ABSTRACT
CONSEQUENTLY threats of this sort are brought by divine law against the sacrilegious and other persecutors of the Church, and if they will not desist from their wicked intentions and abominable schemes or restore what they have carried off because they are not punished there and then, they will undoubtedly be compelled to discover that their dominion cannot remain standing through such acts of violence, nor endure any longer after the patience of their subjects has been scorned. For even if the oppressed cannot obtain a just sentence and its execution before any earthly judge, who is perhaps sullied with the same crime, or a still fouler one, yet when their cry reaches up to heaven their entreaties are multiplied, with the result that the oppressor is punished all the more severely. Meanwhile the more hateful everyone considers the king or prince, the more wretched he is recognized to be, and no one tells him of any danger he must guard against.
