Cruel Mode of Inquisition over the Doctrine of the Waldenses, in the Year 1214

In the year 1214, Conrad of Marpurg, a Dominican friar, was appointed by Pope Innocent the Third as grand inquisitor of the faith over all Germany, and was sent by him to search out and examine closely those who were said to have strayed from the faith of the Roman church. He carried out this commission with such cruelty, for a full nineteen years, that an incredible number of people, declared heretics by him, were put to death, partly by fire and partly with the sword.

Trithemius speaks of the manner of this inquisition, saying: [n437-1] "That this inquisitor, Conrad of Marpurg, used to test the heretics (the true Christians) by putting a red hot iron into their hands, and to hand over all those who were burned by it, as heretics, to the secular judge, to be sentenced to the fire." So it came about that only very few escaped, and that all who were once accused and brought to him for examination were, without mercy, condemned by him as heretics to be burned.

"There were some," he writes, "who held that he condemned very many innocent people, because the red hot iron, finding no one without sin, although they had otherwise never been tainted with any heresy, burned almost everyone who took it." Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug., in the years 1214 and 1215. Also A. Mell., second book, folio 459, column 3; also folio 466, column 4. [n437-2]