‘Item. the inquisitor, iudge, or examiner, must begin with small matters first. ‘Item. they must be examined whether their parents were witches or no; for witches (as these Doctors suppose) came by propagation. And _Bodin_ setteth downe this principle in witchcraft, to wit, _Si saga sit mater, sic etiam est filia_: howbeit the lawe forbiddeth it _Ob sanguinis reuerentiam_. ‘Item. the examiner must looke stedfastlie upon their eies: for they cannot looke directlie upon a man’s face, (as _Bodin_ affirmeth in one place, although in another he saith, that they kill and destroie both men and beasts by their lookes). ‘Item. she must be examined of all accusations, presumptions and faults, at one instant: least sathan should afterwards dissuade hir from confession. ‘Item. a witch may not be put in prison alone, least the diuell dissuade her from confession, through promises of her indemnitie. For (saith _Bodin_) some that haue been in the gaole haue proued to flie awaie, as they were woont to doo when they met with _Diana_ and _Minerua_ &c, and so brake their owne necks against the stone walles. ‘Item. if anie denie hir owne confession made without torture, she is neuerthelesse by that confession to be condemned, as in anie other crime. ‘Item, the iudges must seeme to put on a pittifull countenance and to moue them; saieing that It was not they, but the diuell that committed the murther, and that he compelled them to doo it; and must make them beleeue that they think them to be innocents. ‘Item. if they will not confesse nothing upon the racke or torture; their apparell must be changed, and euerie haire in their bodie must be shauen off with a sharpe razor. ‘Item, if they have charmes for taciturnitie, so as they feele not the common tortures, and therefore confesse nothing; then some sharpe instrument must be thrust betwixt euerie naile of their fingers and toes; which (as _Bodin_ saith) was King _Childebert’s_ devise, and is, to this daie, of all others the most effectuall. For by meanes of that extreme paine, they will (saith he) confesse anie thing. ‘Item. _Paulus Grillandus_, being an old doer in these matters, wisheth that when witches sleepe, and feele no paine upon the torture, _Domine labia mea aperies_ should be said, and so, (saith he) both the tormentt will be felt, and the truth will be uttered. ‘Item. _Bodin_ saith, that at the time of examination there should be a semblance of a great a doo, to the terrifieing of the witch; and that a number of instruments, gieues,[36] manacles, ropes, halters, fetters &c be prepared, brought foorth, and laid before the examinate; and, also, that some be procured to make a most horrible and lamentable crie, in the place of torture, as though he or she were upon the racke, or in the tormentor’s hands: so as the examinate may heare it whiles she is examined, before she hir selfe be brought into the prison; and perhaps (saith he) she will by this meanes, confesse the matter.