Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/447

 JOHN OF PIRNA. 43-^ of Bavaria its repression became more difficult, although Bohe- mia under John of Luxembourg remained faithful to the Holy See. Heretics increased in Prague and its neighborhood ; after a brief period of activity the Inquisition seems to have disappeared; John of Drasic, whose tolerance we have seen, was still Bishop of Prague, and fresh efforts were necessary. In 1335 Benedict XII accordingly appointed the Franciscan Peter JN^aczeracz as inquisi- tor in the diocese of Olmiitz and the Dominican GaU of :N'euburg for that of Prague. As usual, all prelates were commanded to lend their aid, and King John was specially reminded that he held the temporal sword for the purpose of subduing the enemies of the faith. His son, the future Emperor Charles lY., at that time m charge of the kingdom, was similarly appealed to.* In the subject province of Silesia, about the same period a bold heresiarch known as John of Pima made a deep impression He was probably a Fraticello, as he taught that the pope was Anti- christ and Eome the Whore of Babylon and a synagogue of Satan In Breslau the magistrates and people espoused his doctrines which were openly preached in the streets. Breslau was ecclesiastically subject to Poland, and in 1341 John of Schweidnitz was commis- sioned from Cracow as inquisitor to suppress the growing heresy The people, however, arose, drove out their bishop and slew the mquisitor, for which they were subsequently subjected to humiliat- ing penance, and John of Pirna's bones were exhumed and burned The unsatisfied vengeance of Heaven added to their punishment by a conflagration which destroyed nearly the whole city, during which a pious woman saw an angel with a drawn sword 'casting fiery coals among the houses.f Bohemia and its subject provinces were thus thoroughly in- fected with heresy, mostly Waldensian, when several changes took place which increased the prominence of the kingdom and stimulated vastly its intellectual activity. In 1344 Pmo>ue was separated from its far-off metropolis of Mainz and was'^erected mto an archbishopric, for which the piety of Charles, then Mar- grave of Bohemia, provided a zealous and enhghtened prelate in p. 1505 (Ed. 1608).-Rayiiald. ann. 1335, No. 61-2.- Wadding, ann 1335 Ko "3-4' t Krasinsky, Reformation in Poland, London, 1838, 1. 55-6.-Raynald ann
 * Palacky, op. cit. pp. 15-18. -Flac. Illyr. Catal. Test. Veritatls Lib xv