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Question 33
from PART III
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2015
Summary
METHOD fourteen of bringing an end to proceedings involving the Faith and of passing sentence is when the man (woman) denounced for heretical depravity, after a careful examination of the merits of the proceedings with a good panel of legal experts with reference to the person giving the deposition, is found to be denounced for such heretical depravity only by another sorceress who has been or is to be burned to ashes. This can happen in thirteen ways in thirteen situations. The person thus denounced
is found innocent and is to be completely absolved, or
is found in addition to have a bad reputation for such heresy in a general sense, or
is found, in addition to the infamy, to be subject in some way to being exposed to questioning under torture, or
is found to be lightly suspected of heresy, or
is found to be vehemently suspected of heresy, or
is found to be violently suspected of heresy, or
is found to have a bad reputation and at the same time to be commonly suspected, and so on in the other situations in the manner discussed in Questions Twenty, down to Method Thirteen (inclusively).
The first way occurs when the person is denounced only by a sorceress under detention and is not convicted by his own confession or the legal production of witnesses, and there are no other indications at all that could result in him being judged with probability to be suspected. Such a person is by all means to be absolved, even by the secular judge who either burned to ashes the sorceress who gave the deposition or was able to do so by his own authority or by delegation from the bishop in the latter's capacity as ordinary judge. The person will be absolved with the sentence contained in Method One of bringing an end to proceedings involving the Faith (Question Twenty).
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- The Hammer of WitchesA Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum, pp. 633 - 640Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009