Note 200 — Chapter V · PERSECUTION.
Reading edition
Post. Const. 4, Cod. Lib. I. Tit. v.—Post. Libb. Feudorum.—Lib. Juris Civilis Veronæ c. 156.—Schwabenspiegel, Ed. Senckenb. cap. 351; Ed. Schilteri c. 308.—Potthast Regesta No. 6593.—Innoc. PP. IV. Bull. Cum adversus, 5 Jun. 1252; Bull. Ad aures, 2 Apr. 1253; 31 Oct. 1243; 7 Julii 1254.—Bull. Cum fratres, Maii 9 1252.—Urbani. IV. Bull. Licet ex omnibus, 1262 § 12.—Wadding Annal. Minor ann. 1258, No. 7; ann. 1260, No. 1; ann. 1261, No. 3.—c. 6 Sexto v. 2 c. 1, 2 in Septimo v. 3.—Von der Hardt, T. IV. p. 1519.—Campana, Vita di San Piero Martire, p. 124.—De Maistre, Lettres à un Gentilhomme Russe sur l’Inquisition Espagnole, Ed. 1864, pp. 17-18, 28, 34.
A thirteenth-century writer argued the matter more directly than De Maistre—“Papa noster non occidit, nec præcipit aliquem occidi, sed lex occidit quos papa permittit occidi, et ipsi se occidunt qui ea faciunt unde debeant occidi.”—Gregor. Fanens. Disput. Cathol. et Patar. (Martene Thesaur. V. 1741).
More historically true is the assertion of an enthusiastic Dominican in 1782, who, after quoting Deut. XIII. 6-10, declares that its command to slay without mercy all who entice the faithful from the true religion is almost literally the law of the holy Inquisition; and who proceeds to prove from Scripture that fire is the peculiar delight of God, and the proper means of purifying the wheat from the tares.—Lob u. Ehrenrede auf die heilige Inquisition, Wien, 1782, pp. 19-21.
The hypocritical plea for mercy was commenced in good faith by Innocent III. in the case of clerks guilty of forgery who were degraded and delivered to the secular courts.—c. 27 Extra v. 40.