchily and tentatively. Moreover, perhaps the scornful words of Henry Charles Lea have contributed to this lack of discernment, by casting a contemptuous light on this group of collaborators whom he saw as mere side-kicks, criminals attracted by violence, impunity and easy gains. In so doing, he depicted a stark, clear-cut bipolarity between « the defenceless population » within which inquisitions operated, and the « reckless and evil-minded » members of the inquisitors’ entourage.6

  • 7 Devic-Vaissete, Histoire générale de Languedoc, Toulouse 2003 (repr.), VIII, p. 1155.
  • 8 « Trucidati sunt Frater Guillelmus Arnaldi inquisitor, F. Bernardus de Rupe Forti, et Frater Garcia (...)
  • 9 Sources allow mainly the investigation of familie at a time when the tribunal was almost exclusivel (...)

4In 1242, at Avignonet, at the scene of the killing of inquisitors William Arnold and Stephen of St Thibéry, eleven members of their familia were massacred with the friars. Another member of the familia « gave the inquisitors [something] to drink » the night before, and allowed the killers into the quarters. Two further ones were killed on the way to the inquisitors’ lodgings and thrown from the staircase.7 This example and the characters featuring in it encompass the various range of relationships bonding inquisitors and their entourage. On whatever side they were playing, familiares shared their fate with the inquisitors not as mere supporters or adversaries, but rather as people who lived, worked and – more crucially – were intimately bound to them. For this reason they were equally deemed as targets by the inquisitors’ adversaries; or seen as perfect « moles » by the inquisitors’ opponents.8 Between familiares and the Dominicans or Franciscans9 they were assisting, we are able to imagine ties made out of trustworthiness, devotion and familiarity, all formally sanctioned through an oath of fidelity. When the bond broke, the details and information they could provide were invaluable.

  • 10 By simply typing familia into the Patrologia Latina or Corpus Christianorum search engine. For exam (...)
  • 11 Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae, IX, V, 12 « Familia autem pro servis abusive, non proprie dicitur  (...)
  • 12 See P. Sambin, La familia di un vescovo italiano del ‘300, Rivista di Storia della Chiesa in Italia (...)
  • 13 Paravicini, Cardinali di curia, p. 237-8, 243.

5This idea of a « family » exceeding the boundaries of blood ties and expanding to broader links was, by the Middle Ages, conceptually well-established. Dating back to the Classical period, examples can be found in great number.10 Classical Latin literature testifies to a shift in meaning : from that of genetic, direct derivation, to signifying connections derived from the gens familia. Although Isidore of Seville, representing the scholarly viewpoint, considered this lexical shift as « inappropriate »,11 and the extension of familia to exceed blood-ties as technically out of place, literature and practice demonstrate both the use of familia as linked by blood ties and « familiarity ». The link uniting familiares to their « employer » was in fact reciprocal. It encompassed a mix of custom, closeness, mutual trust and help. During the centuries under investigation here, too, such reciprocity and concept of familia can be found : it describes family-like structures, where personal connections and the feeling of being part of a privileged group are evident. Two well-studied medieval examples are the familia episcopi and the familia cardinalis.12 Further elements and features of these other familie can contribute to better define the inquisitorial one. First, the idea that there is a direct proportionality between the number of officers and the increase in structural complexity of the institution – that is, the more officers, the more complex the organisation employing them - ; second, the fact that familie are itinerant and fixed offices at the same time ; third, the connection between the number of employees and power : the higher the number of familiares, the higher the prestige of their employer (even visually) ; and finally, the fact that roles/functions within the familia could overlap, and become at times interchangeable.13

  • 14 Tanon 1893, p. 188-214; Lea 1887, I, p. 374-84; C. Douais, L’inquisition. Ses origines, sa procédur (...)
  • 15 See the issues raised by Sambin, La familia del vescovo, p. 243-5, 238, n. 3; Kieckhefer 1995, p. 5 (...)

6As for the familia inquisitionis, the precise functions of the entourage, their professional capacity and tasks, and the bonds connecting them, have been so far investigated only cursorily, or as side-aspects of specific inquisitions, or while investigating one particular set of sources.14 Particularly, it seems to us that two main flaws have hindered a broader understanding. The first is the focus of existing research. The second, an insufficient attention to terminology, which in particular could help to clarify interesting issues: how aptly and how far is it possible to overlap « entourage » with the Medieval familia, in a world where notaries had complete control over language, and never used vocabulary at random? Is there such a concept as a cursus honorum, the mechanism of promotion within the familia itself? A historian who overlooks the problem of terminology takes for granted that inconsistencies in the use of officium, familia, familiares, or in the way in which notaries used to describe functions and officers are nothing more than slight nuances in the recording/notarial practice. This is the kind of « inconsistency » which, in fact, would reflect the variety of inquisitorial practices. However, by assuming this, one can push aside important points.15

  • 16 Kieckhefer 1995, p. 56.

7In fact, the investigation of personnel is a fundamental step in understanding the inner functioning of the negotium pacis et fidei, better known, commonly and superficially, as the Inquisition. The presence of this entourage can be seen as an important indicator of its institutionalisation (or lack of).16

  • 17 I have consulted the following sources :
  • 18 Tanon 1893, p. 199 (Italics are mine).
  • 19 See Albaret – Lanoix-Christen 2004, p. 43. From our repertoire, it is evident that the poor quality (...)

8The purpose of this research is to act as a path-opener, and a bridge between Italian and French sources. We aim at bringing to the main stage these non-protagonists, and to investigate their role, duties, numbers and connections with the tribunals, taking into consideration, where possible, what may be called their « vertical » (= local) connections and analysing them through Northern Italy and Languedoc. A problem-led structure will necessarily be followed, highlighting aspects, areas and issues which come to the fore through a parallel reading of the sources, whilst occasionally dipping into more in-depth readings. In doing so, Italian and Languedocian inquisitorial sources and literature have been scanned to cover both the XIII and XIV century. The case-studies investigated will be, for Italy, Florence, Bologna, Padua/Vicenza and Orvieto; for France, Carcassonne and Toulouse.17 The imbalance between Italian (many) and French (few) information confirms what earlier historians had already suspected, and will be discussed in more detail further on. As Louis Tanon wrote in 1893, in fact, « Les inquisiteurs de France avaient leurs familiers, quoiqu’il semble que ce soit en Italie que ces servents de l’inquisition se soient surtout multipliés » ;18 a situation only made worse by conservation issues : French financial records are to this day « ténus et incompletes ».19

Sources and methodology as tools for understanding.

9Which sources contain data on the entourage ? How should they be read ? Is there a contemporary awareness of their value, or of the need of recording such information ?

  • 20 On inquisitorial texts, see Texts and the repression of Medieval Heresy, ed. C. Bruschi and P. Bill (...)

10Inquisitors’ production of texts ranged well beyond the strictly professional documents (the classic list including copies of papal legislation, books of decretals, books recording trial activity – sentences, indexes of people, interrogations, confessions, consilia, and manuals),20 to include a wide range of financial documents. And, as inquisitorial financial activities inevitably stepped out of the convents to involve other institutions and private citizens in the transactions, physical conservation of these exemplars must be traced also through several archives. These are the privileged sources for a study of the familia inquisitionis. What documents are we talking about ?

  • 21 See further on, p. 19-21 on this aspect of procedure and its fundamental implications for our study (...)
  • 22 « […] mandamus quatinus …facias tibi prothocolla et scripturas predicta, que fratres ipsi ad manus (...)
  • 23 The biggest « hole » in the research individuated by our study is that of a work on the treatment o (...)

11Whilst conducting a thorough revision of the financial records (and insolvency) of inquisitors in Padua and Vicenza (1302), pope Boniface VIII addressed his legates, encouraging them to pursue the intricate financial transactions sparked by the confiscation of heretical goods (bona hereticorum) - as prescribed by the existing regulation.21 A list of all registers which needed careful checking, as potentially able to provide information on the matter, included the following : protocols and writings of the inquisition, books, authentic documents (i.e. not copies), public documents of the communes, of other communities, and of private citizens ; financial records, notaries’ coupons, payment records of wills or donations. His officers went beyond this, as they also perused all financial records of the communes and the entry books of both Dominican and Franciscan convents.22 Boniface’s letter can be seen as the most appropriate starting-list for a repertoire of the sources where information on the familia can be found. A review of these possessions was a titanic task, requiring the full-time work of several officers in 1302, and an almost impossible one for an individual researcher now, especially when wanting to widen the scope to more than one place, a couple of inquisitors and a limited number of years. It is for this reason that the sheer amount of primary material has imposed a necessary restriction to the range of case-studies. Yet, this letter should be considered as a mental check-list for future work.23

  • 24 The same « concidence » between the great trials of the beginning of the XIV century (called « epid (...)

12One could object that, by the time of Boniface’s inquiry, the beginning of the fourteenth century, inquisitorial procedure was at its ripest stage, its modus operandi tried and tested, and inquisitors could count on a well-established set of trained officials to aid their tasks. This had not been the case earlier on, as we shall see. In fact, exactly because of this evolution, the great majority of documents come to us from the late 1280s and mostly from the fourteenth century. Formalisation of procedure, together with bureaucratisation of institutions, sheer practice and policies of conservation of documents, have had their advantages for us modern historians.24

  • 25 Mansi, Conc., XXIII, (http://www.veritatis-societas.org/200_Mansi/1692-1769,_Mansi_JD,_Sacrorum_Con (...)
  • 26 See Lea 1887, I, p. 376-8.
  • 27 Many versions are issued of this letter, by several pontiffs. We shall here take the one addressed (...)
  • 28 « Teneatur insuper potestas [...] nomina virorum omnium qui de heresi fuerint infamati, vel banniti (...)
  • 29 « Facies tibi quaternos et alia scripta in quibus inquisitiones facte contra hereticos et processus (...)
  • 30 « Periculosis casibus occurrentes, statuimus ut singuli inquisitores omnia scripta inquisitionis tr (...)

13What was, then, the contemporary understanding of the importance of recording inquisitions, prior to the fourteenth century ? The silence of the 1229 Council of Toulouse on the matter of record-making and keeping25 suggests disinterest or lack of need to tidy up existing practices. Only from the 1240s, at the aftermath of the Avignonet massacre, with the ensuing tightening of inquisitorial activities, is an awareness of the need for procedural thoroughness displayed through the canons of the councils of Béziers (1246).26 A significant step further is taken in 1252, in Innocent IV’s letter Ad extirpanda.27 While we shall return to this text on more than one occasion, as it devotes an ample section to the familia, what is interesting to note is that the missive tackles the issue of records three times : a) by imposing the copying of papal prescriptions on matters of faith and conformity into the registers of statutes ; b) by ordering the compilation of little volumes – effectively indexes of all those involved at various title with the tribunal – in four exemplars, to be kept respectively by the commune, the bishop, the local Franciscan community, and the local convent of the Preachers, and to be publicly announced thrice a year through the commune’s crier ;28 and c) four volumes of prescriptions (constitutiones) regarding heretical depravity and its management, to be similarly preserved. Only a little later, in November 1256, Alexander IV adds the precise prescription, « that registers (quaternos) and other written documents in which are recorded enquiries and trials against heretics, instructed by whoever, are handed in » to the inquisitors.29 The council of Albi (1254-5), clearly trying to prevent danger, states, « in times of peril individual inquisitors should transcribe all papers of the inquisition […] and move them, with the help of the bishop and the approval of the papal legate, into a safe place […] and make copies of all the papers. »30

  • 31 « Ad hec si super his que circa idem officium illudque contingentia in scriptis fuerint redigenda, (...)
  • 32 « [...] adhibeatis duas religiosas et discretas personas in quarum presentia per publicam, si commo (...)
  • 33 Not necessarily the verb conscribere indicates the production of more than one exemplar.
  • 34 In Roman law, a tabellio is a private professional officer whose activity – from Justinian onwards (...)
  • 35 Although at times used as a synonym for tabellio or notary, this seems to indicate the functionary (...)
  • 36 ‘Pre cunctis mentis’, Gregory X, 20 April 1273, Potth. 20720, Percin, II, p. 98; also in Doctrina d (...)

14A further letter to the inquisitors of Lombardy and the Genoese (1260) hints at the problem of emergencies. However, it seems that emergencies are not only a matter of security : the ability to employ religious notaries from within the Order, or other religious trustworthy and capable scribes is meant to prevent and respond to the lack of the appropriate number (copia oportuna) of secular ones, or to cater for it, « whenever there was imminent need ».31 In March 1262, with Urban IV’s famous Licet ex omnibus to the inquisitors in Lombardy, the basis of a bureaucratization relying on professionals can be found. In the examination of witnesses, « two religious and discrete men are granted [to the inquisitor/s], in whose presence all depositions of witnesses are to be faithfully written down, in the presence of a public official - if easy to provide -, or two suitable men » must be found.32 This leap forward towards a professionalization of the production of records is already established practice in the 1273 version of the Pre cunctis, where Gregory X instructs the French inquisitors. His letter adds a little paragraph, « As to the copying (conscribere)33 of depositions of witnesses, and to do all which - in the office entrusted to you - pertains to tabelliones34 and scriniarii35, two friars must be recruited, who have had appropriate professional training before taking their religious vows ».36

15This review of papal legislation reveals the development of an awareness of the need for professional recording of inquisitorial judicial documents. From this, it seems reasonable to say that, up to the 1260s, stating the need for a thorough, competent codification of inquisitorial procedure was not a priority for the papacy. Although records were produced almost everywhere inquisitions were set up, it is with the 1260s that notaries, their role, training, qualification and competences came to the forefront of the popes’ agenda. This has to be considered as a milestone : as procedural « experiments » slow down, professional, trained officers become indispensable, and text production peaks. However, whereas the makeup of the inquisitorial tribunals over matters of faith could change overtime, ultimately judgement relied on the inquests’ holders – whether bishops, lay authorities or friars. While judgement could be advised by professionals, such as consiliatores, theirs was an advisory capacity, not a decisional one.

  • 37 This silence, already noted by Tanon, has been reiterated more recently by L. Albaret, who sees it (...)

16The awareness displayed by Boniface VIII’s letter seems particularly striking in this respect. He indicates a mass of documents, registers and information that, according to papal prescriptions about codification of practice, do not exist as records of inquisitions. It is a feature which accompanies the entirety of this study : the gap between what surfaces / is meant to surface (papal letters, minutes of interrogations, sentences) and what exists « below » (the everyday application of these prescriptions – led in great part by discretionary power -, their implications and consequences ; and, implicitely, the existence, roles and functions of the familiares and officers, their non-written duties and their management).37 A second element which stands out of this review is the always-present flexibility, where the inquisitors’ judgment is the leading principle.

Papal legislation, manuals

17Despite the silence on financial records, papal legislation does provide insight into the deployment of inquisitors’ personnel. Unsurprisingly, this happens coincidentally with re-assessments of inquisitorial procedure and/or the necessary one-off tackling of specific aspects of practice. The evolution of the entourage, in fact, mirrors the development of the tribunals, both at procedural and conceptual level.

  • 38 G. G. Merlo, Inquisizione a Milano : intenti e tecniche, in Milano 1300. I processi inquisitoriali (...)
  • 39 « Ut in singulis locis unus sacerdos et tres laici constituatur qui diligenter inquirant hereticos (...)

18It has been demonstrated that between the last decades of the thirteenth and the first twenty years of the fourteenth century the inquisitorial system (if indeed a « system » is a plausible model) perfected itself, rather than intensifying.38 Once again, the bare bones of this co-operation between lay and religious officers is set by the 1229 council of Toulouse, where canon 1 states that, together with the religious reference-figure (unus sacerdos), « two or three laymen of good repute, or more – if necessary - », should perform « carefully, faithfully, and often » the thorough search for heretics, perusing « individual houses and even cellars ».39 The statement leaves important grey areas. « Or more, if necessary ». Such a tiny phrase effectively established how individual circumstances should ultimately determine the number of inquisitors’ aids, thus allowing crucial flexibility to their appointment on a local basis. As will be seen further on, wherever procedure left some scope for interpretation, malpractice was quick to hook on, and – especially where the tribunal was freer from control – « appropriateness » became an easy way to excuse inflation in the number of personnel.

  • 40 BOP, I, p. 209, n. 257, see above, n. 27 for other versions.
  • 41 As pointed out in Paolini 1998, p. 452, 456.

19It is in May 1252 however, that a complete, scrupulous and careful outline of inquisitors’ entourage is laid out by Pope Innocent IV, in his letter Ad extirpanda.40This letter, due to become among the most quoted pieces of legislation in every inquisitorial collection of documents, acted as a concise vademecum for tribunals, instructing the appointment of twelve catholic and righteous men (viri probi et catholici), two notaries, and two servants, « or however many are necessary », to provide for the following functions : capture of suspects, confiscation of the goods of the condemned, organization and management of the confiscation itself, supervision of the correct application of existing procedures, and the custody and transport of the arrested to the bishop. Innocent IV does not invent : he builds upon a « model » experimented in Milan in 1229 (the 12 viri probi), and makes this entourage better-staffed to cover all the needs of a well-oiled tribunal.41

  • 42 For these specific prescriptions, see chs. 3-8, 10-21, 28, 30, 33, 35.

20As for staffing, therefore, since 1252 a minimum of sixteen people are to work side-by-side with the inquisitor, with supervisory, managerial and operational functions. Here again, one must notice how the flexibility in numbers granted by the Council of Toulouse is reiterated : « however many are necessary » (quotquot fuerint necessarii). Members of this entourage should be bound by a specific oath, and granted « full trust » (plena fides de hiis omnibus) : they have to swear to perform these tasks faithfully and to the best of their abilities (iurent hec omnia exequi fideliter et pro posse), and to always say all the truth about these matters. In exchange, they will receive much. First, the full refund of any loss of goods or money incurred during their duties, paid by the commune ; second, the full power to enforce what is prescribed by their duties, and to impose penances or bans on behalf of the tribunal ; third, a six-month contract, renewable at least once ; fourth, a minimum salary of eighteen denarii per day per person when on duty outside the boundaries of the commune, to be paid by the commune itself by the third day of their return. And last, but most important of all, one third of what the office obtains through confiscation of goods and fines. They will not have discretional powers in applying the norm : they cannot oppose, alter or impede existing legislation. The bishop has the right to remove any of the sixteen members of the entourage, should one of the following four cases occur : 1) ineptitude (propter ineptitudinem) ; 2) sloth in acting (inertiam) ; 3) inappropriate taking over of suspect’s possessions (occupationem aliquam) ; 4) excess [of zeal, but probably also of power] (excessus).42

  • 43 BF, I, p. 717-8.
  • 44 13 April 1258, BF, I, p. 362, reiterated and perfected by the Prae cunctis of 26 February 1266 by C (...)

21The information that surfaces from the official legislation thus seems to show that the twenty-three years between 1229 and 1252 have been crucial in the development of a structured tribunal, judicially and technically, as they have been in the setting up an appropriate body of officers able to carry out the several aspects of judicial procedure. The 1250s are to be seen as years of review, revision and organization of the procedure, the tribunal, their management, and their duties. The letter Quia tunc potissime of 1254, for instance, is witness to Innocent IV’s strategy of mapping and re-organising local inquisitorial tribunals in Italy, in the light of a proper repartition of areas between the two main Mendicant orders.43 In Languedoc, clear numbers and locations for the inquisitors within the provinces are set out ever since 1258, (Meminimus olim, Alexander IV).44

22Papal legislation would not return to the matter of collaborators’ duties, numbers and treatment so thoroughly and exhaustively again after this, although letters on individual tribunals or cases were indeed to be issued after the Ad extirpanda. This letter thus appears to be the only case where the papacy shows explicit awareness of the need for a common, standardized practice in the handling and management of the inquisitorial entourage.

  • 45 My reference study here, together with the « classic » study by A. Dondaine, Le manuel de l'Inquisi (...)

23Direction can be also found at a different level, that is, in inquisitorial manuals. Addressed by inquisitors to inquisitors, these are examples of day-to-day practical advice – not necessarily prescription - provided to field-workers by experienced jurists and/or field-workers themselves. Among the most relevant manuals were, for Languedoc, the Ordo Processus Narbonensis (1244), the Doctrina de modo procedendi contra hereticos (post-1271 and post-1278), Bernard Gui’s Practica inquisitionis heretice pravitatis (1321), and Nicholas Eymerich’s Directorium inquisitorum (1376). For Italy, the De auctoritate et forma officii inquisitionis (1280-92), and the De officio inquisitionis (mid-XIV century).45 Their circulation bears witness to the applicability of their content. I shall now go through these to detect information on the entourage.

  • 46 « Tandem de hiis omnibus et quandoque de pluribus non sine causa rationabili requisitus, scriptis f (...)
  • 47 « Si autem dicit veritatem, diligenter eius confession per notarium publicum scribitur », Doctrina (...)
  • 48 « Quando plures sunt confessi qui sufficiunt ad faciendum sermonem, tunc inquisitores ad locum dete (...)
  • 49 Bellomo, Giuristi e inquisitori, p. 36, 40; Parmeggiani, I consilia, p. xi and note 7, xvii and not (...)

24The early Ordo Processus Narbonensis dwells on the matter, indirectly, only once, and rather concisely. The prescription concerns – once again – the procedure of recording inquisitions in front of « at least two appropriate men », by « either a notary or another scribe ».46 The Doctrina de modo procedendi reveals slightly more about the inquisitors’ entourage, but still very little is said about them. There are allusions to the use of a professional notary in recording confessions (« If one tells the truth, their confession must be accurately written down by a public notary »), with the alternative « appropriate men » disappearing completely ;47 there are several instances where legal experts (jurisperiti) are mentioned as necessary before condemning suspects or taking decisions about procedure,48 and nothing more. While we know that experts were extensively used ever since the inception of inquisitiones into matters of faith, their role as fixed collaborators of the inquisitors (ultimately, the only judges of these trials), changed in time and varied according to place. In general, their input into final decisions has been described as « vowed to insuccess » in judgements, but « full of political significance » in establishing connections with the existing lay lords and in defining the final destination to confiscated goods.49

  • 50 Gui, Practica, II, n. 36, « Forma littere pro clerico iurato recepto ad fidelitatem et officium inq (...)
  • 51 Ibid., n. 37, « Forma littere pro custode muri instituendo - tenore presentium pateat universis quo (...)
  • 52 Ibid., n. 38, « Forma littere pro iuratis officii inquisitionis. Frater Bernardus inquisitor etc. U (...)

25More extensive is the treatment in Gui’s Practica. Even though its fourth section is mostly derived from the earlier De auctoritate, Gui himself devotes several paragraphs of the second section of his work to inquisitors’ entourage. He deals a) with clerics/notaries, received in the service of the office,50 b) with wardens of the inquisitorial prison,51 and c) with a rather unspecified iuratus,52 that is, somebody linked to the office by oath, and employed as generic helper. Several interesting points emerge from this text. The oath sworn by all officers implies two attitudes : loyalty and secrecy (iuramentum fidelitatis et secreti). Both the notary and the prison-warden receive in exchange for them « all the freedom, grace and privileges granted by both the apostolic see and the crown », with the notary also benefitting from immunities, and the warden from a salary paid by the crown. Such employment will last « as long as I [the inquisitor] or my successor in the office will be satisfied by it ». With regard to the iuratus, discretionary judgment has a crucial role. It is according to the inquisitors’ judgment that his duties will be established, (« persecuting and capturing open heretics, in general, but also […] completing all those [tasks] that we shall order and instruct to be handled specifically by him »). Equally, judgment will dictate whether a clause making inquisitorial protection only a temporary allowance will be appropriate, (« It will be possible to add, at the end, if and when it will seem appropriate, the following clause, so that this letter is not valid forever »).]

