Rafaelle Renzi

Rafaelle Renzi was an italian monk of the Society of Leopold who was responsible for the event known as the Florentine Heresy.

Biography
In the 15th century Rafaelle was a Franciscan Inquisitor and Abbé of the Florence Cenaculum. He believed that some of the supernaturals were able to overcome their inherent evil nature by honest remorse and accused the Society of pride for judging who among the remorseful had the right to live.

Renzi was aware of a number of vampires, werewolves and mages but to no action against them. Instead, he tried to minister to them, saying they were no different from any other sinners and they too deserved salvation. For this idea he was formally charged of heresy in 1658. He allowed himself to be delivered to San Michele's in chains, without even a word to contest the charges.

In a trial open to the entire Society of Leopold he was branded apostate and a traitor, and he burned at the pyre the next dawn. Renzi flaunted his sanbenito (a penitential garment), saying that it was the cross he must bear for giving witness to the truth and condemning the Society before being taken by the flames.

One year after his death the Florentine Decree was commissioned to further define the orthodoxy of the Society. In their perspective Rafaelle's heresy was a subtle but dangerous and seductive: lured into promisses of doing good, it led one to blasphemy, and nothing less than acceptance of the Enemy. It implied that Evil was relative, and this would not do.

Rafaelle continues to be an active (although discrete) subject among many Inquisitors' minds. In modern nights there's even a secretive sect of the Society of Leopold called the Sanbenito, after Rafaelle's martyrdom.