 It was hoped that heretics would see the falsity of their opinion and would return to the Roman Catholic Church.If they persisted in their heresy, however, Pope Gregory, finding it necessary to protect the Catholic community from infection, would have suspects handed over to civil authorities, since public heresy was a crime under civil law as well as Church law.The secular authorities would apply their own brands of punishment for civil disobedience which, at the time, included burning at the stake.