Malleus Maleficarum

"If the judges aim is to investigate whether she is enveloped in the sorcery of silence, he should note whether she can cry when standing in his presence or being exposed to torture. The ancient accounts of trustworthy men and the teaching of our own experience have demonstrated that this is the most certain sign, so that even if she is urged and compelled with conjurations to cry, if she is a sorceress she does not have this ability (to shed tears)."

"When the sentence has been passed, the assistants should promptly get themselves ready for questioning the denounced person under torture, and while they are doing so, the bishop (or judge) should, both in his own person and through other good men who are zealots for the Faith, urge the person to be questioned to make a free confession, even promising to spare his life if necessary, as was discussed above. But if even this method cannot bring him to feel terror or tell the truth, they will be able to assign a second or third day for continuing the torture, but not for repeating it, because torture ought not to be repeated except when new indications against him turn up, in which case they can repeat it. Continuation, on the other hand, is not prohibited."

"Robert Langdon: The Catholic Inquisition soon publishes what may be the most blood-soaked book in human history. Sir Leigh Teabing: The Malleus Maleficarum. [He throws the book at Langdon, who catches it] Robert Langdon: The Witches Hammer. Sir Leigh Teabing: It instructed the clergy on how to locate, torture and kill all free-thinking women. Robert Langdon: In three centuries of witch-hunts, 50,000 women are captured, burned alive at the stake. Sir Leigh Teabing: Oh, at least that. Some say millions."

"Fourth, the step consists of other kinds of torture devices being laid out before him if the person questioned under torture is unwilling to make an appropriate confession, and in his being told that he will have to endure them if he does not confess the truth. If even this cannot bring him to feel terror or tell the truth, then sentence to a second or third day of questioning under torture will be passed in his presence in the following manner (as a continuation and not a repetition of the torture, since it cannot be repeated unless new indications come to light). "We, the aforementioned judge (as above), assign to you such-and-such a day for the continuation of the questioning under torture, so that the truth should come from your own mouth." The whole should be put into the protocol by the notary."

"The following or a similar method of conjuring her to genuine tears if she is innocent and of restraining false tears can be followed by the judge (or priest) in the sentence. Putting a hand over the head of the denounced man (woman), he says, "I conjure you by the loving tears shed on the Cross for the salvation of this world by Our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the most passionate tears of His mother, the Most Glorious Virgin Mary, which were sprinkled over His wounds at eventide, and by all the tears shed here in this world by all the Saints and the Elect of God, from whose eyes He has now wiped every tear, that you should shed tears to the extent that you are innocent, but not at all if you are guilty. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." (Sign of the Cross.) "Amen."

"We, (Name), by Gods mercy Bishop of Such-and-Such city (or judge in the lands subject to the rule of Lord Such-and-Such), note, after a careful examination of the merits of the proceeding conducted by us against you, Such-and-Such of Such-and-Such place and of Such-and-Such diocese, that you are inconsistent in your confessions and that there are nonetheless many indications that are sufficient for exposing you to questioning under torture, and therefore, in order for the truth to be had from your own mouth and for you to cease from then on offending the ears of the judges, as an interlocutory measure we declare, judge and sentence that on the present day at such-and-such hour you should be subjected to questioning under torture."