ot to
be put to death, unless they attack the Church in armed rebellion."
For the Apostle said, "A man that is a heretic, after the first and
second admonition, avoid;" he did not say: "Kill him." "Imprison
heretics if you will, but do not put them to death."[1]

[1] _Verbum abbreviatum_, cap. lxxviii, Migne, P.L., vol. ccv, col.
231.

Geroch of Reichersberg, a famous German of the same period, a
disciple and friend of St. Bernard, speaks in a similar strain of the
execution of Arnold of Brescia. He was most anxious that the Church,
and especially the Roman curia, should not be held responsible for
his death. "The priesthood," he says, "ought to refrain from the
shedding of blood." There is no doubt whatever that this heretic
taught a wicked doctrine, but banishment, imprisonment, or some
similar penalty would leave been ample punishment for his
wrong-doing, without sentencing him to death.

St. Bernard had also asked that Arnold be banished. The execution of
heretics at Cologne gave him a chance to state his views on the
suppression of heresy. The courage with which these fanatics met
death rather disconcerted Evervin, the provost of Steinfeld, who
wrote the Abbot of Clairvaux for an explanation.[1]

[1] Evervin's letter in Migne, P.L., vol. clxxxii, col. 676 and seq.

"Their courage," he replies, "arose from mere stubbornness; the devil
inspired them with this constancy you speak of, just as he prompted
Judas to hang himself. These heretics are not real but counterfeit
martyrs (_perfidiae martyres_). But while I may approve the zeal of
the people for the faith, I cannot at all approve their excessive
cruelty; for faith is a matter of persuasion, not of force: _fides
suadenda est, non imponenda_."[1]

[1] In Cantica, Sermo lxiv, n. 12.

On principle, the Abbot of Clairvaux blames the bishops and even the
secular princes, who through indifference or less worthy reasons fail
to hunt for the foxes who are ravaging the vineyards of the Savior.
But once the guilty ones have been discovered, he declares that only
kindness should be used to win them back. "Let us capture them by
arguments and not by force,"[1] i.e., let us first refute their
errors, and if possible bring them back into the fold of the Catholic
Church.

[1] Ibid., n. 8.

If they stubbornly refuse to be converted, let the bishop
excommunicate them, to prevent their doing further injury; if
occasion require it, let the civil power arrest them and pu