Note 1354 — Chapter XVIII · REPRESSIVE SECULAR LEGISLATION.

Leges quæ a quibusdam simplicibus sunt dictæ paribiles ... præsentis nostri nominis sanctionis edicto in perpetuum inhibentes omnibus regni nostri judicibus, ut nullus ipsas leges paribiles, quæ absconsæ a veritate deberent potius nuncupari, aliquibus fidelibus nostris indicet.... Eorum etinim sensum non tam corrigendum duximus quam ridendum, qui naturalem candentis ferri calorem tepescere, imo (quod est stultius) frigescere, nulla justa causa superveniente, confidunt; aut qui reum criminis constitutum, ob conscientiam læsam tantum asserunt ab aquæ frigidæ elemento non recipi, quem submergi potius aeris competentis retentio non permittit.—Constit. Sicular. Lib. II. Tit. 31. This last clause would seem to allude to some artifice of the operators by which the accused was prevented from sinking in the cold-water ordeal when a conviction was desired.

This common sense view of the miracles so generally believed is the more significant as coming from Frederic, who, a few years previously, was ferociously vindicating with fire and sword the sanctity of the Holy Seamless Coat against the aspersions of unbelieving heretics. See his Constitutions of 1221 in Goldastus, Const. Imp. I. 293-4.