Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/362

 3^g GERMANY. Thns ended this terrible drama, which left an impression of horror on the souls of the German people not easily effaced. The number of Conrad's victims can only be guessed at. Some chron- iclers vaguely speak of them as innumerable, and one asserts that a thousand unfortunates Avere burned. Although this is probably an exaggeration, for the period of Conrad's insane activity cannot have exceeded a twelvemonth, yet the number must have been considerable to produce so profound an impression on a generation which was by no means susceptible.'^ One good result there undoubtedly was. The universal detes- tation excited by Conrad's crazy fanaticism rendered it compara- tively easy for the bishops to maintain the jurisdiction which they had assumed, and to keep the Inquisition confined within narrow limits. For a time this was doubtless facilitated by the open quarrels between Frederic II. and the papacy, but even after his death, during the Great Interregnum and the reigns of em- perors who were more or less dependent upon the Holy See, more than a century was to pass away before the popes, who were so zealously organizing and strengthening it elsewhere, made a seri- ous effort to establish the Inquisition in Germany. We hear of no endeavors on their part, we meet with no appointments or com- missions of German inquisitors. It seems to have been tacitly understood that the institution was unfitted for German soil until a period when it had fairly entered into decadence in the lands where its growth was the rankest. The excitement of Conrad of Marburg's exploits was naturally succeeded by a reaction. In 1233 the murder of Bishop Berthold of Coire, attributed to heretics, shows how far persecution spread, accompanied by a dangerous tendency to resistance. Throughout 1234 both Dominicans and Franciscans are reported as busy, with the result of numerous burnings; but^the lesson taught by the attitude of the German prelates was not lost, and in 1235 the mao-istrates of Strassburg enjoined on them to seek conversions by pretching, and not to burn people without at least giving them a hearing. The languor and reaction continued. We have seen - Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. aun. 1232.-Erphurdian. Variloq. ann. 1232 (Men- ken II 484).-Chron. Sanpetrin. Erfurt. (lb. III. 254).-Anon. Saxon. Hist. Impp. (lb m 125) -Chron. Erfordiens. ann. 1232 (Schannat Vindem. Literar. I. 92).