Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/394

 378 GERMANY. been favorable for the persecution of heresy ; it may, partially at least, explain the immunity enjoyed in so many places by heretics, and the impossibihty of introducing the Inquisition in any form of general organization. Though the papacy assumed that the impe- rial throne was vacant, and asserted that, during such vacancy, the government of the empire devolved upon the pope, these pre- tensions could not practically be made good. With the death of Louis, in 1347, and the recognition of his rival, Charles lY.— the "priest's emperor "—Kome might fairly hope that all obstacles would be removed ; that the opposition of the episcopate to the Inquisition would be broken down, and that the field would be open for a persistent and systematic persecution, which would soon relieve Germany of the reproach of toleration. When Clem- ent YI., in 1348, could paternally reprove the young emperor for lack of dignity in the fashion of his garments, which were too short and too tight for his imperial station, the youth could surely be relied upon to obey whatever instructions might be sent him with regard to the suppression of heresy. The same year saw the appointment of John Schandeland, doctor of the Dominican house at Strassburg, as papal inquisitor for all Germany.* Scarcely, however, had the pope and emperor felt their posi- tions assured, and preparations had been thus made to take advan- tage of the situation, when a catastrophe supervened which defied all human calculation. The weary fourteenth century was near- ing the end of its first half when Europe was scourged with a ca- lamity which might well seem to fulfil aU that apocalyptic proph- to his conclusion that the persecution of heresy is a matter of human law, to be ordained and enforced by the secular ruler. Though the heretic, he argues, sins against the divine law, he is punished for transgressing a human law ; the priest has nothing to do with it, except as an expert to determine the commission of the crime, and has no claim upon the consequent confiscations (Defensor. Pacis P. II. c. ix., X. : P. III. c. ii. Conclus. 3, 30). All this is simply part of his gen- eral scheme to exclude the Church from control in secular affliirs. Louis was never in a position to give these theories practical effect; they had no influence either on the current of opinion or on the course of events, and are only inter- esting as an episode in the development of political thought. 1885, pp. 8, 40, 63.— Schmidt, Pabstliche Urkunden und Regesten, Halle, 1886, p. 383.
 * Werunsky Excerpta ex Registris Clement. VI. et Innoc. VI., Innsbruck,