Europe's inner demons

The witch-woman concerned.... ought to be delivered up for the ultimate penalty and burned at the stake. For she is said to have renounced Christ and her baptism; therefore she should die, in accordance with the saying of our Lord Jesus Christ in the gospel according to John, chapter 15: “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” And the law of the gospel takes precedence over all other laws and must be followed even in disputes in the law-courts, since it is God’s law.

This witch confesses that she made a cross of straw and trampled it underfoot, and that she made the cross for the purposes of trampling it underfoot. By itself this would be enough to earn her the death penalty.

Furthermore the witch confesses that she has adored the Devil, bending the knee to him. For this she should suffer the death penalty.

She confesses that she has bewitched children by touch and glance, so that they died. It is certain that they died, and their mothers voiced complaints about their deaths. For this the witch should die, as a murderess. For I have heard from holy theologians that the women who are called witches can harm, even fatally, by touch or glance, bewitching men or children or beasts, because these women have corrupt souls, which they have vowed to the demon. But this last point, as to whether witches can harm by touch or glance, and particularly whether they can kill, I leave to Holy Mother Church and to the holy theologians to decide. For the present I do not pronounce on that point, for the preceding reasons are sufficient for this witch to be delivered up for the ultimate penalty, and for her goods to be confiscated and handed over to the treasury of lord Joannes de Plotis, bishop of Novara, who is lord of the spiritualities and temporalities of the town of Orta, where the witch comes from.

As to whether, if the witch repents and returns to the Catholic faith, and is prepared publicly to abjure her error to the satisfaction of lord Joannes de Plotis, bishop of Novara, she ought to be spared temporal penalties and death in this world: there is no doubt that she ought to be spared in that case; I mean, if she returns to the faith, and gives signs of repentance, immediately after the detection of her offence. But if this happens not immediately, but after a lapse of time, I think it must be left to the judge to decide whether the signs of repentance are genuine or whether she is moved by fear of punishment; in the former case she should be spared, in the latter not. I say that this should be left to the judgement of the lord bishop Plotis and the lord inquisitor. If however it is conceded that she is a murderess, she shall not by repentance avoid death in this world; but, as I said, I leave the matter of murder to be decided by Holy Church.

(Signed) I, Bartolo of Sassoferrato.