Documenta / Concilia Hispaniae

Si quis vero maleficio interficiat alterum, eo quod sine Idololatria perficere scelus non potuit, nec in finem impertiendam esse illi [ U., G., ei ] commu- nionem.

If anyone kills another by sorcery, since he could not have accomplished the crime without idolatry, communion is not to be given to him even at the end.

Si quis paganorum consuetudinem sequens divinos et sortilegos in domo sua introduxerit, quasi ut ma- lum foras mittant aut maleficia inveniant vel lustra- tiones paganorum faciant, quinque annis poeniten- tiam agat.

If anyone, following the custom of the pagans, brings diviners and lot-casters into his house, as if to drive out evil or to discover sorceries, or to perform the purifications of the pagans, he is to do penance for five years.

XIV. Hoc itaque propter ampliandam fidei catho- licae disciplinam elegimus finiendum vel tenendum, ut si qui viri ac mulieres divinatores, quos dicunt esse caragios atque sorticularios, in cujuscunque domo Gothi, Romani, Syri, Graeci vel Judaei, fuerint inventi, aut qui ausus fuerit amodo in eorum vana carmina interrogare et non publice hoc voluerit an- nuntiare, pro hoc quod praesumpsit non solum ab Ecclesia suspendatur, sed etiam sex auri un(??)ad co- (??) civitatis inderat. I(??)ti vero qui tali iniquitate re- pleti sunt et sortes et divinationes faciunt et populum praevaricando seducunt, ubi inventi vel inventae fue- rint, seu liberi, seu servi, vel ancillae sint, gravissime publice fustigentur et venundentur, et pretia ipsorum pauperibus erogentur.

XIV. This, then, for the strengthening of the discipline of the Catholic faith, we have chosen to define and to hold: that if any men and women who are diviners, whom they call caragii [charm-makers] and sorticularii [lot-casters], are found in the house of anyone, whether Goth, Roman, Syrian, Greek or Jew, or [if anyone] dares from now on to consult their empty spells and is not willing to make this known publicly, for what he has presumed he is not only to be suspended from the Church but is also to pay six [ounces] of gold [to the count] of the city. But those who are filled with such iniquity, and cast lots and make divinations, and lead the people astray by their transgression, wherever they are found, men or women, whether they are free or slaves or slave-women, are to be most severely beaten in public and sold, and the price paid for them given to the poor.

Si regalis pietas pro salute hominum suarum le- gum dignata est ponere decreta, cur religio sancta per sancti concilii ordinem non habeat instituta quae omnino debent esse cavenda? Ideoque placuit huic sancto concilio, ut omnis potestas episcopalis mo- dum suae ponat irae, nec pro quolibet excessu cuili- bet ex familia Ecclesiae aliquod corporis membrorum sua ordinatione praesumat exstirpare aut auferre. Quod si talis emerserit culpa, advocato judice c vita- tis ad examen ejus deducatur quod factum fuisse asseritur. Et quia omnino justum est ut pontifex saevissimam non impendat vindictam, quidquid co- ram judice verius patuerit per disciplinae severita- tem absque turpi decalvatione maneat emendatum, et ab episcopo suo aut donatus fidelibus suis maneat qui malum aliquod, quod leges graviter damnant admisit, aut abjiciendi eum episcopus si voluerit licentiam habebit. Similiter et quia comperimus aliquos presbyteros, aegritudine accedente, familiae Ecclesiae suae crimen imponere, dicentes ex ea homi- nes aliquos maleficium sibi fecisse eosque sua po- testate torquere et per multam impietatem detri- mentare, et hoc emendari placuit per rectitudinem hujus sententiae. Instituentes igitur decernimus, ut si presbyter talia pati se dixerit, ad aures hoc sui perducat episcopi : ipse autem datis bonis homini- bus ex latere suo 674 judicem hoc jubeat quaerere, et si sceleris hujus causa fuerit inventa, ad cognitio- nem episcopi hoc reducant, et processa ex ore ejus sententia ita malum exstirpatum maneat, ne hoc quisquam alius facere praesumat. Si quis sententia hujus ordinem non observaverit, excommunica- tionis sententia feriendus erit et a clero abji- ciendus.

If royal piety has deigned to lay down the decrees of its laws for the welfare of men, why should holy religion not have, through the order of a holy council, ordinances [concerning things] that ought altogether to be guarded against? Therefore this holy council has decided that every episcopal authority is to set a limit to its anger, and is not to presume, for any offence whatever, to tear out or cut off by its own order any member of the body from anyone of the Church's household. If such a fault arises, the judge of the city is to be called in, and what is alleged to have been done is to be brought before him for examination. And since it is altogether just that a bishop should not inflict the harshest punishment, whatever is shown before the judge to be the truth is to be corrected through the severity of discipline, without shameful decalvatio [shaving or scalping of the head]; and the one who has committed some wrong that the laws gravely condemn is either to remain, given by his bishop to his faithful men, or the bishop shall have leave to cast him off, if he wishes. Likewise, since we have learned that some priests, when illness comes upon them, lay a charge against the household of their church, saying that some people from it have worked sorcery on them, and that they torture them on their own authority and harm them with great cruelty, it has been decided that this too be corrected by the rightness of this ruling. Establishing this, therefore, we decree that if a priest says he is suffering such things, he is to bring it to the ears of his bishop; and the bishop, assigning good men from his own side, is to order the judge to inquire into it; and if a case of this crime is found, they are to refer it back to the bishop for his judgement, and once sentence has gone forth from his mouth, the evil is to be so rooted out that no one else presumes to do it. If anyone does not observe the order of this ruling, he is to be struck with the sentence of excommunication and cast out of the clergy.