Chapter X: Decline of the Torture System (9)

[1843] 7 Anne c. 21.—While thus legislating for the enlightenment of Scotland, the English majority took care to retain the equally barbarous practice of the _peine forte et dure_. This was commenced in 1275 simply as a “prisone forte et dure” (First Statute of Westminster, cap. xii.; Cf. Britton, cap. xi.) for felons refusing to plead, and speedily developed into starvation and nakedness (Fleta, Lib. I. cap. xxxii. § 33). Horne (Myrror of Justice, cap. I. § viii.; cap. II. § ix.) evidently regards as illegal “le horrible et perillous lien,” and treats as murder a death occasioned by it. In spite of this protest the process was rendered still more barbarous by piling weights of iron on the poor wretch, and finally the device of a press was adopted in which he was squeezed. In this shape it lost its original justification of wearing out his endurance and forcing him to plead either guilty or not guilty, and became a simple punishment of peculiar atrocity, for, after its commencement the prisoner was not allowed to plead, but was kept under the press until death, “donec oneris, frigoris atque famis cruciatu extinguitur” (Hale, Placit. Coron. c. xliii.). This relic of modern barbarism was not abolished until 1772, by 12 Geo. III. c. 20. The only case of its employment in America is said to have been that of Giles Cory, in 1692, during the witchcraft epidemic. Knowing the hopelessness of the trials, he refused to plead, and was duly pressed to death (Cobbett’s State Trials, VI. 680).

When the _peine forte et dure_ had become simply a punishment, it was sometimes replaced by a torture consisting of tying the thumbs together with whipcord until the endurance of the accused gave way and he consented to plead. This practice continued at least until so late as 1734. See an interesting essay by Prof. James B. Thayer, Harvard Law Review, Jan. 1892.

[1844] Rogers, _op. cit._ p. 301.

[1845] Herzog, Abriss der Gesammten Kirchengeschichte, II. 346.

[1846] His arguments are quoted and controverted by Simancas, Bishop of Badajos, in his Cathol. Institut. Tit. LXV. No. 7, 8.

[1847] Essais, Liv. II. chap. v.—This passage is little more than a plagiarism on St. Augustin, de Civ. Dei Lib. XIX. cap. vi.—Montaigne further illustrates his position by a story from Froissart (Liv. IV. ch. lviii.), who relates that an old woman complained to Bajazet that a soldier had foraged on her. The Turk summarily disposed of the soldier’s denial by causing his stomach to be opened. He proved guilty—but what had he been found innocent?

[1848] Bayle, Dict. Hist. s. v. _Grevius_.—Gerstlacheri Comment. de Quæst. per Torment. Francof. 1753, pp. 25-6.

[1849] Frid. Kelleri Paradoxon de Tortura in Christ. Repub. non exercenda. Reimp. Jenæ, 1688.

[1850] Déclaration du 24 Août, 1780 (Isambert, XXVII. 374).

[1851] Nicolas is careful to assert his entire belief in the existence of sorcery and his sincere desire for its punishment, and he is indignant at the popular feeling which stigmatized those who wished for a reform in procedure as “avocats des sorciers.”

[1852] Dict. Histor. s. v. _Grevius_.

[1853] Bernhardi Diss. Inaug. cap. II. §§ iv. x.—Bernhardi ventured on the use of very decided language in denunciation of the system.—“Injustam, iniquam, fallacem, insignium malorum promotricem, et denique omni divini testimonii specie destitutam esse hanc violentam torturam et proinde ex foris Christianorum rejiciendam intrepide assero” (Ibid. cap. I. § 1).

[1854] Meyer, Institutions Judiciaires, IV. 297. Even, then, however, the inquisitorial process was not abolished, and criminal procedure continued to be secret. For the rack and strappado were substituted prolonged imprisonment and other expedients to extort confession; and in 1803 direct torture was used in the case of Hendrik Janssen, executed in Amsterdam on the strength of a confession extracted from him with the aid of a bull’s pizzle.

[1855] An enumeration of the opponents of torture may be found in Gerstlacher’s Comment. de Quæst. per Tormenta, pp. 24-30, and Werner’s Dissert. de Tortura Testium, pp. 28-31.

