AS to whether in a situation of negative responses the sorceress should be placed in prison for detention when the three elements already mentioned (bad reputation, indications of the deed and the production of witnesses) coincide, or she should be released under the guarantee of sureties that she will respond when summoned back, an answer can be given on the basis of three views.

First, there is the pronouncement of some that she should be put in prison and should by no means be released under a guarantee. In this they rely on the reasoning mentioned in the preceding question, namely, that she is considered to be manifestly caught when those three elements coincide.

Others feel that before imprisonment she can be released under the guarantee of sureties, so that if she takes flight, she is then considered convicted. She should not, however, be released under a guarantee or pledge after imprisonment in a situation of negative responses, that is, when the three elements mentioned above coincide, because in that case she could be sentenced and executed.|In this they rely on custom.

The third group consists of those who think that no inflexible rule should be given, and that it should rather be left to the judge to decide according to the statements of the witnesses and the bad reputation of the person – all the more severely if the indications coincide – acting on the basis of local procedure and upholding custom. They conclude that if she could not get noteworthy sureties, perhaps being suspected of wishing to flee, then she should be put in prison.

This third pronouncement seems the more reasonable one, provided that the appropriate procedure consisting of three elements is maintained. First, her house should, as far as possible, be searched underneath and above, in all corners, holes and cupboards.