Konrad von Marburg

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Elisabeth Church
, Marburg.

Konrad von Marburg (sometimes

German Catholic priest and nobleman. He is perhaps best known as the spiritual director of Elizabeth of Hungary
.

Life

Konrad's early life is not well known, he may be of aristocratic descent,[1] and he was described by contemporary church sources as well educated and highly knowledgeable. His contemporaries called him Magister, a proof that he had finished the course of studies at some university, perhaps Paris or Bologna.[2] He was noted for his strong asceticism and his oppressive zeal in defending the church.[3]

Much of his early work within the church was related to the suppression of heresy, and he took an active part in the

spiritual director
.

After receiving a commission from the

burnt at the stake. Those accused of heresy were also encouraged to denounce others, with the implication that their own lives might be spared if they did so. Konrad included commoners, nobles and priests in his inquisition: Heinrich Minnike, Provost of Goslar, was one of Konrad's first targets, and was burnt at the stake. In one instance, he treated his penitent with extreme harshness, tricking a widow into some unwitting disobedience and then had her and her maids flogged.[1]

In 1231, Pope Gregory IX granted him permission to ignore standard church procedure for the investigation of heresy. The pope also issued the papal bull Vox in Rama in response to Konrad's allegations, condemning Luciferian.[6][7] Konrad teamed up with Conrad Dorso and John the One-Eyed in the Upper Rhineland, burning many heretics with barely the semblance of a trial.[8]

In 1233, Konrad accused

Henry II, Count of Sayn, of taking part in "Satanic orgies". Henry, however, appealed to an assembly of bishops in Mainz where they decided to postpone a verdict to the discontent of both parties.[9][10]

Death

Konrad refused to accept the decision and demanded that a verdict be reached, but eventually gave up and left Mainz to return to

Franciscan friar
named Gerhard Lutzelkolb.

After Konrad's death, Pope Gregory declared Konrad to have been an upholder of the Christian faith and ordered his killers punished. Perceptions in the German Empire however, were markedly less favorable, and the memory of Konrad was enough to turn opinion against the Italian Inquisition for many years. The reputation he amassed in the course of his years as an inquisitor, gradually spread throughout Europe, overcoming the local boundaries of his original area of activity; and was that of an overly harsh judge. He left an Epistola ad papam de miraculis Sanctae Elisabethae, which was first published at Cologne in 1653.

The place where Konrad was killed, Hof Kapelle near Marburg, is marked with a stone (within the premises of a private farm); it was locally long believed to be haunted and is allegedly today, on certain days, the site of black rites.

Popular culture

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4481-0393-5
    .
  2. ^ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Conrad of Marburg". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 2020-05-08.Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  3. ISBN 9780226781679
    .
  4. ^ Kieckhefer, Repression of Heresy in Medieval Germany (1979)
  5. ISBN 9780874366006
    .
  6. ISBN 978-0-7425-6811-2
    .
  7. doi:10.1484/J.NMS.3.61
    .
  8. Moore, Robert I.
    (2012). The War on Heresy: Faith and Power in Medieval Europe. Belknap Press. pp. 279–280.
  9. ^ Lea, Henry (1961). The Inquisition of the Middle Ages. New York: The Macmillan Company. p. 425.
  10. Robert I. Moore
    , The War on Heresy. Faith and Power in Medieval Europe, London, Profile Books, 2014, p. 280-281.
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