Article I: On The Persons Constituting The Judgment

Three persons, the plaintiff, the defendant, and the judge, as we have said, are found in every judgment. Nevertheless it is not always required that the plaintiff, or accuser, be a distinct person; for the judge can, once a rumor has been heard concerning a perpetrated offense, call those who are said to have offended to his tribunal, inquire into the truth, and, this having been certainly ascertained, pronounce sentence: "not as though the same person were accuser and judge," says Innocent III,¹³ "but as if, report denouncing, or outcry bringing it forward, (the judge) executes the debt of his office."¹⁴