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MALLEUS MALEFICARUM Part III · Question XIII

The question of torture and how it should be applied

The argument

Torture is permitted to extract confession, but the inquisitor should begin with stripping and examination for devil's marks. Torture should be applied gradually. If the accused confesses under torture, the confession must be repeated 'freely' the next day to be valid.

Let her be placed on the strappado or the rack, and let the notary record her words. And if after being fittingly tortured she refuses to confess, let other means be applied on the second or third day.

— Kramer & Sprenger, 1487

Modern response

Brian Levack (The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe, 2006) demonstrates that the requirement to 'freely' repeat a tortured confession was a legal fiction — victims knew they would be tortured again if they recanted.