Untitled - Shattering Denial

46
THE INQUISITION
injury; if occasion require it, let the civil power arrest them
and put them in prison. Imprisonment is a severe enough
penalty, because it prevents their dangerous propaganda: 1
aut corrigendi sunt, ne pereant; aut, ne perimant, coercendi. 2
St. Bernard was always faithful to his own teaching, as
we learn from his mission in Languedoc. 3
Having
ascertained the views of individual church
men, we now turn to the councils of the period, and find
them voicing the self-same teaching. In 1049, tne council
held at Reims by Pope Leo IX declared all heretics ex
communicated, but said nothing of any temporal penalty,
nor did it empower the secular princes to aid in the sup
pression of heresy. 4
The Council of Toulouse in 1119, presided over by Ca-
lixtus II, and the General Council of the Lateran, in
1139, were a little more severe; they not only issued a
solemn bull of excommunication against heretics, but
ordered the civil power to prosecute them: per potentates
exteras coerceri prcecipimus? This order was, undoubtedly
1 "
Subversores invictis rationibus convincantur, ut vel emendentur ipsi,
si fieri potest; vel, si non, perdant auctoritatem facultatemque alios subver-
tendi." De Consideratione, lib. iii, cap. i, n. 3.
2 Ibid.; cf. Ep. 241 and 242. For more details, cf. Vacandard Vie de
Saint Bernard, vol. ii, pp. 211-216, 461-462.
3 Cf. Vacandard, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 217-234. Read his letter to his
secretary Geoffroy, Bernardi Vita, lib. vi, pars 3, Migne, P. L., vol. clxxxv,
col. 410-416.
4 Cf. Labbe, Concilia, vol. ix, col. 1042.
6 Council of Toulouse, can. 3, Labbe, vol. x, col. 857; Council of Lateran,
can. 23, ibid., col. 1008.