7. ACCUSED PERSONS ESCAPED.--If an accused person flee from the court, or escape from prison, he is publicly cited in the cathedral, in the parish church, and in his own house, and the temporal lord is required to arrest him: if this fail, he is excommunicated; and, if taken, he is whipped and proceeded against with increased severity. 8. THE PROCESS TERMINATED.--Sentences are pronounced according to the decisions of the inquisitors. Those declared innocent are absolved; and those suspected are subjected to abjuration, purgation, fines, or banishment. When the prisoner is defamed for heresy, but not found guilty by legal evidence or his own confession, he is required to submit to canonical purgation, in severe penances imposed by the bishop. Those of high reputation among the people--as bishops, priests, and preachers--are mostly enjoined some purgation: and those who are condemned, are declared to have been heretics or apostates, and to have incurred the penalties according to law; his effects are confiscated; his opinions and writings are condemned; and he is deprived of all ecclesiastical or public offices and honours, while he is delivered over to the secular power to be punished. If he persist in his opinions, sentence is immediately pronounced, and he is committed to officers to be burnt. The greatest severity is exercised against the Lutherans, as they are regarded as the most decided enemies of the papacy. 9. ABJURATION OF A PENITENT.--A heretic, against whom an information has been laid, confessing his heresy to the bishop or inquisitor, promising to return to the bosom of the church, abjuring all heresy, is not delivered to the secular power, but punished by the inquisitors. He is compelled to abjure publicly, before all the people in the church; where he is required to place his hands on the book of the Gospels, with his head uncovered, and, falling on his knees, to read a form of solemn abjuration, or to repeat it while it is read by the notary. When this is done, he is absolved from excommunication, on condition of his returning, with a true heart and sincere faith, to observe all the commands of the Catholic church; but if he do not observe them, he forfeits the benefits of his absolution. In this manner abjuration is enjoined upon all who return from heresy, even boys of fourteen and girls of twelve years of age are not excused, especially persons of dignity and rank as priests; and doctors, whom they call _dogmatists_, _dogmatisers_, and _arch-heretics_.