Editing Medieval Inquisition (section)

===Trial===
At the beginning of the trial, defendants were invited to name those who had "mortal hatred" against them. If the accusers were among those named, the defendant was set free and the charges dismissed; the accusers would face life imprisonment. This option was meant to keep the inquisition from becoming involved in local grudges. Early legal consultations on conducting inquisition stress that it is better that the guilty go free than that the innocent be punished. Gregory IX urged Conrad of Marburg: "''ut puniatur sic temeritas perversorum quod innocentiae puritas non laedatur''" – i.e., "not to punish the wicked so as to hurt the innocent".<ref name=blotzer/>

There was no personal confrontation of witnesses, neither was there any cross-examination. Witnesses for the defense hardly ever appeared, as they would almost infallibly be suspected of being heretics or favorable to heresy. At any stage of the trial the accused could appeal to Rome.<ref name=blotzer/>