Torture and Its Uses

Torture and Its Uses

Torture was used to get confessions out of accused witches. This type of torture was described as judicial torture by Levack. Torture is inflicting pain either physically or psychologically, it is inhuman and degrading punishment.  In class we discussed the Pappenheimer family who were tortured so they would confess to killing a pregnant woman. This family of a mother father and four sons were all tortures and killed due to the amount of torture inflicted on them. They were tortured physically and mentally. The father was the last to be tortured and faced the most punishment, in my opinion, because he watched his family go through all the different torture techniques.

The judicial torture developed into a more reasonable system after the thirteenth century. Before the degrees of torture there was accuses and then immediate torture to get confessions. The degree of torture was a system that judges used to extract confessions. First degree of torture was simply asking if the accused if he or she was a witch. Second degree of torture was to show the accused the torture instruments. The third degree of torture was to prepare for torture. The fourth degree was to do small torture punishments to the accused witch for example, thumbscrews. The fifth degree of torture was to advance in the amount of punishment and use things like the witches chair.

There are multiple different torture techniques and equipment used during the witch trials. Some images I saw put me into uneasy state. The type of torture techniques I saw were hard for me to even think about let alone would I be able to stomach the thought of watching it happen. During this time watching witches being tortured was a public event and the town would come and watch it happen.  How do you feel about the different torture techniques?