TORTURE. Examination by torture, otherwise called "the question," has largely used in many countries as a judicial instrument for extracting evidence from unwilling witnesses, or confessions from accused persons. In ancient Athens, slaves were always examined by torture, and their evidence seems on this account to have been deemed more valuable than that of freemen. Any one might offer his own slave, or demand that of his opponent, to be examined by torture; and it was supposed to consti tute a strong presumption against any one that he refused to give up his slave for that purpose. • No free Athenian could be examined by torture, but torture seems occasion ally to have been used in executing criminals. Under the Roman republic, only slaves. could be tortured, and, as a general rule, they could not be tortured to establish their master's guilt. Under the empire, torture, besides being much used in examining slaves, was occasionally inflicted even on freemen, to extract evidence of the crime of lam majestas. Cicero and other enlightened Romans wholly condemned its use. Until the 13th c., torture seems to have been unknown to the canon law; about that period, the Roman treason-law began to be adapted to heresy as crimen &me majestatis Didna. decree of pope Innocent IV. iu 1282, calling on civil magistrates to put persons accused of heresy to the torture, to elicit confessions against themselves and others, was probably the earliest instance of ecclesiastical sanction being adhibited to this mode of exami nation. At a later period, however, torture came to be largely employed by the inquisitors.
From the civil war, torture became a part of the legal system of most European coun tries. It was adopted early, and to a large extent, by the Italian municipalities. In Germany, elaborate apparatus for its infliction existed, not merely in the dungeons of the feudal castles, but in the vaults beneath the town-halls of Nuremberg and Ratisbon, where the various implements used are yet to be seen. It continued to be practiced in the prisons of Germany when they were visited by Howard in 1770. In France it was part of the judicial system till 1789, and in Scotland it was still in frequent use after the restoration, and was only abolished by 7 Anne, c. 21, s. 5.
The use of torture seems always to have been repugnant to the genius of the law of England: though occasionally used by an exercise of prerogative, it may be doubted whether it was ever recognized as lawful in the ordinary course of the administration of justice. The first instance we have of its use is in 1310, in aid of the ecclesiasti cal law, during the struggle between pope Clement V. and the templars. Edward II.,
when applied to to sanction the infliction of torture by the inquisitors in the case of certain templars accused of heresy and apostasy, at first refused; but on a remon strance by Clement, he referred the matter to the council; and on the recommenda tion of the council, the inquisitors were authorized to put the accused to the torture, but without mutilation or serious injury to the person, or effusion of the blood. During the Tudor period, the council assumed the power of directing torture-warrants to the lieutenant of the Tower, and other officers, against state prisoners, and occasion ally also against persons accused of other serious crimes; and similar warrants were at. times issued under the sign-manual. Under James I. and Charles I., torture was less resorted to, and only in state trials. In 1628, in the case of Felton, the assassin of ilie duke of Buckingham, the judges declared the examination of the accused by torture, for the purpose of discovering his accomplices, to be illegal. Torture was inflicted for the last time in England in May, 1640. It is now disused in all countries of Europe, and is universally acknowledged to have been a most unsatisfactory mode of getting at the truth; often leading the innocent, from weakness of body, to plead guilty to crimes which he had not committed.
The instruments of judicial torture have been various. The most celebrated is the rack, an oblong horizontal frame, on which the accused was stretched, while cords, attached to his legs and arms, were gradually strained by a lever or windlass, an opera tion which, when carried to extreme severity, dislocated the joints of the wrists and ankles. It is as old as the 2d c. in the south of Europe, but is said to have been unknown in England till introduced into the Tower by the duke of Exeter. constable of the Tower, whence it acquired the name of the " duke of Exeter's daughter." In Germany, the rack was sometimes furnished with a roller, armed with spikes, rounded 'off, Over which the sufferer was drawn backward and forward. A vertical rack was also in use in that country. The person subjected to it was raised to the roof by a rope attached to his arms, which were bound behind his back, and two heavy stones having been attached to his feet, the rope was loosened so as to let him fall with a jerk to within few inches of the ground. Among the lesser tortures may be mentioned the thumbikins, boots, pincers, and manacles; and in England, an instrument called the Scavenger's (properly Skeffington's) daughter, the invention of sir William Skeffing ton, lieutenant of the Tower in the reign of Henry VI U.