Book contents
Question 23
from PART III
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2015
Summary
METHOD Four of bringing to an end and finishing proceedings involving the Faith is when the person denounced for heresy,| after a careful examination of the merits of the proceedings with a good panel of legal experts, is found to be only lightly suspected of heresy. This is when the person denounced for heresy is not caught by his own confession or by evidence of the deed or by the lawful production of witnesses, and there are otherwise no strong (vehement) indications against him regarding that form of heresy but ones judged by the panel to be only moderate and light and such that because of them he should, as someone lightly suspected of heresy, abjure as such a person the heresy for which he has been denounced. If such a person relapses, he is not punished with the penalty appropriate for the relapsed, although he would in that case have to be punished more severely than would be the case if he had not previously made the abjuration according to the beginning of Chapter “Accusatus” (Liber Sextus, “Heretics”).
Concerning such a person the following procedure is to be followed. If he is publicly considered suspect, he will make the abjuration publicly in a church in the following manner. “I, Such-and-Such, of Such-and-Such diocese, inhabitant of Suchand-Such city (or place), have been placed in judgment before you, the Lord Bishop of Such-and-Such city, and touching with my own hands the Sacrosanct Gospels that have been set before me, I swear that I believe in heart and profess by mouth the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Faith | that the Sacrosanct Roman Church believes, confesses, preaches and follows.
“Also, I swear that I believe in heart and profess by mouth that the Lord Jesus Christ, along with all the Saints, abhors the most wretched Heresy of Sorceresses, and that all those who follow or adhere to it will be tormented with eternal flames along with the Devil and his angels, unless they come to their senses and are reconciled to the Holy Church through penance.
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- The Hammer of WitchesA Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum, pp. 587 - 590Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009