They were also greeted with great pomp and warmth by the ecclesiastical people of Foligno, and Bishop Picromini and his entourage settled at the cathedral, where they met two Dominican blackfriars and the Inquisition, Heinrich? Kramer and Jacob? Sblenger, whose name was heard even by Bishop Picromini, who had been banished from Rome, wrote together a book entitled The Secrets of Witchcraft, which detailed the ghosts, vampires, zombies, and a series of horrific things about the devil.

In addition to these, Bishop Picromini knew that they were working on a book called "The Witch's Mallet", which listed as many methods as possible to find, identify witchcraft, examine witches, and inflict various punishments on witches, and it is said that tens of thousands of monks and clergy had read their latest chapters eagerly, but in the opinion of Bishop Picomini, it was probably too much and too detailed to describe the female body and certain behaviors.

To Bishop Picromini's annoyance, Kramer, in order to prove the methods mentioned in his book, hired an aging woman, stuffed her into a baker's oven, and claimed that the devil had brought her here, and she pretended to be possessed by the devil, calling out the names of the witches one by one, begging them to come and save her, and then Kramer arrested all the "witches" according to the names she shouted. Of course, according to the method of identifying witches' mallets, not a single innocent person could be found among these witches—and when the flames rose, the bridge that led the two black-clad friars to the bright and smooth path was laid.

Kremer and Sblenger, who had also heard of Picromini's name, kissed Bishop Picromini's ring, a practice that the Franciscans despised as too worldly and lowly, while the Dominican friars had the opposite view and even bowed to the young Father Valencia. None of them looked like men of the kind who were fierce in the eyes of the people, and Kramer, though with a serious expression, made his round figure and swollen cheeks look somewhat amiable, and the white cotton robe was elegantly folded, and the black burqa on the outside was embroidered with a running hound, which was quite common, as the Dominican friar often called himself "the Lord's guard dog". Sbleanger was a little younger than Kramer, but his hair was not as lush as the former, and after shaving into the St. Peter's style commonly used by the Church in Rome (i.e., a small round blank in the middle of the hair), his hair was strangely raised to the sides, like the two horns of the devil.

"Is it because Juneteenth (where St. John, San Pedro and San Antonio were all born) is approaching?" ”

"Not only that," replied Brother Kramer, "we had a trial not long ago, and tomorrow is the day of execution. ”

"Them?"

"Yes, one hundred and fifty-six in all, sixty-two men, ninety-four women, Jews, heathens, Protestants, and shamans, on charges of ****, believing heresy, abducting women and children, stealing and mutilating corpses, sharing a slept with the devil, devouring babies, etc., and my Lord is merciful, and only five witches who are unrepentant and unrepentant will be burned at the stake." Kramer came together with joy, and then, as in the Eucharistic Feast in Spero, Bishop Picromini, as the highest clergy in Foligno, would walk at the head of the procession and sit with the Inquisitors as he watched the execution.

The next day after the morning prayers, the procession departed, and the Dominican friars marched at the front with Dominican banners, followed by Bishop Picromini, and Giulio and Valencia, each with two strong monks, lest the angry crowd lose control and storm the procession, followed by the Inquisitors led by Kramer and Sbränger, and then by a group of clergy with portraits and statues of saints, and with them were the sinners of today— They were surrounded by people who were willing to accompany them, as well as soldiers and knights who were in charge of monitoring them, and each sinner had a large candle in his hand, illuminating their haggard and pale faces, and the penitential garments they wore had different patterns and colors, which could be roughly divided into three types: one was a yellow garment depicting a large cross, indicating that the sinner had repented and would be imprisoned or exiled; One is white, depicting a red flame, but the flame is downward, indicating that he, though guilty, may be put to death, but not at the stake; The last garment is gray and depicts dancing demons and flames, and needless to say, these people will be burned at the stake.

The procession staggered around the city of Foenho, both to deter the hateful heretics and witches, and to give the common people a chance to vent to their heart's content, and in normal times, they were relegated to the lowest level, bullied and oppressed, but today there are finally a few more despicable creatures who can make them happily scold, shove, and humiliate. Especially the five women in gray robes, whose blood-red eyes glared at them, as if they could see through the rough cloth and see their exposed bodies under the temptation of the devil, they talked and envied the magistrates, for all the women accused of being witches were stripped of all their clothes as soon as they entered the courtroom, lest they should hurt and deceive others by the devil's charms, and the magistrates could also touch their birthmarks with their hands, or prick their skin with needles to determine whether they were married to the devil; Of the five, the youngest, with her good figure and beautiful face, was most insulted and tormented, the men's arms crossed the soldiers to knead her arms and chest, the women scratched her face with their nails, she was pushed to the ground, her robe was lifted down to reveal her unbearable scars, the poor girl looked upward, but even the portraits and statues of the saints did not want to show her good and benevolent faces, she stretched out her arms helplessly, but received no help.

