Konrad von Marburg(sometimesanglicisedasConrad ofMarburg) (1180 – 30 July 1233) was amedievalGermanCatholicpriest, inquisitor and nobleman. He is perhaps best known as the spiritual director ofElizabeth of Hungary.
Life
editKonrad's early life is not well known, he may be of aristocratic descent,[1]most likely the son of Konrad I. a Ministerial family of Marburg,[2]And corroberates with contemporary church sources describing him as well-educated and highly knowledgeable.
He was calledmagister,a proof that he had finished the course of studies at a university, maybe Paris or Bologna.[3]He was noted for his strongasceticismand his oppressive zeal in defending the church.[4]
Much of his early work within the church was related to the suppression of heresy, and he took an active part in theAlbigensian Crusadein southern France.Pope Innocent III,who championed theMedieval Inquisition,was one of Konrad's early supporters. Eventually, however, Konrad returned toGermany,the land of his birth. In particular, Konrad was employed by Louis' wife,Elizabeth of Hungary,to whom Konrad acted asspiritual director.
After receiving a commission from theArchbishop of Mainz,Siegfried II,[5]Konrad set to work seeking out heresy in both Thuringia[1]andHesse,and quickly gained a reputation for being unreasonable and unjust. According to most accounts, Konrad accepted almost any accusation as true, and regarded suspects as guilty until proven innocent.[6]Those accused of being heretics were quickly sought out by Konrad's mobs, and told to repent or else beburnt 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,ProvostofGoslar,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 IXgranted him permission to ignore standard church procedure for the investigation of heresy. The pope also issued thepapal bullVox in Ramain response to Konrad's allegations, condemningLuciferian.[7][8]Konrad teamed up withConrad Dorso and John the One-Eyedin theUpper Rhineland,burning many heretics with barely the semblance of a trial.[9]
In 1233, Konrad accusedHenry II, Count of Sayn,of taking part in "Satanic orgies". Henry, however, appealed to an assembly of bishops inMainzwhere they decided to postpone a verdict to the discontent of both parties.[10][11]
Death
editThis articleneeds additional citations forverification.(September 2014) |
Konrad refused to accept the decision and demanded that a verdict be reached, but eventually gave up and left Mainz to return toMarburg.On the road, he was attacked by severalknights,who killed both Konrad and his assistant, aFranciscan friarnamed 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 anEpistola 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[citation needed].
Popular culture
edit- Konrad appears in a work by the English novelistCharles Kingsley,who wrote hisSaint's Tragedyabout Elisabeth.
- Konrad von Marburg is pictured as the main character in theFrenchcomic strip"The Third Testament" byXavier DorisonandAlex Alice.After hiding for 20 years after being sentenced to death by an Inquisition Tribunal framed by Henry of Sayn, a mellowed and weary Konrad again faces the mysterious Count of Sayn in a race to find a legendary document, the “Third Testament”. The story is a 4-part suite published byGlénat.
- Konrad von Marburg appears as an antagonist in the anime seriesRadiant.
References
edit- ^abcCohn, Norman (2011-11-30).Europe's Inner Demons: The Demonization of Christians in Medieval Christendom.Random House. pp. 43–44.ISBN978-1-4481-0393-5.
- ^Pirchegger, Hans.Die Herrschaft Marburg*(PDF).
- ^"CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Conrad of Marburg".www.newadvent.org.Retrieved2020-05-08.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
- ^Sullivan, Karen (2011).The inner lives of medieval inquisitors.Chicago; London: University of Chicago Press.ISBN9780226781679.
- ^Kieckhefer,Repression of Heresy in Medieval Germany(1979)
- ^Clifton, Chas (1992).Encyclopedia of heresies and heretics.Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO.ISBN9780874366006.
- ^Jennifer Kolpacoff Deane (2011).A History of Medieval Heresy and Inquisition.Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p.197.ISBN978-0-7425-6811-2.
- ^Barber, Malcolm (1973). "Propaganda in the Middle Ages".Nottingham Medieval Studies.17:42–57.doi:10.1484/J.NMS.3.61.
- ^Moore, Robert I.(2012).The War on Heresy: Faith and Power in Medieval Europe.Belknap Press. pp. 279–280.
- ^Lea, Henry (1961).The Inquisition of the Middle Ages.New York: The Macmillan Company. p. 425.
- ^SeeRobert I. Moore,The War on Heresy. Faith and Power in Medieval Europe,London, Profile Books, 2014, p. 280-281.