"Glorious things are expected of you", Pope Gregory IX flattered him, calling him "Servant of Light" and a "sniffer dog of the Lord". Conrad of Marburg received carte blanche from Rome to terror and became the first German inquisitor in the 13th century. In the persecution of heretics, he often made short trials, as an investigator, prosecutor and judge in one person. The fanatical preacher contributed much to the fact that arbitrariness and denunciation became the essence of the heretic trials – until he made powerful enemies and was stabbed one day. A contract killing, presumably out of revenge.
The agitator and the heretics: Hundreds of people were burned at the stake by the dreaded special investigator. With Konrad von Marburg, the age of the papal inquisition in Germany began a good 800 years ago. Since the 4th century, the Catholic Church had been taking tough action against apostates, and a long era of cruel persecution was to follow.
The new issue of SPIEGEL GESCHICHTE tells of the logic of violence with which the ecclesiastical and secular powers fought religious dissenters: of crusades and massacres such as those of the Cathars in southern France ("Kill them all!"). From the wicked woman and later Saint Joan of Arc. Of the cool perfection with which the torturers of the Spanish Inquisition tortured their victims. And of arch-heretic Martin Luther in the conflict over sinecures, power and nationalist prejudices.
The fallacies of the infallible
With the Reformation, or at the latest with the Enlightenment, the haunting ended – according to the common assumption. But the persecution of apostates survived the Middle Ages and lasted well into modern times. When, for example, the Magi Giordano Bruno and Galileo turned the biblical worldview upside down in the 16th and 17th centuries, they too fell into the clutches of the Inquisition. And as late as 1747, a Swiss peasant was strangled as a heretic.
It was only very late that the Vatican crawled to the cross: In 2000, the elderly Pope John Paul II enforced a comprehensive confession of guilt by the Catholic Church for the transgressions of two millennia. Joseph Ratzinger was highly skeptical about this mea culpa: Five years later he became Pope Benedict XVI, at that time he was still head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – the successor authority to the Holy Inquisition, which once caused so much suffering and damage.
The booklet "In the Name of God" also explains why hundreds of thousands of people in Italy prefer to pay the church tax to the Waldensians rather than to the Catholic Church. The religious community has survived centuries of persecution, many of them joined the partisan war against Hitler. And in an essay on the "stealthy lust for evil," cultural scientist Wolfgang Ullrich explores why conservative writers and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs portray themselves as modern-day heretics.
The freshly printed edition is now available in newsagents and can buy SPIEGEL GESCHICHTE as a subscription or as a single issue. The digital edition can be found here. Feel free to write to us how you liked the magazine or on which topics you would like to read more – we can be reached at any time at spiegelgeschichte@spiegel.de .
The editors of SPIEGEL GESCHICHTE recommend:
The scam of the "parajackers" – and the simple trick that stopped them: Extorting a ransom, out by parachute, that's how criminals hijacked planes in 1972. The FBI hunted down the perpetrators. But then engineers had the right idea.
Power through inbreeding: For centuries, Europe's princely houses married their daughters and sons to each other in order to strengthen dynasties and secure peace. Often the spouses were related – with fatal consequences.
She didn't want to forget about color film: With »This Side of the Wall«, historian Katja Hoyer has landed a bestseller about everyday life in the GDR. But she glosses over the past with questionable methods, writes Franziska Kuschel.
"The love for the land of Israel was erotic, even sexual": Emotions played an important role in the founding of Israel, says Harvard historian Derek Penslar. He has discovered astonishing patterns – and says what makes him optimistic despite the ongoing crisis.
"Never get into the car unarmed": The climate adhesives of the "last generation" had precursors. Almost 120 years ago, there were car haters in Germany. Some even shot at motorists.