would in some sort invalidate the force of the testimony. Thus, in the cases of Isarn Colli and Guillem Calvarie, mentioned above, it happens to be stated that they retracted their confessions made under torture, but in the confessions themselves there is nothing to indicate that it had been used. In the six hundred and thirty-six sentences borne upon the register of Toulouse from 1309 to 1323 the only allusion to torture is in the recital of the case of Calvarie, but there are numerous instances in which the information wrung from the convicts who had no hope of escape could scarce have been procured in any other manner. Bernard Gui, who conducted the Inquisition of Toulouse during the period, has too emphatically expressed his sense of the utility of torture on both principals and witnesses for us to doubt his readiness in its employment.[1]
The result of Clement's investigation in 1306 led to an effort at reform which was agreed to in the Council of Vienne in 1311, but with customary indecision Clement delayed the publication of the considerable body of legislation adopted by the council until his death, and it was not issued till October, 1317, by his successor John XXII. Among the abuses which he sought to limit was that of torture, and to this end he ordered that it should not be administered without the concurrent action of bishop and inquisitor if this could be had within the space of eight days. Bernard Gui emphatically remonstrated against this as seriously crippling the efficiency of the Inquisition, and he proposed to substitute for it the meaningless phrase that torture should only be used with mature and careful deliberation, but his suggestion was unheeded, and the Clementine regulation remained the law of the Church.[2]
The inquisitors, however, were too little accustomed to restraint in any formt to submit long to this infringement on their privileges. It is true that disobedience rendered the proceedings void, and the unhappy wretch who was unlawfully tortured without episcopal
- ↑ Chassaing, Spicilegium Brivatense, p. 92. Vaissette, IV. Pr. 97-8.- Archives de l'hôtel-do-ville d'Albi (Doat, XXXIV. 45 sqg.).-Lib. Confess. Inq. Albiens, (MSS. Bib. Nat., fonds latin, 11847).-Lib. Sententt. Inq. Tolosan. pp. 46-78, 132, 169-74, 180-2, 266-7.- Bern. Guidon. Practica P. Iv. v. (Doat, XXX.)
- ↑ C. 1, 1, Clement. v. 3-IBern. Guidon, Gravamina (Doat, XXX. 100, 120) -Eymcric. Direct. Inq. p. 422.-Zanchini Tract. de IIeret, e. xv,
