Of One Taken and
Convicted, but Denying Everything
THE
twelfth method of finishing and concluding a process on
behalf of the faith is used when the person accused of
heresy, after a diligent examination of the merits of
the process in consultation with skilled lawyers, is
found to be convicted of heresy by the evidence of the
facts or by the legitimate production of witnesses, but
not by his own confession. That is to say, he may be
convicted by the evidence of the facts, in that he has
publicly practiced heresy; or by the evidence of
witnesses against whom he can take no legitimate
exception; yet, though so taken and convicted, he firmly
and constantly denies the charge. See Henry of Segusio On
Heresy, question 34.
The procedure
in such a case is as follows. The accused must be kept
in strong durance fettered and chained, and must often
be visited by the officers, both in a body and
severally, who will use their own best endeavours and
those of others to induce him to discover the truth;
telling him that if he refuses and persists in his
denial, he will in the end be abandoned to the secular
law, and will not be able to escape temporal death.
But if he
continues for a long time in his denials, the Bishop and
his officers, now in a body and now severally, now
personally and now with the assistance of other honest
and upright men, shall summon before them now one
witness, now another, and warm him to attend strictly to
what he has deposed, and to be sure whether or not he
has told the truth; that he should beware lest in
damning another temporally he damn himself eternally;
that if he be afraid, let him at least tell them the
truth in secret, that the accused should not die
unjustly. And let them be careful to talk to him in such
a way that they may see clearly whether or not his
depositions have been true.
But if the
witnesses, after this warning, adhere to their
statements, and the accused maintains his denials, let
not the Bishop and his officers on that account be in
any haste to pronounce a definitive sentence and hand
the prisoners over to secular law; but let them detain
him still longer, now persuading him to confess, now yet
again urging the witnesses (but one at a time) to
examine their consciences as well. And let the Bishop
and his officers pay particular attention to that
witness who seems to be of the best conscience and the
most disposed to good, and let them more insistently
charge him on his conscience to speak the truth whether
or not the matter was as he had deposed. And if they see
any witness vacillate, or there are any other
indications that he has given false evidence, let them
attest him according to the counsel of learned men, and
proceed as justice shall require.
For it is
very often found that after a person so convicted by
credible witnesses has long persisted in his denials, he
has at length relented, especially on being truly
informed that he will not be delivered to the secular
Court, but be admitted to mercy if he confesses his sin,
and he has then freely confessed the truth which he had
so long denied. And it is often found that the
witnesses, actuated by malice and overcome by enmity,
have conspired together to accuse an innocent person of
the sin of heresy; but afterwards, at the frequent
entreaty of the Bishop and his officers, their
consciences have been stricken with remorse and, by
Divine inspiration, they have revoked their evidence and
confessed that they have out of malice put that crime
upon the accused. Therefore the prisoner in such a case
is not to be sentenced hastily, but must be kept for a
year or more before he is delivered up to the secular
Court.
When a
sufficient time has elapsed, and after all possible care
has been taken, if the accused who has been thus legally
convicted has acknowledged his guilt and confessed in
legal from that he hath been for the period stated
ensnared in the crime of heresy, and has consented to
abjure that and every heresy, and to perform such
satisfaction as shall seem proper to the Bishop and
Inquisitor for one convicted of heresy both by his own
confession and the legitimate production of witnesses;
then let him as a penitent heretic publicly abjure all
heresy, in the manner which we have set down in the
eighth method of concluding a process on behalf of the
faith.
But if he has
confessed that he hath fallen into such heresy, but
nevertheless obstinately adheres to it, he must be
delivered to the secular Court as an impenitent, after
the manner of the tenth method which we have explained
above.
But if the
accused has remained firm and unmoved in his denial of
the charges against him, but the witnesses have
withdrawn their charges, revoking their evidence and
acknowledging their guilt, confessing that they had put
so great a crime upon an innocent man from motives of
rancour and hatred, or had been suborned or bribed
thereto; then the accused shall be freely discharged,
but they shall be punished as false witnesses, accusers
or informers. This made clear by Paul of Burgos in his
comment on the Canon c. multorum. And sentence or
penance shall be pronounced against them as shall seem
proper to the Bishop and Judges; but in any case such
false witnesses must be condemned to perpetual
imprisonment on a diet of bread and water, and to do
penance for all the days of their life, being made to
stand upon the steps before the church door, etc.
However, the Bishops have power to mitigate or even to
increase the sentence after a year or some other period,
in the usual manner.
