Free EXECUTIONERS (True Crime) by Anne Williams, Phil Clarke, Liz Hardy Page A

of praise to the Pope in 1231, and those who heavily criticised the enthusiastic manner in which he was allowed to wander districts and dioceses dispensing his own dubious justice.
    Conrad’s focus was fixed upon one specific group of heretics, a fantastical sect called the Luciferans. Conrad believed that these infidels shunned the word of God for the power of the fallen angel, their Lord of Light, Satan himself. For Conrad of Marburg, there could not be a faction of unorthodox believers more guilty of heresy than those that worshipped the Devil and, marauding through the towns of Thuringia and Hesse, he forced confessions and burnt those who failed to come clean. Conrad’s ignorant assistants, Dominican friar Conrad Dorso of Tor, John Le Borgne and the Franciscan Gerhard Lutzelkolb, found heresy in all things. A look or word out of place would be sufficient for them to report back to their inquisitor with what they considered a solid accusation. And Conrad would listen.
    With the Pope’s blessing, Conrad enjoyed freedom from the restraints of the usual canonical procedure and so was allowed to dispense with the formality of a trial. The unfortunate accused were threatened and tortured by Conrad and his collaborators and found guilty of their crimes without legal counsel, judge or jury. The torments subjected to these religious prisoners would have been severe, for Conrad was not disinclined from administering various acts of torture upon himself as part of his own atonement. He would have raised the bar when it came to devil-worshippers as for him the more violent the punishment, the sooner these heretical sects would be destroyed. If a supposed heretic confessed under excruciating pain, the inquisitor would order for their head to be shaved and a penance undertaken. For those who withstood the agony without admitting their guilt, the punishment would be death. The fact that the apprehended may be innocent seems to have not concerned Conrad, whose twisted sense of justice is encapsulated in the motto he lived by:
     
    W E  W OULD  G LADLY  B URN A  H UNDRED IF  J UST  O NE OF  T HEM  W AS  G UILTY.
     
    Fear consumed the districts before the arrival of Conrad and his entourage, with even the kings and bishops of Rhineland fearing for their lives. And for good reason, for Conrad was not averse to accusing the aristocracy, for no one was above the law of God in his eyes. However, it would be the denunciation of one such noble that would lead to the downfall of this supposedly untouchable inquisitor. In 1233, Conrad of Marburg publicly accused Heinrich II, Count of Sayn, of participating in satanic orgies. Whether or not this was true, Conrad had chosen to point the finger at a very powerful target. Furious at this allegation, the count appealed to the Archbishop of Mainz demanding to be allowed a fair trial. This earnest entreaty for justice was approved and the archbishop convened a Synod on 25 July 1233, which was even attended by the young King Henry VII of Germany. For the first time since his papally appointed perogative, Conrad of Marburg was required to legally prosecute a supposed heretic and was, unsurprisingly, unable to do so. The bishops and nobles on the council all elected to find the count innocent of the charge of heresy, much to the chagrin of Conrad, who immediately called for a reversal of the verdict. The synod had made their decision and there would be no U-turn.
    With this failure to prosecute, Inquisitor General Marburg made public his fury and assured those that would listen that he would focus his persecutory zeal on heretical noblemen and ensure such an injustice would not occur again. Conrad would not see another aristocrat escape the wrath of Catholicism nor see one burn, for only four days later, the much-hated inquisitor would be dead. Travelling back to Marburg with his satanist-spotting companion, Gerhard Lutzelkolb, Conrad and his Franciscan aide were set upon by what were later