Читать книгу The Discovery of Witchcraft. Facts, Fiction & Conspiracy Theories Behind the Medieval Witch Hunt онлайн

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Item, if anie denie hir owne confession made without torture, she is neverthelesse by that confession to be condemned, as in anie other crime.

Item, the judges must seeme to put on a pittifull countenance and to mone them; saieng, that It was not they, but the divell that committed the murther, and that he compelled them to doo it; and must make them beleeve that they thinke them to be innocents.

Item, if they will confesse nothing but upon the racke or torture; their apparell must be changed, and everie haire in their bodie must be shaven off with a sharpe razor.

Item, if they have charmes for taciturnitie, so as they feele not the common tortures, and therefore confesse nothing: then some sharpe instrument must be thrust betwixt everie naile of their fingers and toes: which (as/15. Bodin saith) was king Childeberts devise,⁹⁷ and is to this daie of all others the most effectuall. For by meanes of that extreme paine, they will (saith he) confesse anie/22. thing.

Item, Paulus Grillandus,⁹⁸ being an old dooer in these matters, wisheth that when witches sleepe, and feele no paine upon the torture, Domine labia mea aperies should be said, and so (saith he) both the torments will be felt, and the truth will be uttered: Et sic ars deluditur arte.