Untitled - Shattering Denial

THE INQUISITION 123
It is probable that the Senator of Rome refers to them
in his oath in 1231, when he speaks of the Inquisitores
dates ab Ecclesia. 1 Frederic II, in his law of 1232, also
mentions the Inquisitores ab apostolica sede datos. 2 The
Dominican Alberic traveled through Lombardy in Novem
ber, 1232, with the title of Inquisitor Icereticce pravitatis. 3
In 1231 a similar commission was entrusted to the Domini
cans of Freisach, and to the famous Conrad of Marburg. 4
Finally, to quote but one more instance, Gregory IX, in
1233, wrote an eloquent letter to the bishops of southern
France in which he said: "We, seeing you engrossed in
the whirlwind of cares, and scarce able to breathe in the
pressure of overwhelming anxieties, think it well to
divide your burdens, that they may be more easily borne.
We have therefore determined to send preaching friars
against the heretics of France and the adjoining provinces,
and we beg, warn, and exhort you, ordering you as you
reverence the Holy See, to receive them kindly, and to
treat them well, giving them in this as in all else, favor,
counsel, and aid, that they may fulfill their office." 5
Their duties are outlined in a letter of Gregory IX to
1
Raynaldi, Annales, ad ann. 1231, sect. 16, 17; cf. Ficker, op. cit., p. 205.
2 Cap. iii, in the Man. Germ., Leges, sect, iv, vol. ii, p. 196.
3 Potthast, Regesta Roman. Ponti}., no. 904, i.
4 Cf. Ficker, op. cit., p. 213; cf. Potthast, n. 8859, 8860.
5 Potthast, no. 9143-9152. At the same time, Gregory IX sent a bull "to
the Priors and Friars of the Order of Preachers." Cf. Lea, op. cit., p. 329
and seq. Robert le Bougre was appointed inquisitor for northern France.
April 19, 1233. Ripoll, Bullarium, vol. i, p. 45.