Book contents
Question 3
from PART III
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2015
Summary
IF it is asked whether the judge can force the witnesses to swear an oath about telling him the truth in a case involving the Faith or sorceresses, and also whether he can examine them several times, the answer is that he can, especially an ecclesiastical judge, as was explained above regarding Chapter “Ut officium” § “Verum,” and that witnesses in ecclesiastical cases are to be forced to give truthful testimony by means of an oath (Extra, “Compelling Witnesses,” Chapter “Pervenit”). Otherwise, the testimony will not be valid. In Extra, “Heretics,” Chapter “Excommunicamus itaque” § “Adiicimus” it says that the archbishop or bishop should go through the parish in which the heretics are rumored to dwell and compel three or more men of good testimony or, if he thinks it useful, the whole vicinity to swear the oath. Below it goes on, “If any of them with damnable obstinacy spurn the religious obligation of the oath and are unwilling to swear, from this very fact they should be considered to be heretics.”
That they can be examined several times is stated by the Archdeacon on the word “testium” [“witnesses”] in the Chapter “Ut officium” § “Verum,” where it says, “The inquisitor” (in this case the judge) “ought|to make sure that if the witnesses have given conflicting testimony and have not been asked fully about the reason for their knowledge, he will renew the inquisition with them.” This can be done legally (Extra, “Compelling Witnesses,” as was discussed above, and Pandect, Title “Questioning,” “Repeti”).
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- The Hammer of WitchesA Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum, pp. 510 - 511Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009