Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/315

 INEFFECTIVE INQUISITION. 299 two friars acquainted with the language, and send them to Bosnia to extirpate heresy. The request at the same time made to Stephen to support them with the secular arm shows that the missionaries were m fact inquisitors. Unluckily, Nicholas in his zeal also em- ployed Dommioans in the business. Inspired by the traditional hatred between the Orders, the inquisitors, or missionaries, em- ployed aU their energies in quarrelhng with each other, and be- came objects of ridicule instead of terror to the heretics.* In 1298 Boniface VIII. undertook finally to organize the In- quisition in the Franciscan province of Slavonia, which comprised all the territory south of Hungary, from the Danube to Macedonia J. he provincial minister was ordered to appoint two friars as in- quisitors for this immense region, and was intrusted as usual with the power of removing and replacing them. This slender or^^ani- zation he endeavored to supplement by ordering the Archbishop of Kalocsa to preach a crusade, but there was no response, and the proposed Inquisition effected nothing. When Stephen Dragutin died, in 1314, Bosnia was conquered by Mladen Subic, son of the Lan of Croatia, under whom it was virtually independent of Hun- gary. Mladen made some show of persecuting heresy— at least when he had a request to make at Avignon-but as the vast ma- jority of his subjects were Cathari, whose support was absolutely necessary to him, it is safe to say that he made no serious effort In 1319 John XXII. describes the condition of Bosnia as deplora. ble. There were no Catholic ecclesiastics, no reverence for the sacraments ; communion was not administered, and in manv places the rite of baptism was not even known or understood " When such a pontiff as John felt obhged to appeal to Mladen himself to put an end to this reproach, it shows that he had no means of ef- lective coercion at hand.f Mladen was overthrown by Stephen Kostromanic, and when he fled to Hungary, Charles Eobert cast him in prison, leaving, un- distm-bed possession to Stephen, who styled himself Ban by the grace of God. Stephen, in 1322, seems to have abandoned CathoU- cism, joimng either the Greeks or the Cathari, but in spite of this • Raynald. aon. 1280, No. 8, 9; ann. 1291, No. 42-44. - Klaic, pp 116-9 _ Wadding, ann. 1291, No. 12. ^^ t Waddiuff. ann. 1298 No '> Tri^;;; r^.^ 10 a -n ^ ■, o 1-Jo, J.NO. ..,.— niaic, pp. 123^.— Raynald. ann. 1319, No. 24.