He incites Bruno to a just zeal for the punishment of crime.
The duty of your office, and the injunction of the Holy See, lay upon you a double obligation to punish a crime so enormous. Yet I think it not superfluous that the admonition of a friend should be added in a matter of such importance. I wish the one whom I regard as father and friend to be admonished of this, to punish in every case that requires it, and with a due degree of severity; so that you should not only visit an offence that is before you with a just chastisement, but should also restrain the hearer from rashly imitating it.
Horrendum punire nefas, etsi duplici ratione incumbat vobis, tum videlicet pro debito officii, tum quia et apostolica injungit auctoritas; puto tamen quod non supervacua in re tanta etiam amici commonitio accedit. Hoc autem est quod amicum et patrem cupimus esse admonitum, ut haec ipsa ultio quae facienda est, eo quoque zelo quo facienda est, fiat: quatenus non solum praesens facinus mulctum esse videatur, sed etiam a simili temeritate audiens omnis malignitas compescatur.
