Book contents
Question 16
from PART III
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2015
Summary
A few things should be noted about the foregoing. The first is that they should be questioned on more holy | days and during the rites of the Mass. In this way, the congregation may also be urged to pray for God's help in general (no specification should be made except that the Saints should be invoked against all harassment on the part of demons). The second are the notes made above about Blessed Salt and other things in combination with writing down on a sheet of paper the Seven Words uttered by Christ on the Cross. These should be bound up together and attached to her neck, and Blessed Wax the length of Christ's body (if such a length can be conveniently obtained) should be bound to her naked body. Experience has shown that the sorceresses are disturbed in a wondrous way by these things and can barely keep them on, especially Relics of the Saints.
After these preparations have been made and the Holy Water offered for drinking, she should again be made ready for the questioning under torture, being constantly urged as before. When she is raised from the ground (if being tortured in this way), the judge should read (or have read) the statements of the witnesses with the names supplied, speaking as follows. “Look, you are convicted by witnesses.” If the witnesses wish to confront her face to face, | then the judge would question her as to whether she would be willing to confess if the witnesses are brought before her. If she agrees, the witnesses would have to be brought in and put in her presence, in case she would confess something through shame or embarrassment. Finally, if he sees that she is not willing to reveal her crimes, he will question her as to whether she is willing to undergo the judgment by glowing iron to establish her innocence. They all are eager for this, knowing that they will be kept from harm by demons, and they are thereby recognized to be truly sorceresses. The judge will reply by asking what rashness could lead her to subject herself to such dangers.
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- Information
- The Hammer of WitchesA Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum, pp. 556 - 560Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009