Europe's inner demons

Meanwhile the inquisitorial procedure was becoming institutionalized. Early in the thirteenth century that great administrator Pope Innocent III established it as the normal way of proceeding against clerics. A cleric could not, of course, be tried except by an ecclesiastical tribunal; nor could he, under canon law, be accused by a cleric of lower status than himself. In practice this meant that bishops, abbots and the like had been almost wholly exempt from legal sanctions. The inquisitorial procedure enabled the ecclesiastical authorities, when appropriate, to initiate proceedings against even the most exalted clerics. This was doubtless a commendable reform; but it took on a new significance when the Inquisition came into being.

The Inquisition took its name from the inquisitorial procedure and not, as is sometimes assumed, vice versa: it carried out “inquisitions”, or official enquiries, and held “inquisitorial” trials, along lines which had been worked out much earlier. But, as an institution, it also adapted the inquisitorial procedure to its own special purpose, which was the eradication of heresy. As used by the Inquisition, the procedure was extremely unfair to the accused. He was seldom allowed a lawyer, and when he was, the lawyer was less concerned to defend him than to urge him to confess. The proceedings — which under the old accusatory procedure had taken place in public — were now shrouded in secrecy. And while a confession was required from the accused (known as “the witness”) before he could be convicted, torture could be used to extract it. The accused could also be imprisoned for an indefinite period on bread and water before interrogation and between interrogations. A prisoner who held out and continued to insist on his innocence could be imprisoned for life. A prisoner who confessed would be called upon to confirm his confession three days later; when he would have to state explicitly that he had spoken of his own free will, and not as a result of torture or from fear of torture. If he performed satisfactorily, he would be formally reconciled to the Church and would have to undergo some punishment or perform some penance, light or heavy. If, on the other hand, he withdrew his confession for any reason — for instance, on the grounds that it had been extracted by torture — he counted as a relapsed heretic and (since the Church was not permitted to kill) was handed over to the secular arm to be burnt alive. The procedure perfected and systematized by the Inquisition was indeed an instrument with terrible potentialities.

The papal Inquisition became fully organized only in the second half of the thirteenth century; but already in 1231, following the agreement between Gregory XII and Frederick II, the archbishop of Mainz appointed a certain Conrad of Marburg as inquisitor for his vast see. It was a fateful step, for the man turned out to be a blind fanatic. Moreover, there was as yet no established routine to restrain his fanaticism. The procedure later developed by the Inquisition, unfair as it was, was less arbitrary than the procedure concocted by this pioneering amateur.⁽¹⁴⁾

It seems likely that Conrad of Marburg was of aristocratic descent, and had once belonged to the monastic order of the Premonstratensians; but latterly he was simply a secular priest. He had had a university education, probably at Paris, and was celebrated for his learning; but he was even more famous for his formidable personality and austere way of life. Thin with fasting, of sombre and threatening mien, he was both respected and feared. He was utterly incorruptible; though he spent long years at the court of the count of Thuringia, and exercised great influence, he refused all benefices and remained a simple priest. He was also terrifyingly severe. As confessor to the countess— now St Elizabeth of Thuringia — he treated his penitent with a harshness which was extraordinary even by the standards of the time. He would, for instance, trick the twenty-one-year-old widow into some trivial and unwitting disobedience, and then have her and her maids flogged so severely that the scars were visible weeks later.

Popes were accustomed to trust Conrad with the defence of the faith. In 1215 and again in 1227, when plans were being laid for yet another assault on Islam, Conrad was appointed to preach the crusade. As he rode from place to place — always on a donkey, in imitation of Jesus— he was followed by crowds of clerics and layfolk, men and women; at the approach to towns the inhabitants would come in procession to meet him, with banners and candles and incense. His success as a preacher of the crusade made him famous.