Note 653 — Chapter VIII · INTELLECT AND FAITH. (continued 2)

I have followed a contemporary account of this curious affair—“De Quatuor Hæresiarchis in civitate Bernensi nuper combustis, A.D. 1509,” 4to, sine nota (Strassburg, 1509), attributed to Thomas Murner. It accords sufficiently with the briefer reports of Trithemius (Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1509) and Sebastian Brandt (Pauli Langii Chron. Citicens. ann. 1509), and that of the Chron. Glassberger ann. 1501, 1506, 1507, 1509.—Garibay, Compendio Historial de España, Lib. xx. cap. 13.

The Bernese community was piously devoted to the Virgin. In 1489 a certain Nicholas Rotelfinger was inconsiderate enough to declare that she helped the wicked as well as the good. For this he was obliged to stand a whole day in an iron collar and to make oath that he would personally seek the pope and bring home a written absolution.—Valerius Anshelm, Berner-Chronik, Bern, 1884, I. 355.