Untitled - Shattering Denial

I 28 THE INQUISITION
revenge themselves on their accusers, induced the In
quisitors to withhold the names of the witnesses. 1 The
only way in which the prisoner could invalidate the testi
mony against him was to name all his mortal enemies.
If his accusers happened to be among them, their testi
mony was thrown out of court. 2 But otherwise, he was
obliged to prove the falsity of the accusation against him
- a practically impossible undertaking. For if two wit
nesses, considered of good repute by the Inquisitor, agreed
in accusing the prisoner, his fate was at once settled; 3
whether he confessed or not, he was declared a heretic.
Believers." Ibid., pp. 98, 99. As early as 1229, the papal legate, after his
investigation in the South, brought back all the testimony with him to Rome,
"ne forte si aliquando inventa fuisset (inquisitio) in terra ista a malevolis,
in mortem testium qui contra tales deposuerant redundaret," and even this did
not prevent the heretics from killing the accusers of their brethren: "nam et
sola suspicione, post recessum ipsius legati, fuere tales aliqui et persecutores
haereticorum plurimi interfecti." C. de Puy-Laurens, Chronique, cap. 40.
Cf. Lea, op. cit., vol. i, p. 438; Tanon, op. cit., p. 390.
1
Eymeric, Directorium, 3 a pars, q. 72; An nomina testium et denuntiatorum
sint delatis publicanda, p. 627. The law on this point varied from
time to time. But between the years 1244 and 1254 a manual of the Inqui
sition (Processus inquisitionis, cf. Appendix A) says: "Neque a juris ordine
deviamus nisi quod testium non publicamus nomina propter ordinationem
sedis apostolicse sub domino Gregorio (IX) provide factam et ab Innocentio
(IV) postmodum innovatam." Cf. bull of Alexander IV, Layettes du tresor
des Chartes, vol. iii, n. 4221. When Boniface VIII incorporated into the
canon law the rule of withholding the names of witnesses, he expressly said
that they might be produced, if there was no danger in doing so. Cap. 20,
Sexto v, 2. Cf. Lea, op. cit., p. 438 and note; Vidal, Le tribunal d Inquisition
de Pamiers in the Annales de Saint Louis des Franfais, vol. ix, pp. 294, 295.
2 a
Eymeric, Directorium, 3 pars, De defensionibus reorum, p. 446 and seq.
3
According to the Processus inquisitionis the rule was: "Ad nullius con-
dempnationem sine lucidis et apertis probationibus vel confessione propria
processimus." Appendix A. Cf. Eymeric, De duodecimo modo terminando