I so. THE TORTURE. 349
superstitious and more sceptical, but quite as despotic and in tolerant. It forms one of the darkest chapters in history. For centuries this atrocious system, opposed to the Mosaic legislation and utterly revolting to every Christian and humane feeling, was employed in civilized Christian countries, and sacrificed thousands of human beings, innocent as well as guilty, to tor ments worse than death.
The torture was unknown among the Hindoos and the Semitic nations, but recognized by the ancient Greeks and Romans, as a regular legal proceeding. It was originally con fined to slaves who were deemed unfit to bear voluntary testi mony, and to require force to tell the truth.1 Despotic emperors extended it to freemen, first in cases of crimcn Iccsoe majestatls. Pontius Pilate employed the scourge and the crown of thorns in the trial of our Saviour. Tiberius exhausted his ingenuity in inventing tortures for persons suspected of conspiracy, and took delight in their agony. The half-insane Caligula enjoyed the cruel spectacle at his dinner-table. Nero resorted to this cruelty to extort from the Christians the confession of the crime of incendiarism, as a pretext of his persecution, which he intensified by the diabolical invention of covering the innocent victims with pitch and burning them as torches in his gardens. The younger Pliny employed the torture against the Christians in
1 "Their evidence was inadmissible, except when given under torture, and then by a singular confusion of logic, it was estimated as the most convincing kind of testimony." Lea, 283. "The modes of torture sanctioned by the Greeks were the wheel (r/'o^f), the ladder or rack (K/U'//a£), the comb with sharp teeth (fcwpof), the low vault (tcvfuv) in which the unfortunate witness was thrust and bent double, the burning tiles (-l.ii'Soi), the heavy hog-skin whip (ioTptxif), and the injection of vinegar into the nostrils." Lea, p. 284. The Romans used chiefly the scourge. The instruments of torture employed during the middle ages were the rack, the thumbscrew, the Spanish boot, iron gauntlets, heated iron stools, fire, the wheel, the strappado, enforced sleepless ness, and various mutilations. Brace says (p. 182) that ''nine hundred (?) different instruments for inflicting pain were invented and used." One tenth of the number would be bad enough. Collections of these devilish instru ments may be seen in the London Tower, and in antiquarian museums on th« Continent.
350 FOURTH PEKIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
Bithynia as imperial governor. Diocletian, in a formal edict, submitted all professors of the hated religion to this degrading test. The torture was gradually developed into a regular sys tem and embodied in the Justinian Code. Certain rules were prescribed, and exemptions made in favor of the learned pro fessions, especially the clergy, nobles, children below fourteen, women during pregnancy, etc. The system was thus sanctioned by the highest legal authorities. But opinions as to its efficiency differed. Augustus pronounced the torture the best form of proof. Cicero alternately praises and discredits it. Ulpian, with more wisdom, thought it unsafe, dangerous, and deceitful.
Among the Northern barbarians the torture was at first un known except for slaves. The common, law of England does not recognize it. Crimes were regarded only as injuries to individuals, not to society, and the chief resource for punish ment was the private vengeance of the injured party. But if a slave, who was a mere piece of property, was suspected of a theft, his master would flog him till he confessed. All doubtful questions among freemen were decided by sacramental purgation and the various forms of ordeal. But in Southern Europe, where the Roman population gave laws to the conquering bar barians, the old practice continued, or revived with the study of the Roman law. In Southern France and in Spain the torture was an unbroken ancestral custom. Alfonso the Wise, in the thirteenth century, in his revision of Spanish jurispru dence, known as Las Side Partidas, retained the torture, but declared the person of man to be the noblest thing on earth,1 and required a voluntary confession to make the forced con fession valid. Consequently the prisoner after torture was brought before the judge and again interrogated ; if he recanted, he was tortured a second, in grave cases, a third time ; if he persisted in his confession, he was condemned. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the system of torture was
1 " La persona del home es la mas noble cosa del mundo."