"Their courage," he replies, "arose from mere stubbornness; the devil inspired them with this constancy you speak of, just as he prompted Judas to hang himself. These heretics are not real but counterfeit martyrs (_perfidiæ martyres_). But while I may approve the zeal of the people for the faith, I cannot at all approve their excessive cruelty; for faith is a matter of persuasion, not of force: _fides suadenda est, non imponenda_."[1] [1] In Cantica, Sermo lxiv, n. 12. On principle, the Abbot of Clairvaux blames the bishops and even the secular princes, who through indifference or less worthy reasons fail to hunt for the foxes who are ravaging the vineyards of the Savior. But once the guilty ones have been discovered, he declares that only kindness should be used to win them back. "Let us capture them by arguments and not by force,"[1] i.e., let us first refute their errors, and if possible bring them back into the fold of the Catholic Church. [1] Ibid., n. 8. If they stubbornly refuse to be converted, let the bishop excommunicate them, to prevent their doing further injury; if occasion require it, let the civil power arrest them and put them in prison. Imprisonment is a severe enough penalty, because it prevents their dangerous propaganda:[1] _aut corrigendi sunt, ne pereant; aut, ne perimant, coercendi_.[2] St. Bernard was always faithful to his own teaching, as we learn from his mission in Languedoc.[3] [1] _De Consideratione_, lib. iii, cap. i, n. 3. [2] Ibid.; cf. Ep. 241 and 242. For more details, cf. Vacandard, _Vie de Saint Bernard_, vol. ii, pp. 211-216, 461-462. [3] Cf. Vacandard, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 217-234. Having ascertained the views of individual churchmen, we now turn to the councils of the period, and find them voicing the self-same teaching. In 1049, the Council held at Rheims by Pope Leo IX declared all heretics excommunicated, but said nothing of any temporal penalty, nor did it empower the secular princes to aid in the suppression of heresy.[1] [1] Cf. Labbe, _Concilia_, vol. ix, col. 1042. The Council of Toulouse in 1119, presided over by Calixtus II, and the General Council of the Lateran, in 1139, were a little more severe; they not only issued a solemn bull of excommunication against heretics, but ordered the civil power to prosecute them: _per potentates exteras coerceri præcipimus._[1] This order was, undoubtedly an answer to St. Bernard's request of Louis VII to banish Arnold from his kingdom. The only penalty referred to by both these councils was imprisonment. [1] Council of Toulouse, can. 3, Labbe, vol. x, col. 857; Council of Lateran, can. 23, ibid., col. 1008. The Council of Rheims in 1148, presided over by Eugenius III, did not even speak of this penalty, but simply forbade secular princes to give support or asylum to heretics.[1] We know, moreover, that at this council Éon de l'Etoile was merely sentenced to the seclusion of a monastery. [1] Can. 18, Labbe, _Concilia_, vol. x, col. 1113.