XII. A twelfth is, that when they prepare themselves for the torture, they gravely and seriously admonish the criminal to speak nothing but the truth, and to confess nothing that is not agreeable to truth to avoid the tortures. By this means they put on the appearance of sincerity, as though they sought nothing but the naked truth, that when the torture is finished they may be very secure that the tortured person hath confessed a real crime, because they have seriously and gravely admonished him to say nothing contrary to truth. In the mean while they suppose, that the crime objected against him is real, and endeavour to force from him a confession by torture, and threaten to double his torments unless he confesses; so that if he denies the crime, his torments are aggravated; if he confesses it, his torments are soon ended. Hence it appears, that their design is not honestly to find out the truth by torture, but that they suppose the crime is real, although according to the laws of the inquisition it be only half proved, and then extort a confession of it. XIII. A thirteenth is, that whereas in other courts the number is certainly fixed how often the torture may be repeated, they have invented a method of torturing persons very often, without offending against the law, which provides that the tortures shall not be repeated above twice or thrice. If, for instance, they make use of the lesser tortures, and the prisoner confesses nothing, they afterwards make use of more grievous ones, then proceed to such as are more cruel, till at different intervals of time they have gone through all the several kinds of tortures. And this they do not call a repetition, but only a continuation of the torture; so that if any one hath been several times tortured, but with a different kind of torture each time, and hath thus at certain distances gone through all the kinds of torture, according to the opinion of these merciful casuists, he ought to be accounted as tortured only once. XIV. A fourteenth is, that when they deliver condemned persons to the secular arm, they intercede for them, that their punishment may be so moderated as to prevent shedding of blood, or danger of death. And in the mean while, if the magistrate is not ready to burn the heretics, or delays the punishment, they oblige him, under penalty of excommunication, to execute the sentence. The superstitious wretches are afraid they should become irregular, by delivering a criminal to the secular magistrate without intercession, and yet are not afraid of becoming irregular, by compelling the magistrate under penalty of excommunication to murder those whom they have condemned. Can any thing be more evident, than that this is nothing more than acting a part, and an affectation to be thought by the people to have no hand in the murder of which they are really the authors?