Untitled - Shattering Denial

THE INQUISITION 117
of Rome and the imperial law of 1224; it, however, omitted
in the last named law the clause which decreed the penalty
of cutting out the tongue. 1
In Germany, the Dominican,
Conrad of Marburg was particularly active, in virtue of
his commission from Gregory IX. In accordance with
the imperial law, we find him sentencing to the stake a
great
number of heretics. 2
It may be admitted, however, that in his excessive
zeal he even went beyond the desires of the sovereign
pontiff. Gregory IX did not find everywhere so marked
an eagerness to carry out his wishes. A number of the
cities of Italy for a long time continued to punish obsti
nate heretics according to the penal code of Innocent III,
i.e. by banishment and confiscation. 3
That the penalty of the stake was used at this time in
France is proved by the burning of one hundred and
eighty-three Bulgarians or Bugres
at Mont-Wimer in
I239, 4 and by two important documents, the Etablisse-
1 Cf. Corio, L istoria di Milano, loc. cit. For further details regarding
upper Italy, cf. Ficker, op. cit., pp. 210, 211.
2 The papal letter of October u, 1231, says: "Quatenus prelatis, clero et
populo convocatis generalem faciatis predicationem . . . et adjunctis vobis
discretis aliquibus ad haec sollicitius exsequenda, diligenti perquiratis sollici-
tudine de haereticis et etiam infamatis, et si quos culpabiles et infamatos
inveneritis, nisi examinati velint absolute mandatis Ecclesias obedire, pro-
cedatis contra eos juxta statuta nostra contra haereticos noviter promulgata."
Kirchenbecker, Analecta Hassiaca, vol. iii, p. 73. We will relate further on
how Conrad understood his mission of Inquisitor, and how he fulfilled it.
3 Cf. on this point, Ficker, op. cit., p. 224.
4 Aubri de Trois- Fontaines, ad ann. 1239, Man. Germ. SS., vol. xxiii,
pp. 944, 945. For other references to this fact, cf. Julien Havet, op. cit.,