Note 527 — Chapter IX · WITCHCRAFT.
Reading edition
Gregor. PP. XV, Const. Omnipotentis Dei, 20 Mart. 1623 (Bullar. Roman., III, 498).
Urban VIII was equally savage in 1631, in ordering relaxation for any one who should consult diviners or astrologers about the state of the Christian Republic, or the life of the pope or of any of his kindred to the third degree (Bullar. IV, 184).
It was probably under this that the Inquisition, in 1634, relaxed Giacinto Centini and two of his accomplices and condemned four others to the galleys. He was nephew of the Cardinal of Ascoli, and procured from a diviner a forecast that Urban would die in a few years and would be succeeded by his uncle. To hasten accomplishment, figurines of wax were made representing Urban and were melted. Centini, as a noble, was beheaded and his two most guilty accomplices were hanged, before being burnt.—Royal Library of Munich, Cod. Ital. 29, fol. 104-18.