The Court opened; witnesses were examined; the accused were acquitted or condemned.

Then sentence was pronounced, to which the bishop or his delegate, often an Inquisitor, gave a formal sanction.

Finally, the heretic was handed over to the secular arm for the execution of justice.

The extraordinary expenses of the tribunal were defrayed by confiscation of goods, a certain portion being paid to the district in which the crime had occurred, the rest being reserved for the maintenance of the Holy Office.
Such, roughly speaking, was the method of the Inquisition before 1484; and it did not materially differ in Italy and Spain.

Castile had hitherto been free from the pest.