26Nicholas Eymerich’s, Directorium inquisitorum (1376) comes towards the end of our chronological span, and gathers tried and tested practices from Spanish, Italian and French tribunals. The space it devotes to problems related to the entourage is thus proportional to the escalation in numbers and importance enjoyed by the entourage, to the bureaucratisation of the tribunals, and to the problems sparked by extensive use of personnel throughout the enquiries. A more cursorial review of the main foci of Eymerich’s interest will thus be sufficient here. Regarding officials and familiares, the author shows a wide-reaching concern about the legitimisation of entourage members (nomination and official investiture), especially about the authority in charge of this aspect, on the formalities of the call (III, p. 267-70), and about the advantages they might enjoy – indulgences, privileges, immunity – (III, p. 287). An entire chapter is devoted to « Whether an inquisitor can employ an armed familia », a habit which is mainly justified through the potential risks of armed attacks, such as the murder of Peter of Verona (III, ch. 114) Eymerich is concerned about, and conscious of the degeneration which has happened, therefore acknowledging that « under the veil of privilege can insinuate abuse » (contingit ut sub velamine privilegii abusus sese insinuent), and that officials and familia « because of the office are usually disliked by ill-believers, blasphemers and sinners of this kind » (ratione officii invisi esse solent male credentibus, blasphemis et similibus peccatoribus). He is also well-aware that their recruitment is less successful among those newly-converted from Judaism and paganism.

  • 53 « Vel si essent pauci numero, et non sufficientes ad executionem officii; quod impedimentum tollitu (...)

27Gui’s model, the De auctoritate et forma hereticorum (ca 1298) is an all-Italian matter. Written by a newly-nominated anonymous inquisitor - possibly active in Lombardy -, it mainly reiterates the legislation with a very matter-of-fact approach, brief and to the point. The milestones (Ad extirpanda and Licet ex omnibus) are recalled continuously. The leitmotif is the autonomy of the inquisitorial decisions from all kinds of impediments - obstacles imposed by the order, the lay power, and the personnel themselves. As for officials, their nomination, number and allegiance are ultimately a matter for the inquisitors : should podesta` and bishops be slow or unwilling to proceed to the nomination of personnel, the inquisitor must step in. Particular interest is shown towards their number, as it is deemed that insufficient help per se constitutes impediment.53

  • 54 « ex defectu adiuvantium, forte quia non secum habeant tot qui sufficient ad perficiendum illud quo (...)

28The insistence on the verb « to force » (cogere) mirrors the existing reluctance on the lay power’s side to co-operate with inquiries and punishment of non-conformism. Equally, the emphasis on the idea of insufficiency of support matches our perception of a struggle to enforce anti-heretical legislation and inquisitorial procedure.54

  • 55 L. Paolini, Introduction, in De officio inquisitionis, p. xxxiii.
  • 56 Ibid., p. 16-7.
  • 57 Ibid., p. 17-8.
  • 58 Ibid., p. 18-30.
  • 59 Ibid., p. 30-5. The phrase « officers of the office of inquisition » is kept on purpose as a moldin (...)
  • 60 « Ultimo, officiales officii inquisitionis sunt notarii, officiales et servitores, qui quidem deben (...)
  • 61 BOP, I, p. 462-5, n. 32.
  • 62 « Imprisoned » means here those who are put into jail as a penance, as opposed to those who are tem (...)

29The De officio inquisitionis, an anonymous manual from the mid-fourteenth-century, builds extensively upon papal norms, and has been described as « the end-point of maturity in inquisitorial treatise- and law-production ».55 By this time pontifical legislation had provided enough scattered pieces of evidence regarding the entourage, to be assembled into four subject-structured sections. The author begins by discussing the « office of the inquisitor’s vicar »,56 then that of the crucesignati ( = signed with the sign of the cross),57 of the « [lay] rector »,58 and finally of the « officers of the office of inquisition », their advantages (utilitates) and possible penalties for abusing their position.59 There is a short list of officers : « and lastly, the officers of the office of inquisitions are notaries, officers and servants, who are to be nominated by the podesta` ».60 This section, although mainly inspired and taken from the Ad extirpanda (in Clement IV’s issue),61 concentrates upon a handful of points : their election – who is responsible, in what sequence and with which responsibilities ; the length of their mandate – six months ; the complete and a-critical backing to be provided to them by the lay authorities ; their power to coerce into collaboration those who are not willing to provide it, or are not eager enough. Lastly, their three main duties : a) to capture suspects and wanted individuals ; b) to ensure their transfer into to the hands of lay authorities ; c) to confiscate possessions of those condemned or imprisoned.62 This manual sets out the skeleton of an already operating institution, and adds a new element : a list of those who are to be considered as « officers of the office of inquisition ».

  • 63 « Isto modo procedunt inquisitores in partibus Carcassonensibus et Tholosanis », Doctrina, col. 179 (...)

30Our strong feeling is that, far from being simply top-down directives, both papal letters and manuals are to be seen, albeit to a different extent, as responding to either existing practices, or contingent needs of the tribunals. No pope, merely driven by his own knowledge and interpretation of the auctoritates or – worse - by his personality and mood established new procedure from scratch. Instead, instructions were provided taking into consideration pleas, complaints, missives received, and individual instances : all filtered down through individuality, interpretation of the law, and a personal stand against non-conformity. If so, the separation between legislation and legal practice seems less stark ; manuals are surely to be considered as even less distant from the fieldwork, as they often reiterate and tidy up existing examples of best practice, as stated in the very opening lines of the Doctrina, « In this way operate the inquisitors in the area of Carcassonne and Toulouse ».63 In the case of manuals, thus, the text is often at the end of a chain of actions, codifying what is already in place, and highlighting examples of best practice for future reference, all sifted by knowledge, experience (often direct) and understanding of possible glitches. Thus, there is a series of papal prescriptions, based on concerns and actual urgencies, there is the practice - putting them into living actions, while at the same time feeding into the legislation by suggesting new cases and instances, and – lastly - there are the manuals, linking the two, and tidying up the status quo. If the process is so permeable, and the sources circulate so widely among fieldworkers, why there are differences ? Why is there so little information about inquisitors’ personnel in Languedoc, and – as noted by Tanon – it is in Italy that the entourage « multiplies » ?

Once again, money matters. Finance and numbers of officers

  • 64 The connection had been already pointed out by Lea (Lea 1887, I, p. 382-3). More recently, see Alba (...)
  • 65 Paolini 2002, p. 182. The direct link between wealth of a convent and the requisitions is made by t (...)

31The reason, it seems, is linked primarily to the different way in which French and Italian tribunals handled the enormous mass of bona hereticorum, the goods confiscated from convicted heretics and their families.64 Confiscation matters, and for two reasons. The first, that the process itself of confiscating, allocating, pricing, selling, monitoring, supervising, policing, handling money and – very importantly - producing the necessary documentation for all these transactions, did require skilled personnel. Skills that not always, and not everywhere, could be provided by the inquisitors themselves. Second – and most crucially - that the confiscated money was to contribute to both the smooth running of inquiries (the payment of personnel and reimbursement of inquisitors’ expenses), and to the building/maintenance of prisons, and living expenses for the imprisoned. But this was not managed and apportioned by inquisitors only. In both cases, this mechanism created what has been defined as a « juridical strain », the phenomenon by which « heretics financed their own persecution ».65

  • 66 For this area, see E. Vincke, La remuneración de los inquisitores Aragoneses en los siglos XIII y X (...)

32This « income » from heretical depravity is a crucial matter in our research. Profit from the confiscation and sale of bona hereticorum was differently allocated and managed according to a) geo-political factors ; and b) time-span. For instance, in the territories of the crown of Aragon, since the end of the twelfth century and – more officially - from 1205, the king was granted the total of all confiscated lands. The same king, however, did benefit only from 50 % of the confiscations in his Tarragonan province, where he shared such profits with the local church. If we move on to the period between 1298 and 1322, in the very same territories, the Dominican inquisitors pocketed 100 % of the confiscations.66

  • 67 Douais 1900, p. lxxxvii-lxxxviii, xci; Lea 1887, II, p. 584-6, Guiraud, Histoire, II, p. 259-63.
  • 68 On Languedoc, see primarily Tanon 1893, p. 523-39, esp. 529-30; Maisonneuve, Études, p. 294-7, 305; (...)

33Another case-study : in the Languedoc ever since the 1150s (following the general procedural norms established at the councils of Reims – 1157 and Tours – 1163) local lords were the only beneficiaries of confiscations. However, given the peculiar political features of the area, this was not a clear-cut outcome of the requisitions. There were additional factors by which the sin of heresy could have complex upwards repercussions. Requisitioning a piece of land for its occupant’s connections with heresy meant ultimately to penalise its first owner, the lord. Often bishops acted as inquisitors while being themselves territorial lords, and became involved in a tricky conflict of interests. This inevitably would have had implications in the whole confiscation issue.67 In Languedoc there was thus a complex power-layer making procedure and legislation more difficult when wanting to establish legal responsibilities and juridical ownership.68

  • 69 These experiments being tried in the lands directly subject to papal temporal power – for instance, (...)
  • 70 Reference work for Italy is Paolini 1998.

34In Italy political fragmentation and inconsistent support towards the papacy and its policies made the fight against non-conformity a rather patched and uneven business when it came to the co-operation between lay and ecclesiastical authorities. Confiscations too reflected such unevenness, with several experiments carried on in different parts of the Italian territory. While at the beginning of the thirteenth century there are sporadic examples of an embryonic tri-partition of profits (1/3 to the responsible of the arrest ; 1/3 to the lay power who punishes ; 1/3 to the building of city walls),69 from 1252 the tri-partition becomes, almost everywhere, 1/3 to the office/officers, 1/3 to the communes, 1/3 to the bishop and inquisitors « for the good management of the business of inquisitions ».70

  • 71 Early development of the « financial issue » and its further, medieval outcomes, has been traced ex (...)

35For all of these reasons it is in financial records that one finds data on the inquisitors’ entourage.71 Consequent to this scenario, and following direct proportionality, we aim to show that, whenever and wherever the management of the office shifts from persecution of doctrinal non-conformity to administration of finances – as for instance in Florence during the late-XIII, early-XIV century - the skills, number and quality of entourage members grow. More numerous, and better-qualified officers are needed to carry out complex financial operations ; while fewer and less-skilled ones are necessary to witness interrogation and look after prisoners. In short, wherever the tribunal was responsible for financial transactions following the confiscation of possession, inquisitors needed a more accomplished and numerous familia (as we shall see for northern Italy - the Medieval Lombardia, and Tuscany). Where this was essentially handled by the crown or local lords (as seen for the Languedoc and Aragón), inquisitorial entourage catered for the previous phases : inquiry and interrogation, with capture and detention of suspects, and the management of bona hereticorum still being the responsibility of the lay power.

  • 72 See for instance the sentences from the 1260s inquiry in Orvieto, in da Alatri, Inquisizione france (...)
  • 73 Albaret – Lanoix-Christen 2004, p. 50.

36The issue of number of officers, therefore - and unsurprisingly -, stands out in both literature and sources. Innocent IV’s prescriptions, detailed in the 1252 Ad extirpanda, were formulated in a climate of fear for inquisitors’ safety, during the immediate aftermath of the killing of inquisitor Peter of Verona. The Church set up a very successful operation to make Peter, a zealous preacher and charismatic Church officer in Lombardia and Tuscany, the champion of all inquisitors ; Peter – now called Peter Martyr-, was also immediately beatified (1253). Sparked by this event issues of security were at the forefront of pope Innocent’s preoccupations. The numbers of necessary inquisitorial officers specified in this letter (two notaries, two servants and twelve armed men) are much telling. Such a framework remained substantially unchanged by papal legislation throughout the period under scrutiny here ; nevertheless, it has been already pointed out how the margins allowed for each inquisitor’s discretional power were, too, unchanged. The opportunity to alter such numbers to accommodate for particular cases did effectively grant each tribunal the freedom to inflate or deflate their own entourage as required (or desired) by those in charge. Thus, flexibility gave life to considerable variety in the size of entourages, but also in the proportional distribution of different officers and familiares. Nevertheless, one caveat should be kept in mind : despite an unquestionable emphasis on the number and distribution of officers, these data could be inaccurate, and the result of source-related filters. In fact, not all « operators » did make it to the records. Proceedings of enquiries, inquests, and transactions show on the parchment only the names of those whose role was relevant enough to be recorded - or official enough to be recordable -. The formula used at the end of almost all public sentences of condemnation is a good example of this selection. After naming a number of witnesses of some importance, the notary writes, « and many others ».72 A review of French sources has concluded that it is difficult to point out numbers in the context of available source material.73 In French records, this is the case exactly because the way of writing down expenses in the record, there put together by officers of the king/lord, did not require details on minutiae. Instead, these were necessary when the Italian inquisitors were asked to provide thorough information on their earnings.

37What are the causes of such variations in numbers ? Mainly three : the practical needs of individual enquiries ; availability of professionals ; and power.

  • 74 Tanon 1893, p. 188.
  • 75 For the first, see M. Pegg, The corruption of Angels, Princeton and Oxford, 2001, the records being (...)
  • 76 See Le registre d’inquisition de Jacques Fournier, évêque de Pamiers (1318-1325), ed. J. Duvernoy, (...)
  • 77 Compte d’Arnaud Assalit, procureur du Roi sur les encours des hérétiques de la sénechaussée de Carc (...)
  • 78 See Biller, Bruschi, Sneddon 2011, p. 57, 86, 106.
  • 79 C250, f. 139r. The amount of people questioned in this enquiry is unknown, as full records of inter (...)

38The sheer volume and geographical span of each inquest have been seen as the main practical issues dictating discrepancy in the number of enquiries.74 Mass interrogations - the two-hundred and one days of 1245-6 in Lauragais led by Bernard of Caux and Jean of St Pierre, where five thousand, four hundred and seventy-one witnesses were questioned, and which led to the capture of hundreds of suspects ; or the 1255-6 inquiry led by Raynaud of Chartres (Toulouse, Albi and Cahors), would have required a great number of witnesses, jailers, interrogators and notaries. The king’s officer’s expense book witnesses a steady rise in the number of jailers, from one to three, to cover for the rise in prisoners from eighty-five to two-hundred and nine. Seventeenth century erudite Jacques Percin tells us about the need for extra-appointments during the inquisition of 1235, according to the manuscripts of William Pelhisson.75 Expenses for the maintenance of prisoners would have spiraled, while finding suitable and trained personnel proved increasingly difficult as the volume of questioned people was rising. When inquisitor bishop Jacques Fournier questioned his deponents in 1318-25, seventeen notaries were recording the proceedings ; they, the witnesses, sergeants, messengers and jailers made up a total of around 40 people employed during this inquisitio.76 In 1322-4 in Toulouse, the accounts of royal collector Arnold Assalit provide information for two lieutenants, one royal magistrate, at least two notaries and more than five jailers.77 The depositions of the 1273-82 inquiry led by Pons of Parnac and Raoul of Plassac mention seven notaries, and a staggering one-hundred and fourteen people witnessing the interrogation of ninety-six deponents.78 This contrasts starkly with the 1323 Florence scenario, where Michael of Arezzo’s enquiry brings only five people to jail, and where the jailer, Manovello, is also employed as a messenger (nuncius).79

39Other variables which must be taken into appropriate account include the following :

  • 80 Biller, Bruschi, Sneddon 2011, p. 115.
  • 81 C250, f. 35v-36r.

a) The capture of relevant people determines an increase in the number of witnesses, and in their social level and competence. For instance, when nobleman Raymond Hugh is interrogated seven times between April and May 1274, a total of eight different witnesses are recorded – an unusually high number – including the bailiff, the royal procurator for heresy, another layman possibly also official, four Preachers, and one notary (excluding the one who recorded the deposition).80 When the priest Bernard escapes prison in Florence in summer 1323, three notaries, four messengers, and two servants are involved in the enquiry, capture and subsequent detention of the unlucky religious.81

  • 82 C133, f. 13r expensator dicti fratris Aiulfi; C250, f. 37r; f. 40r-v; f. 75r; f. 83v; C251, in vari (...)
  • 83 Responsio sanctissimo patri domino nostro domino Clementi divina providentia pape quinto tradenda ( (...)

b) Whenever the results of requisitions involve either a great amount of money and goods, or are handled within a highly-complex and skilled financial framework, additional and more specific officials are required. The Florentine examples, together with the ones from Padua and Vicenza, provide interesting insight, with professionals borrowed from the financial milieu of the cities, acting on behalf or in support of the tribunal. In Florence we can see Mugnus peliparius (tanner) acting as expensator (treasurer dealing with expenses) in the first decade of the fourteenth century ; the omnipresent Florentine Manovello being employed as messenger, but also expensator of brother Michele of Arezzo, with the two notaries ser Giovanni Bongia and Benvenuto of Tresanti acting as depositarii (treasurers dealing with deposits) in the 1320s. Very similar is layman Guido Fabbri Tolosini - relative of inquisitor Tedicio - who held on behalf of the tribunal 194 golden florins, thirty solidi and three denarii acting as external depositarius to the convent. Under the Franciscan inquisitor Mino of St Quirico, active in the 1330s the same Guido also kept the books of financial transactions. Since the inquisitor, later put to trial for financial misconduct by the Apostolic Chamber, was in fact responsible for carring on illegal practices, his treasurer effectively acted as a private banker for the management of the Florentine office.82 Ubertino of Casale, while attacking the corruption of the Franciscan order in his pamphlet Sanctitas vestra (1309) did in fact denounce vigorously that, « now, almost usually, those friars who can, have their own savings put aside at depositarii, and make their expenses through them. »83

  • 84 Biscaro, Inquisitori ed eretici Lombardi, p. 494.
  • 85 Although the word dominus does not always indicate a nobleman tout court, and certainly not consist (...)
  • 86 C133, f. 106r-v in diversis temporibus (end of XIII-beginning of XIV c.). Among them two of the da (...)

40Aside from practical necessities, the availability of specific competences or officers in each city or region could also be reflected in the recruitment of inquisitors’ entourage. The number of six notaries, plus numerous lawmen and religious university teachers employed in consultations in Bologna in 1311-2 under inquisitor Ruggero of Petriolo is clearly a powerful reflection of the quality of highly-professional individuals available in Bologna through the studium (university).84 In Padua, between the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth century, da Alatri has counted eight domini among inquisition officers, among whom one is the Paduan citizen Mascara of Leonardo de Mascaris.85 A clearer picture of numbers is provided by the Collectoria 133, which assembles expense books from the North of Italy (1290s-1310s), in which I have counted in one instance twenty-nine among domini and notaries, acting with various responsibilities for the inquisitorial tribunal, and at least nine personal servants of the inquisitors (familiares servitores inquisitorum).86

  • 87 Sanctitas vestra, p. 81.

41Inquisitions and tribunals were never detached, especially in Italy, from local connections and familial ties with the city. This is because the management of finances fell within the competence and responsibilities of individual tribunals and was not centralised as in France and Spain, where the lords/king were responsible for the support and management of inquisitorial finances. Local tribunals meant local entourage. As Bologna offered university-educated doctores in great number, Florence could offer an equivalent expertise through money-lending and banking firms. Inquisitors, who often came from the same cities where they made their religious profession, were themselves a product of these cultural environments. Franciscan theologian Ubertino of Casale regretted how the attachment to the friars’ birthplace, their will to favour their own home-convent and families, and the frequent association with local people, often generated illicit outcomes, such as preferences, unwillingness to travel, excessive love for the place and family of origin, and financial benefits from or towards the local community.87 Thus, it does not seem implausible to suggest that these inquisitors would have molded their inquisition according to their own way of thinking, that of their cities and their families or professional group, and reciprocal pressures from either side.

  • 88 « [...] occasione inquisitionis vobis commisse contra hereticam pravitatem superfluos scriptores, a (...)
  • 89 « ordinamus quod inquisitor florentinus qui est, vel pro tempore fuerit, possit dumtaxat quatuor co (...)
  • 90 da Alatri 1987, p. 55-7; Lea 1887, I, 383; Albaret – Lanoix-Christen 2004, p. 50.
  • 91 See Marangon, Il pensiero ereticale, p. 64; P. Sambin, Aspetti dell’organizzazione e della politica (...)
  • 92 Exigit ordinis vestri, 2 May 1321, « accepimus siquidem acceptione fideli, quod vos nonnullis pravi (...)
  • 93 ASFi, Tratte, 294, f. 137r.

42Inevitably, the number of support and officers/staff reflected the power of individual inquisitors or their tribunal. Some might object that « power » is too wide and too vague a heading to be a reason for inflation or variation in these numbers. In fact, further decoding of this category will allow for an understanding of the implications of the recruitment of helpers. Although an indication regarding the numbers and functions of inquisitors’ staff was basically established with the Ad extirpanda, a great deal of debate seems to have happened at local and broader level, about the appropriateness and extent of what we called personal judgment. As early as 1249 Innocent IV was lamenting the excessive number of familiares (multitudinem onerosam) as one reason for excessive expenditure by the southern French tribunals, in particular pointing the finger at scribes and familiares (superfluos scriptores aliosque familiares) ; and encouraging them to reduce their numbers, so that « scandal » and « infamy » could be avoided.88 Even after the issue of the Ad extirpanda, some tribunals are reprimanded for recruiting excessive numbers, especially of armed men. In march 1282 the archbishop of Embrun, in his capacity as ambassador of the Holy See (nuncius apostolicus), warns Florentine inquisitors, ordering them to limit to « four consiliarii, or assessores, two notaries, two jailers, and twelve between officials and familiares, and no more. »89 Further attempts were made in 1311 and 1327 by the bishops and in 1346 by the commune of Florence, warnings which we can imagine became dead letter, if again in 1337 the papal envoy could personally verify how the multiplication of armed men had generated problems of public order in the city.90 In Padua (1299) the commune tries to limit the number of armed familiares serving both the bishop and the inquisitor.91 In Bologna too, in 1321, excessive numbers of armed men have been seen as the reason behind riots, so that John XXII warns the inquisitors of not indiscriminately releasing licenses to carry arms, and to limit them to those men who « stay with them on a stable basis. »92 Still, in 1345-6 there are thirty-nine registered arms-carriers in Florence, all at the service of the inquisitor, bishop and papal collector, plus – we can infer – some unofficial ones.93

  • 94 Lea 1887, p. 382.
  • 95 To recall only the earlier ones, Piacenza (1233), Orvieto (1239), Florence (1245), Prato (1270s), P (...)

43Issues of numbers and the problem of armed men are here deliberately put side-to-side, as there is more to them that only a wider preoccupation with the inflation of licenses, their commerce (illegal) by inquisitors, and what Henry Charles Lea called « the turbulence of the age [where] the carrying of weapons was rigidly repressed in all peace-loving communities. »94 While all these elements do enter the equation, and while there is no doubt that events like the murders at Avignonet in 1242, the assassination of Peter of Verona ten years later and several other cases of open rebellion95 did bear witness to an effective risk taken up by inquisitors with their duties, the question of numbers seems possibly equally linked to the question of finances and power. Officers cost money : they are paid by those who deal with the confiscated heretics’ possessions : in Languedoc, by the lordly treasuries (in Northern Italy partly by the communes), who also have to provide for inquisitors’ expenses, prisoners’ maintenance and good upkeeping of prisons and buildings. In Italy, likewise, they eat up at least 1/3 of the total confiscation amount. Some of them also generate money, by assisting in the very operation of confiscation, but not all of them (not the jailers, nor the personal servants of the inquisitors), while the various cases of malpractice, and connivance with inquisitors show how often their « productivity » did not benefit the office as a whole, but the individual « employer ».

