Interrogatorio dell'imputato e tortura nel "Directorium inquisitorum" di Nicolas Eymerich e Francisco Pena

The Directorium inquisitorum (1376) is the manual par excellence of the medieval inquisitorial process, the work of the Dominican Catalan Nicolas Eymerich, of which the Aragonese Francisco Peña oversaw an edition enriched and updated with their comments and insights (1578). The anti-heretical process was all centered on the interrogation of the accused, to induce him to incriminate through a full confession of the fact and of the intention with which it was committed, putting naked along the lines of sacramental confession, in a position of penitent in front of his confessor. All this with the notable difference that the confessor already, at least in part, supposed to know what the criminal-sinner was invited to also disclose, if necessary, by application to the rigorosa quaestio.