Remigio of Varagine is a former Franciscan who joined the Benedictines to escape religious persecution. Remigio (the abbey’s cellarer) is described as a joyful but rude person, with blonde hair and small but strong stature. Remigio admits that he was the first to find Venantius’s dead body in the abbey’s kitchen, but wasn’t sure what to do with it that wouldn’t accuse himself, so decided to leave it until the morning. When he returned, the dead body was gone. He and his assistant, Salvatore, initially came to the abbey fleeing persecution as former Fraticelli, admirers of the now-condemned heretic Fra Dolcino. Salvatore brings young women for Remigio from the nearby village in the night so that he can trade them discarded food for sexual favors. He is later betrayed by Salvatore and tried by the inquisitor Bernard Gui. Before a court of law, he admits to all manner of crimes and heresies, declaring his consistent faith in the ideals of the Fraticelli. He is then taken to Avignon to be burned at stake.
Remigio of Varagine in the Essays