IX. pursued the traditional policy with great vigor, estab-

lishing a regular inquisitorial office for Italy under the name of the "Holy Office," in 1224.
Gregory's policy was codified in an instrument of forty-five articles by the Council of Toulouse, in 1229, and thus the Inquisition became an established Church- institution, the appointment and superintendence of which formed an important prerogative of the Pope. It was not until this period that the Pope became the absolute ruler of the Church, for now even bishops could be cited before the papal tribunal of the Inquisition. Gregory IX. ap- pointed (in 1232) the Dominicans as papal inquisitors, who performed the terrible duties of their office so faith- fully that they truly earned the title of Domini canes.,
310 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
"the sleuth-hounds of the Lord," which originated in a word-plaj' on their name.
A famous fresco in the Santa Maria Novella at Flor- ence entitled Domini canes ^ painted by Simone Memmi, represents the inquisitorial idea under the allegory of a pack of hounds chasing off the wolves from the sheep- fold.
Gregory IX. (1227-1241) sent Conrad of Marburg to Germany and gave him unlimited power of citing before his tribunal all people suspected of witchcraft, command- ing him to bring the guilty to the fagot. And this fiend- ish man obeyed with joy his master, whom he revered as the Vicar of Christ on earth. He encountered much op- position, for the people became rebellious, and even the Archbishops of Cologne, Treves, and Mayence attempted to resist him. But Conrad remained firm; his practices had the unequivocal sanction of his Holiness the Pope, and he did not hesitate to begin proceedings even against these three highest dignitaries of the Church in Ger- many. Wherever Conrad appeared, the fagots were lit, and many innocent people became the victims of his fa- naticism. The Archbishop of Mayence, bent on stopping this fiend, wrote a letter to the Pope, in which he said : "Whoever fell into his hands had only the choice between a ready confession for the sake of saving his life and a denial, where- upon he was speedily burnt. Every false witness was accepted, but no just defence granted, — not even to people of prominence. The person arraigned had to confess that he was a heretic, that he liad touched a toad, that he had kissed a pale man, or some mon- ster. Many Catholics suffered themselves to be burnt innocently rather than confess to such vicious crimes, of which they knew they were not guilty. Tlie weak ones, in order to save their lives,
THE INQUISITION.
311
c U
s

s J
o
312
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
lied about themselves and other people, especially about such prominent ones whose names were suggested to them by Conrad. Thus brothers accused their brothers, wives their husbands, ser- vants their masters. Many gave money to the clergy for good ad- vice as to how to protect themselves, and the greatest confusion originated." {Alberici Monachi chron. ad. a. 1233.)*
The Archbishop's letter failed to impress his Holi- ness and did not in the least change the course of things.
The Banner of the Spanish Inquisition.
The Banner of the Inquisition OF GoA.f
On the contrary, Rome pursued more vigorously than ever its old policy, which was at last definitely formulated by Pope Urban V. in his bull "/;/ ccriia Domini^'''' pro- claimed in 1362, which sounded the slogan against all who ventured to dissent from Rome, and solemnly con- demned heresy in strong and unequivocal terms.
*Roskoff, (ii'sc/iic/i/f tiis Vrii/'r/s, II., pp. 215-216.
■f The illustrations on pages 312-320 are reproduced from I'icart.
THE INQUISITION.
313
Meanwhile the success of the Inquisition had been greatly imperilled by the oppositicni which Conrad of Marburg encountered in German}-. When the Inquisitor- General indicted Count Henry of Sayn for heresy, he was cited before the German Diet that was held in Mayence. The Diet was not inclined to respect Conrad's authority and passed a vote of censure. Bent on vengeance for the
The Chamber of the Inquisition. Listening to an Informer.
insult received, the Inquisitor left for Paderborn, but be- fore he could do further mischief he was overtaken by several noblemen on the 30th of Juh', 1233, near Mar- burg, on the Lalin, and slain.'" Thus he fell a mart3'r
* See Jvourad 7'on Marburg, by Henke (Marburg. 1861), and another work of the same title by Beck (Breslau, 1861).
Conrad was the father confessor of Elizabeth, the widow of the Landgrave of Thuringia. The poor woman submitted to most indecent corporal punishments, and was sainted as a reward. If the same events happened to-day, both the Land-
314
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
to his bloody profession. The Germans breathed more freelj', but Gregory IX. canonised him as a saint and martj-r, and ordered that a chapel be built on the spot on which he was killed.
