“Look now, I pity you who are so deluded in your credulity, and whose soul is being lost; you are at fault, but the greater fault lies with him who has instructed you in these things. Do not, then, take the sin of others upon yourself, and do not make yourself out a master in matters in which you have been no more than a pupil. Confess the truth to me, because, as you see, I already know the whole affair. And so that you may not lose your reputation, and that I may shortly liberate and pardon you and you may go your ways home, tell me who has led you--you who knew no evil--into this error.” By similar kind words (_bona verba_), always imperturbable (_sine turbatione_), let the inquisitor proceed, assuming the main fact to be true and confining his questions to the circumstances. Pegna adds another formula, which he says was employed by Fr. Ivonet. Thus: “Do not fear to confess all. You will have thought they were good men who taught you so-and-so; you lent ear to them freely in that belief, etc.... You have behaved with credulous simplicity towards people whom you believed good and of whom you knew no evil. It might very well happen to much wiser men than you to be so mistaken.”[101] Thus was the wretch coaxed to self-betrayal, caressed and stroked by the velvet glove that muffled and dissembled the iron hand within. In the case of a heretic against whom the witnesses have not supplied matter for complete conviction, let him be brought before the inquisitor and let the inquisitor question him at random. When the accused shall have denied something (_quando negat hoc vel illud_) that has been put to him, let the inquisitor take up the minutes of the preceding examinations, turn the leaves and say: “It is clear that you conceal the truth; cease to employ dissimulation.” Thus the accused may suppose that he is convicted, and that the minutes supply proof against him. Or let the inquisitor hold a document in his hand, and when the accused denies, let him feign astonishment and exclaim: “How can you deny such a thing? Is it not clear to me?” He will then peruse his document anew, making changes, and then reading once more, let him say, “I was right! Speak, then, since you perceive that I know.” The inquisitor must be careful not to enter into any details that might betray his ignorance to the accused. Let him keep to generalities. If the accused persists in his denial, the inquisitor may tell him that he is about to set out upon a journey and that he doesn’t know when he will be returning. Thus: “Look now, I pity you, and I wanted you to tell me the truth, for I am anxious to expedite the affair and yourself. But since you are obstinate in refusing to confess, I must leave you in prison and in irons until I return; and I am sorry, because I do not know when I shall return.” [Illustration: _Photo by Donald Macbeth._ TOLEDO. From Colmenar’s “Délices d’Espagne.”]