Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/365

 THE MEDIiEVAL CODES. 349 cused must be legitimately proved guilty and be properly con- demned. If, however, inquisitors presented themselves to obtain this recognition of their powers, they have left no visible traces of the results of their activity.^ In the codes which embody the customs current in mediaeval Germany there is no recognition whatever of the existence of such a body as the Inquisition. The Sachsenspiegel, which contains the municipal law of the northern provinces, provides, it is true, the punishment of burning for those convicted of unbelief, poison- ing, or sorcery, but says nothing as to the manner of trial ; and the rule enunciated that no houses shall be destroyed except when rape is committed in them, or a violated woman is carried into them, shows that the demohtion of the residences and refuges of heretics was unknown within its jurisdiction. The code through- out is singularly disregardful of ecclesiastical pretensions, and richly earned the papal anathema bestowed upon it when its prac- tical working happened to attract the attention of the Eoman curia, f The Schwabenspiegel, or code in force in southern Germany, is much more complaisant to the Church, but it knows of no juris- diction over heretics save that of the bishops. It admits that an emperor rendering himself suspect in the faith can be put under ban by the pope. It provides death by fire for the heretic. It di- rects that when heretics are known to exist, the ecclesiastical €ourts shaU inquire about them and proceed against them. If convicted, the secular judge shall seize them and doom them ac- cording to law. If he neglects or refuses he is to be excommuni- cated by the bishop, and his suzerain shaU inflict on him the pen- alty of heresy. If a secular prince does not punish heresy he is to be excommunicated by the episcopal court ; if he remains under the censure for a year the bishop is to report him to the pope, who shall deprive him of his rank and honors, and the emperor is I. pp. 148-9, Lipsiae, 1806. t Sachsenspiegel, 11. xiii., iii. i.— Raynald. ann. 1374, No. 12. The papal condemnation was probably elicited by a passage in the Sachsen- spiegel (II. 3) declaring that the pope could not issue decretals in prejudice of the local laws and constitutions. The Saxon legists were in no wise disconcerted tmd proceeded to reassert and prove their position (Richstich Landreclit 11 'M)'
 * Concil. Mogunt. ann. 1261 c. 1 (Hartzheim III. 596).-Cod. Epist. Rodolph