In the Name of God, Amen.

Thus begins the notarial summary of the trial record and condemnation of Matteuccia di Francesco, in March of 1428, in Todi, Italy. Matteuccia's case was one of the pieces of evidence that I was using in building my dissertation's argument: namely, that Franciscan Observant preachers had taught those to whom they preached what would happen if they tolerated witchcraft in their midst. And that it was their sacred duty to root out these men and women before God punished the entire village for the transgressions of a few. 

I won't bore you with the details of the dissertation other than to note one thing: Italy did not have the massive witch panics that were seen in some Northern European countries. And, the worst of the panics took place after the Reformation, in the areas that eventually became Germany. Matteuccia's trial took place a full hundred years before the witch panics started.

Matteuccia di Francesco...has been universally recognized as a woman of bad ways and habits, a public enchantress, sorceress and witch. 

The record notes that Matteuccia was turned in by her neighbors, who were noted to be upstanding citizens and honest and truthful; it is emphasized that she was not turned in by people who had a grudge against her. 

Why would people who had tolerated Matteuccia's behaviour for years, as the record shows, suddenly turn her in? In the record, I found my major clue: 

not content with these things and adding evil to evil, in 1426 and 27 before the arrival of Frate Bernardino...

Frate Bernardino was Bernardino da Siena, an immensely popular Franciscan Observant preacher who traveled from town to town spreading the message that God was angry, and what made God most angry was the widespread sin of the Italians. 

In Florence, for example, Bernardino preached against the "Florentine vice," sodomy. It was well-known that men practiced sodomy with one another. It is too early to call them homosexuals or gay--it is unlikely that these men would have recognized themselves as such--but they were often married men who had especially close relationships with other men. Yes, they were having sex with one another, and yes they wrote letters proclaiming their love for each other, but they did not see themselves as "gay couples." They just didn't have the cultural vocabulary to understand themselves that way. 

Bernardino hated vice of all sorts. He hated the vanity of women, and when he wasn't thundering at the crowds that they tolerated sodomy, he was castigating women for their love of luxury goods. Bernardino rarely had anything good to say about women, period.

In the 1420s, Bernardino preached regularly. Florence. Rome. Siena. And, apparently in 1427, Todi. 

(I'm trying to simplify complicated information here so if anyone wants further information on my sources, I can dig them up.)

Bernardino had preached in Rome in either 1424 or 1427 (the dates are disputed: the dates became important in my dissertation but are not important here)

While he was in Rome, Bernardino witnessed the trial of a witch, who, having confessed to all manner of maleficia (literally: to make evil), was burnt at the stake. 

After witnessing and hearing what this woman had been capable of, Bernardino added witches to his litany of evil doers who lived amongst villagers. 

Why was it so important that villagers not tolerate these activities? Bernardino, in a rare misquote, stated that in the book of Micah, (it's actually Malachi) that God tells those who tolerate their neighbors' evil: "so will I destroy the cities." 

When God became angry enough, Bernardino said, he wouldn't just punish the sinner, he'd take entire villages down with them, too. It was up to neighbors to watch their neighbors, in order to save their own souls. 

And thus, in 1427, shortly after Bernardino preached in Todi, a steady stream of Matteuccia's neighbors started showing up to talk to the Magnificent and Great Lord, Lorenzo de Surdis, Captain and peacekeeper of the city of Todi and its district.

Shortly thereafter, Matteuccia di Francesco was arrested.

---end of Part I----