Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/417

THE BEGHARDS.-CHANGES OF POLICY. 40I There evidently was ample work for the Inquisition in Ger- many, but It seems to have been more anxious to repair its defeat Waldenses. In the general excitement on the subject of heresv it was not difficult to render the Beghards objects of rented s'l^ , cion and persecution. To some extent the bishops and most of the mqmsitors jomed in this, but the suspects had friends among tl>I prelates who wrote, towards the close of 1393, to Boniface IX eulo gizmg their piety, obedience, and good works, and asking p;otec- tion for hem To this Boniface responded, January 7, 1394 in a brief addressed to the German prelates, ordering them to inCt, gate whether these persons are contaminated wlh the errors c^n demned by Clement V. and John ZXIL, and whether they foZ protected. An exemphfied copy of this brief, given bv the Arch bishop of Magdeburg, October 20, 1396, sto^.! thL ilonttued to be used and was relied upon in the troubles which foiowed soon after, through a sudden change of policy by Boniface Th' r :; r 'l '^^* ^^-f r-^^ -<^- '^- intlrfere^cr^ith £ operations. It represented to Boniface that for a hundred years hards and Begmnes, in consequence of which, almost every year emp re, and that their suppression was impeded by certain naual constitutions which were urged in their protection. ^onSacewa ary 31 1395 he restored to vigor the decrees of Urban V Gres- ory XL, and Charles IV., under which he ordered the Inqds!tln Tbifrv:t;:r'^^ the Beghards, LoUards, and zj^- ^ Ih IS gave full power to molest the orthodox associations as well persecution burst over them. Even some of the bishops joined in wmcn ordered the priests to excommunicate and expel them Yet tLT:^.7Tt "'.?'^'^' ^"' ^'^^^^^ was'induced 'to i-e- ITsLn, of tf P ^^^ddltlon which, hke the contradictory pro- mStlof iS'r*"";.^"^ ^ perplexity caused by the'ad- mixture ot orthodoxy and heresy amono- the EemiiTip; ^, re^a^_g his commands for their'suppressiot he SdHhat tZ