[28] The New Christians, the relations, the servants, malefactors, infamous persons, in fact every man, a wife, a child, are admitted to depose against the accused, and he cannot call as a witness any person who is a relation or a servant!
[29] This is an injustice. If an accused person had seen the proved articles of the examination in his defence, or if they had been communicated to his lawyer, he would have often derived conclusive arguments from them against the depositions for the prosecution.
[30] It was not often used, because the inquisitors were unwilling to reveal the secret of their irregular proceedings; they considered it dangerous, because it was favourable to the accused, in the few cases where it had been employed; they wished it to be used with great caution, because they felt that those who are not inquisitors act like judges. The canonical proof takes place in the presence of twelve persons, who declare upon oath whether they believe the accused to be innocent or guilty. They were a kind of jury, to whom the inquisitors were obliged to show the original process, and thus the accused depended more upon the jury than on the inquisitors.
[31] I have not read any process which proves that more than one inquisitor has assisted at this execution; I have never seen either the ordinary, or the consultors present at it; the question was only applied in the presence of the inquisitor, the notary, and the executioners.
[32] It was afterwards regulated that this should be done in all definitive sentences.
[33] The trial began in 1558; it had already lasted more than fifteen years, yet the council said that it went on quickly!
[34] Father Kircher has inserted this letter in his work called Principis Christiani Archetipon Politicum.
[35] Kircher has inserted the whole of this letter in the work before mentioned.
[36] Estrada: Decades of the War of Flanders. Decade i. b. 7.
[37] This refers to the queen's journey to Bayonne, to confer with her mother on the political affairs of the League. It took place in 1565.