The penalty must be equal to the crime.

Since the penalty must be equal to the crime, the ecclesiastical judges shall use the utmost caution, so that when punishing crimes, they shall take into consideration the place, the person, the time and all other circumstances of the misdemeanours, and determine the seriousness of the punishment by the rule of equity.

The same crime must not be punished twice.

It is not fair that the same crime should be punished twice. Therefore, those who have paid the penalty for their sin once, according to these our laws, must not be called back for punishment by any ecclesiastical judge, by whatever name he may be called, unless perchance he has fallen into the same licence of sinning, for then fresh guilt demands a fresh penalty.

How clergy are to be punished.

If those who are of the ecclesiastical order, who are commonly called clergy, themselves confess their crimes, or if they are lawfully convicted of them, we grant their own judges the power to consign them to temporary or life imprisonment, at their discretion, after they have examined all the circumstances of persons and causes.

No age is to be exempt.

Immunity from prosecution is not to be granted on account of age, if a person is of an age at which the crime in question can be committed.

Poena debet auctorem sequi.

Poena semper auctorem sequatur, et in ilio terminetur, ut non ulterius progrediatur metus quam inveniatur delictum.

Iudices in veneratione esse debere.

Quicunque iudicum dignitatem sermone, facto, vel actione violat, aut quicunque de illorum aestimatione decerpit, ipsorum iudicum arbitratu contumaciae poenas et impudentiae dent﹛ae﹜.

Gravidis feminis parcendum ad tempus.

Gravidarum mulierum uteris parci volumus, qui donee subsidant, nec grave supplicium ab illis sumatur, nec ad tribunal ita pertrahantur, ut ullum ex eo foetui periculum creari possit.

Ubi legitima deest, ibi sit arbitraria poena.

Si quorum huiusmodi peccata fuerint, ut his legibus nostris certae poenae non constituantur, arbitratu iudicis supplicium ab illis sumatur.

Poena minui potius quam augeri debet.

Interpretatio legum poenas minuere debet potius quam augere, benignissimam ut etiam in hac re iuris civilis regulam sequamur, quae dubiis in causis clementiorem sententiam eligit.