In an Inquisition trial, the accused heard the statements against him read out, but never the names of those who had made them. That was the rule of secrecy, and it had an obvious consequence: there was no way to show that a witness was lying, was an enemy or had the wrong person.
The lawyer for Rafael Joaquín Valls, eldest son of the man burned in 1691, put it in his plea: «since the accused does not know the witnesses, their names and standing, he cannot allege and raise the defects and objections they very probably suffer from». He objected to them «in general terms, as a precaution», and trusted that «the merciful integrity of Your Lordship would make up for what his Defense could not reach for lack of Information».
The defense had been reduced to a plea for mercy.
And the lawyers were not entirely separate from the tribunal either. Juan Bautista Danús and Bernardino Bauçà defended several of the women accused in those years, among them Quiteria Martí and Violante Martí, and signed Moixina's death vote as consultants.
