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SUMMARY Clerics may neither
pronounce nor execute a sentence of death. Nor may they act as judges in
extreme criminal cases, or take pa in matters connected with judicial tests and
ordeals.
Text. No cleric may
pronounce a sentence of death, or execute such a sentence, or be present at its
execution. If anyone in consequence of this prohibition (hujusmodi occasions
statuti) should presume to inflict damage on churches or injury on
ecclesiastical persons, let him be restrained by ecclesiastical censure. Nor
may any cleric write or dictate letters destined for the execution of such a
sentence. Wherefore, in the chanceries of the princes let this matter be
committed to laymen and not to clerics. Neither may a cleric act as judge in
the case of the Rotarrii, archers, or other men of this kind devoted to the
shedding of blood. No subdeacon, deacon, or priest shall practice that part of
surgery involving burning and cutting. Neither shall anyone in judicial tests
or ordeals by hot or cold water or hot iron bestow any blessing; the earlier
prohibitions in regard to dueling remain in force.
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