WHAT then remains for the judge to do with reference to continuing the torture? It should first be noted that just as there is no single medicine for all diseases but rather separate and specific medicines for separate and specific diseases, no single method of questioning, investigating and examining with reference to the articles should be followed for all heretics or all those denounced for heresy, and instead a different method of examining that varies according to the reality of the sects and persons should be followed. Therefore, like | a physician who strives to cut out gangrenous limbs and separate the mangy sheep from the healthy, the prudent judge can now surmise that the denounced woman is infected with the sorcery of silence, but no single, unfailing rule or method can be described for wrenching out this silence. Indeed, it would not be safe to give one, because if that method became a common practice and general rule, then, when the sons of darkness foresaw it, they could more easily avoid it as a trap for their damnation or take precautions. The prudent and diligent judge should therefore develop an opportune method of questioning from the answers of the witnesses or their attestations or from the procedures that experience has otherwise taught him or from the ones that the keenness of his own intelligence has discovered, while making use of the stratagems set out below.

If the judge's aim is to investigate whether she is enveloped in the sorcery of silence, he should note whether she can cry when standing in his presence or being exposed to torture. The ancient accounts of trustworthy men and the teaching of our own experience have demonstrated that this is the most certain sign, so that even if she is urged and compelled with conjurations to cry, if she is a sorceress | she does not have this ability (to shed tears). To be sure, she will emit plaintive sounds and attempt to dab her cheeks and eyes with spit as if she were crying, and those present should pay close attention to this.