[1856] M. A. Engel de Tortura ex Foris Christ. non proscribenda. Lipsiæ, 1733.

[1857] Jo. Frid. Werner Dissert. de Tortura Testium, Erford. 1724. Reimpr. Lipsiæ, 1742.

[1858] Carlyle, Hist. Friedrich II. Book XI. ch. i.

[1859] I find this statement in an account by G. F. Günther (Lipsiæ, 1838) of the abolition of torture in Saxony.

[1860] Günther, _op. cit._

[1861] Gerstlacheri Comment. de Quæst. per Tormenta, Francofurti, 1753, p. 56.

[1862] Goetzii Dissert. de Tortura, Lipsiæ, 1742, p. 24.

[1863] Constitutio Criminalis Theresiana, Wien, 1769.

[1864] Du Boys, Droit Criminel des Peuples Modernes, I. 620.

[1865] Instructions addressées par sa Majesté l’Impératrice de toutes les Russies à la Commission établie pour travailler à l’exécution du projet d’un Nouveau Code de Lois Art. X. §§ 82-87 (Pétersbourg 1769).—See also Grand Instructions of Catherine II., London, 1769, pp. 113-8.

[1866] Jardine, Use of Torture in England, p. 3.—Meyer, Institutions Judiciaires, T. I. p. xlvi.—T. II. p. 262.

[1867] Groot, Hist. Ecles. y Civil de Nueva Granada II. 79-80.

[1868] Toreno, Levantamiento, Guerra y Revolución de España, Paris, 1838, II. 371, 438.

[1869] Tant d’habiles gens et tant de beaux génies ont écrit contre cette pratique que je n’ose parler après eux. J’allois dire qu’elle pourroit convenir dans les gouvernements despotiques; où tout qui inspire la crainte entre plus dans les ressorts du gouvernement: j’allois dire que les esclaves, chez les Grecs et chez les Romains—— Mais j’entends la voix de la nature qui crie contre moi.—Liv. VI. ch. xvii.

[1870] Desmaze, Pénalités Anciennes, Pièces Justicatives p. 423.

[1871] Mary Lafon, Histoire du Midi de la France, T. IV. pp. 325-355.—The theory of the defence was that the murdered man had committed suicide; but this is incompatible with the testimony, much of which is given at length by Mary Lafon, a writer who cannot be accused of any leanings against Protestantism.

[1872] Chéruel, Dict. Hist. des Institutions de la France. P. II. p. 1220.

[1873] Déclaration du 24 Août 1780 (Isambert, XXVII. 373).

[1874] Desmaze, Pénalités Anciennes, pp. 176-77.

[1875] Déclaration du 3 Mai 1788, art. 8. “Nôtre déclaration du 24 Août sera exécutée” (Isambert, XXIX. 532).

[1876] Louīse, Sorcellerie et Justice Criminelle à Valenciennes, p. 96.

[1877] Isambert, XXIX. 529.—It is noteworthy, as a sign of the temper of the times, on the eve of the last convocation of the Notables, that this edict, which introduced various ameliorations in criminal procedure, and promised a more thorough reform, invites from the community at large suggestions on the subject, in order that the reform may embody the results of public opinion—“Nous élèverons ainsi au rang des lois les résultats de l’opinion publique.” This was pure democratic republicanism in an irregular form.

The edict also indicates an intention to remove another of the blots on the criminal procedure of the age, in a vague promise to allow the prisoner the privilege of counsel.

[1878] Dei Delitti e delle Pene, § XII.—The fundamental error in the prevalent system of criminal procedure was well exposed in Beccaria’s remark that a mathematician would be better than a legist for the solution of the essential problem in criminal trials—“Data la forza dei muscoli e la sensibilitá delle fibre di un innocente, trovare il grado di dolore che lo farà confessar reo di un dato delitto.”

[1879] Carlo di la Varenne, La Tortura in Sicilia, 1860.

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Transcriber’s note:

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected.

Variations in hyphenation have been standardised but all other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.