  • 96 Acta sancti officii Bononie, n. 7 (1299, 7 September).
  • 97 Plures et plures familiares, multi nuncii et familiares, C421-A, f. 30-32r

44Thus, the number of officers and familiares, is in itself a sign of power. It is not only a consequence (of needs, of availability and of competence), but also a conscious statement of influence and power connections. The visible impact of the inquisitors’ entourage lining up on the stage at public displays of inquisitorial authority is in itself a proclamation. Witnesses, notaries, legal experts, university lecturers, lay and religious authorities, armed men, jailers, ex-heretics, papal envoys and executioners attended civic rituals from a privileged position : the speeches, the condemnation, the penances, and the execution all testified to their supremacy in front of the whole city. Let us picture out the impact of the three notaries and twenty-six named witnesses present at the condemnation of Bonigrino in Bologna (1299), including lawmen, readers, religious authorities (of the Mendicant orders), plus the « many other » unnamed ones ;96 or of the « many and many familiares » descending en masse to the house of Bartola, widow of Rosso dei Sacchetti in Florence in the mid-1340s, to take over her possessions.97

  • 98 « potestates tenentur tot officiales ponere quot ipsi inquisitores iudicaverint oportunos », De auc (...)
  • 99 Marangon, Il pensiero ereticale, p. 64.
  • 100 Giovanni Villani, Nuova Chronica, ed. Porta, Parma, 1991, XIII, 58; Marchionne di Coppo Stefani, Ch (...)
  • 101 The 1346 source is a trial against friar Pietro de l’Aquila, accused of insolvence against the Apos (...)

45In truth, efforts to limit these numbers are equally carried out by both the papacy and the lay power. This direct involvement of lay powers should not be surprising, nor should it be seen simply as a way to limit inquisitorial influence. According to the Italian De auctoritate, rectors – who were in charge of the formal act of nomination – « are obliged to put in charge as many officials as the inquisitor deems appropriate ». Should they not want/be able to do it, the inquisitor would act on their behalf.98 It seems that the struggle regarding numbers, following the existing norms, is the desperate attempt by lay governors to oppose papal prescriptions. In addition to the examples already quoted, we know that in Padua the 1299 statutes affirm that half of the twelve armed men are to be assigned to the city bishop, in the effort of restricting the overall number of personnel in direct service of inquisitors.99 In Florence, the numbers of two-hundred and fifty militia in 1346 according to historian Giovanni Villani and up to five-hundred in the words of chronicler Marchionne of Coppo Stefani, writing in the late-1380s,100 might not be necessarily exaggerated,101 and in any case reveal a general uneasiness towards this widespread practice of surrounding the office with a real army.

  • 102 Tocco, p. 67, n. 23 (9 September 1297).
  • 103 Douais 1900, p. 326-9.

46There are clashes between factions, with the inquisitors’ familia being no different from other nobles’ personal mini-armies, such as in 1297 in Prato, when the clique of Cavalcante Bonaccorsi, fights (bellavit) with inquisitor Giacomo of Pistoia’s familia.102 This tendency to reduce the number of employees in order to curb costs and chances of corruption is confirmed also in Languedoc. During the 1306 visit to the Carcassonne « mur », the pontifical commission entrusted to ascertain abuse and ill-treatment resorts to the « verbal dismissal » (verbaliter amoverunt) of existing keepers and ministers (custodes et ministros) with the sole exception of the main keeper. Afterwards, they appoint one additional prison-keeper (custos muri), to ensure further control over delicate matters such as [the] detention of ill or elderly suspects.103

  • 104 See L. Paolini, Le origini della societas Crucis, Rivista di Storia della Chiesa in Italia, 15 (197 (...)

47It has been suggested that the need to protect inquisitors is particularly widespread where lay authorities fail to provide the necessary support and safety to inquisitors in their daily activity. In particular, self-management had imposed a larger number of officers to allow for autonomous administration of the tribunals, and a larger number of armed men and crucesignati (members of semi-religious orders such as the militia Virginis and the militia Christi)104 for protection. However, it would be too restrictive to see this move as a mere reaction to lack of lay cooperation.

48In particular, the papacy’s stand in this respect seems rather awkward and not adhering to precise conduct. On the one hand the different popes were encouraging self-judgment of each situation and assessment of the individual inquisitorial needs, and stated that insufficiency of operators (referring in truth mainly to inquisitors, vicars [vicarii] and partners [socii]) could hinder the smooth functioning of inquiries. This meant acknowledging the fact that the effectiveness of tribunals did depend on the number of people involved in its functioning - be they officers or familiares. In contradiction to this attitude, they were chastising individual tribunals for excesses in spending through salaries for personnel, and uncontrolled use of licenses to carry arms. It is easy to see how this attitude was easy to counter.

  • 105 « Verum, quia persensimus tam paucos fratres non sufficere ad huiusmodi inquisitoris officium, sicu (...)
  • 106 Licet olim unus (1304, 16 Feb.), Bronzino 1980-3, n. 40.
  • 107 BOP, I, p. 433, then reiterated by Clement IV (16 December 1266) BOP, I, p. 478; also in Bronzino 1 (...)
  • 108 « Quoties […] ab eisdem fratribus fueritis requisitis, et dicto negotio fuerit opportunum […] ita q (...)
  • 109 « Porro inquisitoribus ipsis districtius inhibemus, ut nec abutantur quomodolibet concessione porta (...)

49The letter Malitia huius temporis by Innocent IV (1254, 31 May) authorises in fact the doubling of inquisitors in Lombardia, from four to eight ; while the Olim presentes felicis recordationis by Alexander IV (1256, 20 March) testifies that, a couple of years later, they were still insufficient, « since we realise that so few brothers are not sufficient to the office of such inquisition, as its management requires ».105 In 1304 Benedict IX allows a further rise in the number of inquisitors to ten.106 The Ne catholice fidei of 1262 by Urban IV107encourages the investiture of socii by the Order of the Preachers, to be assigned to those inquisitors who required further support, « whenever they require it, and it is appropriate for the business » ; pointing out that lack of personnel (personarum defectus) could hinder the speed of inquiries.108 On the other hand, Clement V, in his constitutions Clementine, from the canons of the Vienne council (1311), issues a blunt and authoritative instruction to curtail the number of armed staff and the uncontrolled system of licenses.109 The paradox lies here in the fact that both attitudes were to be reconnected to the principle of the self-determination of the inquisitors ; the crucial line of the Ad extirpanda, « or how many will be necessary » created a vacuum in legislation, leaving the possibility of a rather free interpretation of the directives.

  • 110 « Vel si essent pauci numero, et non sufficientes ad executionem officii : quod impedimentum tollit (...)
  • 111 « Possunt inquisitores Lombardie eligere officiales et sindicatores, si illi quibus committitur ex (...)
  • 112 « Secundum quod continetur in constitutionibus papalibus et secundum quod consuetum est fieri per i (...)

50Manuals reiterate the need for inquisitors to judge situations according to individual cases, testifying to the reception and assimilation of papal prescriptions into the practice. The De auctoritate refers to figures, where it deals with possible glitches in the functioning of the tribunals, « and if they [the officials] are few, and insufficient for the carrying out of the office : this obstacle can be removed in that the podesta` is required to provide as many officers as the same inquisitors will deem appropriate. »110 Bernard Gui restates the right for inquisitors to nominate officials and syndics (officiales et sindicatores), should other authorities fail to do so, while avoiding to mention quantities.111 No surprise, then, that in inquisitors’ perception the « common practice » could be put side-to-side with instructions coming from the papacy. Francis of Paucapalea, active in 1307 in the Piacenza area, was apportioning the office’s income « according to what is prescribed by papal prescriptions and according to what commonly used to happen with the previous inquisitors in inquisitions in Piedmont ».112

  • 113 With the letter Devotionis vestre by Innocent IV, where famulos et familiares can be absolved from (...)

51In so doing, religious establishments had in fact left a dangerous open door to malpractice. By allowing freedom of self-assessment of the situation and consequent nomination of the appropriate number of collaborators ; by not nipping in the bud the problem of inflation in entourage numbers, and by granting to inquisitors the right to absolve their army from sins consequent to the iniectio manuum,113 the papacy had effectively encouraged misconduct by his officers. Familia and officers are thus a visible and practical sign of power, which is used at will by inquisitors (the fearful ones ? the boasting ones ? those who acted more illegally ? those who had to trade favours with licenses ? to scare potential opponents ?). A large familia is a protection, a substantial help, but also a vehicle for corruption (notaries, army, financial experts, consiliatores) : proportionally, inflation in numbers amplified the chances of dishonesty, and the vague recommendations to « not exceed » sound like a weak scolding in comparison with the potential damage and the moral gravity of their sins.

Officium/familia. Issues of terminology

52The first step of our next stage is the wobbly one : ‘inconsistency’ in terminology. A repertoire of all the cases where variation in the use of words such as familia, familiares, officium, officiales, nuncius, expensator, depositarius, famulus, notarius, scriba, iudex etc, would be far too extensive and inconclusive. The problem of supposed inconsistency has so far hindered a clearer understanding of functions, roles, and qualifications, and sparked two main reactions within historiography. The first, an effort in defining functions (who does what), detectable in nineteenth century historians like Tanon and modern researchers likewise. The second, the temptation to ascribe discrepancies either to inaccurate procedures of recording, or to the absence of framework in the practice.

  • 114 Already discussed extensively in C.Bruschi, The wandering heretics of Languedoc, Cambridge, 2009, c (...)

53By reading the records of about ten tribunals over two-hundred years of application, a list of « inconsistencies » I have compiled counts dozens of entries. However, « inconsistency » happens when applying a modern understanding of « consistency », a category which is ultimately unsuitable in the case of our records. Records are neither consistently preserved, nor written for the same purposes. Tens of notaries and scribes, lay and ecclesiastics, operated throughout the period under investigation. Styles are evidently different. One example is manuscript C133 (1290s-1310s), where records of several inquisitors in the Lombardy and Genoese Marca are recorded side-to-side. Here the conciseness and practicality of the records of inquisitors Giacomo de Burgo, John of Fontana, Marchisio of Brescia, contrasts with the extensive and minute accounts by inquisitor Lanfranc of Bergamo. All operated in the space of two decades, and in the same inquisitorial area. Lanfranc’s records were subject to careful investigation from the papal chamber. The personal styles and wording of each scribe, purpose of the recording, slight differences in practice between tribunals, dissimilar nature of the enquiries, and the stages of « ripeness » in the procedure have affected the end-results. A good, limited example of this aspect is the comparison between the succinct records of 1245-6 inquisition by Ruggero Calcagni in Florence and extensive accounts of Toulouse and Carcassonne interrogations in the 1270s, which is witness to a complete sea-change in deposition-recording style.114 Historians thus cannot establish a « consistent » or « standardised » use of terminology. However, there are still issues to be raised and points to be made.

  • 115 Inquisitor in southern Lombardia (Lombardia inferior) 1316-8, « in officio inquisitionis steti per (...)
  • 116 « Officium inquisitoris de Senis debebat dare officio inquisitoris Florentie », C250, f. 2r.

54The first, overall concern is with the use of officium and familia, and the derivative officiales and familiares : are they overlapping definitions ? Is a familiaris also an officialis ? The answer is not clear-cut, primarily as both officium and familia present some degree of ambiguity. As in the modern use of « office », the first can be used to signify either « task/exercise of a function » or its concrete application, « operational centre for the exercise of [heretical depravity] ». Examples can be found in great number : on the one hand, let us look at the statement made by inquisitor Thomas of Camerino, illustrating the first meaning, « I have been exercising the office of inquisition for slightly longer than a year because I have been appointed to the office of provincial [of the order of the Preachers] » ;115 on the other side, C250 shows examples of officium as in « branch », where « the office of the inquisitor of Siena owes [money] to the office of the inquisitor of Florence »,116 or the many instances of somebody acting as notary of the office (notarius officii).

  • 117 « […] officialibus inquisitionis qui negotia ipsa peragebant, et erant notarii, familiares et servi (...)
  • 118 « Item, officialibus missis ad diversa loca ad inquirendum et capiendum hereticos et citandos delat (...)
  • 119 « Servitores, nuncii et officiales », C133, f. 42r.
  • 120 « […] notario, servitoribus, et nunciis et officialibus », C133, f. 36r.

55As for its employees, we have a) a general definition of « officials », as « those who actively pursue an official function », like in « the officials of the inquisition who managed its business, and were notaries, familiares and servants of the same inquisitor and of the office » (here officiales signifies a wider category including the following ones),117 or « officials sent to different places, to enquire and capture heretics and summon informers »118 ; and b) a more precise distinction between « officers » and other employees, as in « servants, messengers and officials »,119 or « notary, servants, messengers and officials ».120

  • 121 C251, f. 9v.
  • 122 C133, f. 18v.
  • 123 C249, f. 47r-v, 48r, 57v; or in « cum notario, familiare et duobus famulis » (C250, f. 107v).
  • 124 C249, f. 57v. We cannot in fact think that notary Benvenuto was either a member of the army or a se (...)

56While familia as an overarching definition includes mainly the servants and armed men, but in general the entourage of the inquisitor or the office, as in « to the familia, for this month salary »,121 or « notaries and the familia » ;122 there is clearly a more precise definition, which distinguishes them from servants, as – for example – in, « familia, famuli et eques ».123 Furthermore, next to the idea of a familiaris as some armed or servant-member of the entourage, there is a more ambiguous meaning of « familiar to », as in « Benvenutus de Trisanti, familiaris et notarius ».124

  • 125 The earliest examples (although about the inquisitor/inquisition binomial) are in Liber inquisition (...)
  • 126 Paolini 2002, p. 191.

57Another, clear point to make is the neat juridical distinction between « office » and « inquisitor ». The inquisitor is indeed an officer, somebody exercising a function - inquiring into heretical depravity. However, at least from the 1260s,125 intensifying with the beginning of the 1280s, and with some consistency in fourteenth century records, it is apparent that the office and the inquisitor embody two separate juridical entities. The nature and institution of the office as a juridical entity has been set by the Licet ex omnibus of Clement IV, according to the De auctoritate and De officio, and is therefore acquired by the late thirteenth century.126

  • 127 E.g. « iudices et consultores/consiliatores officii et inquisitoris » « dicti inquisitoris et offic (...)
  • 128 C133, in diversis locis, discussed also by Benedetti 2008, p. 127, who points out only the « person (...)
  • 129 See Paolini 1975, p. 11; Acta sancti Officii, n. 672 « suum et dicti officii inquisitionis vicarium (...)
  • 130 « pro pluribus servitiis factis inquisitori et officio », C250, f. 115v; « pro carceribus et carcer (...)

58Officers could be employed to exercise a function within an inquisition, but records are rather precise as to their actual attachment. Let us see some examples. C250 names on several occasions the lawmen identified as « advisers (consiliatores) of the office and of the inquisitor ».127 Inquisitor Lanfranc of Bergamo’s notaries are almost always named as « notar[ies] for me and the office ».128 Bolognese notaries are mainly named as personal employees of the inquisitors, and even the vicarius of inquisitor Guido of Vicenza, brother Pinamonte of Bologna - who should be considered on the same level to the inquisitor, is officially named as « his [the inquisitor’s] special vicar and of the office of inquisition ».129 In Florence, messengers Bettino and Nova are paid for the « various services provided to the inquisitor and to the office » and inquisitor Accursio Bonfantini in 1326 notes expenses made « for the prison and prisoners of the inquisitor and of the office of inquisition ».130

  • 131 There is a hint at a strict co-operation between individual notaries and inquisition in the 1245 ac (...)
  • 132 See for example Lomastro, L’eresia a Vicenza, docs, n. 2, 8, 9, 11, 14, and n. 16 for a notarius of (...)
  • 133 Peter Vital « notary of the inquisitor », but B. Bonet indifferently « public notary of Toulouse an (...)
  • 134 « iuratis et consiliariis officii inquisitionis », Comptes d’Arnaud Assalit, p. 519, n. 8689; GGG, (...)

59This precision, which at times may sound pedantic, is mostly found in the documents dating to the early fourteenth century. Sources such as the records of the 1240s inquisition by Dominican Ruggero Calcagni and bishop Ardingo in Florence do not pay equal attention to these distinctions.131 Even late thirteenth century papers are still rather inconsistent about this.132 A spot-check of French sources has shown fluctuations in terminology, where we find indifferently « public notaries of the inquisition » (publicus inquisitionis notarius), or « notary of the inquisitor » in 1273-82 ;133 the 1320s accounts of Arnaud Assalit remember « jurors and advisers of the office of inquisition », but do not provide details allowing a comparison, and register GGG mainly « notaries of the inquisition », while other accounts prefer to record expenses or decisions taken by order of the lord inquisitor (de mandato domini inquisitoris).134

  • 135 In France, a salary or reimbursement of expenses is provided to inquisitors ever since 1246, and up (...)

60Overall it is reasonable to think that flexibility seems to mirror lesser concern about juridical implications. So, why mainly Italian fourteenth century sources ? Where the tri-partition of heretics’ possessions imposes a differentiation between the office/officials (who benefit from 1/3 of the total) and the inquisitor (who should not benefit financially),135 this distinction makes more sense. Because of this partition of profits and consequent implications of book-keeping the two juridical entities must be clearly separated. A notary « of the inquisitor » is a total responsibility of the individual inquisitor, while a notary « of the office » must account to the office and be paid through the office money. The suggestion here is that the distinction between familia and officium is therefore one that bears some degree of financial and juridical implication, and a more precise mapping – where allowed – of the moment when this attention to wording becomes standardised can help us to tell when that particular office income began to make a difference. That is, when that particular office transformed from a guardian of faith into a financial machine.

  • 136 « tenebat suos exploratores secretos et premissa faciebat ut dominus Pontius non posset scire verit (...)

61As members of the entourage were entitled to retribution, they were also legally bound to their employer. Technically speaking, the inquisitor too is at the service of the office of inquisition into heretical depravity, and as such a formal investiture must be granted by his order. Nonetheless, a direct dependence on the inquisitor rather than the office could have been a relatively easy way to dodge hurdles, and to avoid prescriptions enforced by the legislation to the « officials » – that is, the office’s employees. Furthermore, while papal sources and manuals do refer to officiales and define their duties, allowance and limits (for instance the obligation to be bound by oath), there is no mention of boundaries for familiares – who almost totally seem to depend upon the inquisitor himself (familiares inquisitores/familia mea/familiaris domini inquisitoris). It goes without saying that this second group could thus enjoy more flexibility, fewer restrictions and a higher degree of impunity, as personally linked and responding to the inquisitor. In the 1330s inquisitor Mino of S Quirico is accused of having his « own explorers secretly » to avoid a leak of information to the papal envoy.136 As their precincts had not been established, abuse through the employment of personal familiares was an easy outcome.

  • 137 Tanon 1893, p. 198.

62One last point regards the distinction between functions and titles. The alleged inconsistency of vocabulary whereby somebody is recorded as – say – messenger, and meanwhile acts as a prison-keeper, or where several definitions describe a similar function, must be read with extreme care. Tanon was noting, for instance, a number of variations in the ways of defining messengers, « they were called differently, depending on place and circumstances ».137 Aside from place and circumstance, there are three main potential explanations : a) members of the entourage could cover more than one task/function simultaneously, b) members of the entourage could progress through a promotion mechanism to different duties, c) there is a further distinction in terminology below the function-only description of duties. It is our impression that all three are plausible, and the first two will be discussed in a further paragraph. Here some examples should be brought in to support the latter option.

  • 138 For instance, C133, f. 32r-60r, several entries per page (registers of Lanfranc of Bergamo); f. 108 (...)
  • 139 See some discussion of this theme in my The wandering heretics, p. 88-97.

63C133 (a miscellaneous manuscript including mainly XIV century inquisitors’ expense records from Lombardy, Veneto and Genoese Marca) collects frequent mentions of functions such as cazator (hunter), spia (spy), and explorator (explorer).138 These definitions are not easily found elsewhere. Although use of spies must be assumed as a current practice, it is rarely recorded in sources,139 both because the greatest number of our documents is depositions and sentences – where spies play no role – ; and because their employment, which is neither officially allowed nor witnessed in the legislation, is still a submerged practice.

  • 140 « ‘Item in spiis, exploratoribus, iudicibus, sapientibus, notariis’, ‘in querendo, explorando, ares (...)

64These identifications are no synonyms. A section in the records of inquisitor Marchisio of Brescia (active 1311 in Lombardia superior) distinguishes between spies and explorers, and explains how they fulfil several separate phases of the pursuit of heretics, « contributions to […] spies, explorers, judges, sapientes, notaries, » « […] in the enquiry, exploration, arrest, capture, transfer, incarceration, detention, custody, sustenance and clothing of heretics and heresy suspects ».140 While in C133 the functions are so meticulously laid out, elsewhere we find no such precision, and the separate stages of the capture are presented as carried out by the familia and the messengers. So, either the tribunals followed separate procedural protocols (which is indeed possible), or the words spies, explorers and nuncii can be read in a different way.

  • 141 A rare explanation of what this role entails in a 1292 document from Vicenza, « dictos denarios dar (...)

65Another example. The C249, 250, 251, and 421-A all refer to the Tuscan tribunals between 1280 and 1346. In recording entries, several notaries display particular, meticulous attention in distinguishing between functions which relate to the legal and financial side of the inquiries – the confiscation and management of bona hereticorum. Next to the standard terminology (messenger, notary, judge, familiaris, servant) there are further specifications : expensator, depositarius,141 sindicus, procurator, and consultor.

  • 142 See for instance, C133, ff . 28r-v, 30v, 49r.
  • 143 It would be interesting to enquire whether such differences are to be attributed to different « inq (...)

66These examples suggest interesting possibilities as to the priorities and individuality of tribunals and their recording style – in Genoa, Piedmont, and Lombardy, inquiries focus on a true « hunt » for connections, relationships, and networking between communities of non-conformists, often in relationship with Languedoc ;142 in Florence and the Veneto greater emphasis is placed upon the financial implications of confiscation.143

  • 144 « Benincasa Martini, nuncius capelle Sancti Thome de mercato civitatis Bononie, et nuncius iuratus (...)

67Overall, however, this suggests that two levels exist in the choice of terminology : nuncius, familiaris, notarius, iudex are qualifications, while spy, explorer, consiliator, expensator, depositarius, sindicus, procurator indicate functions. Benincasa Martini, messenger in Bologna at the turn of the fourteenth century, provides us with a good proof of the professional nature of a nuncius, « Benincasa Martini, nuncius of the chapel of St Thomas in Mercato of Bologna, and sworn nuncius for brother Guido of Vicenza. »144

  • 145 « Raynerolo qui predicabat et docebat, et custodiebat eum [the conversus ab heresi] in Papia » « pe (...)

