Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/350

 gg^ GERMANY said to have replied, " I would burn a hundred innocent if there wt one g'lty amo;g them." Stimulated by this shmmg exam- pie! many DoLnicans and Franciscans Joined him, and became his eager assistants in the work.* wLther, as reported, Conrad Tors, to strengthen himself, sought out Conrad of Marburg and persuaded J^m Jo take part m the good work, or whether the latter, scenting the battle from afar It ™ed f r'om his torpor and rushed eagerly to the f ray canno positively be determined. This much is certain, that at length he came forward, and not only lent the weight of his great name to hT^oceldinis, but urged them to a crueller and -Jr d-doP" ment with all his vehemence of character and implacable seventy The heresy of which the miserable victims of this onslaught we accused'was not Waldensian, but Luciferan Its hideous ritis were described in full detail by Master Conrad to Pope Greg- ory and are worth repeating as illustrating the superstitions con- ceding witchcraft wiich, for centuries, worked such cruel wrong in every corner of Europe. Indeed, it seemed inevitable that such embrSderies should be' added by inquisitorial craft or popular cieduhty to the tenets of heretics, for, on the first emergence of clarism at Orleans in 1022, very similar «tories were t^M ^^^^ the infernal rites of the heretics, wh^h are -pejed by Walter Manes in the latter half of the twelfth century.f That Conrad oltaned these wild fictions m endless duplication from those who tod before his Judgment-seat there need be -^r^^^^^^^^^^ The reports of witch-trials in later times are too numerous and Ithentic for us to question the readiness of self-accusation of Sse who saw no other means of escape, or their eagerness to propitrate their Judge by responding to every incriminating sug- reXon and tell ng him what they found him desirous of hear- fnf Crude as were Conrad's method., the inquisitorial process proved ™s universal eflectiveness ^J their producing confejioi. as surelY as the more elaborate refinements invented bj his sue « 'although he^hadnoUhea^^ use of torture. . An.al. Wormatiens. (Hist. Diplom. Frid. II. T. IV. p. 61G).-KaUner, p. 138. t Pauli Camotens. Vet. Aganon. Lib. vi. c. i. Aancm 1022 (Bouquet, X. 159).-Gualteri Mapes de Nug.s Cunahum D.st. i. c. ....