THE HERETICS OF STRASSBURG. 317 One of them, named Eeinhold, appealed to Innocent III. against this form of trial, and the pope promptly responded by forbidding its further use in such matters, although we are told by contem- poraries that its efficacy was abundantly proved by miracles. One of the heretics who repented at the last moment was divinely cured of his burn and was discharged. Returning home rejoicing, his wife upbraided him with his weakness, and under her reproof he relapsed. Immediately the burn reappeared, and a similar one was developed on the hand of the wife, inflicting such agony that neither could restrain their screams. Fearing to betray themselves, they rushed to the woods, where they yelled like wild beasts ; this led to their speedy discovery, and before the ashes of their con- federates were yet cold they both shared the same fate. More fortunate was one of a number of heretics convicted in this man- ner at Cambrai about the same time. On his way to the stake he listened to the exhortations of a priest and commenced to repent and confess. As he did so his hand began to heal, and when he received absolution there was no trace left of the burn. Then the priest called attention to him, pronouncing him innocent, and on the evidence of his uninjured hand he was discharged. At Strass- burg there were eighty obstinate ones, whose heresy was proved by the ordeal. They were all burned the same day in a ditch be- yond the walls, and in the sixteenth century the hollow was stiU known to the citizens as the Ketzergrube. The property of the condemned was duly confiscated and was divided between the magistrates and those who had labored so successfully in vindicat- ing the faith.*
- Kaltner, Konrad von Marburg, Prag, 1882, pp. 41-5. - Frag. Hist. (Urstisii
Scriptt. P. II. p. 89).— Chronik des Jacob v. Konigshofen (Chroniken der deutch- en Stadte, IX. 649).— Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1215.— H. Mutii Chron. Lib. XIX. ann. 1212.— Innoc. PP. HI. Regest. xiv. 138.— Caesar. Heisterb. Dist iii cap 16, 17. ^* On the authority of Daniel Specklin,a Strassburg annalist who died in 1589, Bishop Henry is said to have met St. Dominic in Rome, to have promised him and Innocent III. to introduce the Dominican Order in Strassburg, and to have taken some members home with him, who speedily multiplied to about a hun- dred, and distinguished themselves by the persecution related in the text (Kalt- ner, loc. cit. ; cf. Hoffman, Geschichte der Inquisition 11. 365-71). At this period, as we have seen in a former chapter, Dominic was laboring obscurely in Langue- doc, and it was not until 1214 that the liberality of Pierre Cella suggested to him