68Quibbling as this point might sound, it is not without implications. Clearly, a higher degree of terminological sophistication appears whenever the tribunal needs to allocate precise functions to its officers, and whenever the existing definitions do not provide sufficient nuances to identify the various shades of one’s duties. Shades did exist in daily practice, even within what might seem a clear-cut task to us, and could in fact result in rather complex situations, definitions and roles. In one case, we know that some sort of training for new spies is involved among Lombard tribunals, as messenger Raynerolus « preached and taught and kept him [a ex-heretic], for more than one month », to brief him – we think – on the task ahead ; after which inquisitor Lanfranco of Bergamo sent them together to Pavia on the hunt for heretics.145

Cursus honorum, functions

  • 146 Notary Andrea de Valle receives his investiture as syndic of the Franciscan convent of Padua by the (...)
  • 147 8 July 1297 : « Qui vero dominus Bovatinus, visis constitutionibus et aliis que potuerunt motum ips (...)

69I have found no information about denominations and precise functions of officers and their duties in the official legislation (bulls, letters, manuals). Even when it comes to notaries, the law is not generous in defining roles. Does this mean that inquisitors have freedom of attributing tasks and duties to officers and familiares, after their appointment ? One case, from the 1290s, tells us that officials at times also had the right to attribute tasks and duties, by nominating other officials when and where necessary.146 The question was clearly debated, as it left great scope for self-determination within the offices. In July 1297 jurist Bovetino of Mantua was required a consilium on this matter by the inquisitor of Vicenza. The answer did not leave room for doubt : the election of members of the entourage is down to the inquisitor only.147 As always, requiring legal advice and reiterating the concept signifies the contrary : that people did it, and that authorities felt it as an abuse of power.

70The Ad extirpanda casts some light upon the matter, when, after establishing the number of officers for tribunals, it adds that the twelve wise men (viri probi), two notaries and two servants have full power (plenariam potestatem) to give orders on matters which pertain to the office (que ad officium suum pertinent). Potential for a free interpretation of « what pertains to the office » is huge. Although a degree of control is contemplated, exerted by podesta` over the officers, and mostly used to prevent excesses and ensure a smooth running of the inquiries, authorities have no right of interference into the internal management strategies laid out by officers. Unsurprisingly, thus, sources present various cases of overlapping of functions, or « multitasking » of officials.

  • 148 Wakefield, Inquisitors’ assistants, p. 62.
  • 149 Acta sancti Officii, n. 575, 578, 579, 583 and passim. See also the discussion of witnesses and the (...)

71While making an inventory of all « double functions » in Ms Toulouse 609, Walter Wakefield noted that these mainly involved the duties of clergyman (cleric, holder of a parish), and the witnessing and acting as notary or scribe for the office or its holder/s. He saw this specificity as a peculiar feature of the 609 enquiry, where an extremely high number of deponents required a great number of people acting as witnesses, or able to interrogate and record depositions. Double functions/duties would thus be dictated by the needs of the enquiry, and the entourage would consequently be chosen to cater for these needs.148 There is no doubt that this is the case. Aside from the religious, members of the familia too could be employed as witnesses, because of the nature of their privileged relationship with the inquisitor, their ready availability, and their trustworthiness. The Bologna example of nuncii Benincasa Martini, Milanino of Milan and Lapo Cultri often appearing as witnesses in official papers is only one of many.149

  • 150 Benedetti sees this as blackmail : luring heretics who live in poverty into co-operation, means cas (...)
  • 151 Given, Inquisition and medieval society, p. 141-66; Bruschi, The wandering heretics, p. 23-4, 142-8 (...)

72However, such a reading is restrictive. Multitasking in our sources goes beyond this. There seems to be the possibility – albeit not institutionalised – for « promotions » within the familia, and in particular, one kind of progression – from heretic to collaborator or employee – which bridges the gap between orthodoxy and heresy. This is certainly the broadest of jumps : from outsider and outcast to member of the trustworthy entourage of the men of faith. This transformation automatically led to a life of lesser poverty, or to inquisitors’ benefits, pension, and/or supporting network.150 This system, however, benefits both sides. We have seen elsewhere how the game is never led by one party only, and that heretics know how to operate the system to their advantage.151 The conversi ab heresi pepper our Collectorie manuscripts, benefitting from one-off payments and rewards, either as spies or as the captors of heretics. They are numerous, often mentioned without their names as « spies » and « explorers », « hunters », « prior heretic, now working for the office », « who has done much for the office », sometimes – we suspect when employed on a stable basis, or when enjoying a more prominent status among spies - with their Christian name.

  • 152 C133, f. 32-4, 37, on several occasions.
  • 153 « Onda que fuit heretica, que iuravit in manibus meis, et quam conversatur bene, pro uno vestito 32 (...)
  • 154 « Item : 20 l. domino Geraldus Unaudi, milite, converso ab heresi, pro pensione seu elemosina a dom (...)
  • 155 C133, f. 54r.
  • 156 « Maria servitiale pro pluribus serviciis factis inquisitori », C250 114v; « Pace et Dade, servitia (...)
  • 157 « famulo qui stat parti pro exploratore officii et citat et requirit delatos curie », C251, 20v.
  • 158 What is relevant in the case of Trintinelli, who had been guilty solely of rebellious attitude agai (...)

73We have Helena and Anexia working for Lanfranc of Bergamo, for whom the office provides and pays for food, clothing, and lodging,152 and the literate Onda, « who was a heretic, who swore in my hands [ = abjured], and who could talk nicely », the same woman who « copied in a booklet many [papal] privileges of the office, and consilia, and many other things. »153 Among the high-profile collaborators paid by the French royal collector is Gerald Unaud, formerly a « vested heretic », who was now enjoying some lifelong pension from the King, as a convert.154 Spies could also come from the number of familiares, like « John, spy, once my familiaris »,155 or Mary the servant, and Pace and Dade in Florence,156 although one might expect that somebody who was known as working with or for the inquisitors was not the most appropriate person to employ as an undercover heretic, or in secret « explorations ». One mention from Florence suggests the possibility of some sort of part-time or occasional collaboration, such as, « one servant who is partly acting as explorer of the office, and summons and brings those who have been spied to the [inquisitor’s] lodgings ».157 In one other instance, we have a regression from the state of in-law to outlaw for rich banker Paolo Trintinelli, who on 12 May 1299 was witnessing the condemnation of Giuliano Salimbene borsarius and Bompietro of John, before confessing on 17 May to his own guilt, and being held while the inquisitors were gathering evidence against him.158

74Furthermore, to add to the picture sketched by Wakefield, another factor must be taken into consideration : the flexibility required of officers by high-profile inquests where large sums of money were involved (Florence, Padua and Vicenza stand out in this respect), was different from the requirements asked from religious acting as witnesses. At times inquisitors could count on people who could handle and compile financial accounts, oversee competently the confiscation of patrimonies, operate within the intricacies of both money-lending and banking worlds, and – where necessary – were able to cover-up plausibly for inquisitors’ malpractice in front of the papal envoys.

  • 159 For instance at C249, f. 48v (nuncius). Elsewhere only familiaris (ibid., f. 51r, 54r).
  • 160 C250, f. 37r, and passim.
  • 161 C250, f. 95r.
  • 162 C250, f. 80v, 139r. Here « ad custodiam carceris dicti officii ». The custos carcerum is different (...)
  • 163 The confiscated money is left with a depositarius, is then handed to the notaries on their request (...)
  • 164 « Familiaris, servitor et officialis officii inquisitionis tempore officii fratris Ayulfi de Vincen (...)

75This is why cases like Manovello Jacobi, the Florentine factotum for several inquisitors in the 1320s who is employed as « messenger »,159 who becomes expenditor in charge of all payments of salaries, travelling expenses, and supplies,160 receives the payment of penalties,161 and is also manager of the prison/jailer,162 is particularly significant. A series of payments detailed in C250 shows a typical sequence where the expenditor is involved, a sequence which implies a good degree of financial management by the officers involved.163 This ability – for some familiares - to mold into the needs of the tribunals, especially of some tribunals, would suggest that there is more to the officers than just the rogues depicted by Lea. Also, that it is only fair to give back to these people of alleged « lower-competence » the role they truly deserve. Inquisitors do often make differences between targets according to their wealth, but they don’t seem to be too picky in terms of social background when it comes to trust. Mugnus, another ubiquitous member of the familia of inquisitor Ayulfus of Vicenza, is described as somebody who covers contemporarily the roles of familiaris, servant, expensator and official of the office of inquisition.164

  • 165 C251, f. 55-57 [or 67-69 new folio numbers]. He has served under inquisitors Michele da Arezzo, Ted (...)
  • 166 C133, f. 125r.
  • 167 C249, f. 42r, 43r-v, C250, f. 2v, 13v.
  • 168 C259, f. 48r, 51r, 52r, 54r, 56r; C250, f. 37r and in many other places throughout.

76Evidently, the competence of officials, be it acquired through service, or professional qualification, fed into the existing trust between employer and employees. Reliability, trust and professionalism made these individuals sought after by the tribunal. The six-month (renewable) appointment prescribed by the Ad extirpanda does not find consistent application. Together with names that occur only once or twice in the records, others are constantly recurring. We know from the records that notary Giovanni Bongia worked for the Florentine tribunal for more than twenty years,165 and that notary Federico of Montebello was acting for the Veneto inquisitors for over fifteen.166 Spinello, the messenger, cursor, servant and standing proxy for laymen of Florence and Prato was active both under inquisitor Pace of Castelfiorentino (1319-22) and Mino Daddi (1332-4).167 Lori of Maiano is mentioned as a member of the familia under Pace of Castelfiorentino and Michele of Arezzo (1322-5).168

77Appointment spanning several years, and under the direction of several inquisitors could be a consequence of the positive collaboration between familia, office and office holders. It had, however, several other implications which must be suggested here, and which are typical of all long-term relationships. One is the possibility that the officers could effectively take over the running of the tribunal, by applying the same (or similar) techniques over and over again despite changes in norms, directives, and/or procedural guidance. If these were successful, why change them ?

  • 169 ASVat, Instrumenta Miscellanea, c. 370.
  • 170 Given, Inquisition and medieval society, pp. 144-7.

78Two, the role of notaries and other top-officials within a semi-stable body of officers could prevaricate that of the inquisitors themselves, especially when and where the tribunals had transformed into financial machines : operational branches of a corrupted system of control, where effectively religious competence came second to financial skills. The case of Mascara of Leonardo de Mascaris clearly demonstrates this. Mascara is a protagonist of many of the Paduan tribunal’s transactions, but is known also through the petition he addressed to pope Benedict XI in order to rebalance the financial querelle between himself and four inquisitors in the area of Venice and Trevisan Marca (1304).169 In the end, the papal commission terminates his excommunication, cuts two-hundred florins off his debt, and declares him protected « by special grace » from future claims by other inquisitors and « by whoever official ». Mascara comes out of this suit better off than the four inquisitors opposing him. Another case, this time from Languedoc, sees Jacques Fournier hearing the attempt of two sergeants to overrule the inquisitor and his sentences by forging the seals on the letters of citation.170

  • 171 Ubertino of Casale’s words point out this as a problem, with particular reference to Tuscan convent (...)
  • 172 « [...] quidam officiales dicti officii inquisitionis sub pretextu officii predicti de nocte post h (...)
  • 173 « Item tenuit et nunc tenet Çaninus tabernarius de Romano qui popul[ariter] vocatur Çaninus pathari (...)

79Three, familiares are less bound to comply with behavioral prescriptions which, instead, should guide the life of both Franciscans and Dominicans. They can handle money,171 they can carry arms, they can move around quite freely – and do so even when it is not allowed,172 and they can use threats and words which the inquisitors cannot use. Four, these men are a further link with the outside world : not only with the cities, their milieu, their mechanisms of power, their families and family politics ; but also with the « others ». Ex-heretics, but also dubious characters such as the Zaninus patharinus who is employed by brother Ayulfus of Vicenza, « Zaninus the innkeeper, from Romano, who is commonly called Zaninus patharinus, [he, the inquisitor, keeps] as an official of the said office against the regulation ; although this Zaninus was himself a public usurer, and his uncle, called Duradinus of Romano, was exhumed and his bones were burnt for the crime of heresy ».173

  • 174 « Quedam transvestita nomine Lazarina de Plumatio », Acta sancti Officii, n. 797.

80There seems to be no evidence of an internal cursus honorum which allows faithful officers to overturn and improve their professional qualification over time and, in one isolated case, we are left with puzzlement when reading of a strange collaborator, « a certain transvestite, called Lazarina of Piumazzo »…174

When things go wrong. Exposure

81Being the right-hand men of the inquisitors does not only bring advantages. When things go wrong the first to pay for it are the most exposed. And although the degree of impunity enjoyed by familiares is great, this cannot protect them against all events. Examples of this aspect fall into three main headings : trials, rebellions/riots, and blackmail. Trust and closeness came at a price, and not only monetary. Being right-hands to the inquisitor mean sharing destinies, for better, or for worse.

  • 175 Douais 1900, p. lxxxiv-vii (the letter of Peter Rodier recites, « Cum dudum Bartholomeus Adalberti, (...)
  • 176 Da Alatri, Due inchieste, p. 229; Lomastro L’eresia a Vicenza, p. 52, and n. 3, 7, 8, 13; his audit (...)
  • 177 « Michaelem de Ciglano ad testificandum seu accusandum seu deponendum falso et contra Deum quod qui (...)

82Notary Bartholomew Adalbert, responsible under Arnaud Assalit of the financial side of inquisitions (1321-2) is arrested two years later (1324) for « his misdeeds ». Both inquisitors - Carcassonne bishop Pierre Rodier and Dominican Jean of Prat - claim the right to judge him and - while debating - leave him in prison for two years.175 In Italy, Judge Federico of Montebello, witness and main « notary of the office of inquisition » in Vicenza (mid-1280s) for more than fifteen years, is arrested, excommunicated and condemned. Papal envoy William of Balait, in charge of the trial, authorises the deletion of his excommunication provided he agrees to give back part of what he stole from the office.176 And another example : inquisitor brother Ayulfus of Vicenza tries to push notary Michael of Ciglano to give false deposition « against God », accusing and naming some brothers of his order, of having made a complaint to the commune of Treviso and other officials of the office of inquisition. To the notary’s puzzlement, the inquisitor reassures him, « do not be afraid of accusing them, or of giving false witness against them, because what you will say against them will not be inserted in the office’s registers, so that they will never know of your accusation. » At the sharp refusal of Michael, the inquisitor fines him, withdraws his professional license, and « ruins » him.177

  • 178 C421-A, f. 1r.
  • 179 « [...] licet loquatur in persona domini Vitaliani, eam re vera emit de peccunia fratris Zuliani or (...)
  • 180 « […] tamen ad ipsam rei veritatem spectat et pertinet ad dominum Petumbonum de Broseminis, de ordi (...)

83These three, blatant cases are not the only ones emerging from the sources which can provide evidence of trials against members of the entourage. We know that the trial against Peter of l’Aquila and other Tuscan inquisitors (1346), also involves « their notaries and officials. »178 During the last years of the thirteenth century in Padua there are at least two cases when notaries/officials are prosecuted because of the irregularities performed for the office : the first sees the « procurer, syndic and treasurer of the Franciscan convent in Padua » confessing in 1292 that, although he appeared to be acting on behalf of judge Vitaliano of Prato, he was in fact « buying with the money of brother Julian of the order of the Minors, then inquisitor, and – as he thinks – with the office’s money, and this money and price he had by brother Julian himself, then inquisitor » – for this he was prosecuted.179 In the second case (1297) a similar scenario occurs between notary Andrea of Gennaro de Valle, who confesses to have acted as a figure-head, while the true instigator, on whose orders, and with whose money he was acting, was brother Pietrobono Brosemini, inquisitor.180 This instance too led to prosecution, and we know that members of the entourage enjoyed protection as long as the inquisitors could grant it, thus when the inquisitor was himself under trial, it is most likely that his entourage would fall back within the ordinary legal system.

84From a criminal law perspective, punishment of officials and notaries is simply a consequence of their involvement in illicit activities and business via or on behalf of the inquisitors. In fact, there is more to it : especially when behaving inappropriately, inquisitors put their officials in a position of maximum vulnerability, should illicit activities come into the open. The heavy use of notaries to validate the office’s transactions, gaining momentum throughout the thirteenth century mainly in Italian cities, had made all actions documented and notaries indispensable. It is not « inexplicable », as Lomastro was inferring, that judge Federico of Montebello (or Bartholomew Adalbert) was prosecuted by the inquisition after years of faithful service to the office. We are not interested here in pointing out political reasons for each trial. Aside from the grounds for it, the point we wish to make is that blackmailing former officials and employees, who were themselves prime perpetrators of the offences of which the office was guilty, was in fact easy for inquisitors, and possibly even easier for lay governments. The power of these Mendicants, the irrelevant role of the orders in controlling misbehaviour, and the legislation they could use combined to make a forceful combination. The system and « weaponry » officials contributed to build up, and to use against other people could be straightforwardly retorted against them.

  • 181 D25, f. 186r, 191v.

85Besides, the prime role of officials in the repression of non-conformity, and the fact that they were effectively acting as the « legal hand » of the tribunal, had a potent impact upon the population. These individuals lived with inquisitors, worked for them while performing a particularly hated business, accompanied them everywhere, acted on their behalf during the stages of repression (summoning, trial, torture, confiscation, penance, fines, imprisonment, exhumation, stake), they stood with the inquisitors, defending them and protecting them, and they were present at the public display of « orthodoxy » – during preaching and sentences. Officials and familiares carried arms, enjoyed privileges and impunity, [and] had a role in the management of spies. Pestilhac and William Tisserand, servants of the inquisition, communicated with convert Amblard Vassal (ca 1274) in order to explain how to proceed in informing upon and capturing heretics. Later on in the enquiry we know that Pestilhac was subsequently murdered by opponents of the tribunal.181 Not only catalysts, but also vehicles bridging the gap between the theory and the practice of repression, these individuals are also a more vulnerable target than inquisitors for any opponent.

  • 182 Acta sancti Officii, n. 621-37, 645, 680.
  • 183 « socios nostros et familiam nostram, cum transitum fecerimus occasione officii nostri », Ibid., n. (...)

86We have seen how naturally any case of rebellion against the inquisitors involved their entourage as well. Naturally, because the familia’s duty was to defend the inquisitor, and because they were often sharing their spaces, lodging and meals. However, cases of retaliation and riots against the familiares themselves have been found. In transporting heretic Berga from Piumazzo to the vicar of the inquisitor (1304), the convoy comprised of the messenger Nascimbene, a « keeper », and the syndic of Piumazzo is attacked, and Berga is freed. The notary records how insurgents acted with « the purpose of killing, especially Nascimbene. » An inquiry was set up, with the aim of ascertaining the truth about « the excesses against Nascimbene […] and the others who were with him ». In the eyes of the notary and/or the inquisitor, excesses against the members of the entourage represented a worse offence than the action of freeing a heretic from their hands.182 These attacks often happen on the roads, like the one against the Bolognese inquisitor in 1299, where he, « our partners (socios), and our familia [were assaulted], while passing by, while on business for the office. »183

  • 184 Lea 1887, II, p. 273; L. Wadding, Annales Minorum, ad an. 1356, n. 12-9, quoting ASVe, Misti, cons. (...)

87At other times, resentment and hatred channeled towards the collaborators was meant to reach the inquisitors as a form of blackmail. This is the case in the 1356 abduction of the familia of inquisitor Michael of Pisa, active in Treviso. The inquisitor had arrested some Jews, guilty of apostasy. Presumably, requisitions of substantial patrimonies ensued. The city government - who were opposing the decision – kidnapped and tortured the inquisitors’ familiares, accusing them of inappropriate confiscation of the possessions of the condemned. In fact, whatever the political reason for the arrest and torture, this powerful act effectively undermined the inquisitors’ policies and/or decisions by targetting his collaborators : first, as inquisitor’s employees, and second as those actually responsible for the requisitions.184

  • 185 « quod predictus Baro et frater notarium accusaverunt quod astabat mihi et quod scribebat acta cont (...)
  • 186 « [Pace of Pesamigola] notarios perpetuo privaret officio secundum quod imperator Fredericus suis l (...)

88Another earlier episode occurred in Florence during the great Dominican inquisition of 1245-6, when inquisitor Roger Calcagni arrested the two brothers Pace and Barone of Barone. Among the allegations was the assertion that they « had accused the notary of assisting me and writing the deeds against heretics. »185 Meanwhile, podesta` Pace da Pesamigola of Bergamo, later accused and condemned for heresy, was alleged to have opposed inquisitorial activities by retaliating against the notaries [of the office] and imposing fines on them for alleged disregard of existing norms.186 The notaries, once again, are seen as a way to get to their employers. Punished for acting in their professional capacity at the inquisitors’ service, or hit by measures intended to undermine the inquisitors’ sentence. Although our source is the inquisitor’s report on these facts, and although a degree of interpretation of the events must be ascribed to this record – depicting the podesta` and the Barone brothers as strenuous political opponents of the inquisition and its decisions, on completely illegitimate grounds – there is a clear hint at the frontline role of the notaries as targets for the anti-inquisitorial front.

Localism : getting at the root of the problem

  • 187 « […] illi predicatores qui nepotes et consanguineos, quamvis indignos, promovent ad proventus et h (...)
  • 188 Inter celestium insignia (1302), in Chronica fratris Nicholai Glassberger ordinis minorum observant (...)
  • 189 See above, p. 24.
  • 190 For example, see the comments made by the Master General Humbert of Romans, in B.M. Reichert (ed.),(...)

89Familia, families. The De periculis novissimorum temporum by William of Saint-Amour (1256), considered one of the milestones of anti-Mendicant polemics, points out indicators through which « false-apostles » can be recognised within the Mendicants. In his words, among those who claim to be heirs of Christ’s followers, and are not, there are « those preachers who against God’s will, promote their unworthy nephews and kin, to success and ecclesiastical honours ».187 Stripped to the bare-bones, it is the definition of nepotism, a particularly significant issue in the midst of the thirteenth century, when it represented one of the rampant sins of mendicant friars. It is known that the Franciscan order, throughout the generalate of Giovanni of Morrovalle (1296-1304), tried to curb the tendency of Franciscan communities to strike root into local environments and communities.188 We have seen how localism was also stigmatised by Ubertino of Casale in his 1309 Sanctitas vestra,189 as one of the most damaging habits of local communities. Brothers Preacher too, throughout the thirteenth century, were trying to encourage their friars to move out of the birthplace to embark in preaching missions or travel to spread the good word, and were struggling to succeed.190 Thus, the existing malaise which seems to have hit both mendicant orders from within had inevitable repercussions on the inquisition tribunals, which were effectively an offshoot of the orders and the convents where inquisitors were hosted. It is our conviction that the entourage of inquisitors was contributing further to this gradual and deep rooting of communities into their territory. Let us see in which ways.

  • 191 Examples, in great numbers, can be found in Biscaro, Inquisitori ed eretici lombardi; da Alatri, In (...)
  • 192 C251 f. 26r; C249, f. 53r, 56r; C250, f. 145r
  • 193 As pointed out by Rigon, Introduzione, in Liber contractuum, p. xxxii; C133, f. 15r
  • 194 See for example C251, f. 58/70 (accusation to brother Mino of St Quirico of having kept aside 400 f (...)
  • 195 Cabié 1905, p. 129-30 (clothing for the inquisitor’s nephew).
  • 196 For instance, notary John Bongia and his son Paniccia in Florence, (C249, f. 45r, 46r, 48r; ASFi, D (...)
  • 197 For instance, the Trisanti family, who counts a notary (Benvenuto), a « banker » (depositarius) – B (...)
  • 198 Tedicio entrusts his relative Guido of Fabbro with great part of the office’s money, while Nastagio (...)

