The 1st article regulated the manner in which the establishment of the Inquisition should be announced in the country where it was to be introduced.
The 2nd article commanded that an edict should be published, accompanied with censures against those who did not accuse themselves voluntarily during the term of grace.
By the 3rd, a delay of thirty days was appointed for heretics to declare themselves.
The 4th regulated that all voluntary confessions should be written in the presence of the inquisitors and a recorder.
The 5th, that absolution should not be given secretly to any individual voluntarily confessing, unless no person was acquainted with his crime.
The 6th ordained, that part of the penance of a _reconciled heretic_ should consist in being deprived of all honourable employments, and of the use of gold, silver, pearls, silk, and fine wool.
By the 7th article, pecuniary penalties were imposed on all who made a voluntary confession.
By the 8th, the person who accused himself after the term of grace could not be exempted from the punishment of confiscation.
The 9th article decreed, that if persons under twenty years of age accuse themselves after the term of grace, and it is proved that they were drawn into error by their parents, a slight punishment shall be inflicted.
The 10th obliged the inquisitors to declare, in their act of reconciliation, the exact time when the offender fell into heresy, that the portion of property to be confiscated might be ascertained.
The 11th article decreed, that if a heretic, detained in the prisons of the holy office, demanded absolution, and appeared to feel true repentance, that it might be granted to him, imposing, at the same time, perpetual imprisonment.
By the 12th, if the inquisitors thought the repentance of the prisoner was pretended, in the case indicated by the former article, they were permitted to refuse the absolution, to declare him a false penitent, and as such condemn him to be burnt.
By the 13th, if a man, absolved after his confession, should boast of having concealed several crimes, or if information should be obtained that he had committed more than he had confessed, he was to be arrested and judged as a false penitent.