Margherita da Trento, "Sister in Christ"

Margherita da Trento, "Sister in Christ" (burned at the stake on 1 June 1307)

Margherita da Trento--Margaret of Trent--is a shadowy figure. Not much is known about her origins or, indeed, her life. But we do know about her death. She was burned at the stake, as a heretic, on 1 June 1307.

What is also known is that she was a follower of a man known as Fra Dolcino, a radical religious reformer whose origins are as unclear as Margherita's. 

In 1300, Fra Dolcino assumed the leadership of the Apostolic Brethren (Apostilici), a religious group that had been founded by Gherardino Segarelli in 1260. Segarelli's movement was modeled on the way of life of the apostles--a life of poverty and simplicity. Segarelli set about preaching his views on the importance of penitence, fasting, and prayer. He condemned as corrupt not only the Church's wealth, but also its practices like tithes and indulgences.

A plaque memorializing Margherita da Trento,
Biello, Ponte de Maddalena*

Segarelli gained disciples for the mendicant life he espoused, and his movement spread from Lombardy. By 1287, in fact, his movement had spread so far that it was condemned by the council of Wurzburg. Segarelli and his Apostolic Brethren were also condemned by Pope Honorius IV in 1286 and Pope Nicholas IV in 1290.

Meanwhile, Segarelli had been imprisoned by the bishop of Parma in 1280 and then banished. After the papal condemnations of 1286 and 1290, Segarelli and several of his followers were imprisoned in 1294--four members of the group were burned at the stake, Segarelli condemned to perpetual imprisonment. He abjured his errors, but after relapsing (or being made to confess that he had relapsed), he was condemned for heresy, then burned at the stake on 18 July 1300.

After assuming leadership of the Apostolic Brethren following Segarelli's death, Fra Dolcino took the group in an even more rigorous direction: 

Dolcino was even more anti-hierarchical than his mentor. At the most basic level, the Dulcinites believed in the poverty and simplicity of the Christian life. “The congregation is founded on the principles of the Apostles, it follows the poverty,” began the first of Dolcino’s letters outlining his beliefs. However, [he] continued that that lifestyle should be “without any external constraints as a rule.” This idea did not just apply to the constraints set by the church; it also applied to those of society too.

The Dulcinites believed the only way to reform the church was to change society. So, aside from returning Christianity to its apostolic roots, they proposed destroying all hierarchies of power—including the feudal system and replacing it with an egalitarian society, which held all property in common. The Dulcinites justified their stance based on lines 44-47 of 'The Acts of the Apostles' which stated: “But all those who believed were together and had everything in common.” This philosophy appealed to the peasantry and dispossessed who were attracted to the idea of a redistribution of wealth.

Notably--and unlike the mendicant orders, the Franciscans and the Dominicans--Dolcino welcomed women into his group of followers.

The Capture of Margherita and

Fra Dolcino 

(fresco, Antonio Ciancia da Caprile),

Church of SS. Quirico and Giulitta in Trivero, 1867

Fra Dolcino (despite his title, there is no evidence he took orders) retreated with his followers to the Trentino area, which is where he encountered Margherita, who became a member of the group. 

In a letter of 1303, Dolcino refers to himself as rector ("director," or leader), describing soror Margherita as pre ceteris sibi dilectissima, "most beloved to himself above all others." 

The identification of Margherita as "from Trento" comes from a deposition of 1304, in which one of the members of the group describes her as da Trento and claims that she had accompanied Fra Dolcino for at least a year.

Fra Dolcino and his followers withdrew into the Valsesia region of Piedmont--they established their own community in this mountainous region, but in 1305, Pope Paul declared a crusade against them. Beset by these "crusaders," Dolcino and his followers retreated further, setting up a community on Mount Zebello, in Piedmont. They managed to hold out until 23 March 1307, when they were captured.

Fra Dolcino and Margherita da Trento were taken to Biello (Piedmont), where they were both condemned by secular authorities. Margherita was burned at the stake on 1 June 1307. After being forced to witness Margherita’s death, Dolcino was then executed.

Further details about Margherita abound--though they seem to be fantasies. She is, of course, widely reported to be very beautiful and, equally to be expected, from a wealthy family that she rejected by taking up her life of poverty. Other stories claim she rejected many suitors to follow Dulcino. Years later, in a deposition taken as part of further investigations of the Dulcinians, a man referred to as "ser Boninsegna," son of dominus Oddorico da Arco, claimed Margherita was his sister (thus the name she is at times called, Margherita Boninsegna) and that she had ruined his life. (He also claimed that Margherita was still alive, married, living in Vicenza, and the mother of a fifteen-year-old child . . . )

In his treatise Practica inquisitionis heretice pravitatis (A Practical Investigation of Heretical Perversion, the inquisitor Bernardo Gui claimed that Margherita was Dolcino's amasia (lover), his "partner in crime and heresy," and that she was pregnant with Dolcino's child at the time she was captured--with Dolcino claiming that the holy spirit had impregnated her. 

I've linked to helpful sources above, but I will note that the most reliable and complete is Marina Benedetti's entry on Margherita da Trento in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, available via Treccani (click here).

Dated but thorough is Antonio Gallenga's A Historical Memoir of Frà Dolcino and His Times, available at the Internet Archive (click here).

*This plaque commemorating Margherita da Trento was added to the Maddalena Bridge (Biello) in 2007, placed near the site of her execution. Ironically, I have found no photo online that can be enlarged to read the plaque, and no article transcribes it--not even the article noting the very few public commemmorations of women in Biello: "The 'Forgotten' Women of Streets and Squares: Biella Is No Exception, Only 10 Bearing the Names of Women; It is Even Worse for Monuments: the Only One is the Plaque Commemorating Margherita da Trento, wife of Fra Dolcino."