90First of all, through families, in and outside the order.191 Members of inquisitors’ families were employed with different titles in the tribunal’s activities, and enjoyed loans,192 commerce of ex-heretical goods,193 gifts194 and contributions towards family needs.195 Other familial links include the dynasties of notaries196 or relatives connected to the friars and employed as notaries, officials, etc.197 Examples of familial connections are great in number. One case is that of the Tolosini and Bonfantini families of Florence, both of which provided inquisitors during the fourteenth century – Tedicio of Fabbro Tolosini (1325-6) and Accursio Bonfantini (1326-9). Many members of their families were involved throughout the 1320-40s with the office, mainly in the capacity of depositarii.198

  • 199 See the letter written by Benedict IX to the bishop of Ostia, where there is a complaint that the g (...)
  • 200 Liber contractuum, n. 3 ( ?), 9, 16, 17.
  • 201 Examples from the Upper Lombardy area in C133, where buyers include (f. 504-7) brother Guido [a Min (...)
  • 202 Rigon, Introduzione, in Liber contractuum, p. xvi, e.g. docs. n. 63, 65 (1292), 67-ff, 99.
  • 203 ASFi, Diplomatico, n. 00041681 (14 Nov. 1332) where the named ‘poor of Christ’ are Neri Ugolini of (...)

91Second, through finances. The confiscation of heretical possessions could provide good bargains on excellent lands, houses, and assets. Sales at a lower price than the actual market value were effectively a means through which to please the buyer, or ingratiate the office with whoever needed to be corrupted.199 A cluster of documents from Vicenza tell us of commerce made with the house of the Humiliati of Berica,200 but other orders do benefit too, as do local authorities.201 When malpractice came to the fore in Padua and Vicenza (1302-8), it was clear that either the convents or the members of the inquisitors’ entourage were benefitting in person from the financial transactions. A smooth system would ensure that a donor or testator would leave money to the « paupers of Christ », who were then discovered to be appropriately either the local Franciscan convent or the individual members of the familia.202 The mechanism is repeated in Florence in the 1330s.203

  • 204 C249, f. 47v. Balduccio cashes in on this business too, as noted by the notary, (« plus exigerat qu (...)
  • 205 ASFi, Tratte, 294, f. 137r; 995, f. 99r. I owe this second reference to Paolo Pirillo, with thanks. (...)

92Third, by maintaining key-characters within the office over a length of time, thus allowing enough time for relationships, « business ventures » and polished mechanisms to develop. Aside from the extreme cases of notary Giovanni Bongia and judge Federico of Montebello, even merchant Balduccio Pegolotti was recorded in 1321 as « syndic of the commune of Florence » for about seven years.204 One can imagine how easy it must have been, in a relatively restricted community of people where elites represented even a smaller number of families and individuals, to cross paths at some point with that of the tribunal. The range alone of people who were in various capacities employed by or benefitted from the inquisitors through the mechanism of confiscations must have made up a fair number, if seen in the light of the inflation of collaborators numbers as discussed above. The 1345-6 lists of bishop’s and inquisitor’s familiares which allowed the carrying of arms in Florence highlights both the aspects of the numbers and social backgrounds of the collaborators, including forty people among whom several prominent Florentine families are represented (Brunelleschi, Medici, Ridolfi, Albizzi, Cioni, Lippi, Corsi), as does the list of officials from the Paduan office, where over twenty-nine officials, seventeen were domini, and five notaries.205

  • 206 For a reconstruction of this handover in relationship with the management of the inquisitions, see (...)
  • 207 See for instance Correspondence administrative d’Alphonse of Poitiers, ed. Molinier n. 300 (16 July (...)
  • 208 Ibid., n., 300, 303, 415, 428, 493, 504, 779, 911, 932, 1105, 1237, 1257, 1262, 1268, 1269, 1280, 1 (...)
  • 209 Dossat, Les crises, p. 316-8.

93Even when the sources are scarce in this respect, there are hints at an existing situation which one should understand as generalised in Northern Italian cities at the turning of the fourteenth century. A tighter control over inquisitors’ expenses in Languedoc did not allow these means to develop to such an extent. Lack of available liquidity did cut the development of local links, clienteles, and obligations. Whenever inquisitors were felt as overpowering, especially in matters of finances, petitions were addressed to the lay authorities, but this meant that since 1249 - when Alphonse of Poitiers succeeded Raymond VII of Toulouse in the control of Languedoc, and even more so at his death (1271) when king Philip III the Bold took full control of the area – the management of these pleas was down to a less-localised elite.206 Alphonse nominated his officials for the requisitions directly (James de Bosco and Egidio Camelini, both clerics),207 and imposed them on the local seneschals. Dealing with petitions at a centralised level, and managing requisitions independently from the seneschal left less room for collusion between tribunal and local environment, thus, a deep rooting into the local milieu was not possible to the same extent as in Italy. Particularly indicative was the number of petitions referred to Alphonse in his twenty-four-year period of rule over the Languedoc (1247-71),208 which bore witness to a good degree of effectiveness in the control of inquisitorial excesses. It seems that, in fact, during his rule the disbursements of the inquisition doubled their income.209

  • 210 Compte d’Arnaud Assalit, p. 500, 505.
  • 211 « Ad audientiam nostram fama referente pervenit quod vos in occupatione bonorum dampnatorumn de her (...)
  • 212 1253, 26 May, Devic-Vaissete, Histoire générale de Languedoc, VIII, 122-4; Douais 1900, p. lv.
  • 213 See Acta sancti Officii, n. 331.

94Although there are episodes where confiscation did benefit the same members of the inquisitorial entourage, as with the case of notary Arnold Sicre, who sells the goods on behalf of the royal procurator, and later on appears as a buyer,210 this does not seem the norm, certainly by the mid-thirteenth century. Complaints were addressed to Pope Gregory IX very early on (1230s), and a 1238 letter to the king’s seneschal and bailiff of Narbonne and Albi aimed at stamping on the problem of inquisitorial abuses.211 Again, in 1253 three bishops (Lodève, Béziers and Agde) were drawing Alphonse of Poitier’s attention to the « abuse » of re-selling these goods to the condemned’s families,212 while we know that this was the common practice still in 1299 in Italy.213 In general, it is felt that wherever the management of finances and sale of bona hereticorum involved local authorities and professionals, the rooting of tribunals within a local milieu was deeper, broader, more effective and difficult to wipe out.

Thoughts on imprisonment

  • 214 The most updated and acute work on late medieval prisons is currently Geltner 2008.

95In such a wide spectrum of problems, there are other issues which escape the framing – or modelling – we have tried to set up. Nevertheless, flagging these issues seems important : thus, it will suffice to put them here, side-by-side, as items for further reflection.214

96In 1282 inquisitor John Galand records through official documentation a blunt series of rebukes to the keepers of the Carcassonne inquisitorial prison. In this list-like document, it is easy to see that the precision of the directives is specular to the allegations/accusations against the two keepers. The document deserves a full transcription, as it represents an amazing insight into the life of a detention centre,

  • 215 « Anno domini millesimo ducentesimo octuagesimo secundo sexta feria sabbato infra octavo apostoloru (...)

brother John Galand inquisitor, at the presence of brother P[eter] Regis prior, brother John Falgoux, and brother Archembaud, has ordered and strictly commanded through oath to Radulphe, keeper of the prisoners, and to his wife Bernarda that for the future they do not keep any scribe in the prison, nor horses, nor receive any loan or gift by any of the prisoners. Item, that he does not retain the money of those who die in prison, or any other [money], but at once they declare it and denounce it to the inquisitors. Item, that he cannot take out of the prison captives or detainees. Item, that he does not take out the prison’s first door any of those imprisoned for other motives, nor should they enter [his] house or eat with him. Item, that they [the keepers] should not employ servants meant to serve others for their own jobs, nor send these [servants] or others to some place without special allowance of the inquisitors. Item, that the said Radulphe does not play with them at any game, or allows the prisoners to play any game. And should they [the keepers] be found guilty of any of the items above, they should be there and then expelled forever from the supervision of the prison, at once.215

  • 216 Douais 1900, p. 52. Other documents confirm this for instance, Comptes Royaux ed Fawtier, III, n. 9 (...)
  • 217 See for instance Cabié 1905, pp. 215-7, where it is possible to follow the increase in the number o (...)
  • 218 C249, f. 43v, 44r.

97There are a number of suggestions coming out of this interesting document. It confirms that the prescriptions issued at Béziers in 1246 in regard to separate prisons/cells for men and women were in fact applied in practice.216 Unsurprisingly so, if one thinks that, aside from papal prescriptions, often women were imprisoned while pregnant, or together with their babies and small children (pueri/pueri lactantes).217 Other women, especially the higher ranking detainees, were allowed extra assistance, due to their social status. It is the case of Ricca, who has a maid (servitialis), a servant when she is ill (famula), and enjoys special treatment through exceptional purchases (hens, chicken, a doctor’s support). Ricca was subsequently burned.218

  • 219 C421-A, f. 33r, 34r, 35v, 44v.

98The receiving of money from detainees is well documented in Florentine prisons, and emerges with particular strength in the records of the trial against brother Pietro de l’Aquila, where several instances of substantial payments to the keeper, Gura Tederucci, are recorded.219 The insistence on methods and names, paired with the evidence from Languedoc, suggests that the 421-A depositions were not necessarily fabricated to betray brother Pietro during the trial.

  • 220 Geltner 2008, p. 71-74.
  • 221 Acta sancti Officii, n. 367, 377. Similar cases are recorded, always for Bologna, in Geltner 2008, (...)

99The murus/carcer is not the only place where captives are kept. In general, Geltner’s study has demonstrated that late-medieval prisons « were not fortified islands, impermeable to the stream of medieval urban life » : instead, there should be posed a degree of permeability between ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ which is not understandable by modern standards.220 Prison keepers do take out detainees, at times without the inquisitors’ permission. Other times alternatives to the prison are suggested or recommended, where the inquisitor thought it a safer option. Brother Guido of Vicenza ordered that the nuns of St Gervase in Bologna must « guard and preserve » (custodire et servare) lady Johanna, wife of master John, writer from Lorraine, who was accused of heresy (1299). The nuns refuse, saying that « they did not want anything to do with the same inquisitor », suggesting that, although inquisitors could count on outside collaborators, in other houses/convents, this collaboration was not always welcome.221

  • 222 « uni qui custodivit quemdam qui fuit detentus », « quem feci detineri », C133, 66r. The practice o (...)
  • 223 C250 in variis locis. In general, as a common practice, ill inmates were kept separate from the oth (...)
  • 224 C249, f. 46v.

100C133 records instances of outside « keepers », listing their payment as « to one who kept one man who was imprisoned ». Although this might seem a vague evidence, if seen in the context of records where names of stable collaborators are always made, and where this vagueness seems to imply a non-official arrangement, it becomes more relevant, and stands out starkly in the records of expenses.222 It is understandable that this method occurred especially in case of illnesses, although we know of doctors accessing the prison instead (as in the case of Ricca, above), or of medical expenses paid for captives.223 In one instance it is the « hospitaller », presumably within the convent of St Croce in Florence, who keeps guard of two ill heretics.224

101Collaborators, in or outside the convent, participate in the detention of captives on behalf of the inquisitor. They are either hired or benefitted through gifts, or unofficially co-opted to cover for exceptional circumstances. Men and women, whose number varies according to the number of prisoners, can establish a mini-domain within the walls of the prison, where they entertain private conversation, games and trade with the detainees themselves, or a friendship with some of them. Corruption is present wherever the wealth of prisoners allows it, in the form of special allowances, temporary freedom, and possibly help to escape (which one can infer, although there is no evidence in our documents for this occurrence). One aspect which could be further enquired into is the relationship with the supporting network outside the prisons, like monasteries and private individuals hosting special prisoners. In terms of setting roots within the local communities, and establishing ties made out of favours and possibly blackmail, this feature seems interesting.

Explicit

102This has proven to be a study on variables, in many ways: the inquiries/inquisitions, their aims, the individual inquisitors, the evolution in procedure, and the local contexts. It seems that existing plurality and the parallel attempts at planning, optimising, and controlling the business of peace and faith pulled from opposite sides. To some extent, the make-up of each familia mirrors this plurality. The strain created by these opposing tendencies, however, has not prevented us from detecting general features.

103There are some overriding elements: flexibility is the main one, the discretionary judgment inquisitors are able to exert in evaluating the number and type of their collaborators. The second, a strict dependence on personnel for the financial handling of the profits – who has the right to claim requisitions, how should money be spent, how should bona hereticorum be redistributed, and who is in charge of the different stages of such financial transactions. The quality, quantity and specificity of the collaborators depend mainly on this variable.

  • 225 Compte d’Arnaud Assalit, n. 8640-5, 8689, 8736.

104In Languedoc, where the procedure of confiscation and re-sale of goods is, certainly from the late-1240s, not in the hands of the tribunal, the control over expenses, appointments and costs is higher. Procurators, moreover, are managed at a less local level, and consequently are less involved with indigenous dynamics and pressures than the officiales in Italy. Less interest in factionalism, family politics, and business means that it was easier to re-organise and keep track of those operating with/for the inquisitors. The compte of Arnaud Assalit for 1322-3 shows on the one side, the bureaucratization of the procedure, while on the other side accounting for the tighter management exerted by procurators and their employees. Except from 4 notaries, a messenger, the consiliarii et iurati employed on a one-off basis, all other officials quoted here, were dependent on the king’s envoys, and not the inquisitor.225

105Sometimes, while inquisitors do follow a rota and have limited time in charge of the tribunal, familiares and nunci do not. Messengers and notaries can and do outlive the inquisitors in practice. Despite the six-month prescribed appointment, we have gathered evidence of people working for the tribunal over a significant length of time. If this is yet another consequence of the freedom granted to inquisitors when managing the tribunals, then that tiny phrase of the Ad extirpanda « vel quotquot fuerint necessarii » brought with it the potential for self-destruction. What was meant to allow flexibility and grant appropriateness, carried disastrous – possibly unpredicted – consequences. Spiralling in numbers, followed by corruption, but most of all by the strengthening of local connections and ties, the familia and the officers are per se a proof that localism, attachment to a place and rooting of the tribunal, which both reformers and the papacy wished to shun, was indeed a real threat. When lay powers and the papacy itself tried to uproot this office from its milieu, by prosecuting insolvency and abuse from the end of the thirteenth century, it was far too late. Inquisitors and their entourage could enjoy such a tight network (politics, family, financial interest, obligations and even blackmail) with their cities that it was impossible to disentangle them from it. This is probably the area in need of most work in the future.

106Personnel also allowed flexibility, as through them inquisitors could find easy ways and means to avoid or adapt existing legislation to the specificity of a place or inquiry. On the positive side, though, through their entourage the office could achieve stability and avoid a series of practical problems stemming out of staffing turnover (competence and professional skills, reliability, respectability and trustworthiness). The length of appointments is another big question-mark. It raises the question of balance of power, pressures on nominations, and blurs the boundaries between the tribunals and the surrounding world.

107Material is rich, interesting and multi-faceted. Most of it is still undiscovered, buried in the archives under piles of wills, made-up transactions, and fake beneficiaries. To unearth it will require patient archival research, where quantitative findings are not at the forefront of historians’ preoccupations. Although what remains to be done outnumbers our methodological observations, it is our belief that this work was necessary, for without a comparative template able to highlight the most crucial issues and areas of inquiry, research in this field could not add to our understanding of the nature and management of inquisitorial structures.

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Bibliografía

Albaret - Lanoix-Christen 2004 = L. Albaret, I. Lanoix-Christen, Le prix de l’hérésie. Essai de synthèse sur le financement de l’Inquisition dans le Midi de la France (XIIIe-XIVe siècle), Heresis 40 (2004), p. 41-67

Benedetti 2008 = M. Benedetti, Inquisitori lombardi del Duecento, Rome, 2008

BF = Bullarium Franciscanum Romanorum Pontificum, ed. J. H. Sbaralea, Rome, 1759-68

BOP = Bullarium Ordinis Praedicatorum, ed. Ripoll – Brémond, Rome, 1729

Biller, Bruschi, Sneddon 2011 = Inquisitors and heretics in Thirteenth century Languedoc. Edition and translation of Toulouse inquisition depositions (1273-1282), ed. P. Biller, C. Bruschi, S. Sneddon, Leiden, 2011

Bronzino 1980-3 = G. Bronzino, Documenti riguardanti gli eretici nella Biblioteca Comunale dell’Archiginnasio, Bollettino della Biblioteca Comunale di Bologna, LXXV (1980), p. 9-75 (1235-62) ; LXXVIII (1983), p. 284-337 (1265-1648)

C followed by a number = ASVat, Camera Apostolica, Collectorie

Cabié 1905 = E. Cabié, Compte des inquisiteurs des dioceses de Toulouse, Albi et de Cahors 1255-6, Revue du Tarn 2 (1905)

D followed by a number = Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Collection Doat

da Alatri 1987 = M. da Alatri, L’Inquisizione a Firenze negli anni 1344-6 da un’istruttoria contro Pietro da l’Aquila, in Eretici e Inquisitori, II, Rome, 1987, p. 41-68

Douais 1900 = C. Douais, Documents pour servir à l'histoire de l'Inquisition dans la Languedoc, Paris, 1900

Geltner 2008 = G. Geltner, The medieval prison. A social history, Princeton-Oxford, 2008

Kieckhefer 1995 = R. Kieckhefer, The office of inquisition and medieval heresy : the transition from personal to institutional jurisdiction, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 46- I (Jan 1995), p. 36-61

Lea 1887 = H. C. Lea, A history of the inquisition in the Middle Ages, New York NY, 1887

Mansi, Conc. = Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, ed. G. D. Mansi, Graz, 1960 [orig. ed. Florence-Venice, 1758-98]

Paolini 1975 = L. Paolini, L’eresia a Bologna fra XIII e XIV secolo. I – L’eresia Catara alla fine del Duecento, Rome, 1975

Paolini 1998 = L. Paolini, Le finanze dell'Inquisizione in Italia (XIII-XIV sec.), in Gli spazi economici della Chiesa nell'Occidente mediterraneo (secc. XII-metà XIV), Atti del XVI Convegno internazionale di studi, (Pistoia, 16-9 May 1997), Pistoia, 1998, p. 441-81

Paolini 2002 = L. Paolini, Inquisizioni medievali. Il modello italiano nella manualistica inquisitoriale (XIII-XIV secolo), in P. Maranesi (ed.), Negotium Fidei. Miscellanea di studi offerti a Mariano d’Alatri in occasione del suo 80° compleanno, Rome, 2002, p. 177-98

Parmeggiani 2011 = R. Parmeggiani, I consilia procedurali per l’inquisizione medievale (1235-1330), Bologna, 2011

Potth. = Regesta pontificum romanorum, 1198-1304, ed. A. Potthast, Berlin, 1874-75 [repr. Graz, 1957]

Tanon 1893 = L. Tanon, Histoire des tribunaux de l’Inquisition en France, Paris, 1893

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Notas

1 Research work for this article has been made possible by a Fellowship granted by AHRC (January-June 2011). I am indebted to the three anonymous Reviewers for supporting this project and making it real. I am also particularly grateful to Riccardo Parmeggiani, for his unbeatable historiographical orientation, and to Lorenzo Paolini and Pete Biller for the suggestions and guidance they never cease to provide. My thanks go also to the staff of Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Archivio di Stato di Bologna, Dipartimento di Paleografia e Medievistica Universita` di Bologna, for their help in researching literature and sources, and for providing the right material at the right time.

2 See for instance the eight cult-novels written by V. Evangelisti, around the character of Catalan inquisitor Nicholas Eymerich, here investigating what the author calls « Medieval Mysteries » (http ://www.eymerich.com/eymerich/eym1.htm), and the videogames inspired by the series.

3 See for instance L. Albaret, Les inquisiteurs. Portraits de défenseurs de la foi en Languedoc (XIIIe-XIVe siècles), Toulouse, 2001; Benedetti 2008; K. Sullivan, The inner lives of Medieval Inquisitors, Chicago, 2011.

4 This concern has also been indicated as the starting point for the operation of ideological and historical revision recorded in the Dominican series Praedicatores inquisitores (Praedicatores Inquisitores. The Dominicans and the Medieval Inquisition, Atti del I Seminario Internazionale sui Domenicani e l’Inquisizione – Rome 23-5 Feb 2002, Rome, 2004), and in the equivalent Franciscan operation [Frati minori e inquisizione, Atti del XXXIII Convegno Internazionale, Assisi 6-8 ottobre 2005, Spoleto, 2006] : see in particular G. G. Merlo, Frati Minori e Inquisizione, p. 5-24, esp. p. 6-12.

5 Thus, for instance, M. Bellomo, Giuristi e inquisitori del Trecento. Ricerca su testi di Iacopo Belvisi, Taddeo Pepoli, Riccardo Malombra e Giovanni Calderini, in Per Francesco Calasso. Studi degli allievi, Roma, 1978, pp. 9-57, p. 41 et passim; J. Théry-J. Chiffoleau, Introduction, in Les justices d’Église dans le Midi (XIe-XVe siècle), (Cahiers de Fanjeaux, 42), Toulouse, 2007, p. 7-18, p. 13.

6 Lea 1887, I, p. 381; da Alatri 1987 shares this view at p. 58, where he calls the familiares « wretched scoundrels » about whom contemporary sources would talk with « badly-hidden anger ».

7 Devic-Vaissete, Histoire générale de Languedoc, Toulouse 2003 (repr.), VIII, p. 1155.

8 « Trucidati sunt Frater Guillelmus Arnaldi inquisitor, F. Bernardus de Rupe Forti, et Frater Garcias de Aura ordinis Predicatorum, F. Stephanus et F. Raymundus Carbonarii de Ordine Minorum Sancto Officio deservientes, Prior Avegnonensis, Raymundus Scriptoris canonicus Sancte Sedis Tholosane Archidiaconusque Lezatensis in eadem ecclesia Tholosana, et Petrus Arnaldi notarius, duoque clerici eorum nuncii Fontanerius et Adhemarius », I. I. Percin, Monumenta conventus Tholosani ordinis Fratrum Predicatorum, Toulouse, 1693, p. 52 [from the Chronicle of Stephen of Salagnac]; p. 202 [here the total amount of men killed becomes thirteen].

9 Sources allow mainly the investigation of familie at a time when the tribunal was almost exclusively run by members of the Mendicants.

10 By simply typing familia into the Patrologia Latina or Corpus Christianorum search engine. For example, « [P. Sestius] cuius ego clientibus, libertis, familia, copiis, litteris ita sum sustentatus » (Cicero, Orationes, Post reditum in senatu, 20); « Dein, cum familia tanta imperatorum gravis liberae civitati esset omniaque ipsi agerent simul et iudicarent » (Iustinus, Historiarum Philippicarum Libri XLIV, XIX, II); and later on, for instance « Et cum esset homo fortunatus et hominibus dilectus, adaucta sunt predia et edificia, et numerus fratrum ac sororum supra facultates eorum excrevit, in tantum ut haberentur in loco persone religiose, scilicet viginti quatuor litterati et sexaginta conversi et nonaginta sorores, et magna familia famulancium » (Historie Augienses [1220 ca], in MGH, Scriptores, XXIV, 647). Interestingly, this assumption is operated also juridically, both in Justinian’s Code (see for instance, Codex Iustinianaeus, I, 12,9 « Sane si servus aut colonus vel adscripticius, familiaris sive libertus et huiusmodi aliqua persona domestica vel condicioni subdita [...] »), and in the Decretum Gratiani. Here, however, the Christian structures add up to the existing idea of familia, so that the concept widens to a familia fidelium, a familia Domini and a familia ecclesie (e.g. C 12.2.65 (T) 708,22; C 24.3.1.(A) 987,47; C 35.1.1.(P) 1263,2; C 3.11.4 (P) 536,9 [« Si quis enim ex familiaribus vel servis cuiuslibet domus »]; in general, Wortkonkordanz zum Decretum Gratiani, ed. T. Reuter, G. Silagi, MGH, Hilfsmittel 10,2, II, Munich, 1990, p. 1845-6.

