"We most explicitly forbid all our subjects of whatever quality and condition they
may be, from blaspheming, swearing and abominating the holy name of God, or uttering any
words against the honour of the very holy Virgin, His mother, and the saints;
we wish, and it pleases us, that all those who are found guilty of having sworn and
blasphemed the name of God, and His very holy mother and the saints, be condemned the
first time to a fine according to their means, the size and enormity of the oath or
blasphemy, two thirds of the fine to go to the hospitals of the place and, if there are
none, to the church and the other third to those who reported them;
and if those who were thus punished repeat the said oaths they will be for a second
third and fourth time condemned to a double, triple and quadruple fine, and for the fifth
time will be put in an iron collar on feast days, Sundays or any other and will stay there
from eight o'clock in the morning until one o'clock in the afternoon, subjected to any
insults and disgrace and in addition be sentenced to a large fine; and, for the sixth
time, will be led to the pillory and there have their upper lip cut off with a hot iron
and, the seventh time will be led to the pillory and have their lower lip cut off;
and if by obstinacy and inveterate bad habit they continue after all these punishments
to utter oaths and blasphemies, we wish and order that they have their tongue cut out, so
that they may no longer utter them;
and in the case of those found guilty who do not have the means to pay the said fines,
they will go to prison for one month or longer on bread and water if the judges find it
more appropriate depending on the quality and enormity of the said blasphemies;
and so that we may know who those are that repeat the said blasphemies, a special
register will be kept of those who have been caught and sentenced. We wish that all those
who have heard the said blasphemies report this to the judges of the place within the
following twenty-four hours, on pain of a fine of sixty Paris pence and more if they fail
to do so. We declare, nevertheless, that we do not include enormous blasphemies, which
according to theology belong to a sort of infidelity and disparage the goodness and
greatness of God and His other attributes;
we wish that the said crimes be punished with greater penalties than those mentioned
above, at the judges' discretion according to their enormity."