But if the
accused, after a year or other longer period which has
been deemed sufficient, continues to maintain his
denials, and the legitimate witnesses abide by their
evidence, the Bishop and Judges shall prepare to abandon
him to the secular Court; sending to him certain honest
men zealous for the faith, especially religious, to tell
him that he cannot escape temporal death while he thus
persists in his denial, but will be delivered up as an
impenitent heretic to the power of the secular Court.
And the Bishop and his officers shall give notice to the
Bailiff or authority of the secular Court that on such a
day at such an hour and in such a place (not inside a
church) he should come with his attendants to receive an
impenitent heretic whom they will deliver to him. And
let him make public proclamation in the usual places
that all should be present on such a day at such an hour
and place to hear a sermon preached on behalf of the
faith, and that the Bishop and his officer will hand
over a certain obstinate heretic to the secular Court.
On the
appointed day for the pronouncement of sentence the
Bishop and his officer shall be in the place aforesaid,
and the prisoner shall be placed on high before the
assembled clergy and people so that he may be seen by
all, and the secular authorities shall be present before
the prisoner. Then sentence shall be pronounced in the
following manner:
We, N., by
the mercy of God Bishop of such city, or Judge in the
territories of such Prince, seeing that you, N., of such
a place in such a Diocese, have been accused before us
of such heresy (naming it); and wishing to be more
certainly informed whether the charges made against you
were true, and whether you walked in darkness or in the
light; we proceeded to inform ourselves by diligently
examining the witnesses, by often summoning and
questioning you on oath, and admitting an Advocate to
plead in your defence, and by proceeding in every way as
we were bound by the canonical decrees.
And wishing
to conclude your trial in a manner beyond all doubt, we
convened in solemn council men learned in the
Theological faculty and in the Canon and Civil Laws. And
having diligently examined and discussed each
circumstance of the process and maturely and carefully
considered with the said learned men everything which
has been said and done in this present case, we find
that you, N., have been legally convicted of having been
infected with the sin of heresy for so long a time, and
that you have said an done such and such (naming them)
on account of which it manifestly appears that you are
legitimately convicted of the said heresy.
But since we
desired, and still desire, that you should confess the
truth and renounce the said heresy, and be led back to
the bosom of Holy Church and to the unity of the Holy
Faith, that so you should save your soul and escape the
destruction of both your body and soul in hell; we have
by our own efforts and those of others, and by delaying
your sentence for a long time, tried to induce you to
repent; but you being obstinately given over to
wickedness have scorned to agree to our wholesome
advice, and have persisted and do persist with stubborn
and defiant mind in your contumacious and dogged
denials; and this we say with grief, and grieve and
mourn in saying it. But since the Church of God has
waited so long for you to repent and acknowledge your
guilt, and you have refused and still refuse, her grace
and mercy can go no farther.
Wherefore
that you may be an example to others and that they may
be kept from all such heresies, and that such crimes may
not remain unpunished: We the Bishop and Judges named on
behalf of the faith, sitting in tribunal as Judges
judging, and having before us the Holy Gospels that our
judgement may proceed as from the countenance of God and
our eyes see with equity, and having before our eyes
only God and the glory and honour of the Holy Faith, we
judge, declare and pronounce sentence that you standing
here in our presence on this day at the hour and place
appointed for the hearing of your final sentence, are an
impenitent heretic, and as such to be delivered or
abandoned to secular justice; and as an obstinate and
impenitent heretic we have by this sentence cast you off
from the ecclesiastical Court and deliver and abandon
you to secular justice and the power of the secular
Court. And we pray that the said secular Court may
moderate its sentence of death upon you. this sentence
was given, etc.
The Bishop
and Judges may, moreover, arrange that just men zealous
for the faith, known to and in the confidence of the
secular Court, shall have access to the prisoner while
the secular Court is performing its office, in order to
console him and even yet induce him to confess the
truth, acknowledge his guilt, and renounce his errors.
But if it
should happen that after the sentence, and when the
prisoner is already at the place where he is to be
burned, he should say that he wishes to confess the
truth and acknowledge his guilt, and does so; and if he
should be willing to abjure that and every heresy;
although it may be presumed that he does this rather
from fear of death than for love of the truth, yet I
should be of the opinion that he may in mercy be
received as a penitent heretic and be imprisoned for
life. See the gloss on the chapters ad abolendam
and excommunicamus. Nevertheless, according to
the rigour of the law, the Judges ought not to place
much faith in a conversion of this sort; and
furthermore, they can always punish him on account of
the temporal injuries which he has committed.
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