Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/533

 IMPOSSIBILITY OF DEFENCE. which the population was summoned by blast of trumpet. The convicts were brought before him. when his tult. >r le^ral adviser. Lorenzo di Front, addressed him to the effect that the women had been condemned by the Inquisition for witchcraft, heresy, and apostasy, and that, according to the laws, he must sen- tence them to the legal punishment of burning alive, which he incontinently did. It evidently was the merest formality, and possibly, as the death of two of the podest&'s hildren had been attributed to one of the witches, he may have wished to magnify his share in the retribution As of old. practically the sole defence of the accused lay in dis- abling the witnesses for enmity, and judges were reminded that the enmity must be of the most violent nature, for. with the wonted happy facility of assuming guilt in advance, they were told that there was almost always some enmity involved, since witches were odious to everybody. At the same time all the old methods reducing this slender chance to a minimum were followed, supple- mented with such a- tional experience had suggested. The names of the witnesses were generally suppressed, but if they were communicated they were so arranged as to mislead, and in advance effort was made to debar the accused from disabling the most damaging ones by enticing her to deny all knowledge of them or to declare them to be her friends. If she insisted on seeim: the evidence, it might be given to her after interpolating in it ex- traneous matters and accusations to lead her astray. + Appeals were always to be refused if possible. Outside of France the only one that could be made was to Rome for refusing counsel, for improper torture, and other unjust proceeding : and then, as we have seen, the inquisitor could either refuse "apostoli" or grant either reverential or negative ones. If conscious of in- justice and aware that an appeal was coming, he could elude it by appointing some one to sit in his place. The danger of appeals was small, however, for if the accused insisted on having counsel she was not allowed to select him. The inquisitor appointed him; he was bound not to assume the defence if he knew it to be un- pp. 818-31,238. t Prieriat. Lib. in. c. 3.— Mall. Maleflcar. P. in. Q. xii.
 * Mali Maleiicar. P. n. Q. xiv.— P. Yavra. Le Streghe nel Canavese. op. cit.