“As regards the deceitful course,” says the translator, “which the aforementioned inquisitors were wont to take in the execution of their office, we would have no knowledge, save what some believers who escaped the Spanish Inquisition, could have told us concerning it. But it was not the will of God that these, their wiles, should remain hid, and that we should obtain no copies thereof, written by themselves. Behold, then, the cunning artifices of the inquisitors, which served them for rules and instructions, in conducting the processes against the Waldenses.
RULES OF THE INQUISITORS.
1. It is not permitted or advisable to dispute concerning the faith in the presence of the laity.
2. No one is to be regarded as converted, if he will not accuse all those whom he knows to be such as he is.
3. He who does not accuse those who are such as he is, must be severed from the church as a diseased member; that the sound members may not become corrupted by it.
4. After any one is delivered to the secular judge, great care must be exercised, that he be not allowed to prove his innocence, or show his harmlessness before the people; for if he is put to death, the people will take offense; and if he is discharged, the (Catholic) faith will be endangered.
5. Care must be taken not to promise his life, before the people, to him who is condemned to death (namely, if he indicates his willingness to become converted); seeing that no heretic would allow himself to be burned, if he could escape by such a promise; and if he should promise conversion before the people, and his life would not be granted him thereupon, the people would take offense at it, and think that he were put to death unjustly.
6. Observe: The inquisitor must always take the deed for granted, without any consideration, and ask the questions only in regard to the circumstances of the matter, not saying: Have you made confession to the heretics? but, How often have you made your confession to the heretics? Again, do not ask: Have they slept in your house? but, In what room of your house did they sleep? and the like.
7. The inquisitor may look into a book, as though he had noted down in it, the life and conduct of the accused, together with everything in regard to which he is interrogating him.
8. The accused must be threatened with death, if he will not confess, and be told that his doom is sealed; that he must regard his soul, and, first of all, forsake his heresy; “For,” it shall be said, “you must die; accept with patience whatever shall befall you.” If he then answer: “Since I must die, I would rather die in this my faith, than in the faith of the Roman church,” rest assured, that previously he only pretended to be desirous of becoming converted; and therefore he must then be brought to justice.