Untitled - Shattering Denial

56
THE INQUISITION
that he was moved by zeal for the public welfare, 1
and
"had simply obeyed the canons of the Holy Roman
Church." 2 With the exception of the death penalty by
the stake, his reference to the canon law is perfectly
accurate. Pope Alexander III, who had been present at
the Council of Tours in 1163, renewed, at the Lateran
Council in 1179, the decrees already enacted against the
heretics of central France. He considered the Cathari,
the Brabancons, etc., disturbers of the public welfare,
and therefore called upon the princes to protect by force
of arms their Christian subjects against the outrages of
these heretics. The princes were to imprison all heretics
and confiscate their property. 3 The Pope granted indul
gences to all who carried on this pious work.
In 1184, Pope Lucius III, in union with the emperor
Frederic Barbarossa, adopted at Verona still more vigor
ous measures. Heretics were to be excommunicated,
and then handed over to the secular arm, which was to
1 Notice the italicized words in the preceding note.
2 "
Sacrosanctae Romanae Ecclesiae canonibus obtemperantes, qui haereticos
a consortio Dei et sanctae Ecclesiae et catholicorum omnium exclusos ubique
damnandos ac persequendos censuerunt." Loc. cit.
3 The princes are invited "ut tantis cladibus se viriliter opponant et contra
eos (haereticos) armis populum Christianum tueantur. Confiscentur eorum
bona et liberum sit principibus hujusmodi homines subjicere servituti."
Can. 27, Labbe, Concilia, vol. x, col. 1522. The Council of Montpellier in
1195 presided over by the legate of Pope Celestine III renewed this decree in
nearly the same terms: "Constituit ut bona hujusmodi pestilentium hominum
publicentur et ipsi nihilominus servituti subdantur." Labbe, Concilia,
vol. x, col. 1796. The word servitus {subjicere servituti and servituti sub
dantur) used by both councils means imprisonment (Julien Havet, op. cit.,