Disputation — Bontempi, Palladium Theologicum V · from Schola Thomistica
Disputation XXIX: On the Accused
The accused is one who, charged with some matter, is lawfully brought before a Judge; wherefore the discussion concerning him, as the correlate of the Judge, is rightly undertaken next after the Judge. Whole volumes have been woven together on this subject by as many as have labored at forensic matters; therefore only those points in this matter that concern conscience will be briefly examined by us. Moreover, the first step by which the accused is led to the tribunal is the lawful citation, which is threefold. The first, to appear, is so necessary by the law of Nature that whatever is done by the Judge without it is approved by no law. The second is for making allegations. The third, for making a definition. Our Eliseus loudly proclaims that the two latter belong to positive law, following the common opinion of the Jurists, tract. 7. quaest. 1. num. 5. We shall begin with the first citation, from which the rest open out of themselves.
De Reo.
Reus est, qui, de re aliqua accusatus, coram Iudice iuridice sistitur, quare de ipso post Iudicem, tanquam de ipsius correlativo, recte disputatio instituitur. De hoc integra; volumina contexere quotquot rebus forensibus operam navarunt; ideo quae conscientiam tantum concernunt hac in re, breviter nobis discutienda sunt. Porro primus passus, quo Reus ad tribunal ducitur, est citatio legitima, quae triplex est: Prima ad comparendum, quae adeo de iure Naturae est necessaria, ut quicquid absque ea a Iudice geritur, nullo iure comprobetur. Secunda est ad allegandum. Tertia, ad definiendum: Duas postremas de iure esse positivo acclamat Elizaeus noster e communi Iuristarum sensu tract. 7. quaest. 1. num. 5. a prima citatione, unde reliquae ex se patent, exordiemur.
Within this disputation
- Question I: On the bringing of the accused to the tribunal
- Question II: Whether the accused is bound to confess a crime half-proven
- Question III: Whether an accused, defamed for one crime, can be questioned about others also
- Question IV: Whether one convicted of a crime can be questioned about hidden accomplices of whom there is no ill repute
- Question V: Whether an accused who unjustly denies a true crime, for which he was to be condemned to a fine, is bound to pay it, and is liable to restitution
- Question VI: Whether an accused who has unjustly denied the truth when he was to be condemned is bound to retract before the end of the trial
- Question VII: Whether, if the accused is interrogated again, he can give only a relative answer, saying: as I answered
- Question VIII: How the accused ought to conduct himself in his examination, when pressed by the judge's unjust questions
- Question IX: Whether it is lawful for the accused to appeal to another judge
- Question X: Whether, and how, the accused can defend himself
- Question XI: Whether the accused can flee, and how, and when