Suspect Saints

This chapter examines “suspect saints,” who emerged when either the pope or papal agents publicly suspected a local holy person of heresy. The individual was the focus of a cult that popes undoubtedly preferred to discontinue, but a lack of evidence meant inquisitors could not condemn their veneration. Just as communities questioned the efficacy of using the inquisitio to judge the worth of candidates to sainthood, so too did they challenge its usefulness to determine heretics. Examples such as Peter Crisci of Foligno, Tommasuccio of Nocera, Meco del Sacco (d. circa 1346), and Armanno Pungilupo demonstrate how the construction of sanctity became contested after inquisitors took on the role of papal disciplinarians, due in part to diverging standards regarding how and by whom heresy, no less than holiness, should be judged. The result was competing ideas regarding the spiritual worth of these saints. Inquisitors questioned Peter Crisci, incarcerated Tommasuccio, and condemned Meco and Armanno, both of whom went through an appeal process. Inquisitors failed to secure lasting condemnations for all of these saints, except Armanno Pungilupo. The problems inherent in the system of discerning heresy allowed the continued existence of their cults.