11 Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae, IX, V, 12 « Familia autem pro servis abusive, non proprie dicitur »; IX, VI, 9 « Porro cognatione fratres vocantur, qui sunt de una familia, id est patria; quas Latini paternitates interpretantur, cum ex una radice multa generis turba diffunditur. »

12 See P. Sambin, La familia di un vescovo italiano del ‘300, Rivista di Storia della Chiesa in Italia 4 (1950), p. 37-47; A. Paravicini Bagliani, Cardinali di curia e familiae cardinalizie 1227-1254, Padova, 1972; M. C. Rossi, Gli ‘uomini’ del vescovo. Familiae vescovili a Verona (1259-1350), Venice, 2001; Ead., Governare una chiesa. Vescovi e clero a Verona nella prima meta` del Trecento, (« Quaderni di storia religiosa », III) Verona, 2003, esp. p. 43-8. Examples are also found in the lay world, where Italian communes used foreign lay officers. However, it is my intention here to avoid moulding our concept of familia inquisitionis to fit these models, as this could create inappropriate mirror-images as, although entourages could have shared similar features, the different functions they covered dictated substantial variations in their composition, functioning and roles.

13 Paravicini, Cardinali di curia, p. 237-8, 243.

14 Tanon 1893, p. 188-214; Lea 1887, I, p. 374-84; C. Douais, L’inquisition. Ses origines, sa procédure, Paris, 1906, p. 163-4, 258; H. Maisonneuve, Études sur les origines de l’Inquisition, Paris, 1960 [orig. ed. 1942], p. 294-5, 310-11, 322-3; J.B. Given, Inquisition and Medieval society : power, discipline and resistance in Languedoc, Ithaca NY, 1997, p. 144-8, 195-8. More specifically, see Kieckhefer 1995, where the topic is investigated as a functional tool to demonstrate how a progressive growth in support staff was proportional to the bureaucratization and institutionalization of the tribunals; W. Wakefield, Les assistants des inquisiteurs témoins des confessions dans le manuscript 609, Heresis 29 (1993), pp. 57-65; Benedetti 2008, p. 143-51, 116-31 has concentrated on the registers of inquisitor Lanfranc of Bergamo (Collectoria 133 – see below) and mainly reviews functions and numbers establishing a « grille » of competences for each inquisitorial officer; similarly, L. Paolini (Paolini 1975, p. 8-15) extracts information from the Acta Sancti Officii Bononie, but goes further in drawing together functions and the bigger picture of inquisitorial procedure; Da Alatri 1987, p. 55-9. Generally, the limit of localized studies is that of suggesting checklists of functions, to be confirmed or dismissed by further research work. Its advantage, that of being able to trace at length individuals appearing in the records, by cross-referencing registers, and investigating within other local resources. Da Alatri 1987, p. 55-9; lastly, Biller, Bruschi, Sneddon 2011, p. 48-63 (by P. Biller).

15 See the issues raised by Sambin, La familia del vescovo, p. 243-5, 238, n. 3; Kieckhefer 1995, p. 58-9. Few historians make careful distinctions, on the basis of terminology, within the familia, with most using indifferently and interchangeably « entourage », « officers », « familia/familiares ». It is on the basis of Sambin’s and Kieckhefer’s thoughts that I intend to try and set out the boundaries for these groups of people. I shall use « entourage/personnel » as a general description of all people working around and for the tribunal and the inquisitors, while I shall explain the distinction in contemporary documents between familia/familiares and « officers » and apply it, where appropriate.

16 Kieckhefer 1995, p. 56.

17 I have consulted the following sources :

For Italy : Archivio di Stato di Firenze (henceforth ASFi), Diplomatico (online at http://lartte.sns.it/pergasfi/), secc. XIII-XIV; Archivio Segreto Vaticano (ASVat), Camera Apostolica, Collectorie, n. 133 [G. Biscaro, Inquisitori ed eretici Lombardi (1292-1318), in Miscellanea di Storia Italiana III ser., XIX (1922), p. 447-557 (documents at p. 503-555 are taken from Collectoria 133, though the transcription is incomplete)], 421-A, 249, 250, 251; ASVat, Registri Vaticani, voll. 67, 69; Acta Sancti Officii Bononie, I-II, ed. L. Paolini, R. Orioli, Rome, 1980-2; Bronzino 1980-3; Il Liber contractuum dei Frati Minori di Padova e di Vicenza (1263-1302), ed. E. Bonato, Rome, 2002; F. Lomastro Tognato, L’eresia a Vicenza nel Duecento, Vicenza, 1988 (docs. at p. 81-144); F. Tocco, Quel che non c’e` nella Divina Commedia, o Dante e l’eresia, Bologna, 1899, (docs. at p. 34-78); M. da Alatri, L'inquisizione francescana nell'Italia centrale del Duecento : con in appendice il testo del 'Liber inquisitionis' di Orvieto trascritto da Egidio Bonanno, ('Bibliotheca Seraphico-Capuccina' 149), Rome, 1996; G. Biscaro, Inquisitori ed eretici a Firenze (1319-1334), Studi Medievali, n.ser., 2 (1929), p. 347-75, and 3 (1930), p. 266-87.

For the Languedoc : Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BnF), Collection Doat, n. 31, 32, 34; n. 25-6 in Biller, Bruschi, Sneddon 2011; Comptes royaux 1285-1314, ed. R. Fawtier, Recueil des historiens de la France, Documents financiers III, 3 vols. (Paris, 1953-6); Comptes royaux 1314-28, ed. F. Maillard, Recueil des historiens de la France, Documents financiers, IV, Paris, 1961; Cabié 1905; Douais 1900; Compotus prepositorum et ballivorum Francie de termino ascensionis anno Domini MCCXLVIII, in Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France, XXI, ed. Guignaut, De Wailly, Paris, 1855; Devic-Vaissete, Histoire générale; A. Germain, Inventaire inédit concernant les archives de l’inquisition de Carcassonne, publié avec une notice, Montpellier, 1856; I. I. Percin, Monumenta conventus Tholosani ordinis Fratrum Predicatorum, Toulouse, 1693; Correspondence amministrative d’Alphonse de Poitiers, ed. C. Molinier, I-II, Paris, 1894-1900; C. Compayré, Études historiques et documents inédits sur l’Albigeois, le Castrais, et l'Ancien Diocèse de Lavaur, Albi 1841; J. Duvernoy, Registres DDD et GGG de l’Inquisition de Carcassonne (http://jean.duvernoy.free.fr/text/pdf/DDD.pdf; http://jean.duvernoy.free.fr/text/pdf/GGG.pdf). A stronger focus on Florence is dictated by the sheer amount of available sources, which stand out for abundance and significance to this research.

18 Tanon 1893, p. 199 (Italics are mine).

19 See Albaret – Lanoix-Christen 2004, p. 43. From our repertoire, it is evident that the poor quality of French records’ entries depends on one main factor : records of payments are kept by the royal officials who are in charge of confiscations and requisition of money. The entries of these registers are to do with incoming money, payment of prisoners’ expenses, salary and reimbursement of expenses to inquisitors. Entries are rather practical, concise and to the point. Officers are not part of the entourage itself, but normally depending from the bailiff or seneschal, or employed by the bishops, or envoys of the king. Thus, it is not in the interest of record-keepers to detail thoroughly the purpose of expenses. Edmund Cabié, editing partially ms J330, n. 59 of the Archives Nationaux of 1255-6 thought it was a unique exemplar of records including the names of the assistants to the inquisitors among the entries of expenses (Cabié 1905, p. 110).

20 On inquisitorial texts, see Texts and the repression of Medieval Heresy, ed. C. Bruschi and P. Biller, ('York Studies in Medieval Theology' 4), York, 2002. Libraries of inquisitorial officers have been studied by M. D’Alatri, Archivio, officio e titolari dell’Inquisizione Toscana verso la fine del Duecento, in Eretici e Inquisitori, I, Roma 1986, p. 269-95 [first appeared in Collectanea Franciscana XL (1970), p. 169-90]; G.G. Merlo, Problemi documentari dell’Inquisizione medievale in Italia, Cromhos 11 (2006), http://www.cromohs.unifi.it/11_2006/merlo_problemi.html [same as in Tribunali della fede. Continuta` e discontinuita` dal medioevo all’eta` moderna (Atti del XLV Convegno di studi sulla Riforma e sui movimenti religiosi in Italia, Torrepellice 3-4 Settembre 2005, ed. S. Peyronel Rambaldi, Bollettino della Societa` di Studi Valdesi 200 (2007), p. 19-29]; M.G. Bascape`, In armariis officii inquisitoris Ferrariensis. Ricerche su un frammento inedito del processo Pungilupo, Quaderni di Storia Religiosa 9 (2002), p. 31-110; M. Benedetti, I libri degli inquisitori, in Libri, e altro : nel passato e nel presente, ed. G. G. Merlo, Milan, 2006, p. 15-32; P. Biller, Introduction, in Biller, Bruschi, Sneddon 2011, p. 3-19, esp. p. 4-10.

21 See further on, p. 19-21 on this aspect of procedure and its fundamental implications for our study. Here is will be sufficient to note that requisitions, to which these documents refer, were only applied to those whose heretical status was ascertained at the end of a trial, whereas there seems to be no connection with ecclesiastical taxation, or banishment.

22 « […] mandamus quatinus …facias tibi prothocolla et scripturas predicta, que fratres ipsi ad manus suas…receperunt....ab eis vel personis aliis quibuscumque…totaliter exhiberi […] super testamentis aliquibus vel aliis quibuscumque negotiis exsequendis [and gather the information contained] in libris aliis seu scripturis autenticis sive publicis instrumentis, per commune Paduanum et alias communitates et singulares personas eiusdem provincie tibi tradendis, perspexeris contineri », Super eodem (12 June 1302), in Les registres de Boniface VIII, ed. Digard, Paris, 1909, n. 4702, quoted and discussed in A. Rigon, Introduzione, in Liber Contractuum, p. viii-ix.

23 The biggest « hole » in the research individuated by our study is that of a work on the treatment of bona hereticorum, that is the handling, commercialization, management and financial consequences of the massive operation of confiscation of heretics’ goods. A greater understanding of the role of inquisitors’ entourage has really opened a Pandora’s box on the financial aspect of the inquisition, first hinted at by H.C. Lea, Confiscation for heresy in the Middle Ages, English Historical Review, 2 (1887), p. 235-59. See now Paolini 1998; then followed by M. Benedetti, Le finanze dell'Inquisitore, in L'economia dei conventi dei frati minori e predicatori fino alla metà del Trecento. Atti del XXXI Convegno Internazionale (Assisi 9-11 October 2003), Spoleto, 2004, p. 363-401; lastly by Albaret – Lanoix-Christen 2004.

24 The same « concidence » between the great trials of the beginning of the XIV century (called « epidemics ») and the « documentary revolution » which took place in that time and saw the esponential development of written codification of practices has been noted by J. Chiffoleau, Le procès comme mode de gouvernement, in L’eta` dei processi. Inchieste e condanne tra politica e ideologia nel ‘300. Atti del convegno di studio, Ascoli Piceno, 30 Nov - 1Dic 2007, Rome, 2009, p. 321-47, p. 324 , 334.

25 Mansi, Conc., XXIII, (http://www.veritatis-societas.org/200_Mansi/1692-1769,_Mansi_JD,_Sacrorum_Conciliorum_Nova_Amplissima_Collectio_Vol_023,_LT.pdf), cols. 192-204.

26 See Lea 1887, I, p. 376-8.

27 Many versions are issued of this letter, by several pontiffs. We shall here take the one addressed to the lay governors of Lombardia, Romagna and March of Treviso, as in BOP, I, p. 209, n. 257; BOM, I, p. 608, n. 408, Mansi, Conc., XXIII, cols. 569-75 (who erroneously dates it at May 1243), Potth. 14592.

28 « Teneatur insuper potestas [...] nomina virorum omnium qui de heresi fuerint infamati, vel banniti, in quatuor libellis unius tenoris facere annotari...et ipsorum nomina ter in anno, et in concione publica solemniter faciat recitari », Ibid.

29 « Facies tibi quaternos et alia scripta in quibus inquisitiones facte contra hereticos et processus contra ipsos per quoscumque contra ipsos habiti, continentur, a quibuslibet assignari. » [Pre cunctis, Alexander IV, 9 November 1256, in Doctrina de modo procedendi contra hereticos, in Thesaurus novus anecdotorum, ed. E. Martène, U. Durand, V, cols. 1795-814; Potth. 16611].

30 « Periculosis casibus occurrentes, statuimus ut singuli inquisitores omnia scripta inquisitionis transcribi faciant, et translata de consensu legati a sede Apostolica, si in ora fuerit, per diocesanum imponatur et serventur in aliquo loco tuto. De scriptis autem que super his fient, de cetero annis singulis ab omnibus inquisitionibus idem fiat : ut scilicet duplicentur, scriptis, ut dictum est, tuto loco servandis », Devic-Vaissete, Histoire générale, III, 484.

31 « Ad hec si super his que circa idem officium illudque contingentia in scriptis fuerint redigenda, tabellionum secularium copia forte defuerit oportuna, personis regularibus cuiuscumque ordinis, qui tabellionatus officium in seculo habuisse noscuntur, exercendi illud in hiis cum a vobis, necessitate huiusmodi suadente fuerint requisiti, auctoritate nostra licentiam concedatis. [...] Quos si nec tales habere poteritis, alios duos viros, idoneos clericos, vel laicos, quotiens talis imminebit necessitas, assumatis, qui simul fideliter ea, que fuerint a vobis ex predicto officio gerenda, conscribant, quorum scripta, quantum ad hunc necessitatis articulum pertinet, ac si unius persone publice manu confecta fuissent, inconcussam habere decernimus firmitatem », Ne commisse vobis, in Bronzino 1980-3, p. 65-7.

32 « [...] adhibeatis duas religiosas et discretas personas in quarum presentia per publicam, si commode potest haberi, personam, aut per duos viros idoneos, fideliter eorundem depositiones testium conscribantur », Licet ex omnibus, in Bronzino 1980-3, p. 68-73, Potth. 18253, BOP I, p. 417, n. 4.

33 Not necessarily the verb conscribere indicates the production of more than one exemplar.

34 In Roman law, a tabellio is a private professional officer whose activity – from Justinian onwards - was supervised and regulated by government officials; he was to prepare, according to existing proper legal form, documents and transactions for private citizens. Experts in writing in extenso documents from short notes, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law, ed. A. Berger, 43, Philadelphia, 1953, p. 728-9.

35 Although at times used as a synonym for tabellio or notary, this seems to indicate the functionary officer of a metropolitan church, entrusted with the conservation of archives and preparation of charters and documents, (Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, ed. J.F. Niermeyer, C. van de Kieft, I, Leiden, 1976, p. 947). Often indicating an officer of the papal or episcopal chancery, see for example, La chiesa e il monastero di San Sisto all’Appia, ed. R. Spiazzi, Bologna, 1992, p. 345-8 et passim, for examples of the slight variations of this term; also Dizionario Storico del Diritto Italiano ed Europeo, 2000 available at http://www.edizionisimone.it/newdiz/newdiz.php ?action=view&id=1015&dizionario=2 ]. It is important to note, however, that I have never found such distinction in inquisitorial records, where writers only record the word notarius.

36 ‘Pre cunctis mentis’, Gregory X, 20 April 1273, Potth. 20720, Percin, II, p. 98; also in Doctrina de modo, col. 1819.

37 This silence, already noted by Tanon, has been reiterated more recently by L. Albaret, who sees it as a consequence of the fact that justice in matters of faith is not meant to be a commercial affair, and that thus pontifical legislation does not mention this financial aspect of the inquisitions. (Albaret – Lanoix-Christen 2004, p. 56-7).

38 G. G. Merlo, Inquisizione a Milano : intenti e tecniche, in Milano 1300. I processi inquisitoriali contro le devote e i devoti di santa Guglielma, ed. M. Benedetti, p. 15-28, p. 16. Paolini 1998, p. 451; Parmeggiani 2011, p. xxx; Paolini 1998, p. 456, 460.

39 « Ut in singulis locis unus sacerdos et tres laici constituatur qui diligenter inquirant hereticos [...] sacerdotem unum et duos vel tres bone opinionis laicos, vel plures si opus fuerit, sacramento constringant, qui diligenter, fideliter et frequenter inquirant hereticos in [...] domos singulas et cameras subterraneas », Mansi, Conc., XXIII, p. 194. This is substantially reiterated as such at the 1246 council of Béziers (see Maisonneuve, Études, p. 294-5).

40 BOP, I, p. 209, n. 257, see above, n. 27 for other versions.

41 As pointed out in Paolini 1998, p. 452, 456.

42 For these specific prescriptions, see chs. 3-8, 10-21, 28, 30, 33, 35.

43 BF, I, p. 717-8.

44 13 April 1258, BF, I, p. 362, reiterated and perfected by the Prae cunctis of 26 February 1266 by Clement IV (BF, I, p. 472) and the Prae cunctis of 27 June 1290 by Nicholas IV (BF, II, p. 29). See Tanon 1893, p. 186, n. 1.

45 My reference study here, together with the « classic » study by A. Dondaine, Le manuel de l'Inquisiteur (1230-1330), Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 17 (1947), p. 85-194, is R. Parmeggiani, Un secolo di manualistica inquisitoriale (1230-1330) : interte­stualità e circolazione del diritto, Rivista Internazionale di Diritto Comune 13 (2002), 229-70; and more recently, Parmeggiani 2011. Ordo Processus Narbonensis, ed. K.-V. Selge, in Texte zur Inquisition, Texte zur Kirchen- und Theologie-geschichte 4, Gütersloh, 1967, p. 71-2; Doctrina de modo procedendi, ed. Martène-Durand; Bernard Gui, Practica inquisitionis heretice pravitatis, ed. C. Douais, Paris, 1886; Nicholaus Eymerich, Directorium inquisitorum, ed. F. Peña, Rome, 1578 [http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx ?c=witch;idno=wit045]; De auctoritate et forma officii inquisitionis, ed. S. Pirli, Tesi di Dottorato di Ricerca, Universita` degli Studi di Bologna, ciclo XX, 2008 (I was able to consult this source thanks to the kindness of the Author, who is currently preparing its publication); De officio inquisitionis, ed. L. Paolini, Bologna, 1976. The aim here is to take into account manuals which have impacted the most upon practice. The criterion for selecting these among all the others is their circulation – as all criteria, possibly limited and misleading, but the one that looked more likely to be applicable in our case.

46 « Tandem de hiis omnibus et quandoque de pluribus non sine causa rationabili requisitus, scriptis fideliter que de se confessus fuerit vel deposuerit de aliis, coram nobis ambobus vel altero et aliis duobus ad minus viris idoneis ad hec sollicitius exequenda adjunctis, universa que scribi fecerit recognoscet, atque hoc modo acta inquisitionis ad confessiones et depositiones sive per notarium confecta, sive per scriptorem alium, roboramus », Ordo Processus, p. 72.

47 « Si autem dicit veritatem, diligenter eius confession per notarium publicum scribitur », Doctrina de modo, col. 1795.

48 « Quando plures sunt confessi qui sufficiunt ad faciendum sermonem, tunc inquisitores ad locum determinatum ab eis vocent iurisperitos, fratres Minores et Predicatores, et ordinarios, sine quorum consilio vel suorum vicariorum numquam aliquem condemnent [...] », Ibid.; see also the repeated formula communicato bonorum virorum consilio in the end-formulary, for instance at cols. 1806, 1808, which is in use mainly in French records, as in C. Douais, La formule communicato bonorum virorum conscilio des sentences inquisitoriales, Le Moyen Âge 11 (1898), p. 157-92

49 Bellomo, Giuristi e inquisitori, p. 36, 40; Parmeggiani, I consilia, p. xi and note 7, xvii and note 33, xxii. See ibid., p. xxx-i on the makeup of these groups of legal experts, with reference to famous cases - the earliest being a 1276 consilium from Piacenza and a 1280 one from Ferrara. Parmeggiani too reiterates that examples of terminology are inconsistent, and mainly indicate the will of widening participation to the lay world.

50 Gui, Practica, II, n. 36, « Forma littere pro clerico iurato recepto ad fidelitatem et officium inquisitionis ‘Tenore presentium pateat universis quod nos frater Bernardus Guidonis, ordinis Predicatorum Inquisitor heretice pravitatis in regno Francie per sedem apostolicam deputatus, recepimus in iuratum ac fidelem ministrum officii inquisitionis heretice pravitatis eiusdem dilectum nostrum magistrum talem N. clericum talis diocesis, notarium publicum Tholose, iuramento fidelitatis et secreti recepto a nobis et prestito ab eodem, cum omnibus libertatibus, immunitatibus, graciis et privilegiis tam ab apostolica sede quam etiam a regia maiestate concessis notariis officialibus seu ministries officii inquisitionis, quibus eundem talem N. gaudere volumus et decernimus per presentes.’ »

51 Ibid., n. 37, « Forma littere pro custode muri instituendo - tenore presentium pateat universis quod nos frater Bernardus Guidonis, ordinis Predicatorum inquisitor heretice pravitatis in regno Francie per sedem apostolicam deputatus posuimus et deputavimus ad custodiam muri et carcerum Tholose ubi homines culpabiles pro crimine heresis detinentur, talem N. clericum, ipsumque custodem dicti muri et immuratorum, seu in carceribus detentum, fecimus et constituimus quamdiu nostre seu successorum nostrorum in officio inquisitionis placuerit voluntati, cum omnibus libertatibus, graciis et privilegiis tam ab apostolica sede quam etiam a regia majestate concessis officialibus et ministris officii inquisitionis, necnon cum vadiis domini nostri Regis Francie dare dicti muri custodibus consuetis, iuramento fidelitatis et secreti prius recepto a nobis et prestito ab eodem : inhibentes premissa monitione canonica, sub excommunicationis aliisque penis canonicis, omnibus et singulis, ne aliquis dictum custodem presumat in officio memorate custodie aliquatenus impedire. In quorum omnium testimonium et munimen eidem tali N. presentes litteras sigillo nostro concessimus sigillatas. »

52 Ibid., n. 38, « Forma littere pro iuratis officii inquisitionis. Frater Bernardus inquisitor etc. Universis presentes litteras inspecturis, etc. Tenore presentium notum fiat talem N. servientem esse fidelem nostrum pariter et iuratum : quo circa in persequendis et capiendis hereticis manifestis generaliter, necnon in aliis exequendis que per eundem specialiter duxerimus et mandaverimus exequenda, volumus et mandamus ab omnibus Christi fidelibus quos ipse requisierit et quibus inguerit eidem impendi promptum auxilium et consilium opportunum. In cuius rei testimonium sigillum nostrum presentibus duximus apponendum. Datum, etc. (Poterit autem in fine addi, si et quando expediens visum fuerit, sequens clausula ne tales littere sint perpetue : presentibus litteris post unum annum a data presentium minime valituris. »

53 « Vel si essent pauci numero, et non sufficientes ad executionem officii; quod impedimentum tollitur ex eo quod potestates tenentur tot officiales ponere quot ipsi inquisitores iudicaverint opportunos », De auctoritate.

