Note 898 — Chapter II · SUPEREMINENCE.
Reading edition
Bullar. Roman. II, 198.
This was by no means allowed to be a dead letter in Italy. In 1590 we chance to hear of the Inquisitor of Cremona relaxing to the secular arm three offenders under the bull. In some cases however of wounding or threatening witnesses, the galleys were substituted for capital punishment. There was, moreover, a spirit of conciliation in the Roman Inquisition offering a marked contrast to that of Spain. When, in 1635, at Macerata, some laymen were arrested for wounding certain officials of the tribunal and a question arose as to jurisdiction, the Congregation ordered the civil governor to try the cases as its delegate and not to apply the bull Si de protegendis, as the wounding had not arisen out of hostility to the Holy Office.—Decreta Sacr. Congr. Sti Officii, pp. 34, 202 (R. Archivio di Stato in Roma, Fondo Camerale, Congr. del S. Offizio, Vol. 3).