Fra Dolcino was executed without trial by the Holy See in 1307 by a
brutal, prolonged process of dismemberment. A part of the "Spiritual
Franciscan" movement, Dolcino was an early political radical of sorts
who had created a peasant commune on Mount Rubello in Italy in 1300.
In response to attacks by the Church, as well as by Crusader
forces, Dolcino's peasant movement had become murderously violent
in something of the way of a modern guerrilla army. 15 years after
Dolcino himself was killed, 30 of the remaining Dulcinians were finally
rounded up by the Church and burned at the stake in Padua (1322).
Influenced - as were all the spiritual Franciscans - by the medieval
apocalypticist Joachim of Fiore, Dolcino predicted around the time of
his capture that the world would be overtaken by the Antichrist within
three and a half years.
