THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
CONRAD OF GELNHAUSEN: Theologian and scholar; b. in the Electoral Palatinate 1320; d. at Heidelberg 1390. His name first appears in 1344 as member of the faculty of the University of Paris. In a document of the following year he is mentioned as provost at St. Maurice. In 1363 he was canon in Mainz and later became provost at AVorms. He was procurator of the German nation in Bologna as early as 1369, and obtained the degree of doctor of canon law there. Then he returned to Paris, devoted himself to the study of theology, and finished his theological studies probably in Prague. After 1387 he was in Heidelberg, a doctor of theology and chancellor of the university. His collection of books formed the nucleus of the university library. Among them were four theological writings of his own: Sermones ; Quccstiones ; Circa sententias ; and Super librum Cantica Canticorum.
Conrad's fame rests upon the Epistola concordice which he wrote in Paris in May, 1380, at the command of Charles V of France, after giving this sovereign in the preceding year the same advice in a shorter form; viz., to cooperate with other princes in calling a general council without the popes. Appealing expressly to Thomas Aquinas, but in reality leaning upon Occam and developing his ideas, he argued logically from the acknowledged superiority of the Catholic Church that the exceptional circumstances of the schism exempted from the letter of the law and justified the meeting of a council without papal convocation. He did not advance beyond this step; but his work became the basis upon which Henry of Langenstein (q.v.) and the concUiar theologians continued to buUd.
(B. Bess.)
Bibliography: The Epistola concordice is edited in E. Martfene and U. Durand, Thesaurus nevus anecdotorum, ii. 1717, pp. 1200-26, Paris, 1717. Consult: F. J. Scheuffgen, Beitrage zur Geschichte des grossen Schismas, pp. 75- 91, Freiburg, 1889; A. Kneer, Die Entstehung der konziliaren Theorie, Rome, 1893; K. Wenck, in Historische Zeitschrift, new series, xl., 1895.
CONRAD OF MARBURG: Inquisitor-general of Germany; killed at Marburg July 30, 1233. The year of his birth is not known, and it is not certain whether he was a Dominican or a Franciscan. He was selected by Gregory IX. for the purpose of introducing the papal inquisition into Germany (see Inquisition). He first appears probably in connection with the great auto da fi which was held at Strasburg 1212. On June 17, 1227, a bull for the extirpation of heresy (Ripoll, Bullarium ord. prccd., i., Rome, 1729, p. 20) gave him full power in the matter; and his powers were still further increased by Gregory's chief bull against heresy in Germany (Hartzheim, Concilia Germanice, iii. 540). When Frederick II. gave imperial confirmation to the severe papal measures against heretics (Mar., 1232), then " began the flame to get power over mortals " {Annales Colonienses maximi, MGH, Script., xvii., 1861, p. 843). Conrad now proceeded, with the assistance of certain colleagues (e.g., the Dominican Droso), to utilize this unlimited power, which even dispensed him from observing ordinary forms of trial; and so led countless victims to death. The fact is confirmed
especially by the report of Bishop Siegfried III. of Mainz to Gregory IX. {MGH, Script., xxiii., 1874, p. 931); and in the face of its evidence, the latterday Roman Catholic apology for Conrad (by the Jesuit Pfiilf, in KL, vii. 951) is ineffectual. In 1233, after he had vainly endeavored to draw the German princes into a more eager persecution of heresy, Conrad brought one of their number. Count von Sayn, before the tribunal, but the count contrived to vindicate himself before a synod at Mainz. Conrad next assembled a veritable crusaders' army; but at this juncture his fate swiftly overtook him, and he was slain by certain Hessian knights, while traveling to Marburg.
A second occasion of interest in Conrad's career is his relation to the pious Landgravine Elizabeth of Thuringia. He is a typical Roman Catholic spiritual guide, to whom the confiding penitent surrenders blindly (see Elizabeth, Saint). The view that Conrad's excessive zeal in the persecution of heretics is accountable for the fact that the papal Inquisition was unable to assert itself in Germany is erroneous; after his death there still occurred (1234 and 1235) cases of the burning of heretics at the stake by papal inquisitors, and even down to the fourteenth century such cases recurred again and again. The fact is, the same Inquisition was powerfully supported in the fourteenth century by the Emperor Charles IV., and exacted numberless victims in Bohemia, Silesia, and in parts of North Germany.
K. Beneath.
Bibliography: Gesta Treverorum, Continuatio IV., ed. G. Waitz, in MGH, Script, xxiv (1879), 390-404; A. Hausrath, Der Ketzermeister Konrad von Marburg, Marburg, 1861; E. L. T. Henke, Konrad von Marburg, ib. 1861; L. Cuno, Conrad von Marburg, ib. 1877; B. Kaltner, Konrad von Marburg und die Inquisition in Deutschland, Prague, 1822; H. C. Lea, Hist, of the Inquisition, ii. 325- 341, New York, 1906; K. Benrath, in Deutsch-evangelische Blatter, part 5, Halle, 1901.
CONRING, HERMANN {Hermannus Conringius): German theologian; b. at Norden (75 m. n.w. of Bremen) Nov. 9, 1606; d. at Helmstadt (21 m. e. of Brunswick) Dec. 12, 1681. He studied at Helmstadt and Leyden, was appointed professor of natural philosophy at Helmstadt in 1632, and was transferred to the medical faculty five years later. In 1650 he was made physician to the queen of Sweden, and eleven years later became privy councilor of the duke of Brunswick. He received a pension from Louis XIV. in 1664, and in 1669 was appointed councilor of state by the king of Denmark. Conring's wealth of learning, like his legal and diplomatic knowledge, ^ir.as devoted to proving that the Protestant Church was entitled to exist as a part of the Church catholic. In this spirit he wrote his De constitutione episcoporum Germanice (Helmstadt, 1647), and in the same year prepared an annotated edition of the letters of Leo III. to Charlemagne. In his De conciliis et circa ea summa potestatis auctoritate (1650) he asserted the right of the emperor and the estates to convene, conduct, and confirm plenary councils, and also to enact ecclesiastical rulings without their aid, while in the following year his De electione Urbani IX. et Innocentii X. pontificum assailed the method of