Untitled - Shattering Denial

THE INQUISITION 67
than that of the preceding age. But on the other
hand it was an effective barrier against the infliction of
the death penalty, which had become so common in many
parts
of Christendom.
Besides, during this period, the church used vigorous
measures only against obdurate heretics, who were also
disturbers of the public peace. 1
They alone were handed
over to the secular arm; if they abjured their heresy,
they were at once pardoned, provided they freely ac
cepted the penance imposed upon
them. 2
This kind
(haereticos) publice nuntiari facias et bona eorum a principibus publican."
Ep. i, 509. On December 12, 1206, he exhorted the podesta, consuls, and
Council of Faenza: "quoslibet pravitatis hcereticG, sectatores satagatis a civitate
vestra depellere," as Prato and Florence had done; Ep. ix, 204; cf. Letter
of March 10, 1206, Ep. ix, 18: "A civitate vestra penitus excludatis et sub
perpetuo banno consistant nee recipiantur de caetero vel etiam tolerentur in
civitate manere nisi ad mandatum Ecclesiae revertantur, bona eorum . . .
confiscentur secundum legitimas sanctiones et etiam publicentur." The
bannum perpetuum and the legitimcs sanctiones refer to the old Teutonic law
and the Roman law. The Pope even wrote to Hungary (Letter of October
n, 1200, Ep. iii, 3), where his laws were observed (cf. Ep. v, no, and Thomae
archdeaconi Hist. Salonitana in Schwandner, Rerum, Hungaric. SS., 1746,
vol. iii, p. 568). Finally, we have the promise made to the Pope by the
emperor Otto IV, March 22, 1209: "Super eradicando autem haeretice pravi-
tatis errore auxilium dabimus et operam efficacem." Mon. Germ., Leges,
vol. ii, p. 217. This promise was renewed in the same terms by Frederic II,
July 12, 1213, ibid., p. 224.
1 Innocent III merely condemned to prison in a monastery
the heretical
abbot of Nevers: "Et quoniam metuendum est ne in laquem desperationis
incidens et ad perfidorum haereticorum insaniam ex toto conversus eorum
prasvaricationibus contaminet gregem intactum, retrudi eum in districto
monasterio faciatis et ibi ad agendam pcenitentiam sub arcta custodia deti-
neri." Letter of June 19, 1199, to a cardinal and a Bishop of Paris. Ep. ii,
99-
2 Cf. Canon 27 of the Lateran Council (1179), which we have quoted