Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/390

 oT' GERMANY. brought upon him the prosecution which worried him to death. It is possible, also, that pursuit of this higher game may have diverted the archbishop from the chase of the humbler quarry, for we hear of no further victims in the next few years, though we are told that the heresy was by no means suppressed.* Archbishop Henry died in 1331 without further success, so far as the records show, and his successor Waleran, Count of Juliers, took up the cause in more systematic fashion. He endeavored to organize a permanent episcopal Inquisition by appointing a commis- sioner whose duty it was to inquire after heretics, and who had power to reconcile and absolve those who should recant— m fact, an inquisitor under another name. The success of this attempt did not correspond to its deserts. In March, 1335, Waleran was obliged to announce that the evil had greatly increased m both the city and diocese, and he called upon aU his prelates and clergy to assist his Inquisition by rigidly enforcing the statutes of Arch- bishop Henry. This was as ineffective as the previous measures. The heretics were so bold that they openly wore the garments of the sect and foUowed its practices; nay, more, the inquisitor was either so negligent or so corrupt that he gave absolutions without requiring conformity. In October of the same year, therefore, the archbishop issued another pastoral epistle, in which he pro- nounced all such absolutions void, and deplored the constant spread of the heresy.f. , ^ . . The zeal of the Archbishops of Cologne was not without imi- tators Throughout Westphaha, Bishops Ludwig of Munster, Gottfrid of Osnabruck, Gottfrid of Minden, and Bernhard of Pa- derborn had been active in eradicating the heresy withm their dioceses In 1335 Bishop Berthold of Strassburg made a spas- modic effort to enforce the Clementines, and in the same year there were some victims burned in Mfetz. The Magdeburg Arch- bishop Otto was of more tolerant temper. In 1336 a number of " Brethren of the Lofty Spirit " were detected in his city, who did not hesitate, under examination, to admit their behef, which to dan. (Matth^i Analect. IV. 233-4). -Vitoduram Chron. (Eccard. Corp. Histor. I. 1814-15). t Hartzheim IV. 436, 438.
 * Gesta Treviror. ann. 1323 (Martene Ampl. Coll. IV. 410).-Chron. Egmon-