La Procédure de répression de l'hérésie en Occident au Moyen-Âge
Authors: Duvernoy Jean 
Published: June 2024

Investigatory proceedings against those accused of heresy in northern Europe all cases decided by ordeal, up to the year 1204.

At that date many Cathars were burnt to death in Braine, (Aisne department). This procedure made sacred by the chuch up to the Lateran Council of 1215, was the normal procedure of common law. It was also the procedure that prevailed in the south of France. After the submission of the Count of Toulouse in 1229, the council held in Toulouse during the same year paid particular attention to what concerned the denunciation of heretics, either «perfects» or their abettors, of whom was also expected submission that fell into line with the forms of public penitence in use. But the accused, however, claimed the rigth «to defend themselves lawfully», (G. de Puylaurens : «Chroniques».), meaning : with proceedings called «procédure civile accusatoire», and which was put into use thereafter, in all countries that adopted the system of written law. Their claim was accepted with an exception regarding the right to know the identities of those who witnessed against them. The first manual of procedures (about 1248) could declare : Nulli negamus defensiones legitimas, neque a juris ordine deviamus, nisi quod testium non publicamus nomina. This rule was withdrawn when the last well-known case was held (in 1337) where the Inquisitor general of Pope Benoît XII in Avignon «published» the testimony, according to the rights of common law.

In the meantime, inquisitorial procedure took up the formulary of common law, and more particularly the summary procedure of arbitration, (so dear to the monasteries), such as may be found in local cartularies like those of Prouille or Boulbonne.

What were common to both types of procedure were : the formulae that characterised the summary aspect of the cases : de piano et sine strepitu judicii (or judiciali). The consultations of authorities or experts : communicato consilio peritorum (or bonorum virorum). Consultations that really did take place, and of which we have 14 century reports (registers preserved in the «Doat collection», kept in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris) ; the renunciation of the right to prolong proceedings, their conclusion and the right of the accused to know what sentence was passed : renunciavit et conclusit et sententiam cum instantia postulavit. The renunciation of condemnation by default : earum (partium) absentia Dei presentia supliente ; redundancy regarding the sentence : Sedentes pro tribunali, sacrosanctis Evangeliis coram nobis positis, ut nostrum de vultu Dei prodeat judicium, etc.

We hold records of advocates being appointed during the 14 th century, in spite of Bernard Gui's saying the contrary in his «manual». These features had very little influence over the lot that was dealt to the victims of the institution, but they denote the pressure given by the encompassing juridisme ; and they had the merit of bringing the inquisitors to leave proofs of processes that were explicit and intellectually honest, (for the best use of historians, later on), a practice that was not recurrent during the centuries that followed.

(Trad. G. M.)