bo. The Pope himself went to these cities
to combat the evil, and at once saw the necessity of enacting special
laws against them. They may be read in his letters of March 25, 1199,
and September 22, 1207, which form a special code for the use of the
princes and the podesta. Heretics were to be branded with infamy;
they were forbidden to be electors, to hold public office, to be
members of the city councils, to appear in court or testify, to make
a will or to receive an inheritance; if officials, all their acts
were declared null and void; and finally their property was to be
confiscated.

"In the territories subject to our temporal jurisdiction," adds the
Pope, "we declare their property confiscated; in other places we
order the podesta and the secular princes to do the same, and we
desire and command this law enforced under penalty of ecclesiastical
censures."[1]

[1] Letter of March 25, 1199, to the magistrates and people of
Viterbo; constitution of September 23, 1207, Ep. x, 130.

We are not at all surprised at such drastic measures, when we
consider the agreement made by Lucius III with Frederic Barbarossa,
at Verona. But we wish to call attention to the reasons that Innocent
III adduced to justify his severity, on account of the serious
consequences they entailed. "The civil law," says the Pope, "punishes
traitors with confiscation of their property and death; it is only
out of kindness that the lives of their children are spared. All the
more then should we excommunicate and confiscate the property of
those who are traitors to the faith of Jesus Christ; for it is an
infinitely greater sin to offend the Divine Majesty than to attack
the majesty of the sovereign."[1]

[1] Letter of March 25, 1199, to the magistrates of Viterbo, Ep. ii,
1.

Whether this comparison be justified or not, it is certainly most
striking. Later on Frederic II and others will quote it to justify
their severity.

The Lateran Council in 1215 made the laws of Innocent III canons of
the universal Church; it declared all heretics excommunicated, and
delivered them over to the State to receive due punishment. This
_animadversio debita_ entailed banishment with all its consequences
and confiscation. The council also legislated against the abettors of
heresy, even if they were princes, and ordered the despoiling of all
rulers who neglected to enforce the ecclesiastical law in their
domains.[1]

[1] Labbe, _Concilia_, vol. xi, col. 148-15