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Book 5 - Chapter 4
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Of evidence exacted by torture.
1. THE case is similar with regard to evidence exacted by torture, which is a frequent subject of discussion, as one side will call torture an infallible means for discovering truth, the other will represent it as a cause of the utterance of falsehood, because to some persons, the ability to endure makes lying easy, to others weakness renders it necessary. To what purpose should I say more on this subject? The pleadings of the ancients and the moderns are alike full of instances. 2. Yet under this head, there will be circumstances peculiar to certain cases, for if the question be about applying the torture, it will make a great difference who it is that demands it, and whom he demands or offers for it, and against whom, and from what motive; or, if the torture has been applied, who presided at it, who it was that was tortured, and how; whether he uttered what was incredible or consistent; whether he persisted in his first assertions, or made any change in them; whether he confessed at the commencement of the torture, or after it had proceeded for some time; questions which are as numberless as the variety of cases.
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