Only a small percentage of convicted heretics were executed, probably around ten percent or less. The inqusitor's goal was not primarily to punish the guilty but to identify them, get them to confess their sins and repent, and restore them to the fold. The majority of defendents were given one of two sentences. No sentence was considered irrevocable, though. Inquisitors regularly added the warning that he or his successor could increase, diminish or entirely cancel it at his discretion.
Extant records show that they often did diminish the sentence after a period of time.
That brings us to a word about those extant records. The trial records included here are what we call verbal processes, records of the interrogations made by a notary. These and the sentences pronounced at the end of the inquiry provide us with much of what we know about inquisitorial procedure. The ones translated here are from investigations that took place in the 1320s. They come to us in neat packages which include the sentences and other helpful information.