C O M P A R AT I V E S T U D Y women of having had sexual relations with them. The case fell under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition because it was reported that Salamon and Moyses had used heretical arguments to seduce the women and was dealt with by a Franciscan inquisitor, Johannes de Poggialli. De Poggialli called witnesses before him, examined them, and took their oaths, to tell the truth and, in the end, he did not find that the accusations against Salamon and Moyses were proven. It was rare that a judge in the Middle Ages would justify his decision, but Johannes de Poggialli did so. He examined the facts and concluded that “it was better to leave a crime unpunished than to condemn an innocent person”. These words are a reconnaissance to what would be stated by the English jurist William Blackstone three and a half centuries later in a sentence that will become famous in common law jurisprudence as Blackstone’s formulation: “the law holds that it is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent person suffer”.72 EARLY MODERN PERIOD AND AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT Early modern and Enlightenment period philosophers (ca. 1500 – 1800), affirmed the importance of reason and science and its prevalence over superstition and religion. The Enlightenment thinkers adhered to the doctrine of natural law which granted person certain inalienable rights since they pre-existed the state and were a heritage which belongs to every individual. The precise term “in dubio pro reo” appears for the first time in this period, in 1566, in Egidio Bossi’s treatise on criminal law doctrine.73 He writes “[Q] uod in dubio pro reo iudicandum est,”74 i.e. doubt must be adjudicated in favor of the accused.75 Less than a century later, in 1631, Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld (1591 – 1635) authored the Cautio Criminalis,76 a major critique of witch trials that led to their widespread abolition.77 Spee was a Jesuit priest and university professor who argued that torture (an instrument widely used to obtain confessions in witch trials) did not produce the truth.78 In this context, Spee repeatedly refers to the possible conviction of innocent people. Kenneth Pennington, Innocent Until Proven Guilty: The Origins of a Legal Maxim, The Jurist, 2004, p. 117. Egidio Bossi & Francesco Bossi, Tractatus Varii, Qui Omnem Fere Criminalem Materiam Excellenti Doctrina Complectuntur…458 (Apud Haeredes Iacobi Iunctae 1566) (hereinafter “Bossi”). 74 Bossi, p. 458. 75 Unofficial translation by author. 76 Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld, Cautio Criminalis Seu De Processibus Contra Sagas Liber (Petrus Lucius Typog. Acad. 1631) (hereinafter “Spee”). 77 Gottfried Wilhelm Freiherr von Leibniz et al., Herrn Gottfried Wilhelms Freyherrn von Leibniz Theodicee… 256 (Nicol. Försters und Sohns Erben 1744). 78 Wolfgang Sellert, Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld – Ein Streiter wider Hexenprozess und Folter, NJW 1222, 1224-26 (1986). 72 73 27