Question IX: On the penalties of witches, etc.

Venefici, Sagae, Malefici, Sortilegi, Divini, and Magi, a plague of the world, a virus of the Church, and a contagion of Kingdoms, the laws scourge with the same punishments. Formerly by the old law they were condemned to death Exodi 22. Levit. 20. Deuter. 13. et 18. as we have often seen with the holy Doctor. The same now stands in tota causa 26. and throughout the Codex in the title de maleficis.

In Canonical law venefici and malefici, and those consulting them, are excommunicated cap. si quis ariolos, 26. q. 5. yet the excommunication does not seem ipso facto, but to be inflicted, as the Doctors note. But if they are heretics, they incur ipso facto the excommunication in the Cena Domini.

IN canonical law they are punished with other penalties; for, if they are laymen, a penance of forty days is imposed on them, as is clear cap. 1. de sortil. and the holy Doctor relates in confessionali, cap. 3. particula 37. which is understood in the forum of Confession; just as also in the Council of Ancyra they are punished with a five-year penance 26. quaest. 5. for according to the laws they are burned, and their goods are proscribed, as D. Bonavent. notes in confessionali, cap. 3. particula 48.

IN cap. Episcopi 26. quaest. 5. it is prescribed that such men, after being scourged, be cast out.

But DE consulentibus it is said in cap. Quisquis 2. quaest. 8. that they are infamous, and 26. quaest. 5. from the Fourth Council of Toledo cap 30. if he is a Bishop or presbyter, he is deposed from office, and assigned to a monastery in perpetuity, as the holy Doctor relates in confessionali, cap. 3. part. 49.

One must however stand by the custom of that place in each diocese.

But IURE civil they are punished with death cap. de maleficiis, et Mathem.

IF the offense has mixed in heresy, or suspicion of it, the cognition of these belongs to the Inquisitors of the faith cap. causam, §. de haeret. in 6. and Suarez notes cap. 18. but if suspicion of heresy is not present, its cognition does not belong to the Inquisitors, according to cap. causam, but it is judged of mixed forum, unless by reason of the person it belongs to the Ecclesiastical.

KNOW first, that the Bull of Sixtus V against Iudiciarii extends the power of the Inquisitors against venefici, etc., and not only against sortilegi, as Sanchez thinks Tom. 1. lib. 2. cap. 38. So Diana warns part. 4. tract. 8. de offic. et potestate Inquisit. resol. 107. But by force of this Bull they can take cognizance of all superstitions, at least those wise [ones] that savor of heresy, even if not manifest, as Diana notes.

IN doubt also: whether sortilegia savor of heresy, the Inquisitors can manifestly take cognizance by the new law of Sixtus V: I add also by the old law cap. accusatus, as Simanca teaches, de Cathol. Instit. tit. 30. and others in him, and most recently Acugna tract. de confessar. sollicitantibus, quaest. 5. num. 15. and Diana in the place cit. resol. 112. and Tract. 7. resol. 10.

FINALLY, although by the old law the DD. Inquisitors could not take cognizance except of sortilegia, divinations, etc. that savored of heresy; nevertheless now, by force of the Bull of Sixtus V, they take cognizance of all, as Scortia notes in Bull. Pontif. epist. 58. Theor. 158. and others, whom Diana follows part. 4. Tract. 7. de poenis delictorum, resol. 10.

But DE modo, the order, and rigor of proceeding against these nefarious men, Tannerus treats 2. 2. disp. 4. quaest. 5. and Martinus Delrius lib. 5. disq. mag.

Tannerus however warns that one proceed most cautiously, and piously, lest the innocent be involved in these infamies; but if many are guilty, and an innocent one must be mixed with these, let them rather abstain.

I add ONE little doubt: Whether Striges, who have killed infants, are to be handed over by the DD. Inquisitors to the secular Judge for homicides, even if they are truly converted. Simanc denies it de Cathol. Instit. tit. 37. num. 17. Albertinus de agnosc. proposit. caib. quaest. 25. num. 66. cited by Fagundez lib. 1. cap. 44. num. 21. The same is taught by Sousa Inquisitorum Aphorismis, lib. 10. cap. 58. Farinac. quaest. 20. num. 105. cited in Dianam, resol. 10.

BUT Diana notes that most recently Gregory XV declared the opposite, and therefore that such a one is to be handed over to the secular Court; but if by infirmity, or incapacity for matrimony, or if she has gravely harmed someone by [spoiling] fruits, etc., she is to be shut within a wall, or be made to serve in building prisons in the S. off. Inquisit. where it existed.