To emphasise the serioussness of the offence, the conciliar fathers make allusion to the secular law, most probably to the Code of Theodosius IX, 17 (De sepulchri violati), that punishes the violation of tombs by death. Clerics, however, were not to supposed to be judged according to the secular law (see Constitutio Sirmondiana 6: "Clericos etiam, quos indiscretim ad saeculares iudices debere deduci infaustus praesumptor edixerat, episcopali audientiae reservamus, his manentibus, quae circa eos sanxit antiquitas."), but they will receive the more lenient punishment prescribed by the canon law.
We do not know whether the demolition of tombs was in any way linked with functions exercised by clerics, e.g. they did it in zeal of destroying the pagan monuments, or in the search of relics. The abovementioned law from the Code of Theodosius is directed specifically against those who destroy tombs in order to reuse the material for building, but it mentions as well those who violate the cadavers (in the search of precious things? for magical purposes?).