Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/531

 THE DEATH-PENALTY. 515 The most significant change, however, between the old proced- ure and the new regarded the death-penalty. We have seen that with the heretic the object was held to be the salvation of his soul, and, except in case of relapse, he could always purchase life by re- cantation, at the expense of lifelong imprisonment, with the pros- pect that in time submission might win him release. At what period the rule changed with respect to witches is uncertain. AVhen convicted by the secular courts they were invariably burned, and the Inquisition came to adopt the same practice. In 1445 the Council of Rouen still treats them with singular mildness. Invok- ers of demons were to be publicly preached with mitres on their heads, when, if they abjured, the bishop was empowered to release them after performance of appropriate penance ; after this, if they relapsed, clerks were to be perpetually imprisoned, and laymen abandoned to the secular arm, while for minor superstitions and incantations a month's prison and fasting were sufficient, with heavier penance for relapse. In 144S the Council of Lisieux con- tented itself with ordering priests on all Sundays and festivals to denounce as excommunicate all usurers, sorcerers, and diviners. In 1453 Guillaume Edeline escaped with abjuration and prison. In 1458 Jaquerius laboriously argues that the witch is not to be treated like other heretics, to be spared if she recants, showing that the change was still a novelty, requiring justification. In 14S4 Sprenger says positively that while the recanting heretic is to be imprisoned, the sorcerer, even if penitent, is to be put to death, in- dicating that by this time there was no longer any question on the subject. There was. as usual, a pretence of shifting the responsi- bility of this upon the secular authorities, for Sprenger adds that the most the ecclesiastical judge can do is to absolve the penitent and converted witch from the ipso facto excommunication under which she lies and let her go. to be apprehended by the lay courts and be burned for the evil which she has wrought. Silvester Pri- erias shows us how transparent was this juggle, when he instructs the inquisitor that if the witch confesses and is penitent she is to be received to mercy and not be delivered to the secular arm : she is to abjure, is absolved and sentenced to perpetual imprisonment in a black dress; the dress is put on her and she is led to the church- door — but not to prison. The Inquisition takes no further con- cern about her; if the secular court is content, well and good — if