54 « ex defectu adiuvantium, forte quia non secum habeant tot qui sufficient ad perficiendum illud quod intendunt [...] ex defectu iurisperitorum, quia forte nolunt eis consulere [...]», Ibid..

55 L. Paolini, Introduction, in De officio inquisitionis, p. xxxiii.

56 Ibid., p. 16-7.

57 Ibid., p. 17-8.

58 Ibid., p. 18-30.

59 Ibid., p. 30-5. The phrase « officers of the office of inquisition » is kept on purpose as a molding of the Latin expression officiales officii inquisitionis. The clear distinction between the office and its holder/s seems to be in fact really important. See below, p. 30-3. Equally, the expression officium inquisitionis will be rendered throughout as « office of inquisition » or « inquisitorial office », where « inquisition » is meant to indicate the judicial procedure of inquisitio – inquiry, and where one should imply [of heretical depravity]. We do not subscribe to the idea of an awareness of an « office of the Inquisition », with capital letter. See Kieckhefer 1995, who has suggested this translation.

60 « Ultimo, officiales officii inquisitionis sunt notarii, officiales et servitores, qui quidem debent sic institui a potestate », De officio, p. 30. This definition is rather telling about the mental categories of the writer.

61 BOP, I, p. 462-5, n. 32.

62 « Imprisoned » means here those who are put into jail as a penance, as opposed to those who are temporarily placed into custody to obtain more information.

63 « Isto modo procedunt inquisitores in partibus Carcassonensibus et Tholosanis », Doctrina, col. 1795.

64 The connection had been already pointed out by Lea (Lea 1887, I, p. 382-3). More recently, see Albaret – Lanoix-Christen 2004, p. 66, « One of the main questions […] is whether the financial management of the inquisition dictates procedure in the thirteenth and fourteenth century, or is it procedure itself which shapes an appropriate financial management for the institution. »

65 Paolini 2002, p. 182. The direct link between wealth of a convent and the requisitions is made by the 1322 letter by John XXII to the lay rector of the Marca Anconitana, where the pope forbids him to require the third part of requisitions, since « cum hactenus heretici non fuerint de prelibata provincia oriundi, sed interdum aliqui multa paupertate gravati et in heresi deprehensi, ad eandem provinciam de partibus alienis accesserunt, de quorum facultatibus ob extremam ipsorum inopiam iidem inquisitores modicum aut nihil exigere potuerunt […] » BF, V, n. 468, p. 227 [1322, July 6].

66 For this area, see E. Vincke, La remuneración de los inquisitores Aragoneses en los siglos XIII y XIV, Annuarios de estudios medievales 13 (1983), p. 291-301; D. J. Smith, Crusade, heresy and inquisition in the lands of the Crown of Aragon (c. 1167-1276), Leiden-Boston, 2010, p. 176, 181-2, 205; Albaret – Lanoix-Christen 2004, p. 62-3.

67 Douais 1900, p. lxxxvii-lxxxviii, xci; Lea 1887, II, p. 584-6, Guiraud, Histoire, II, p. 259-63.

68 On Languedoc, see primarily Tanon 1893, p. 523-39, esp. 529-30; Maisonneuve, Études, p. 294-7, 305; Albaret – Lanoix-Christen 2004.

69 These experiments being tried in the lands directly subject to papal temporal power – for instance, here Viterbo. See Paolini 1998, p. 450.

70 Reference work for Italy is Paolini 1998.

71 Early development of the « financial issue » and its further, medieval outcomes, has been traced exhaustively. Popes did not invent the idea of confiscating heretics’ goods, although the papacy did benefit enormously from this practice. Rooted in Roman juridical tradition – and already well-established in both Theodosian and Justinianic codes -, the underlining principle saw convicted heretics as losing their juridical status, and consequently the right to property, to the advantage of the state revenue. (Cod. Theodos. XVI, V, 3, 4, 8, 12, 30, 33, 58; Cod. Justin. I, V, 15, 19). This was then filtered through civil, canon and conciliar law. For example, in the great councils of the XIII century : (Reims (1157), Clarendon-Oxford (1166), Tours (1163), Arras (1182 – were the first repartition of bona hereticorum between archbishop and count), III Lateran Council (1179), Montpellier (1195), Lèrida (1194). Gerona (1197- establishing that the king confiscates the total of these goods, but leaves 1/3 for those who contributed to the arrest). Confiscation was nevertheless felt as somehow abusive and judicially not pertinent, and the matter animated intellectual debate among both civil (Piacentino, Azzone, Irnerio) and canon glossatores (Graziano, Uguccione of Pisa, Rufino, Rolando Bandinelli, Sicardo of Cremona). Paolini 1998, p. 444-5.

72 See for instance the sentences from the 1260s inquiry in Orvieto, in da Alatri, Inquisizione francescana, p. 209-338, almost everywhere. For this aspect, see da Alatri, Inquisitori veneti del Duecento, in Eretici e Inquisitori, I, p. 139-217, p. 161, n. 136.

73 Albaret – Lanoix-Christen 2004, p. 50.

74 Tanon 1893, p. 188.

75 For the first, see M. Pegg, The corruption of Angels, Princeton and Oxford, 2001, the records being preserved in Bibliothèque Municipale de Toulouse, ms. 609; for the second, see Albaret – Lanoix-Christen 2004, with the records of expenses being preserved in Paris, Archives Nationales de France, ms. J330b (1255) and partly edited in Cabié 1905, p. 215-7. The account of Percin recites, « Sic enim expresse lego in mss F. Guillelmi Pelhisse anno 1235. Multi in Parasceve sancta venerunt ad confessionem de facto hereticorum, et in tanto occupabantur fratres nostri quod non poterant sufficere ad audiendum. Unde ab ipsis fratribus nostris vocati sunt aliqui fratres minores et capellani parochiales de villa qui presentes essent ad audientias etc. Iterum dixi, vel de inquisitorum consensu, quia in citato mss eodem anno 1235. Sic habetur. » Percin, Monumenta, p. 107.

76 See Le registre d’inquisition de Jacques Fournier, évêque de Pamiers (1318-1325), ed. J. Duvernoy, 3 vols., Toulouse, 1965; on the data, Albaret – Lanoix-Christen 2004, p. 50.

77 Compte d’Arnaud Assalit, procureur du Roi sur les encours des hérétiques de la sénechaussée de Carcassonne et Béziers, pour l’année 24 Juin 1322 – 24 Juin 1323, in Comptes Royaux, ed. Maillard, p. 499-525; also discussed in Albaret – Lanoix-Christen 2004, p. 50.

78 See Biller, Bruschi, Sneddon 2011, p. 57, 86, 106.

79 C250, f. 139r. The amount of people questioned in this enquiry is unknown, as full records of interrogations are not available.

80 Biller, Bruschi, Sneddon 2011, p. 115.

81 C250, f. 35v-36r.

82 C133, f. 13r expensator dicti fratris Aiulfi; C250, f. 37r; f. 40r-v; f. 75r; f. 83v; C251, in variis locis, discussed by da Alatri, Archivio, officio, titolari, p. 285.

83 Responsio sanctissimo patri domino nostro domino Clementi divina providentia pape quinto tradenda (Sanctitas vestra), in Archiv für Literatur- und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters, eds. H. Denifle, F. Ehrle, III, Graz 1956 (repr. Berlin 1887), p. 51-89, p. 71.

84 Biscaro, Inquisitori ed eretici Lombardi, p. 494.

85 Although the word dominus does not always indicate a nobleman tout court, and certainly not consistently in the North of Italy, the mention of Mascara in this group clearly suggests a high social status of the paduan group. Mascara will be then involved in a long suit against inquisitor Benigno da Milano and other inquisitors of the Veneto, in 1304, see below, p. 39-40.

86 C133, f. 106r-v in diversis temporibus (end of XIII-beginning of XIV c.). Among them two of the da Montebello family, and two of the Campexanis (one is a notary).

87 Sanctitas vestra, p. 81.

88 « [...] occasione inquisitionis vobis commisse contra hereticam pravitatem superfluos scriptores, aliosque familiares habetis pro vestre libito voluntatis, et graves exactiones fuint ( !) a conversis ab eadem ad fidem, et conversi volentibus pravitate in infamiam apostolice sedis, et scandalum plurimorum presentium vobis auctoritate precipiendo mandamus quatinus scriptorum, et aliorum familiarium multitudinem onerosam ad necessarium numerum protinus reducentes a gravibus exactionibus, per quas infamia potest et scandalum generari, vos et familiam vestram taliter compescatis, quod honestatis vestre titulus conservetur illesus, et nos discretionis vestre prudentiam / merito commendare possimus. Datum Lugduni secundo Idus Maii Pontificatus nostri anno sexto », D31, f. 116-7.

89 « ordinamus quod inquisitor florentinus qui est, vel pro tempore fuerit, possit dumtaxat quatuor consiliarios seu assessores, duos notarios, et duos custodes carcerum, et duodecim alios, inter officiales et familiares, sibi eligere, et non ultra », Tanon 1893, p. 199, referring to a Doat « Appendix I », p. 572, which I have been unable to locate.

90 da Alatri 1987, p. 55-7; Lea 1887, I, 383; Albaret – Lanoix-Christen 2004, p. 50.

91 See Marangon, Il pensiero ereticale, p. 64; P. Sambin, Aspetti dell’organizzazione e della politica comunale nel territorio e nella citta` di Padova tra XII e XIII secolo, Archivio Veneto, 58-9 (1956), p. 9, 14-6.

92 Exigit ordinis vestri, 2 May 1321, « accepimus siquidem acceptione fideli, quod vos nonnullis pravis et perversis hominibus, qui frequenter ad edes et alia nephanda facinora laxant nequiter manus suas arma per civitatem et districtum bononiesem portandi, non sine multorum scandalo, licentiam concessistis [...] », « qui vobiscum habetis continue », Bronzino 1980-3, p. 308-9, n. 41; Paolini 2002, p. 185.

93 ASFi, Tratte, 294, f. 137r.

94 Lea 1887, p. 382.

95 To recall only the earlier ones, Piacenza (1233), Orvieto (1239), Florence (1245), Prato (1270s), Parma (1279) – more in Paolini 2002, p. 185. In 1316-7, following the arson attack on the inquisition buildings in Bergamo under inquisitor John of Fontana, fourteen responsible are captured, twelve of which will be burned on the stake. In this occasion, twenty armed men are necessary to « greatly and diligently » detain the suspects, « day and night » (C133, f. 187v-188r).

96 Acta sancti officii Bononie, n. 7 (1299, 7 September).

97 Plures et plures familiares, multi nuncii et familiares, C421-A, f. 30-32r

98 « potestates tenentur tot officiales ponere quot ipsi inquisitores iudicaverint oportunos », De auctoritate, see above, p. 12, n. 39, and below, pp. 28-9.

99 Marangon, Il pensiero ereticale, p. 64.

100 Giovanni Villani, Nuova Chronica, ed. Porta, Parma, 1991, XIII, 58; Marchionne di Coppo Stefani, Chronica fiorentina, ed. N. Rodolico, in Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, XXX, I, Bologna 1903, p. 226, rubr. 629°, where the Florentine government restricts the licenses from 500 to six.

101 The 1346 source is a trial against friar Pietro de l’Aquila, accused of insolvence against the Apostolic Chamber (C421-A, f. 1-45r), however, the reliability of data within this kind of source has been recently re-assessed taking into consideration wider issues of circulation/creation of stereotypes and public fama (C. Bruschi, Falsembiante-inquisitor ? Images and stereotypes of the Franciscan inquisitor between literature and judicial texts, forthcoming). Marchionne is member of the mercantile elite of Florence, and openly speaking against the « parte guelfa », supporters of the papacy (See A. de Vincentiis, Scrittura storica e politica cittadina. La Cronaca fiorentina di Marchionne di Coppo Stefani, Rivista Storica Italiana 108 (1996), p. 230-97 [now available online http://eprints.unifi.it/archive/00002246/01/134-DeVincentiis.pdf, from where page numbers are taken here], esp. p. 24, 28-41. His information are generally scrupulously checked and cautiously narrated. Moreover, in the case of the local tribunal, Marchionne, could also benefit from insider knowledge, since his father Coppo appears in the expenses of inquisitors Michele da Arezzo and Accursio Bonfantini as provider of wool-cloth to the inquisitors (C250, f. 45r, 106r); and among the main buyers from the tribunal of the patrimony of bankrupt merchant Scaglia Tifi, in the 1330s (D. Corsi, Firenze 1300-1350 : « non conformismo » religioso e organizzazione inquisitoriale, Annali dell'Istituto di Storia [Università di Firenze, Facoltà di Magistero], I, 1979, p. 29-66, p. 45, n. 56).

102 Tocco, p. 67, n. 23 (9 September 1297).

103 Douais 1900, p. 326-9.

104 See L. Paolini, Le origini della societas Crucis, Rivista di Storia della Chiesa in Italia, 15 (1979), p. 190-3; G. G. Merlo, Militare per Cristo contro gli eretici, in Contro gli eretici. La coercizione all’ortodossia prima dell’Inquisizione, Bologna, 1996, p. 36-42.

105 « Verum, quia persensimus tam paucos fratres non sufficere ad huiusmodi inquisitoris officium, sicut expedit exequendum », BOP, I, p. 300, Bronzino 1980-3, p. 60-1.

106 Licet olim unus (1304, 16 Feb.), Bronzino 1980-3, n. 40.

107 BOP, I, p. 433, then reiterated by Clement IV (16 December 1266) BOP, I, p. 478; also in Bronzino 1980-3, n. 33. Both were directed to the Dominican prior of Lombardia and the Genoese Marca.

108 « Quoties […] ab eisdem fratribus fueritis requisitis, et dicto negotio fuerit opportunum […] ita quod prefatum negotium nullam ex negligentia vestra dilationem capiat, set potius ex diligentia continuum suscipiat incrementum », Ibid..

109 « Porro inquisitoribus ipsis districtius inhibemus, ut nec abutantur quomodolibet concessione portationis armorum, nec officiales nisi sibi necessarios habeant tales, qui se conferant ad sua cum inquisitoribus ipsis officia exsequenda », Clem. I.5.3, c. II Nolentes, in Corpus iuris canonici, ed. E. Friedberg, II, Graz, 1959, col. 1183, [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/texts/ldpd_6029936_002/index.html].

110 « Vel si essent pauci numero, et non sufficientes ad executionem officii : quod impedimentum tollitur ex eo quod potestates tenentur tot officiales ponere quot ipsi inquisitores iudicaverint oportunos, quod patet ex constitutionibus, capitulo Idem quoque potestas, etc. », De auctoritate, ed. S. Pirli, referring to the Ad extirpanda.

111 « Possunt inquisitores Lombardie eligere officiales et sindicatores, si illi quibus committitur ex constitutione Innocentii pape IIII non possint vel nolint interesse, vel aliquis eorum, ut patet ex privilegio Alexandri pape IIII inquisitoribus in Lombardia [...] », Gui, Practica, IV, p. 204. As usual, Gui is very precise : the nominatio and the electio are two separate juridical actions. Even when it comes to inquisitors’ succession the nominatio is in fact an inquisitor’s responsibility, while the electio is down to the Dominican or Franciscan provincials, who effectively « free » the successor from other duties within the order. In the case of officers, they are elected by the bishop, or the Order.

112 « Secundum quod continetur in constitutionibus papalibus et secundum quod consuetum est fieri per inquisitores precedentes in inquisitione Pedemontis », C133, f. 149r.

113 With the letter Devotionis vestre by Innocent IV, where famulos et familiares can be absolved from excommunication which hit them « propter iniectionem manuuum occasione officii ». See the comments in De officio inquisitionis, p. 14.

114 Already discussed extensively in C.Bruschi, The wandering heretics of Languedoc, Cambridge, 2009, ch. 1.

115 Inquisitor in southern Lombardia (Lombardia inferior) 1316-8, « in officio inquisitionis steti per annum et parum plus, quia assumptus fui ad officium provincialatus », C133, f. 144r.

116 « Officium inquisitoris de Senis debebat dare officio inquisitoris Florentie », C250, f. 2r.

117 « […] officialibus inquisitionis qui negotia ipsa peragebant, et erant notarii, familiares et servitores eiusdem inquisitoris et officii », C250, f. 5v.

118 « Item, officialibus missis ad diversa loca ad inquirendum et capiendum hereticos et citandos delatores de heresi », C133, f. 186r. This quote is indicative as the roles ascribed to officiales here are the typical duties of a messenger (nuncius).

119 « Servitores, nuncii et officiales », C133, f. 42r.

120 « […] notario, servitoribus, et nunciis et officialibus », C133, f. 36r.

121 C251, f. 9v.

122 C133, f. 18v.

123 C249, f. 47r-v, 48r, 57v; or in « cum notario, familiare et duobus famulis » (C250, f. 107v).

124 C249, f. 57v. We cannot in fact think that notary Benvenuto was either a member of the army or a servant of the inquisitor.

125 The earliest examples (although about the inquisitor/inquisition binomial) are in Liber inquisitionis of Orvieto, ed. Da Alatri, p. 219, [1268], « Orbetanus Nichole, auctoritate Sacrosancte Romane ecclesie notarius constitutus, et nunc notarius dictorum inquisitorum et inquisitionis », p. 267 « Iannutium nuntium dictorum inquisitorum et inquisitionis », Another document from Florence witnesses to a slight variation « Ego Acconcius quondam Ricoveri, iudex ordinarius atque notarius prolationi huius sententie interfui et ea omnia de mandato dicti inquisitoris tunc scriba et officialis dicti inquisitoris scripsi et publicavi » (Tocco, Quel che non c’e`, p. 60 [1276]. Earlier, inquisitors or the tribunal do not claim « possession » of the notaries, as evident in 1240s documents (Tocco, Quel che non c’e`, where they are publicus auctoritate notarius, or iudex ordinarius et notarius publicus, or imperiali auctoritate iudex/notarius, and act by orders [de mandato] of the inquisitors, the podesta`, etc.)

126 Paolini 2002, p. 191.

127 E.g. « iudices et consultores/consiliatores officii et inquisitoris » « dicti inquisitoris et officii inquisitionis » in C250, f. 39r, 125r

128 C133, in diversis locis, discussed also by Benedetti 2008, p. 127, who points out only the « personal link » between Lanfranc and his employees.

129 See Paolini 1975, p. 11; Acta sancti Officii, n. 672 « suum et dicti officii inquisitionis vicarium specialem […] », [a case in Florence is recorded in C250, f. 6r].

130 « pro pluribus servitiis factis inquisitori et officio », C250, f. 115v; « pro carceribus et carceratis inquisitoris et officii inquisitionis », C250, f. 139r.

131 There is a hint at a strict co-operation between individual notaries and inquisition in the 1245 accusations made by Pace and Barone to the notaries writing for the tribunal (Tocco, Quel che non c’e`, n. 15, 17, p. 53-5), but there are not such definitions as notarius inquisitionis/inquisitoris until the last two decades of the thirteenth century (see Tocco, p. 61, n. 20; 67, n. 23; 69, n. 24 for examples of terminology and definitions).

132 See for example Lomastro, L’eresia a Vicenza, docs, n. 2, 8, 9, 11, 14, and n. 16 for a notarius officii.

133 Peter Vital « notary of the inquisitor », but B. Bonet indifferently « public notary of Toulouse and of the inquisitors » and « public notary of the inquisition », Inquisitors and heretics, p. 87-9

134 « iuratis et consiliariis officii inquisitionis », Comptes d’Arnaud Assalit, p. 519, n. 8689; GGG, f. 113r, 117r; Comptes d’Arnaud Assalit, p. 516-7, 519, n. 8639, 8647, 8689.

135 In France, a salary or reimbursement of expenses is provided to inquisitors ever since 1246, and up to the 1330s. See Albaret – Lanoix-Christen 2004, p. 48.

136 « tenebat suos exploratores secretos et premissa faciebat ut dominus Pontius non posset scire veritatem de receptis et gestis per dictum inquisitorem », C251, f. 59v.

137 Tanon 1893, p. 198.

138 For instance, C133, f. 32r-60r, several entries per page (registers of Lanfranc of Bergamo); f. 108r, 109r, 151r, 164r-v, 174v.

139 See some discussion of this theme in my The wandering heretics, p. 88-97.

140 « ‘Item in spiis, exploratoribus, iudicibus, sapientibus, notariis’, ‘in querendo, explorando, arestando, capiendo, deducendo, carcerando, detinendo, custodiendo, pascendo, vestigiando hereticos et de heresi suspectos’ » C133, f. 172r, 173v.

141 A rare explanation of what this role entails in a 1292 document from Vicenza, « dictos denarios dare, salvare et custodire ab incendio, ruina, naufragio, lactronibus, et fluctibus aquarum, casu fortuito et ab omnibus aliis periculis que dici seu excogitari possunt », Liber contractuum, n. 56.

142 See for instance, C133, ff . 28r-v, 30v, 49r.

143 It would be interesting to enquire whether such differences are to be attributed to different « inquisitorial styles », depending on the Order in charge of the « business of peace and faith », since Preachers operate in the first area – Lombardia superior and Genoese Marca; while Minors are in charge in Tuscany and central Italy). Jill Moore is currently tackling this issue in her forthcoming PhD dissertation on the organisation of the early Inquisition in Italy.

144 « Benincasa Martini, nuncius capelle Sancti Thome de mercato civitatis Bononie, et nuncius iuratus fratris Guidoni Vicentini », Acta Sancti Officii, p. 34, n. 21-2.

145 « Raynerolo qui predicabat et docebat, et custodiebat eum [the conversus ab heresi] in Papia » « per mensem unum et plus », C133, f. 38r.

146 Notary Andrea de Valle receives his investiture as syndic of the Franciscan convent of Padua by the inquisition officials, Liber contractuum, n. 32, p. 58, (ab officialibus eiusdem officii constitutus).

147 8 July 1297 : « Qui vero dominus Bovatinus, visis constitutionibus et aliis que potuerunt motum ipsius animi informare, consuluit quod dictus inquisitor possit et debeat solus officiales eligere et potestas Padue teneatur ellectos per inquisitorem instituere et admittere », in Parmeggiani 2011, p. 173, n. 41.

148 Wakefield, Inquisitors’ assistants, p. 62.

149 Acta sancti Officii, n. 575, 578, 579, 583 and passim. See also the discussion of witnesses and their relevance to a specific inquest highlighted by Biller, in Biller, Bruschi, Sneddon 2011, p. 106-16, esp. p. 110-1.

150 Benedetti sees this as blackmail : luring heretics who live in poverty into co-operation, means cashing in on their indigence to obtain the most from their insider knowledge (Benedetti 2008, p. 149-51).

151 Given, Inquisition and medieval society, p. 141-66; Bruschi, The wandering heretics, p. 23-4, 142-89.

152 C133, f. 32-4, 37, on several occasions.

153 « Onda que fuit heretica, que iuravit in manibus meis, et quam conversatur bene, pro uno vestito 32.5 solidi », « Item Ondam que scripsit in libello uno multa privilegia officii et consilia et plura alia, solidi 20 », C133, f. 35v. There is evidence in Florence, at Le Stinche communal prison, of literate inmates who could slightly improve their detentive condition by helping copy manuscripts, and earning some extra money in Geltner 2008, p. 68.

