Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/347

This page needs to be proofread.

SPASMODIC PERSECUTION. S Church and State fairly by the ears, and had inspired the heretics with fresh hopes. Everywhere their missionary activity redoub- led, and the land was said to be fuU of them. In each diocese they had a bishop to whom they gave the name of the regular in- cumbent, and they pretended to have a pope whom they called trregory, so that, under examination, they could swear that they held the faith of the bishop and of Pope Gregory. In 1229 the Waldenses were again discovered in Strassburg, and for several years persecution continued there, resulting in burning many ob- stinate heretics and penancing those who yielded.* Local measures such as these were manifestly insufficient and thus far all efforts at a comprehensive system of persecution had tailed. In 1231 Gregory was busily occupied in organizing some more efficient method, and Germany was not forgotten The Eo man statutes of Annibaldo and the papal edicts of that year to which frequent allusion has been made above, were sent to the leutonic prelates, June 20, with letters blaming them for their lukewarmness and lenity, and ordering them to put vigorously into force the new edicts. Yet already there had been sufficient per- secution to occasion the necessity of settling the novel questions arising from the confiscations, and the Diet of Worms, on June 2 of the same year, had decided that the allodial lands and the movables should go to the heirs, the fiefs to the lord, and in case of serfs the personalty to the master, thus excluding the Church and he persecutors from any share. Under Gregory's earnest impulsion the sluggishness of the bishops was soifewhat stimt lated The Archbishop of Treves made a perquisition through his city, and found three schools of heretics in full activity He caUed a synod for the trial of those who were captured, and had he satisfaction of burning three men, and a woman named Leu chardis, who had borne the reputation of exceeding holiness but who was found upon examination, to belong to the dreaded'sect froi htrt ' ' '^" °' '"^ " '^'^^^^"^ ^^"'^'^^^ (mLZ II Sn/^Kif """";„' "«>-• '°-> ««"te, Chron. Thuring -Trithl r ,!! .r ' P"- ""• 13«-33-Gesta Treviror. Episcopp. c. nt — intnem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1230 ^- a <«. t Hartzheim in. 539, 540.^Potthast No. 8073^.-Hist. Diplom. Prid II T. III. p. 466.— Gest. Treviror. Archiepp. c. 170, 173. 1- ui- r ria. i..