The sense of repugnance did not last long, however.[403] The inquisitors of the thirteenth century found Innocent IV’s proviso irksome. The employment of a secular official to assist them in carrying through the inquisitorial process was no doubt inconvenient, and in 1256 Alexander IV overcame the difficulty by granting inquisitors and their assistants the privilege of absolving one another, or giving one another dispensations, for any canonical irregularities they might commit in the pursuance of their duties.[404] This was an oblique reference to torture. This rule was reinforced by Urban IV in 1262.[405] The subterfuge satisfied the scruples of the inquisitors. The extent to which torture was used no doubt varied in accordance with the character of the inquisitor. In the sentences of Bernard de Caux there is only one passing mention of the practice; there is only one mention of it also in Bernard Gui. Though it is frequently referred to by Geoffrey d’Ablis, this is in a negative way only.[406] It is stated that so and so confessed freely, no torture having to be used. But that torture was being used and with great severity is proved by the intervention of Philip the Fair in 1291 and 1301, and of Clement V in 1306; while in 1311 the Pope endeavoured to moderate the practice by the requirement that torture should not be inflicted save with the concurrence of the bishop of the diocese.[407] Bernard Gui very much resented the restriction, and though in his sentences there is only the one mention of torture, it is clear from his treatise that he thoroughly approved of it, on account of its great utility.[408] Certainly torture was regarded by inquisitors of the best type, not as a habitual practice, but only as a final measure, to be used solely when other means had failed. Eymeric lays it down that the circumstances justifying its application are that the case against the accused has been half-proved already or that the accused has contradicted himself.[409] It was a very salutary rule that no prisoner might be tortured more than once; but this humane regulation became a dead-letter. The inquisitors found it galling and surmounted the obstacle with an utterly disgraceful quibble. Torture, they agreed, could not be _repeated_; but it might be _continued_.[410] They used this patent sophistry to justify the application of torture an indefinite number of times at indefinite intervals. Thus some of the witches of Arras were tortured forty times, twice in a day.[411] In such cavalier fashion could rules and regulations be treated. The requirement that confessions must be freely made without restraint was satisfied by another similar subterfuge. A confession, which had actually been wrung from the defendant or witness in the physical anguish of torture, was confirmed some two or three days later in some other place than the torture chamber; and this confirmation of the actual confession was officially regarded as the true confession.[412]