The Inquisition in Germany. — But from France the Inquisition soon cast its net over neighboring and dis- tant countries, even beyond the ocean, by the aid of the Jesuits. Almost immediately after its firm es- tablishment in France, the Inquisition spread to Ger- many. The first inquisitor was Conrad of IMarburg, who organized the '• holy office" with terrible severity during the years 1231-1233. The sentences of death which this new tribunal pronounced were not few in number, and of course they always obtained the ap- proval of the emperor, Ferdinand II. But there was a higher power than that of the reigning prince, which had been lost sight of; and though the people's voice •was in those dark days not quite so powerfid as in our own, it certainly sufficed to thwart the iniquitous de- signs of these " holy officers." So energetically did the people and the nobles oppose the Inquisition, that it could carry out its sentences in a very few cases only. In 1233 the lower class of the people, always ready to execute judgment, took the law into their own hands, and Conrad of JIarburg was slain in the streets of Stras- burg. It was not really until the 14th century that the Inquisition can be said to have been properly establish- ed in Germany. It was at this time that the Beghards (q. V.) made their appearance. To supjiress them, pope Urban V appointed in 1307 two Dominicans as inquisi- tors, who engaged in a regular crusade against the new sect, and sustained by three different edicts of the em- peror Charles IV, rendered in 1309, failed not to re- peat in Germany the cruel practices of the French brethren of their order. Encouraged by their successes agai'ist the Beghards, and by the, to them, so favorable attituile of the emperor, pope Gregory XI increased in 1372 the number of the inquisitors to five, and in 1399 Boniface IX appointed no less than six of these " holy men" for such " holy" work for the north of Germany alone. But in proportion as the reformatory tendencies gained ground in Germany, the Inquisition lost its foot- hold. A desperate effort was maile by Jacob Sprenger and Heinricli Kramer, two inquisitors appointed by In- nocent YIII, under the plea of a prosecution of sorcerers and witches only. They even influenced the pope to publish the bull {Summis dedcle mutes (ijectibns) in 1484 (Dec. 5) which reaffirmed the doctrines previously set forth concerning lieresy in regard to sorcery and witch- craft, and the punishment by the Inquisition of those
guilty of such crimes. To justify their harsh dealings as executors of the Romish dicta, and to hide their in- iquitous work behind the screen of devotion to the cause of Christ, they published a code called " Hexenham- mer" {Malleus malejicorum), in accordance with which the prosecution Avas to be carried on. In this way they proceeded to condemn and execute a large number of persons. The Reformation at last completely overthrew the power of the Inquisition in Germany, and the at- tempts to re-establish it, made mostly by the Jesuits, with an endeavor to check the progress of evangelical truth, as in Austria, Bdhcniia, and Bavaria (where a tribinial of the Inquisition was formally established i" 1599), proved ineffectual, and of short diu-ation.
In Itali) the Inquisition was introduced under the di- rection of the Dominicans in 1224, but it was not until 1235 that it was firmly established as a tribunal by pope Gregory' IX. Just here it may not be amiss to state that Lacordaire, in his Life of Dominic ( Works, i, 95 sq.), seeks to relieve the memory of Dominic, and also the Domuiican order, of the special odium which attaches to them from their agency in establishing and conducting the Inquisition (compare Hare, Contest with Borne, p. 284-292). The Dominicans certainly cannot be freed from this charge, which is too well founded, and the efforts of a Lacordaire even must prove to be in vain. But to return to the tribunal of Gregory IX. It was at this time intended especiallj' against the AVal- denses, ^\■h^•^ had fied from the south of France to Pied- mont, and now threatened to infect all Itah' with their doctrines. Later its power was directed against other heretics; but the pai^al schism and the political com- motions which agitated the country greatly weakened its power. The free states of which Italy was then composed neither coidd nor would long bear the " arbi- trary and vexatious proceedings" of the Inquisition; and "alx)ut the middle of the 14th century measures were generally adoj^ted to restrain its exorbitant power, in spite of the opposition made by Clement VI. and the censures which he fulminated. The right of the bish- ops to take part with the inquisitors in the examination I of heretics was recognised; they were restricted to the I simple eognizaiKie of the charge of heresy, and deprived of the i>ower of imprisonment, confiscation, fine, and corjioral punishment, which was declared to belong solely to the secular arm" (M'Crie, Ref. in Itah/, p. 189 ; comp. Galluzzi, Istor, del Granducato di Toscano, i, 142, 1,43). But such a mode of procedure the Church of Rome found to be ineffectual for suppressing free in- quiry, and maintaining hierarchical authority, after the new opinions began to spread in Italy ; and as in Ger- many and the south of France, so also here, the bishops in many instances having become lukewarm, some even dared to manifest a humane feeling towards those who chose to differ from them in reUgious views; the ac- cused often suffered only very slight punishment, or were perm'itted to escape before the necessary orders for their arrest were issued. On these accounts pope Paul III finally resolved, at the instigation of cardinal John Peter Caraffa, to strengthen the power of the inquisitors by the establishment of the " Congregation of tlie Holy Office" (1534), with cardinal Caraffa (afterwards Paul IV) at their head, which the more zealous of the Ro- manists considered the only means of preserving Italy from being overrun with heresy. A constitution for a supreme and universal Inqmsition at Rome was prom- ulgated July 21, 1542, and operations commenced under it in 1543. Six cardinals now received the title and rights of inquisitors general, and authority was given them on both sides of the Alps " to try all causes of her- esy, with the power of apprehending and incarcerating suspected persons and their abettors, of whatsoever es- tate, rank, or order, of nominating officers under them, and appointing inferior tribunals in all places, with the same or with limited powers" (M'Crie, Ref. in Itah/, p. 189 sq. ; comp. Chandler's Limborch, I/isf. of the Inqui^ sition, i, 151 ; Llorente, Uistoire de Vlnquis. ii, 78). But