of the Inquisition to employ it.
In his bull _Ad Extirpanda_, he says: "The podesta or ruler (of the
city) is hereby ordered to force all captured heretics to confess and
accuse their accomplices by torture which will not imperil life or
injure limb, just as thieves and robbers are forced to accuse their
accomplices, and to confess their crimes; for these heretics are true
thieves, murderers of souls, and robbers of the sacraments of
God."[1] The Pope here tries to defend the use of torture, by
classing heretics with thieves and murderers. A mere comparison is
his only argument.

[1] Bull _Ad Extirpanda_, in Eymeric, _Directorium_, Appendix, p. 8.

This law of Innocent IV was renewed and confirmed November 30, 1259,
by Alexander IV,[1] and again on November 3, 1265, by Clement IV.[2]
The restriction of Innocent III to use torture "which should not
imperil life or injure limb" (_Cogere citra membri diminutionem et
mortis periculum_), left a great deal to the discretion of the
Inquisitors. Besides flogging, the other punishments inflicted upon
those who refused to confess the crime of which they were accused
were antecedent imprisonment, the rack, the _strappado_, and the
burning coals.

[1] Potthast, _Regesta_, no. 17714.

[2] Ibid., no. 19433.

When after the first interrogatory the prisoner denied what the
Inquisitors believed to be very probable or certain, he was thrown
into prison. The _durus carcer et arcta vita_ was deemed an excellent
method of extorting confessions.

"It was pointed out," says Lea, "that judicious restriction of diet
not only reduced the body, but weakened the will, and rendered the
prisoner less able to resist alternate threats of death and promises
of mercy. Starvation, in fact, was reckoned one of the regular and
most efficient methods to subdue unwilling witnesses and
defendants."[1] This was the usual method employed in Languedoc. "It
is the only method," writes Mgr. Douais,[2] "to to extort confessions
mentioned either in the records of the notary of the Inquisition of
Carcassonne[3] or in the sentences of Bernard Gui. It was also the
practice of the Inquisitors across the Rhine."

[1] Lea, op. cit., vol. i, p. 421.

[2] Douais, _Documents_, vol. i, p. ccxl.

[3] Douais, _Documents_, vol. ii, p. 115 and seq.

Still the use of torture, especially of the rack and the _strappado_,
was not unknown in southern Europe, even before the promulgation of
Innocent's bull _Ad Extirpanda