Although the inquisitor hardly seems like a sympathetic figure to the modern eye, in fact his job was not an easy one, especially when it came to trials involving witchcraft and other occult phenomena. The Roman Inquisition was a relatively new institution with incomplete and sometimes conflicting guidance available to inquisitors facing the conflicting testimony of recalcitrant or dishonest witnesses, ambiguous evidence, and the variant approaches to discerning the supernatural one observes in these trials. At the same time, Rome was increasingly concerned about procedural irregularities and constantly pressured local tribunals, including Venice, to be more diligent and procedurally rigorous in their investigations. The Church hierarchy readily intruded on the local inquisitors’ activities, second-guessing and over-ruling them. It is now time for us, too, to put the inquisitors under scrutiny. So far in this study, we have been using inquisition trials to examine the views of nature and the supernatural held by early modern Venetians by “looking over the judges’ shoulders, dogging their footsteps” as Carlo Ginzburg put it. But in this chapter, we will put the ecclesiastical authorities of Venice and Rome in the dock and examine their views.