Pope Lucius III, Ad Abolendam, 6
Written by Pope Lucius III, in 1184 CE. Reproduced verbatim in the Fourth Lateran Council, Constitution 3 in 1215 CE. The text reported here is based on that of the Lateran Council. translation by Norman Tanner.
Source: Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, ed. Norman
P. Tanner
We add further that each archbishop or bishop, either in person or
through his archdeacon or through suitable honest persons, should visit
twice or at least once in the year any parish of his in which heretics
are said to live. There he should compel three or more men of good
repute, or even if it seems expedient the whole neighbourhood, to swear
that if anyone knows of heretics there or of any persons who hold secret
conventicles or who differ in their life and habits from the normal way
of living of the faithful, then he will take care to point them out to
the bishop. The bishop himself should summon the accused to his
presence, and they should be punished canonically if they are unable to
clear themselves of the charge or if after compurgation they relapse
into their former errors of faith. If however any of them with damnable
obstinacy refuse to honour an oath and so will not take it, let them by
this very fact be regarded as heretics.
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