Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/431

HUSSITES AND WALDENSES. 4^5 SnL^'^'w'^S """^ *^' ^^*' ^* ^'•^^^™ Reiser, a Suabian, educated m Waldensianism. Under the guise of a merchant he had served as a preacher among the Waldensian churches which mamtained a secret existence throughout Germany. At Heils- bronn he was captured in a Hussite raid, when, carried to Mount labor, he recognized the practical identity of the faiths and re- ceived ordmation at the hands of the Taborite Bishop Nicholas He labored to bring about a union of the churches, and wandered as a missionary through Germany, Bohemia, and Switzerland Finally he settled at Strassburg, which was always a heretic centre and gathered a community of disciples around him. He called himself " Frederic by the grace of God bishop of the faithful in the Roman Church who spurn the Donation of Constantine " He was detected in W58 and arrested with his followers. Under tort ure he confessed all that was required of him, only to withdraw ^ when removed from the torture-chamber. The burgomaster^ Hans Drachenfels, and the civic magistracy earnestl/ oppS his execution but they were obliged to yield, and he was burned SX" ""' ""^' ^'^'^^ ""'""' ^^ ""^ ~"'^ Eeiser had been specially successful with the descendants of he Pomeranian Waldenses who, as we have seen, abjured be ore the inquisitor Peter in 1393. They appear to ha;e by no means abandoned their heresy, and were easily brought to th"^, modiflca tons which assimilated them to the Hussites-the adoption tf bishops, priests, and deacons, the communion in both e ements and the honoring of Wickliif, Huss, and Jerome of Prague In this same year, 1458, a tailor of Selchow, named Matthew Ha^en was arrested with three disciples and carried to Beriin for trial ZZZ Bol ^^t V.-d"'° ■ ^^ ^^^' ^-^ -'^--d -^ priest m Bohemia by Reiser, and had returned to propagate the doctrines of the sect and administer its sacraments. His fSlowers doned to the secular arm. To root out the sect. Dr. John Canne- • Concil. Senens. ann. 1423 (Harduin. VIII. 1016-17-) _lTiin,„„.,., c . before the Reformation, Menzies' Transl. I. 883-4.-!f ac II Iv Caur T. f V "' tatis Lib. XXX. p. 1S36 (Ed. 1608).-Co.ba, Histoire de V Sois d il j' J/"' Hoffmann, Geschichte der Inquisition, II. 390-1. ' ^^■~