A man walked over quickly, he didn't care what others thought, he just pulled the girl up and stuffed her back into the line: "Don't delay the adults! He shouted gruffly. The thugs surrounding the girl immediately let out a cry of displeasure, and when they found out that it was a strange face, they even tried to push him into the ranks of sinners, but the stranger immediately put his hand on his belt, from which hung a dagger and a rapier, and his raised face had a hideous scar that pulled from his mouth all the way to his left ear, cutting his face in half, "Demon! The people exclaimed, like ants scattered by boiling water, and fled in a hurry.

The goldsmith of the Medici retracted his steps, and sighed inwardly, for the girl had a lips that were more delicate than any other woman, and eyes like those of a doe, and dark chestnut, curly hair, and few blemishes except for a slightly hooked nose, though it was not known how she had been accused of being a witch...... But most of it had to do with her beauty, or her father's wealth—the goldsmith had engraved this face in his mind, and in the future, this sinner's face would be revived by the smoothest pearl or shell, and then it would be cherished and praised by countless people, and perhaps someone would seek the source of this beautiful face, not knowing that its owner had long since turned to ashes.

Five burns had been erected at the stake in the square where the executions were to be carried out, and more than a hundred sinners had been escorted to the bottom of the platform, with Bishop Picomini sitting in the center, and the magistrates on either side, with a long table covered with scarlet velvet in front of them, with cushions at their feet, and behind them were their favorite disciples or heirs, "Don't go away," Bishop Picomini had warned before: "Don't turn your head, don't look away." "He's also considered having Julio. Whether the Medici came into contact with these things too soon, but he could not be sure, anything could happen anywhere, at any time, but his presence and his absence were two different things altogether.

The wind stirred the golden canopy over their heads, the precious silk rustled in the wind, the sky suddenly darkened, and the crowd let out a wave-like sigh, "Why should they sigh?" A reckless young monk asked.

"Because they don't want it to rain." Kramer, who sat to the left of Bishop Picromini, explained leisurely: "Generally speaking, if it suddenly rains when a heretic is to be burned at the stake, there are two consequences, one is to be executed another day, and the other is to pour oil into the firewood and continue the execution. Of course, if it were me, I would choose another day, because damp firewood causes smoke, and the smoke will choke people to death, brother, so that they will die unconsciously, without feeling the slightest pain that they should receive. ”

As Kramer answered, the clouds suddenly cleared, and the sun cast down, and they heard another sigh, but this time with a sigh of relief and joy.

The execution generally begins with the lightest crime, from captivity, to exile, then whipping, shackles and standing cages, some people are hanged, some are beheaded, the cheers of the people are stronger than a while, and when it is time to carry out the burning at the stake, there are even people who are so excited that they faint, and the people around him immediately give him lemonade, and he wakes up and does not lose the opportunity to watch the best programs.

Relative to the excited spectators, the five women who were about to be burned at the stake had almost all fainted, but they were eventually dragged up and chained to the stake, and the monks who had been following Kramer and Sblanger were very good at handling these chores, they tied the witches' robes into chains, and then began to pile up firewood under their feet, each pile of firewood to their knees, dry and airy, so that they could be burned alive and died— The witches kept shouting for repentance and atonement, but there were always clergy striding around the crowd with icons, declaring that the devil was lying with their throats.

And while the monks were piling up firewood at the feet of the young Jewish girl, a Jewish man rushed in, with a beard and a strange hat, and as soon as he saw Kramer he knelt down, and before the soldiers dragged him out, he took out a small box from his bosom, and Kramer made a gesture, and the disciples behind him immediately ran down quietly, and leaned down in front of the Jews, as if asking for something, but in fact he had hidden the box in his sleeve, the box was small, but the weight was amazing, The monk's black robe was crooked.

After a while, another monk came down from the high platform, and he said a few words to his colleagues who were holding the icon, and the Jewish girl was pulled down from the stake, and a monk carried a rope, put her around her neck, strangled her, and then hung her body back at the stake. The other witches were also howling for repentance, for the right to be hanged and then burned, but they were either ugly prostitutes or widowed old women, and the monks could not deprive the people of all their joys, so they were burned to blackened corpses in their wailing.

The old Jewish man, who had been kneeling in the midst of the joyous crowd, barely noticed him, wept and laughed as he watched his bud-like daughter hanged and burned to charcoal, and he followed the open-top carriage dragging the witch's bones to the river—witches were not allowed to be buried, they had to be thrown into the river, and when the crisp and charred bones of his daughter were thrown into the river, her father jumped with him.