Chapter XIII — On the penalties established against witches, and against all who enter into a pact — explicit or tacit — with demons

I. All human and divine laws decree that sorcerers are to be punished. God commands (Lev. 20): "A man, or woman, in whom there is a pythonic or divining spirit, dying let them die: they shall stone them with stones." Likewise (Exod. 22): "Wizards thou shalt not suffer to live." There are many civil laws — Book 9, title 18, law 7, "Nemo" — which decree that all soothsayers are to be punished with death. Canon law establishes the same penalty.

II. Theologians dispute whether an excommunication has already been decreed against sorcerers, or whether it must be freshly imposed. The more common and true opinion holds that all such persons are already, in fact, excommunicated by the law itself — which is proven from the chapter Si quis hariolos, where it is stated: "If anyone shall have observed soothsayers, haruspices, or enchanters, let him be anathema." These words, "let him be anathema," signify a censure already imposed, not one to be imposed. For a law does not merely express a wish; it commands. Wherefore, although the aforesaid words might, taken absolutely, be understood as an expression of mere wish, nevertheless, as employed by the law, they absolutely decree and impose the penalty. There is also cited the Extravagant of John XXII, beginning "Super illius," as related by Eymerich in his Directorium Inquisitorum, in which excommunication is expressly established against all sorcerers. Others reject this constitution, since it is not found in the Bullary. Setting aside, then, this uncertain constitution, I will transcribe the constitution of Gregory XV, issued March 20, 1623, beginning as follows: "But by the will of Almighty God... Of our own accord, therefore, and from certain knowledge, and mature deliberation, and from the plenitude of apostolic power, by the tenor of these presents We decree, ordain, and command: that whensoever anyone shall have entered a pact with the devil, and, having apostatized from the faith, shall have injured one or more persons by sorceries or witchcraft, such that death has followed upon such sorceries or witchcraft — even for a first offense, he is to be handed over to the secular court, to be punished with the penalties owed him. But whoever, having likewise apostatized, and entered a pact with the devil, shall have committed sorcery or witchcraft, though death has not followed, yet illness, divorces, impotence to procreate, or notable harm to animals, crops, or other produce has resulted — he is to be confined for life, or perpetually imprisoned, in the strict custody of the Office of the Inquisition, where it exists, to be provided. Those, moreover, who have true knowledge of such offenders are bound to denounce them to the Bishop, or Inquisitor..." etc.

Since, then, sorcery is joined with the crime of apostasy, it pertains to the tribunal of the Inquisition to inquire into and take notice of such sorcerers — nor is there any doubt about this — since, when sorcerers fall into apostasy, or rush headlong into heresy, they thereby become subject to the excommunication latae sententiae pronounced in the Bull "In Coena Domini," or else, if they do not actually fall into heresy, they at least give rise to a strong suspicion of it. Now the signs of a vehement suspicion of heresy are these: an explicit pact with the demon; the abuse of sacred things; the worship of the devil; his invocation, in order to know things that exceed the natural power of knowing. And when either heresy, or a grave suspicion of it, is attached to sorcery, the judges of such a crime are the Inquisitors of heretical depravity. And since it is scarcely found that a sorcerer is not guilty of heresy, or at least vehemently suspected of it, sorcerers are for this reason to be remanded to the Inquisitors.