Oldenburg, and destroyed, in the year 1232, the strong
castle of Slutterberg, near Delmenhorst, built by the latter nobleman as a
position from which he could send out his marauders to plunder and destroy
the possessions of the peasantry.

The invincible courage of these poor people proving too strong for their
oppressors to cope with by the ordinary means of warfare, the Archbishop
of Bremen applied to Pope Gregory IX. for his spiritual aid against them.
That prelate entered cordially into the cause, and launching forth his
anathema against the Stedinger as heretics and witches, encouraged all
true believers to assist in their extermination. A large body of thieves
and fanatics broke into their country in the year 1233, killing and
burning wherever they went, and not sparing either women or children, the
sick or the aged, in their rage. The Stedinger, however, rallied in great
force, routed their invaders, and killed in battle their leader, Count
Burckhardt of Oldenburg, with many inferior chieftains.

Again the pope was applied to, and a crusade against the Stedinger was
preached in all that part of Germany. The pope wrote to all the bishops
and leaders of the faithful an exhortation to arm, to root out from the
land those abominable witches and wizards. "The Stedinger," said his
holiness, "seduced by the devil, have abjured all the laws of God and man,
slandered the Church, insulted the holy sacraments, consulted witches to
raise evil spirits, shed blood like water, taken the lives of priests, and
concocted an infernal scheme to propagate the worship of the devil, whom
they adore under the name of Asmodi. The devil appears to them in
different shapes,--sometimes as a goose or a duck, and at others in the
figure of a pale black-eyed youth, with a melancholy aspect, whose embrace
fills their hearts with eternal hatred against the holy Church of Christ.
This devil presides at their sabbaths, when they all kiss him and dance
around him. He then envelopes them in total darkness, and they all, male
and female, give themselves up to the grossest and most disgusting
debauchery."

In consequence of these letters of the pope, the emperor of Germany,
Frederic II., also pronounced his ban against them. The Bishops of
Ratzebourg, Lubeck, Osnabrueck, Munster, and Minden took up arms to
exterminate them, aided by the Duke of Brabant, the Counts of Holland, of
Cleves, of the Mark, of Oldenburg, of Egmond, of Diest, and many other