Untitled - Shattering Denial

THE INQUISITION
ence upon the canonists and Inquisitors of his day; this
is clear from the trials for witchcraft held during this
period. 1
It is impossible to estimate the number of sor
cerers condemned. Louis of Paramo triumphantly de
clared that in a century and a half the Holy Office sent to
the stake over thirty thousand. 2 Of course we must take
such round numbers with a grain of salt, as they always
are greatly exaggerated. But the fact remains that the
condemnations for sorcery were so numerous as to stagger
belief. The Papacy itself recognized the injustice of its
agents. For in 1637 instructions were issued stigmatiz
ing the conduct of the Inquisitors on account of their
arbitrary and unjust prosecution of sorcerers; they were
accused of extorting from them by
201
cruel tortures con
fessions that were valueless, and of abandoning them to
the secular arm without sufficient cause. 3
1 On this question, cf. Janssen-Pastor, Geschichte des deutschen Volkes,
vol. viii, Fribourg, 1894, p. 507 and seq.; Finke, Historisches Jahrbuch,
vol. xiv, p. 341 and seq.; Lea, op. cit. t vol. iii, pp. 492-549.
2 De Origine Officii sancta Inquisitionis, p. 206. Lea says that "Protes
tants and Catholics rivaled each other in the madness of the hour." Op. cit.,
vol. iii, p. 549.
3 "
Experientia rerum magistra aperte docet gravissimos quotidie committi
errores a diversis Ordinariis, Vicariis et Inquisitoribus, sed prascipue a secu-
laribus judicibus in formandis processibus contra striges sive lamias et
maleficas in grave praejudicium tarn justitiae quam hujusmodi mulierum
inquisitarum: cum longo tempore observatum fuerit, plures hujusmodi
processus non rite ac juridice formates, imo plerumque necesse fuisse quamplures
judices reprehendere et multos et impertinentes modos habitos in
formandis processibus, reis interrogandis, excessivis torturis inferendis ita,
ut quandoque contigerit injustas et iniquas proferri sententias, etiam ultimi