154 « Item : 20 l. domino Geraldus Unaudi, milite, converso ab heresi, pro pensione seu elemosina a domino nostro rege sibi concessa, ad vitam suam, pro presenti anno », Comptes Royaux, 784, ed. Fawtier, n. 9688; see also Biller, Bruschi, Sneddon 2011, p. 450, 466, 470, 474, 784, 892, 904; others in Cabié 1905, p. 130-3, 216-8, esp. in relationship with section J of ms J330b, and mentioning other collaborators of excellence, Sicard Lunel, Vigouroux, Raymond Rigaud.

155 C133, f. 54r.

156 « Maria servitiale pro pluribus serviciis factis inquisitori », C250 114v; « Pace et Dade, servitialibus, pro pluribus requisitionibus secrete factis de certis dominabus », Ibid., 115v.

157 « famulo qui stat parti pro exploratore officii et citat et requirit delatos curie », C251, 20v.

158 What is relevant in the case of Trintinelli, who had been guilty solely of rebellious attitude against the inquisitors’ sentence for Giuliano and Bompietro, is his employment as a witness to a case of religious non-conformity – which equals a positive relationship with the tribunal -, and the consequent breakdown of this relationship, following an act of open defiance. On him, Paolini 1975, p. 56; A. Thompson, Cities of God : the religion of the Italian communes, 1125-1325, University Park PA, 2005, p. 450.

159 For instance at C249, f. 48v (nuncius). Elsewhere only familiaris (ibid., f. 51r, 54r).

160 C250, f. 37r, and passim.

161 C250, f. 95r.

162 C250, f. 80v, 139r. Here « ad custodiam carceris dicti officii ». The custos carcerum is different from the carcerarius. This is strengthened by knowing that, for instance, in Carcassonne in 1321 « magister Iacobus de Poloniacho » is custos muri (Compte d’Arnaud Assalit, p. 521), which suggests James – a magister ­- is more than a mere jailer. C250 tells us of a « minister custodis carceris », ser Cambio Bandinelli, « who stayed and must stay continuously to look after the jail (qui stetit et stare debet continue ad custodiam dicti carceris »), C250, f. 79r, 81r.

163 The confiscated money is left with a depositarius, is then handed to the notaries on their request for payments and other financial transactions, then finally to Manovello for the provision of one-off reimbursements, supplies, prisoners’ living expenses and maintenance work. (C250, f. 40v-42v).

164 « Familiaris, servitor et officialis officii inquisitionis tempore officii fratris Ayulfi de Vincentia […] et etiam fuit expensator dicti fratris Ayulfi et cotidie secum ibat occasione dicti officii », C133, f. 12r.

165 C251, f. 55-57 [or 67-69 new folio numbers]. He has served under inquisitors Michele da Arezzo, Tedicio del Fabbro Tolosini, Accursio Bonfantini, Pietro of Prato and Mino Daddi of San Quirico. Under Antonio of Arezzo and Accursio Bonfantini he has to produce records for financial inspections.

166 C133, f. 125r.

167 C249, f. 42r, 43r-v, C250, f. 2v, 13v.

168 C259, f. 48r, 51r, 52r, 54r, 56r; C250, f. 37r and in many other places throughout.

169 ASVat, Instrumenta Miscellanea, c. 370.

170 Given, Inquisition and medieval society, pp. 144-7.

171 Ubertino of Casale’s words point out this as a problem, with particular reference to Tuscan convents, « item pecunia nomine oblationis in pluribus locis provincie sancti Francisci et aliquibus Tuscie recipitur et diverse fraudes fiunt in missis novis, in oblacionibus pecuniarum et in aliis modis pecuniam procurandi, in quibus preceptum regule de non recipienda pecunia maculatur. Maxime abusus quidam intravit, quod fratres vadunt per plateas et forum cincumeuntes terras et earum vicos pecuniam pro elemosina postulantes et ducentes secum unum famulum, qui eos comittatur et recipit pecuniam postulatam ab eis » , Sanctitas vestra, p. 68. We find this applied in the practice, when we read that « quod pretium Gerardinus ser Iacobi de Ficecchio, familiaris dicti fratris Philippi inquisitoris, habuit et recepit mandato ipsius inquisitoris, ibid. presentis, a dicto fratre Guidone » (da Alatri, Archivio, officio, titolari, p. 292) [Italics mine]; « recepit ser Franciscus magistri Tucci notarius ipsius inquisitoris, ipso inquisitore presente, et presentibus domino Thomaso Corsini et domino Michaele domini Falconis » C421-A, f. 19r.

172 « [...] quidam officiales dicti officii inquisitionis sub pretextu officii predicti de nocte post horam prohybitam, non iminente necessitate officii per civitatem Tarvisii [...] discurrant », C133, f. 12v.

173 « Item tenuit et nunc tenet Çaninus tabernarius de Romano qui popul[ariter] vocatur Çaninus patharinus pro officiali in dicto officio contra constitutiones, cum dictus Çaninus fuit publicus fenerator, et frater patris dicti Zanini patharini qui vocabatur Duradinus de Romano exhumatus fuit et combusta fuerunt ossa eius, pro crimine labis heretice » C133, f. 12r.

174 « Quedam transvestita nomine Lazarina de Plumatio », Acta sancti Officii, n. 797.

175 Douais 1900, p. lxxxiv-vii (the letter of Peter Rodier recites, « Cum dudum Bartholomeus Adalberti, notarius inquisitionis heretice pravitatis, pro quibusdam defectibus et delictis in officium suum, uti aliquorum delatio asserebat, commissis, captus fuerit et in muri carcere positus et detentus »); Comptes d’Arnaud Assalit, n. 8559, 8570, 8637, 8639, 8640, 8737; sentence in D27, f. 112-8, (24 Nov. 1328) : Bartholomew is released in the end, due to health concerns, « per duos annos et amplius in dicto muro iam detentum, gravi infirmitate et diuturna maceratum ab ipso muro ».

176 Da Alatri, Due inchieste, p. 229; Lomastro L’eresia a Vicenza, p. 52, and n. 3, 7, 8, 13; his audition at C133, 125r.

177 « Michaelem de Ciglano ad testificandum seu accusandum seu deponendum falso et contra Deum quod quidam fratres sui ordinis quos nominavit ipsi Michaeli et etiam fecit nominari per alios, fuissent auctores illius querimonie facte per Commune Tervisii et alios officiales officii inquisitionis », « non timeas eos accusare aut contra eos testificari, quia ea que dices contra eos non ponentur in actis officii, ita quod numquam poterunt scire quod tu accusaveris eos », otherwise « ego non dimittam te in pace » C133, f. 13v.

178 C421-A, f. 1r.

179 « [...] licet loquatur in persona domini Vitaliani, eam re vera emit de peccunia fratris Zuliani ordinis fratrum Minorum, tunc inquisitoris et de peccunia officii prout credit, et ipsam peccuniam et precium habuit a dicto fratre Zuliano tunc inquisitori occasione solvendi precium predicte emptionis », Liber Contractuum, n. 24 p. 32.

180 « […] tamen ad ipsam rei veritatem spectat et pertinet ad dominum Petumbonum de Broseminis, de ordine Fratrum Minorum, et nomine ipsius fratris Petriboni factum fuit dictum depositum, et ipsum depositum et denarios habuit et recepit dictus dominus frater Petrusbonus, ut credit », Liber Contractuum, n. 58-60.

181 D25, f. 186r, 191v.

182 Acta sancti Officii, n. 621-37, 645, 680.

183 « socios nostros et familiam nostram, cum transitum fecerimus occasione officii nostri », Ibid., n. 118.

184 Lea 1887, II, p. 273; L. Wadding, Annales Minorum, ad an. 1356, n. 12-9, quoting ASVe, Misti, cons. Vol. 6, p. 26.

185 « quod predictus Baro et frater notarium accusaverunt quod astabat mihi et quod scribebat acta contra hereticos », Tocco, Quel che non c’e`, p. 53, n. 15 (1245, 11 August).

186 « [Pace of Pesamigola] notarios perpetuo privaret officio secundum quod imperator Fredericus suis litteris hoc precepit. Item quod unus ex eis scilicet Gerardum posuit in banno centum librarum et notarium similiter in centum libris condempnavit et quod sibi precepit quod sententiam latam contra Pacem de Barone et Baronem fratres filios olim Baronis revocet et casset, quod dicebat eam latam contra mandatum imperatoris, de quo mandato ego idem notarius de mandato dicti fratris publicum condidit instrumentum, quia presens eram in capitulo fratrum Predicatorum cum nuntii potestatis predictum faceret preceptum », Ibid., p. 55, n. 17.

187 « […] illi predicatores qui nepotes et consanguineos, quamvis indignos, promovent ad proventus et honores ecclesiasticos, contra Dei voluntatem », De periculis novissimorum temporum, ed. G. Geltner, Paris-Leuven-Dudley MA, 2008, (‘Dallas Medieval Texts and Translations, 8’), p. 138, n. xli.

188 Inter celestium insignia (1302), in Chronica fratris Nicholai Glassberger ordinis minorum observantium, Quaracchi, 1887, p. 109-111.

189 See above, p. 24.

190 For example, see the comments made by the Master General Humbert of Romans, in B.M. Reichert (ed.), Litterae Encyclicae Magistrorum Generalium ordinis Praedicatorum ab anno 1233 usque ad annum 1376 (Rome, 1900), p. 15-63. I have commented on this aspect in connection to the problem of heretical itinerancy, in The wandering heretics, p. 123-8.

191 Examples, in great numbers, can be found in Biscaro, Inquisitori ed eretici lombardi; da Alatri, Inquisitori veneti; Lomastro, L’eresia a Vicenza, p. 87-143.

192 C251 f. 26r; C249, f. 53r, 56r; C250, f. 145r

193 As pointed out by Rigon, Introduzione, in Liber contractuum, p. xxxii; C133, f. 15r

194 See for example C251, f. 58/70 (accusation to brother Mino of St Quirico of having kept aside 400 florins for his nephews, to buy a holding; he received this money as a help to marry his own niece’; C133, f. 8v, 9r, 13r, 16v.

195 Cabié 1905, p. 129-30 (clothing for the inquisitor’s nephew).

196 For instance, notary John Bongia and his son Paniccia in Florence, (C249, f. 45r, 46r, 48r; ASFi, Diplomatico, n. 00038930 – 1327, 18 Nov.). Beltramo Salvagno, active in Milan 1295-1309 and his father Henry (Benedetti 2008, p. 130, n. 117); in Vicenza, Federico of Montebello judge and then condemned, James of Montebello judge and brother Albert of Montebello of the Minors in 1289 (Lomastro, Eresia a Vicenza, doc. n. 11); in Padua, around 1302, Vincenzo and Benvenuto of the Campexanis (C133, f. 18r). The phenomenon is also common to the familia of a bishop, see Sambin, p. 243).

197 For instance, the Trisanti family, who counts a notary (Benvenuto), a « banker » (depositarius) – Bartolo[meo], and a friar Minor (James), C50, f. 40r-41v, and throughout; or Benvenuto of Montecchio, servant and familiaris of the inquisitor in Vicenza, and brother of local friar Manfredino (da Alatri, Inquisitori veneti del Duecento, p. 251, n. 140).

198 Tedicio entrusts his relative Guido of Fabbro with great part of the office’s money, while Nastagio of Bonaguida of Fabbro Tolosini is among the main buyers of the goods confiscated to Scaglia Tifi. Tegghia of Guido of Fabbro, and his father lend 160 golden florins to inquisitor Pace of Castelfiorentino. Friar Lapo of Fabbro Tolosini is custos of the main Florentine church of St Croce and nominates and invests Accursio Bonfantini (D. Corsi, Firenze 1300-1350 : « non conformismo » religioso e organizzazione inquisitoriale, Annali dell'Istituto di Storia I, 1979, p. 29-66, at p. 41, 45, n. 56, 57-8; Biscaro, Inquisitori ed eretici a Firenze, p. 266-7). Brother Mino of St Quirico employs Guido of Tegghia Tolosini as his depositarius. In this capacity Guido gives deposition on 8th January 1334 during the trial against Mino (C251, f. 32/42). Picchino Bonfantini is syndic of the Florentine commune pro officio (= for what concerns the [inquisitorial] office), but also acts as a depositarius for the greatest part of the office’s money. At C250, f. 141r receives a salary; f. 144v again, depositarius of 420 golden florins; C250, f. 113v, 116r, Pietro Bonfantini is a familiaris of the inquisitor and receives a salary. The Tolosini family is repeatedly quoted in C249, f. 37r (Tegghia of Guido lends money to the tribunal), 22r, 37v, 38r, 47r, 58r, 61r.

199 See the letter written by Benedict IX to the bishop of Ostia, where there is a complaint that the goods of heretic Luterio Bonamici of Pisa had been sold for a little price or donated to third parties, de quibus quidem bonis aliqua per eundem inquisitorem donata et alia pro modico pretio vendita certis personis, quedam vero penes aliquos mercatores et nonnulla penes personas alias [deposita] fore dicuntur, BF, V, p. 10-1, n. 19 [1304, Feb 13]. On the case, see also BF, IV, p. 437 [1297, May 11].

200 Liber contractuum, n. 3 ( ?), 9, 16, 17.

201 Examples from the Upper Lombardy area in C133, where buyers include (f. 504-7) brother Guido [a Minor], Ymilia widow of Donasio judge of Mortara, dominus Drutto Cane from Pavia; brothers Bertramo of Crema, and Bergondio Vaca from the monastery of St Salvatore. A well-known Languedocian example is that of jurist Guillaume Garric, whose possessions are purchased by Carcassonne notary Roger de Mora, who gets a good deal, C. Douais, ‘Guillaume Garric de Carcassonne professeur de droit et le tribunal de l’Inquisition (1285-1320)’, Annales du Midi X, Toulouse 1898, p. 3-43, p. 27. In Florence, there are examples of moneylenders who also buy from the bona hereticorum (Lapo Strozzi, C249 f. 38v, 39r); other buyers include inquisitor’s notary Cettino da Benricevuti of Prato C249, f. 41v; the office itself, via commune officials C249, f. 46v; Giotto Peruzzi C249, f. 39v, 54v. This link did not prevent another Peruzzi, Commo/Comino, from a fine ‘for his excesses’, C249, 40v. The case of Florence appears to be extremely interesting on account of the local connections and political infiltrations within the business of inquisition/requisition. See S. Piron, ‘Un couvent sous influence. Santa Croce autour de 1300’, in Économie et Religion. L’expérience des ordres mendiants (XIIIe-XVe siècle), ed. N. Bériou, J Chiffoleau, (Lyon, Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 2009), p. 331-55, esp. p. 341, 345, 353, where the connections with families of the commercial and financial elite (Mozzi, Bardi), and lesser nobility (Agli, Adimari), pointed to groups effectively excluded by the 1293 Ordinances of Justice. By 1300 ‘St Croce has become a florentine institution, rather than a branch of the Franciscan order’ (p. 353); see also G. W. Dameron, Florence and its church in the age of Dante, Philadelphia, Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2005, p. 131-2, who already sees these local implication as ripe in the 1280s, at the time of the creation of the priorato (1282), and the campaigns against the magnates (1282, 1286). Not by chance this decade marks the beginning of a policy of requisitions, post-mortem trials, attacks against the ghibellines and the wealthy. This makes Dameron say that inquisitors act within Florentine dynamics, and not papal ones.

202 Rigon, Introduzione, in Liber contractuum, p. xvi, e.g. docs. n. 63, 65 (1292), 67-ff, 99.

203 ASFi, Diplomatico, n. 00041681 (14 Nov. 1332) where the named ‘poor of Christ’ are Neri Ugolini of Radicofani and Bettino Ristori. We have a Neri and Bettino/Bertino acting as messengers in C250, f. 20r, 26r, 115v, 249-50v, 58v. Prior to this testament, in 1316, Neri of Ugolino is among the procurators, administrators and treasurers of the convent of St Croce, nominated due to the financial need of Florentine Franciscan houses. They have to check and supervise all financial transactions and management, so that the friars are not defrauded of their possessions. Bettino Ristori acts as a witness, together with inquisitor Andrew of Perugia in a further negotiation (ASFi, Diplomatico, n. 00046024 – 24 Sep. 1340).

204 C249, f. 47v. Balduccio cashes in on this business too, as noted by the notary, (« plus exigerat quam officium habere debuerat »); he is paid a salary regularly (58r, 61v); and buys ex-heretical possessions (38v).

205 ASFi, Tratte, 294, f. 137r; 995, f. 99r. I owe this second reference to Paolo Pirillo, with thanks. C133, 106r-v.

206 For a reconstruction of this handover in relationship with the management of the inquisitions, see Biller, Introduction, ch. 2, in Biller, Bruschi, Sneddon 2011, p. 41-3.

207 See for instance Correspondence administrative d’Alphonse of Poitiers, ed. Molinier n. 300 (16 July 1267), n. 932 (16 Dec 1268).

208 Ibid., n., 300, 303, 415, 428, 493, 504, 779, 911, 932, 1105, 1237, 1257, 1262, 1268, 1269, 1280, 1305, 1309, 1385, 1400, 1488, 1495, 1511, 1515, 1559, 1947, 1948. Discussion on this matter in A.P. Evans, Hunting subversion in the Middle Ages, Speculum, XXXIII (1958), p. 9-10.

209 Dossat, Les crises, p. 316-8.

210 Compte d’Arnaud Assalit, p. 500, 505.

211 « Ad audientiam nostram fama referente pervenit quod vos in occupatione bonorum dampnatorumn de heresi plurimum excedentes bona huiusmodi, que in dominicaturis et feudis ecclesiarum consistunt at ipsas ecclesias devolvenda de iure spretis ipsarum iuribus usurpatis violenter pro vestre libito voluntatis hereticorum bona quandoque non spectata (sic) inquisitorum sententia occupantes murandis hereticis, quorum bona devoluuntur ad vos nec reclusorum facere, nec eis curatis prout statutum in Tholosano concilio extitit in necessariis providere sententias contra plures magnates dampnatos de heresi distulistis actenus, et adhuc differtis executioni mandare. Dotes quoque mulierum catholicarum quorum mariti de heresi condempnantur, et credita deposita commodata eisdem a viris catholicis pignora etiam fructibus non computatis infortem, que de iure ad viros catholicos pertinent per iniustitiam contenditis detinere census, possessionem dampnatorum dominis catholicis, a quibus ipsas tenent reddere renuitis inpacis et fidei detrimentum. Ceterum prelatos, et alias personas ecclesiasticas, nec non homines ecclesiarum et monasteriorum coram vobis in seculari examine ipsorum capitis prgboribus vel personis proponere, ac excipere quaslibet actiones pro voluntate vestra compellitis in detrimentum ecclesiarum, et subversionem ecclesiastice libertatis, quo circa devotionem vestram movemus, et hortamur attente per apostolica vobis scripta mandantes, quatinus a predictorum excessuum presumptione destituatis omnino, alioquin venerabilibus fratribus nostris archiepiscopo Narbonensi, et Magalonensi, et Elenensi episcopis nostris damus litteris in mandatis, ut vos ab huiusmodi presumptione cessare monitione premissa per censuram ecclesiasticam appellatione remota compellant », Ad audientiam nostram (17 Apr. 1238), D31, c. 35r-37r.

212 1253, 26 May, Devic-Vaissete, Histoire générale de Languedoc, VIII, 122-4; Douais 1900, p. lv.

213 See Acta sancti Officii, n. 331.

214 The most updated and acute work on late medieval prisons is currently Geltner 2008.

215 « Anno domini millesimo ducentesimo octuagesimo secundo sexta feria sabbato infra octavo apostolorum Petri et Pauli fuit iniunctum, et districte mandatum, et per iuramentum Radulpho custodi immuratorum, et Bernarde uxori sue per fratrem Ioannem Galandi inquisitorem, in presentia fratris P Regis prioris, fratris Iohannis de Falgosio, et fratris Archembaudi quod de cetero non teneat scriptorem aliquem in muro nec, equos, nec ab aliquo immuratorum mutuum recipiant, nec donum aliquod. Item nec peccuniam illorum qui in muro decedunt retineant, nec aliquid aliud, sed statim inquisitoribus denuncient, et reportent. Item quod nullum incarceratum, et inclusum estrahat de carcere. Item quod inmuratos pro aliqua causa extra prima portam muri nullo modo extrahat, nec domum intrent, nec cum eo comedant. Item nec servitores qui deputati sunt ad serviendum aliis occupent in operibus suis, nec eos, nec alios mittant ad aliquem locum sine speciali licentia inquisitorum. Item quod dictus Radulphus non ludat cum eis ad aliquem ludum, nec sustineat quod ipsi inter se ludant, et si in aliquo de predictis inveniantur culpabiles ipso facto incontinenti de custodia muri perpetuo sint expulsi. Actum coram predicto inquisitore in testimonio predictorum, et mei Pontii prepositi notarii qui hec scripsi », D32, f. 125r-126r.

This example mirrors a similar pattern discussed in Geltner 2008, p. 67-71.

216 Douais 1900, p. 52. Other documents confirm this for instance, Comptes Royaux ed Fawtier, III, n. 9683 « Guillelmus Martini, custos immuratorum et incarceratorum Tholose [...] Mathelda [...] olim custode immuratarum »; n. 9684 « Elissendi matri subvicarii Tholose filieque dicte Mateldis quondam, cui fratres inquisitores concesserunt locum que tenebat dicta Matelda. » At n. 11748-11752 there is a new woman-keeper for women-prisoners, Astruga. C133, f. 42v « domine Honeste que stat in domo officii et custodit hereticas et credentes. » See Geltner 2008, p. 21-22, 63-66, who locates this practice, at least in Italian case-studies, around the midst of the thirteenth century.

217 See for instance Cabié 1905, pp. 215-7, where it is possible to follow the increase in the number of children in prison at Saint-Sernin and Saint-Etienne (from two – May 9; to three – June 6; four – June 20; eight – July 25; nine – Aug 1; thirteen – Oct 15-31; fourteen – Nov 14; seventeen – Nov 28).

218 C249, f. 43v, 44r.

219 C421-A, f. 33r, 34r, 35v, 44v.

220 Geltner 2008, p. 71-74.

221 Acta sancti Officii, n. 367, 377. Similar cases are recorded, always for Bologna, in Geltner 2008, p. 65, and Venice, p. 23.

222 « uni qui custodivit quemdam qui fuit detentus », « quem feci detineri », C133, 66r. The practice of distributing detainees through « local custodial places » prior to the foundation of proper prison compounds is recorded elsewhere in Italy : in Bologna, Venice and in Siena (first half of the 13th century), Geltner 2008, p. 1, 12, 21.

223 C250 in variis locis. In general, as a common practice, ill inmates were kept separate from the others, in the attempt of preserving the overall security and welfare, Geltner 2008, p. 67, xvii.

224 C249, f. 46v.

225 Compte d’Arnaud Assalit, n. 8640-5, 8689, 8736.

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Caterina Bruschi, «Familia inquisitionis: a study on the inquisitors’ entourage (XIII-XIV centuries)»Mélanges de l’École française de Rome - Moyen Âge [En línea], 125-2 | 2013, Publicado el 18 diciembre 2013, consultado el 28 marzo 2024. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/mefrm/1519; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/mefrm.1519

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Caterina Bruschi

University of Birmingham - C.Bruschi@bham.ac.uk

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