Title — Decretals of Gregory IX
Title XXIII: On the Offenses of Children
Chapter I
Latin source headnote: Minors below puberty can commit offenses apart from the vice of the flesh; nevertheless, they are punished more mildly than adults.
Gregory.
Certain persons are unwilling to attribute sin to older children before the age of fourteen, when they begin to reach puberty. We would deservedly believe this if there were no sins except those that are committed with the genital members. But who would dare to affirm that thefts, lies, and perjuries are not sins? Yet childhood is full of these, although in children they appear not to be punishable in the same manner as in adults.
DE DELICTIS PUERORUM.
Impuberes praeter vitium carnis delinquere possunt; puniuntur tamen mitius quam adulti. Gregorius.
Pueris grandiusculis peccatum nolunt attribuere quidam, nisi ab annis XIV., quum pubescere coeperint. Quod merito crederemus, si nulla essent peccata, nisi quae membris genitalibus admittuntur. Quis vero audeat affirmare, furta, mendacia et periuria non esse peccata? At his plena est puerilis aetas; quamvis in eis non ita, ut in maioribus, punienda videantur.
Chapter II
Latin source headnote: A boy ought not to be punished as severely as an adult, nor is a father held for the offense of his son below puberty.
Alexander III, to the Bishop of Hermon.
From the report of H., the bearer of the present letters, we understood that, when his son, who was ten years old, was shooting arrows with other boys, a certain nephew of the same H., struck by an arrow, died. The same son is said to have done this by an accidental event while he was playing among the others, although this is held uncertain. On account of this our beloved son, the Abbot of Saint Remigius, was urgently demanding one hundred solidi from the aforesaid H. according to the custom of that land. (And below:) Wherefore, because in boys that is customarily left unpunished which human laws say is to be corrected more severely in others of more advanced age, by apostolic writings and by way of precept we command your fraternity that you inquire more diligently into the matter itself, and, if it shall be established to you that the son of the aforesaid H. committed that offense before the fourteenth year of his age, you admonish the aforesaid abbot and, with appeal removed, by our authority compel him not to exact the aforesaid one hundred solidi from that H. on account of that custom, nor to seek them from him as a temporal penalty. But if the aforesaid abbot shall decide, after your admonition, to proceed against him concerning this, relying upon our authority you are to absolve Haide and his son from his proceeding, with the remedy of appeal removed.
Puer non debet ita severe puniri, sicut maior, nec pater ex delicto filii impuberis tenetur.
Alexander III. Hermonensi Episcopo.
Referente nobis H. latore praesentium intelleximus, quod, quum filius eius, qui decennis erat, cum aliis pueris sagittaret, quidam nepos eiusdem H. sagitta percussus interiit, quod idem filius eius, quum inter alios luderet, fortuito casu dicitur peregisse, licet id habeatur incertum. Propter quod dilectus filius noster abbas sancti Remigii a praefato H. secundum consuetudinem illius terrae centum solidos instantius requirebat. (Et infra:) Unde, quoniam in pueris relinqui solet inultum quod in aliis provectioris aetatis humanae leges dicunt severius corrigendum, fraternitati tuae per apostolica scripta praecipiendo mandamus, quatenus rem ipsam diligentius inquiras, et, si tibi constiterit, filium praedicti H. infra XIV. aetatis suae annum eundem excessum commisisse, memoratum abbatem moneas et auctoritate nostra appellatione remota compellas, ut ab eodem H. praedictos centum solidos propter illam consuetudinem non exigat, nec ab ipso pro temporali poena requirat. Quodsi praenominatus abbas eum super hoc post commonitionem tuam duxerit impetendum, tu Haide et filium suum ab eius impetitvione sublato appellationis remedio auctoritate nostra fretus absolvas.