Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/564

 548 WITCHCRAFT. upon the secular courts the responsibility of putting to death those who were not relapsed. On March 21 the imperturbable Council of Ten quietly responded by laying down regulations for all trials, including the cases in question, of which the sentences were treated as invalid, and all bail heretofore taken was to be discharged. The examinations were to be made without the use of torture by one or two bishops, an inquisitor, and two doctors of Brescia, all se- lected for probity and intelligence. The result was to be read in the court of the podesta, with the participation of the two rettori, or governors, and four more doctors. The accused were to be asked if they ratified their statements, and were to be liable to torture if they modified them. When all this was done with due circumspec- tion, judgment was to be rendered in accordance with the counsel of all the above-named experts, and under no other circumstances was a sentence to be executed. In this way the Signoria hoped that the errors said to have been committed would be avoided for the future. Moreover, the papal legate was to be admonished to see that the expenses of the Inquisition were moderate and free from extortion, and was to find expedients to prevent greed for money from causing the condemnation of the innocent, as was said to have often been the case. He should also depute proper persons to investigate the extortions and other evil acts of the in- quisitors, which had excited general complaint, and he should sum- marily punish the perpetrators to serve as an example. He was further requested to consider that these poor people of Yalcamo- nica were simple folk of the densest ignorance, much more in need of good preachers than of persecutors, especially as they were so numerous.* In an age of superstition this utterance of the Council of Ten stands forth as a monument of considerate wisdom and calm common-sense. Had its enlightened spirit been allowed to guide the counsels of popes and princes, Europe would have been spared the most disgraceful page in the annals of civilization. The lesson of cruel fear so sedulously inculcated on the nations was thoroughly learned. Hideous as are the details of the persecution of witch- craft which we have been considering up to the fifteenth century, 440, 617.— Archiv. di Venezia, Misti, Concil. X. Vol. 44, p. 7.
 * G. de Castro, II Mondo Secreto, IX. 128, 133, 135-6.— Mag. Bull. Rom. I.