Torture As a Substitute for Criminal Investigation

For more than 500 years in Europe, from the 1200s to the 1700s, including the heyday of the Renaissance, torturing accused criminals was standard operating procedure most everywhere except England. This was the primary means of determining guilt in a criminal investigation, not eyewitnesses, not physical evidence, but confession. One of the prime reasons that the practice of torture survived and thrived was the stamp of approval given it early on by the enormously influential Catholic Church.

Richard Zacks, An Underground Education, 1997