Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/349

 CONRAD TORS. 330 One expedient remained-to try whether among the Dominicans there might not be found men able and wilUng to devote them- selves fearlessly and exclusively to the holy work. Between the end of 1231 and that of 1232, therefore, commissions were sent to various Dommican establishments empowering their officials to undertake the work. The treaty of Ceperano, in 1230 had re- stored peace between the empire and the papacy, and Frederic's aid was successfuUy invoked to give the imperial sanction to the new experiment. From Eavenna, in March, 1282, he issued a constitution addressed to all the prelates and potentates of the empire, ordering their efficient co-operation in the extirpation of heresy, and taking under the special imperial protection all the Mendicants deputed by the pope for that purpose. The secular authorities were commanded to arrest all who should be designated to them by the inquisitors, to hold them safely until condemna- tion, and to put to a dreadful death those convicted of heresy or fautorship, or to imprison for life such as should recant and ab- jure. Kelapse was punishable with the death -penalty, and de- scendants to the second generation were declared incapable of holding fiefs or pubhc office.* Here were laws provided and ministers for their enforcement and the business of vindicating the faith might at last be ex- pected to prosper. If Conrad was remiss, others would be found enthusiasticaUy ready for the work. So it proved Sud- denly there appeared on the scene a Dominican named Conrad lors, said to be a convert from heresy, who, without special com- mission, commenced to clear the land of error. He carried with him a layman named John, one-eyed and one-handed, of thorouo-hlv disreputable character, who boasted that he could recognize a°her- etic at sight. Apparently with httle more evidence than this Conrad Tors raided from town to town, condemning his victims wholesale, and those whom he delivered to the magistrates they were compeUed by popular excitement to burn. Soon, however a revulsion of feeling took place, and then the Dominican shrewd- ly enlisted the support of the nobles by directing his attacks against the more wealthy, and holding out the prospect of exten- sive confiscations to be divided. When remonstrated with he is • Ealtner, p. 184.-Hist. Diplom. Friil. II. T. IV. pp. 300-2.