While the establishment of the Holy Office in Ger- many met with serious difficulties, the inquisitors were
^'.■\RIOus Manners of Cross-Examining the Defendants.
welcomed in France b}^ Louis the Pious, Philip the Fair, and Charles IV.
The Inquisitor Hugo de Beniols had a number of prominent people burned alive at Toulouse, in 1275, among them Angele, Lady of Labarthe, a woman of
gravine and her father confessor would probably have been transferred from the Wartburg to an insane asylum. It is scarcely credible, but nevertheless true, that a book appeared in defense of Conrad as an inquisitor and of his fiendish deeds by K.^Itner. under the title Konrad Ton Marburg unJ die Jyiquisilioti in Deutsch- littici. T^rague, 1882.
THE INOUISITION.
315
sixty-five years accused of sexual intercourse with Satan. It is stated that she had borne a monster with a wolf's head and a serpent's tail, whose sole food consisted of babies. Under the rule of Charles IV. the ill-famed Bas- tile was built, because the prisons no longer sufficed to hold the indicted heretics.
The reign of Charles VI. is distinguished by a tem-
A Man and a Woman Convicted of Heresy Who Have Pleaded Guilty Before Being Condemned to Death.
porary lull in the witchcraft-prosecution in France, mainly due to the w^eakness of the papacy arising from the great schism between Rome and Avignon. The curses which the two popes mutually visited on their ad- herents appeared to change into blessings. The Sjaiod of Ivangres (1404) speaks of soothsayers as impostors, and holds out to those who are in the power of Satan the hope of salvation through repentance and penance. The
316
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
tribunal of Toulouse (1606) enacted no other punish- ments upon thirteen persons than fines, fasts, pilgrim- ages, and almsgiving, while the Inquisitor was tried and convicted for the misappropriation of confiscated prop- erty. King Charles VI. ordered that he be deprived of his salar}-.''"
In Spain the Inquisition prospered best. The Di-
Herktics Condemned to Be Burned.
rectorium inquisitoruni of N. Eymerich (Rome 1587) , the inquisitor-general for Castile, affords us a complete in- sight into the proceedings of the Holy Office, its sp3'- S3'steni, its modes of cross-examination and torture, and its spoils. Torquemada and Ximenes were the most de- termined and unrelenting successors of Eymerich. i' The
* Lamothe-Langon, III., p. 299, and Soldan, p. 193.
\ F. Hoffmann, Gescliiclilf drr hujuisilion, Bonn, 1878. Llorente, i'nschichte dtr spayiischeii hiquixilion. German, from the Spanish.
THE INQUISITION.
317
wealthiest, tlie most powerful, the most learned, were threatened alike, and even Archbishop Carranza, the pri- mate of the Church of Spain, could not escape the prose- cution of the inquisitors.
In the beginninjy of the fifteenth century, Johannes Nider, a German and a Dominican monk, published a book on IVitcJtcs cuid Their Deceptions''^ At the same
7\rm n .> 'Jt
A Man and a Woman Condemned to Be Burned but Pardoned on Account OF Their Confession.
time Pope Eugene IV. (1431-1447) encouraged the in- quisitors in a circular letter to proceed with severit}^, "summarily, without ado, and without any judiciarj' form."t
*Fr. Joannes Nider, Suevi ordin. fracdicat. s. theoiog. profess, et hey':/icae Jfestis znqiiisitoris, liber z'nsign/'s de ma/efieits et eoritm deceptiotiibus.
f " Summarie simpliciter et de piano, ac sine strepitu et figura judicii." — Pope Eugene in his circular letter to the Inquisitors of 1437.
318
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL.
The Prior of St. Germain, William von Edelin, who had preached against the reality of witchcraft, had to beg pardon publicly in the Episcopal Chapel at Evreux on September 12, 1453, and to confess that he himself had worshipped Satan, had renounced his faith in the cross, and preached that witchcraft was an illusion at the espe- cial command of the Devil for the propagation of the Sa-
The Inquisition in Session on the Market Square at Madrid.
^. King and Queen.
B. Grand Inquisitor,