Book contents
Question 9
from PART III
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2015
Summary
TWO things are done after the arrest (which of them first is left up to the judge): the granting of arguments in defense and examination in the torture chamber (without the use of torture). The first is not granted unless she seeks it. The second is done only after the maids and associates, if she has any at home, are examined. Let us proceed in the order given here.
If the accused woman says that she is innocent, that she has been falsely denounced, and that she would gladly|look at and hear her accusers, this is a sign that she is seeking arguments for defense. As to whether the judge is bound to make known to her those making depositions and to bring them into her presence, at this point the judge should note that he is obligated to do neither of these things, that is, make the names known or bring them into her presence, unless those giving depositions themselves voluntarily offer to do this, that is, be brought into their presence and to cast into the faces of the sorceresses the things about which they have given depositions.
That the judge is not obliged to do this (because of the danger to those giving depositions) is proven as follows. Although various Supreme Pontiffs have given different pronouncements, none has ever given the pronouncement that a judge was obligated in such a case to make known to the accused the names of those giving depositions or of the accusers (though we are not using the proceeding by accusation). Rather, some held the opinion that this was not lawful in any situation, others that it was in some.
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- The Hammer of WitchesA Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum, pp. 526 - 529Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009