t them in
prison. Imprisonment is a severe enough penalty, because it prevents
their dangerous propaganda:[1] _aut corrigendi sunt, ne pereant; aut,
ne perimant, coercendi_.[2] St. Bernard was always faithful to his
own teaching, as we learn from his mission in Languedoc.[3]

[1] _De Consideratione_, lib. iii, cap. i, n. 3.

[2] Ibid.; cf. Ep. 241 and 242. For more details, cf. Vacandard, _Vie
de Saint Bernard_, vol. ii, pp. 211-216, 461-462.

[3] Cf. Vacandard, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 217-234.

Having ascertained the views of individual churchmen, we now turn to
the councils of the period, and find them voicing the self-same
teaching. In 1049, the Council held at Rheims by Pope Leo IX declared
all heretics excommunicated, but said nothing of any temporal
penalty, nor did it empower the secular princes to aid in the
suppression of heresy.[1]

[1] Cf. Labbe, _Concilia_, vol. ix, col. 1042.

The Council of Toulouse in 1119, presided over by Calixtus II, and
the General Council of the Lateran, in 1139, were a little more
severe; they not only issued a solemn bull of excommunication against
heretics, but ordered the civil power to prosecute them: _per
potentates exteras coerceri praecipimus._[1] This order was,
undoubtedly an answer to St. Bernard's request of Louis VII to banish
Arnold from his kingdom. The only penalty referred to by both these
councils was imprisonment.

[1] Council of Toulouse, can. 3, Labbe, vol. x, col. 857; Council of
Lateran, can. 23, ibid., col. 1008.

The Council of Rheims in 1148, presided over by Eugenius III, did not
even speak of this penalty, but simply forbade secular princes to
give support or asylum to heretics.[1] We know, moreover, that at
this council Eon de l'Etoile was merely sentenced to the seclusion of
a monastery.

[1] Can. 18, Labbe, _Concilia_, vol. x, col. 1113.

In fact, the execution of heretics which occurred during the eleventh
and twelfth centuries were due to the impulse of the moment. As an
historian has remarked: "These heretics were not punished for a crime
against the law; for there was no legal crime of heresy and no
penalty prescribed. But the men of the day adopted what they
considered a measure of public safety, to put an end to a public
danger."[1]

[1] Julien Havet, _L'heresie et le bras seculier au moyen age_, in
his OEuvres, vol. ii, p. 134.

Far from encouraging the people and the princes in their attitude,
the Church through her bishops, teac