Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/500

 484: SORCERY AND OCCULT ARTS. day, October 21, the bishop and inquisitor ordered him to be brought in and tortured. Everything was in readiness for it, when he humbly begged them to defer it until the next day, and that meanwhile he would make up his mind so as to satisfy them and render it unnecessary. He further asked that they should com- mission the Bishop of Saint-Brieuc and Pierre de THopital to hear his confession in a place apart from the torture. This last prayer they granted, but they would only give him a respite until two o'clock, with the promise of a further postponement until the next day, in case he confessed meanwhile. When the confession made that afternoon, under these circumstances, is officially declared to have been made " freely and willingly and without coercion of any kind," it affords another example of the value of these customary formulas.* Before the commissioners he made no difficulty of accusing: himself of all the crimes wherewith he stood charged. Pierre de THopital found the recital hard of credence, and pressed him vigor- ously to disclose the motive which had led to their commission. He was not satisfied with Gilles's declaration that it was simply to gratify his passions, till he exclaimed, " Truly, there was no other cause, object, or intention than I have said. I have told you great- er things than that — enough to put ten thousand men to death." The president pressed the matter no further, but sent for Prelati, when the two accomplices freely confirmed each other's state- ments, and they parted in tears with the affectionate farewell already alluded to.f There was no further talk of torture. Gilles was now fairly embarked in his new course. Apparently resolved to win heaven by contrition and by the assistance of the Church, this extraordi- nary man presents, during the remainder of the trial, a spectacle which is probably without an example. When, on the next day, October 22, he was brought before his judges, the proud and haughty baron desired that his confession should be read in pub- lic, so that his humiliation should aid in winning pardon from God. Not content with this, he supplemented his confession with abun- dant details of his atrocities, as though seeking to make to God an acceptable oblation of his pride. Finally, after exhorting those Bossard et Maulde, Pr. pp. xliii.-xlv. f Ibid. Pr. pp. xlv.-xlvii.