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Ihoulcl be allowed to infect otherS. Torture, until the heretic recaDted or died, was the oaly solution. In IIISS a perpetUal

board of inquiry was established to inwstipte cues or

IUlpCCted heresy. As heresy· was considered the most terrible of all crimes, this board was permitted to we torture as a standard procedure to discover the truth, a custom that was pdually adopted by the secular courts as well. The Church Court became known as the “Inquisition” and was plued under the direct supervision of the Do~nican Order. The InquiRtors were ruthless as they were convinced that they were fighting with the powers of darkness for the prisoner’s 1OUl. For the victim to die unrepentant was a victory for the Devil. One of the most terrible of them was Conrad of Marburg who from IlZlZ7 to I ~33 created a reign of terror in Germany unequalled until the advent of Hider. In IlZ1I7, Pope Gregory IX ordered Conrad to investigate a IeCt in Germany known as the Lucii’erans.

This group c:onaidered that everything worldly was evil and as God could not have created evil, it followed that the Devil must have

made the world. Almost at once, Conrad had a pat stroke

or luck. A twenty year-old girl, who had a quarrel with her family, told Conrad that they were Luciferans.

Under torture. the family confcsled and then under the threat of addkional tortures, implicated· others.

The accwed were iadultIyarrested and tortua’ed until they named .till others ancIlOOn half the population or Germany was accusi1lg the other half.

‘ In Strasbourg alone, Conrad burned eighty men, women and childrell. In his .fury he spued nobody-not eveD nobles- or prominent Church dignitaries.

At last. the Archbiahopl of Cologne, Trews and Mayence appealed to the Pope, writing: . ‘CWhoeYer falls into Conrad’s hands has only thecb.oice betweeD. a ready confession and a denial whtnupon he is apeecIily burned.

Every false witness is &eeeptecl but no defenee poantecl. Many devout Catholia have’lutlered themselves tn be burned at the stake rather than c:oa&. under