ed
his associates, when an accuser appeared before them who was
perfectly willing to accept the _poena talionis_ in case of failure,
to urge the imprudent man to withdraw his demand. For he argued that
the _accusatio_ might prove harmful to himself, and besides give too
much room for trickery.[3] In other words, the Inquisitors wished to
be perfectly untrammeled in their action.

[1] Bull _Prae cunctis_ of July 28, 1262.

[2] _Practica_, 4a pars. ed. Douais, p. 192.

[3] _Directorium_, p. 414. col. 1.

The secrecy of the Inquisition's procedure was one of the chief
causes of complaint.

But the Inquisition, dreadful as it was, did not lack defenders. Some
of their arguments were most extravagant and far-fetched. "Paramo, in
the quaint pedantry with which he ingeniously proves that God was the
first Inquisitor, and the condemnation of Adam and Eve the first
model of the Inquisitorial process, triumphantly points out that he
judges them in secret, thus setting the example which the Inquisition
is bound to follow, and avoiding the subtleties which the criminals
would have raised in their defence, especially at the suggestion of
the crafty serpent. That he called no witnesses is explained by the
confession of the accused, and ample legal authority is cited to show
that these confessions were sufficient to justify the conviction and
punishment."[1]

[1] Lea, op. cit., vol. i, p. 406.

. . . . . . . .

The subtlety of the casuists had full play when they came to discuss
the torture of the prisoner who absolutely refused to confess.
According to law, the torture could be inflicted but once, but this
regulation was easily evaded. For it was lawful to subject the
prisoner to all the various kinds of torture in succession; and if
additional evidence were discovered, the torture could be repeated.
When they desired, therefore, to repeat the torture, even after an
interval of some days, they evaded the law by calling it technically
not a "repetition" but a "continuance of the first torture:" _Ad
continuandum tormenta, non ad iterandum_, as Eymeric styles it.[1]
This quibbling of course gave full scope to the cruelty and the
indiscreet zeal of the Inquisitors.

[1] Eymeric, _Directorium_, 3a pars, p. 481, col. 2.

But a new difficulty soon arose. Confessions extorted under torture,
had, as we have seen, no legal value. Eymeric himself admitted that
the results obtained in this way were very unreliable, and that the
In