Editing Inquisition (section)

=== Inquisitions in Medieval Germany ===
{{Main|German Inquisition}}
The Rhineland and Thuringia in the years 1231–1233 were the field of activity of the notorious inquisitor Konrad of Marburg. Unfortunately, the documentation of his trials has not been preserved, making it impossible to determine the number of his victims. The chronicles only mention "many" heretics that he burned. The only concrete information is about the burning of four people in Erfurt in May 1232.{{sfnp|Lea|1887b|pp=332,346}}

After the murder of Konrad of Marburg, burning at the stake in Germany was virtually unknown for the next 80 years. It was not until the early fourteenth century that stronger measures were taken against heretics, largely at the initiative of bishops. In the years 1311–1315, numerous trials were held against the Waldensians in Austria, resulting in the burning of at least 39 people, according to incomplete records.<ref>P. Kras: ''Ad abolendam...'', s. 414.</ref> In 1336, in [[Angermünde]], in the diocese of Brandenburg, another 14 heretics were burned.{{sfnp|Lea|1887b|p=375}}

The number of those convicted by the papal inquisitors was smaller.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Urkundliche Mittheilungen über die Beghinen- und Begharden-Häuser zu Rostock|url=https://mvdok.lbmv.de/mjbrenderer?id=mvdok_document_00002867#page14|access-date=2023-06-23|website=mvdok.lbmv.de}}</ref> Walter Kerlinger burned 10 begards in [[Erfurt]] and [[Nordhausen, Thuringia|Nordhausen]] in 1368–1369. In turn, Eylard Schöneveld burned a total of four people in various [[Baltic Germans|Baltic cities]] in 1402–1403.{{sfnp|Lea|1887b|p=390}}

In the last decade of the 14th century, episcopal inquisitors carried out large-scale operations against heretics in eastern Germany, Pomerania, Austria, and Hungary. In Pomerania, of 443 sentenced in the years 1392–1394 by the inquisitor Peter Zwicker, the provincial of the Celestinians, none went to the stake, because they all submitted to the Church. Bloodier were the trials of the Waldensians in Austria in 1397, where more than a hundred Waldensians were burned at the stake. However, it seems that in these trials the death sentences represented only a small percentage of all the sentences, because according to the account of one of the inquisitors involved in these repressions, the number of heretics reconciled with the Church from Thuringia to Hungary amounted to about 2,000.<ref>The description of these persecutions is published by: {{harvp|Lea|1887b|pp=395–400}}; and R. Kieckhefer: ''Repression of heresy'', p. 55.</ref>

In 1414, the inquisitor Heinrich von Schöneveld arrested 84 flagellants in [[Sangerhausen]], of whom he burned 3 leaders, and imposed penitential sentences on the rest. However, since this sect was associated with the peasant revolts in Thuringia from 1412, after the departure of the inquisitor, the local authorities organized a mass hunt for flagellants and, regardless of their previous verdicts, sent at least 168 to the stake (possibly up to 300) people.<ref>'''Manfred Wilde''', ''Die Zauberei- und Hexenprozesse in Kursachsen'', Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar, 2003, p. 100–101; '''K.B. Springer''': ''Dominican Inquisition in the archidiocese of Mainz 1348–1520'', w: ''Praedicatores, Inquisitores, Vol. 1: The Dominicans and the Medieval Inquisition. Acts of the 1st International Seminar on the Dominicans and the Inquisition, 23–25 February 2002'', red. Arturo Bernal Palacios, Rzym 2004, p. 378–379; '''R. Kieckhefer''': ''Repression of heresy'', p. 96–97. {{harvp|Lea|1887b|p=408}} mentions at least 135 executions in 1414 and another 300 two years later, but most likely the sources he cites speak of the same repressive action, with different dates ('''Springer''': p. 378 note 276; '''Kieckhefer''': p. 378, note 276; : pp. 97 and 147).</ref> Inquisitor Friedrich Müller (d. 1460) sentenced to death 12 of the 13 heretics he had tried in 1446 at Nordhausen. In 1453 the same inquisitor burned 2 heretics in [[Göttingen]].<ref>K.B. Springer: ''Dominican Inquisition in the archidiocese of Mainz 1348–1520'', w: ''Praedicatores, Inquisitores, Vol. 1: The Dominicans and the Medieval Inquisition. Acts of the 1st International Seminar on the Dominicans and the Inquisition, 23–25 February 2002'', red. Arturo Bernal Palacios, Rzym 2004, p. 381. The mass executions of flagellants in Thuringia in 1454 were the work of secular authorities, see Kieckhefer, ''Repression of heresy'', p. 147; Manfred Wilde, ''Die Zauberei- und Hexenprozesse in Kursachsen'', Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar, 2003, p. 106–107.</ref>

Inquisitor [[Heinrich Kramer]], author of the [[Malleus Maleficarum]], in his own words, sentenced 48 people to the stake in five years (1481–1486).<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Institoris|first1=Heinrich|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RPml42hWGBIC&q=Malleus+maleficarum|title=The Malleus Maleficarum of Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger|last2=Sprenger|first2=Jakob|last3=Sprenger|first3=James|date=2000|publisher=Book Tree|isbn=978-1-58509-098-3}}</ref><ref>cf. {{harvp|Lea|1887c|p=540}}</ref> Jacob Hoogstraten, inquisitor of Cologne from 1508 to 1527, sentenced four people to be burned at the stake.<ref>[https://archive.today/20160419184532/http://www.bbkl.de/lexikon/bbkl-artikel.php?art=./H/Ho/hoogstraaten_j.art BBKL: Jacob von Hoogstraaten]</ref>

A notable former inquisitor, Jesuit [[Friedrich Spee]], published a book ''Cautio Criminalis'' (1631) which helped end witch-hunting and the reliance on torture, highly regarded in Catholic and Protestant circles.<ref>Pinker (2011, pp. 138–139).   Mannix (1964, pp. 134–135).  Mackay (1841 / 2009, p. 320).</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Limborch |first1=Philippus van |title=Philippi a Limborch historia inquisitionis: acced. liber sententiarum inquisitionis Tholosanae ab anno Chr. 1307 ad annum 1323 |date=1692 |publisher=éditeur non identifié |url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=cysymJOAxLwC&pg=GBS.PP253 |language=la}}</ref>