Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/332

CHAPTER YI. GERMANY. In 1209 Henry of Veringen, Bishop of Strassburg, accompanied Otho lY. on his coronation expedition to Rome. We have seen (p. 192) how some of the ecclesiastics in the emperor's train were scandalized by the almost open toleration of heretics in the papal city ; possibly recriminations may have passed between the Ger- man and the ItaUan prelates, and the former may have been rec- ommended to look more sharply after the orthodoxy of their own dioceses. Be this as it may, Bishop Henry is said to have carried home with him some theologians eager to punish aberra- tions from the faith, and a little investigation showed to his horror that his land, was full of misbelievers. A searching inquest was organized, and he soon had five hundred prisoners representing all classes of society. He was a humane man, as the times went, and he sincerely sought their conversion, to which end he set on foot disputations, but his clergy were no match for the sectaries in knowledge of Scripture, and the faith gained little by the attempt. Recourse to stronger measures was evidently requisite, and he announced that all who were obstinate should be burned. This brought most of them to their senses ; heretic books and writings were eagerly surrendered, and the converts abjured. About a hun- dred of them, however, under the persuasion of their leader, a priest of Strassburg named John, were obdurate, including twelve priests, twenty-three women, and a number of nobles. So ignorant were the episcopal officials of the method of proceeding against heretics that they were utterly at a loss how to convict these recusants ; some form of trial seems to have been thought neces- sary, and resort was had to the old expedient of the red-hot iron ordeal. The heretics protested against it as a manifest tempting of God, but their objections were unavaihng ; those who denied their heresy were subjected to it, and naturally but few escaped.