Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/346

330 GERMANY. jurisdiction under which the local and spasmodic persecutions had hitherto been carried on.* . EiRht days later, on June 20, another commission was sent to Conrad, which increased enormously his power and influence. The German Church was as corrupt and depraved as its neighbors^ and aU efforts to purify it had thus far proved failures. In 1225 the Cardinal-legate Cinthio had assembled a great national coun- cil at Mainz, which had solemnly adopted an elaborate series o searching canons of reformation, that proved as bootless as al similar efforts before or since. Something more was wanted, and the sternly implacable virtue of Conrad seemed to pom him out as the fitting nstrument for burning out the incurable cancer ^hi was consuming the vitals of the German Church. Gregory, whose residence beyond the Alps as legate had rendered him fa- miliar with its condition, describes its priesthood as abandoned to lasciviousness, glutto.y, and all manner of filthy 1-"^' ^^^e <^ 1^ putrescing in their own dung; as committing habitually jMcked- nes which laymen would abhor, corrupting the peop e by the^ ev 1 example, Ld causing the name of the Lord to be blasphemed- To remedy these deplorable evils, he now commissioned Conrad as reformer, with full powers to enforce the regulations of the cardinal-legate, and the monasteries were especially designated as nhippts for his regenerating hand.f ^ArLed with almost ilfimitable powers, Conrad was now the foremost German ecclesiastic of the time, and we may well under- stand the admiration of Theodoric of Thuringia, who declares ha he shone like a star throughout all Germany Yet at this time his ill-balanced impulsiveness was concentrating his energies on tie orturing of St Elizabeth. There is no trace of his exercising Ms niSto'ial functions, and the only record of his activi y as a rlrmer is his reorganizing the nnnn.ry of Nordhausen by the s- ipl-Wedient of fxpelling the nuns, who aU led ungodly, l.ve. Yet his services as a persecutor never were more needed. 11^ excommunication of the Emperor Frederic, on September 29 o the sLe year, for temporarily abandoning his crusade, had set . Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1214.-Chron. Sanpetrin. Erfurtens. (Menken. TTT 919 Kaltner PP 86-7.-Epistt. SsECul. XIII. T. I. No. 117, 118, 136, .,63. ™ t 2iim III. s'l. Cf. Corcil. Frizla. ann. 1346, ib. p. 5T4.-RipoU I. 31.