Inquisizione, eresia, tortura: norme, pratiche e dottrine del processo penale medievale

The author tackles the matter of the legal foundations of three salient aspects of late medieval criminal procedure: the procedure per inquisitionem, which was based on the judge's initiative; the repression of heresy, the gravity of which was elevated by the Church to a crimen laesae maiestatis; finally, the practice of torture, which was common to both secular and anti-heretical procedure. As for the latter, the author provides an in-depth analysis by commenting the points of view of the jurists Bartolus de Saxoferrato (1313/14-1357/58) and Baldus de Ubaldis (1327-1400) by analysing, respectively, the commentaries on the corpus iuris civilis and two consilia. Special attention is given to the second consilium where Baldus provides a report of the torture inflicted in 1387 to the Queen of Aragon. By doing this, the author shows how there was a gap between the judicial practice, including a fairly common application of torture, and the ‘guarantism’ involved by the doctrine.