Laws Against Heretics
WHERE persons are believed to be heretics, they shall be accused before the spiritual court, for they should in the first place be tried by ecclesiastics. When they are convicted they shall be taken in hand by the secular court, which shall sentence them as is right; that is to say, they shall be burned at the stake. If, however, the judge protects them, or makes any illegal concessions and does not sentence them, he shall be excommunicated, and that in the most severe form. This shall be done by a bishop. The delinquent judge shall, moreover, be judged by his superior temporal judge, if he have one, as he himself should have judged the heretic. In case a feudal prince does not bring heretics to judgment, but protects them, the ecclesiastical court shall excommunicate him. If such prince does not yield within the space of a year, his bishop, who excommunicated him, shall report his evil deeds to the pope and the length of time he has remained excommunicated for the same. Then shall he [the pope] with propriety deprive him of his princely office and of all his dignities. The pope shall bring his sentence to the notice of his king and his other judges. These shall substantiate the sentence of the pope with their sentence. The offender shall be deprived of all his goods, his fiefs and all his worldly honors. Thus shall lords and poor men be judged. The fitness of this is thus shown. There was once a pope at Rome called Zacharias. In his time there was a king of France called Lescandus who protected the heretics unlawfully. He was king before King Pippin, King Charles' father. Him the pope deposed from his kingship and from all his honors, and Pippin became king in his stead during his natural life. We read, too, that Pope Innocent deposed King Otto of the Roman Empire on account of his ill deeds. This the popes have a right to do, as God spake to Jeremiah, saying, "I have set thee over all the nations and over all the kingdoms to judge."