by the ecclesiastical judge; for the next offence he should be
punished by excommunication, and for the next by anathema; then, since
the Church could do no more, for any subsequent offence he might be
handed over to the secular power to be punished by exile or in any
other lawful manner. This, of course, was a direct licence to the
ill-disposed clergy to commit more crimes than were allowable for a
layman; but the laity had to proceed cautiously in opposing it. In
1219 Philip II of France demanded that a clerk who had been degraded
should not be protected by the Church from seizure outside
ecclesiastical precincts by the royal officers with a view to his
trial in a secular court. But here again, both at his coronation as
Emperor in 1220 and again in the code of laws drawn up for his kingdom
of Sicily in 1231, Frederick II confirmed the privileges of the Church
in the matter of jurisdiction. On the latter occasion, however, he did
reserve cases of high treason for the royal court. Almost the only
immediate effect of these protests on the part of the State was that
Popes and Councils enjoined on the ecclesiastical courts greater
severity of treatment of offenders, even to the extent of perpetual
imprisonment in the case of those whom the lay tribunals would have
condemned to death.

[Sidenote: Increase of ecclesiastical jurisdiction.]

But this exclusive jurisdiction in all matters that concerned her own
members was only a part of the authority claimed and exercised by the
Church in the sphere of justice. Synods of the clergy did not hesitate
to take part in the enforcement of civil law and order, and threatened
with severe ecclesiastical penalties all who did not observe the Truce
of God, or who were guilty of piracy, incendiarism, or false coining.
At one time they attempted thus to suppress usury and trial by ordeal,