The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

AUTODAFfis IN ROME. 3OI
spontaneously given himself up to the Inquisition. At first
he denied that he had ever held or abjured heretical opinions,
and then, in spite of all the proofs to the contrary, he main-
tained that at any rate after his abjuration he had not again
fallen into heretical opinions, but under torture his courage
proved unequal to further denials. After his abjuration
Pompeo de'Monti was beheaded and burned on July 4th,
1566 ;
he died with every sign of repentance.^
In the time of Pius V. the autodafes were conducted with
greater solemnity than under previous Popes -^ the Cardinals
and all the Papal court attended, and a great concourse of
people assembled, especially when some one who had hitherto
been held in high repute had been discovered to be a secret
heretic and had been condemned as such. On account of
the great crowd the Cardinals could hardly obtain seats at
the first autodafe of 1567, which took place at the Minerva
on February 24th ; among those who made their abjuration
there was a well known preacher who, in the previous year,
had set up his pulpit amid great crowds in Florence and
even in Rome, and had been condemned to imprisonment
in his convent as a convicted heretic.^ The second autodafe
of the same year, on June 22nd, caused a similar demon-
stration, when the distinguished Neapohtan noble, Mario
Galeota, made his abjuration with nine others.^
^ FiRMANUs, *Diarium, see App. nn. 35-47. S.\ntori, loc. cit.
Orano, 15. Bertolotti (Martiri, 36) quite wrongly and without
any proof says that he was burned alive. Cf. the information from
the Archives of S. Giovanni DecoUato in Amabile I. 296 :
297 seq. for the sending of heretics from Naples to Rome.
^ Requesens, July 4, 1566, Corresp. dipL, I., 288.
ibid.
=• Firmanus, *Diarium, see App. nn. 35-47.' An *Avviso di
Roma of September 21, 1566 (Urb. 1040, p. 2S7, Vatican Library)
is able to tell us that the preacher in question (Basilio) had
admitted his heresy. Cf. *Avviso di Roma, without date, sent
by Arco with his letter of March i, 1567. State Archives.
Vienna.
* Firmanus, *Diarium see App. nn. 35-47. B. Pia in Berto-
lotti, Martiri, 43. For particulars as to the relapsed heretic