Europe's inner demons

As early as 1418 Pope Martin V appointed Capestrano inquisitor, with the special task of tracking down the Fraticelli. It proved a shrewd move, not only because Capestrano brought enthusiasm to the work but because, as a true ascetic himself, he was able to undermine the appeal of these unorthodox ascetics. But Capestrano was by no means a full-time inquisitor; the persecution was intermittent, and thirty years were to pass before it reached its triumphant conclusion.

In 1449 plague was raging in Rome; and to escape it the pope, Nicholas V, moved for the summer to Fabriano, a small town in the inland, mountainous part of the March of Ancona. Capestrano followed him, partly to further the interests of the Observants, partly to press for the canonization of his friend Bernardin, who had died in 1444. But the March of Ancona had long been one of the main centres of the Fraticelli, and remnants of the sect were still hiding there. Before returning to Rome, Pope Nicholas bestowed unrestricted inquisitorial powers on Capestrano for the specific purpose of pursuing the local Fraticelli. A collaborator was also nominated: St James of March, who was also an Observant and had also been concerned with the Fraticelli for many years — and who moreover was operating on his home ground.⁽⁴³⁾

As the area around Fabriano was papal territory there was no authority, ecclesiastical or secular, to hinder the two men from using their powers to the utmost. Capestrano was in a state of high excitement. On 8 November he wrote from Massaccio to the pope’s brother, who was the apostolic legate in Bologna, urging him to fresh zeal against the heretics. The defence of the faith, he insisted, must take precedence over all other work; as for his own activity, something extraordinary was about to happen: within the next three days more would be accomplished than in the last six years. And his campaign against the Fraticelli did in fact prove immensely successful. The villages of Massaccio, Poggio and Meroli were purged; and so was Maiolati, which was to figure again in the trial of 1466. Many Fraticelli recanted; those who stood firm were burned — Fabriano itself witnessed the burning of a Fraticelli “pope” together with some of his faithful flock.⁽⁴⁴⁾

The lives of Capestrano in the great hagiographical collection, the Acta Sanctorum

, contain further details, which are plausible in themselves and which probably likewise apply to this episode in his career.⁽⁴⁵⁾ They tell how the Fraticelli repeatedly tried to assassinate him; how he had thirty-six of their settlements burned to the ground; and how the remnants of the Fraticelli fled to Greece. At the trial of 1466 the “priest” Bernard was to describe how in Greece new centres were founded and new clergy trained, to be sent back to Italy as missionaries.⁽⁴⁶⁾

But this was only a last faint flicker of life: the persecutions of 1449 had effectively broken the Fraticelli movement.

Now there exists an account, written within three or four years of these events, which shows that all the infamies with which the Fraticelli were to be charged in 1466, in Rome, were already attributed to them in 1449, at Fabriano. The well-known humanist Flavio Biondo was apostolic secretary at that time. In his book describing the various provinces of Italy, called Italia Illustrata, he mentions the sojourn of Pope Nicholas at Fabriano, and then goes on to give an account of the Fraticelli.⁽⁴⁷⁾

All the familiar features are there: the promiscuous orgies, the killing of a child by throwing it from hand to hand, the incineration of the corpse, the mixing of ashes in wine which is then used to initiate new members. The term barilotto turns up, in its Latin form, and is explained just as St Bernardin explained it: the whole performance is named after the little barrel of wine-with-ashes.

But the most instructive part of Biondo’s tale is the piece of personal reminiscence at the end: