TORTURE, a violent pain inflicted on persons to
force them to confess the crimes laid to their charge,
or as a punishment for crimes committed.
Torture was never permitted among the Romans ex-
cept in the examination of slaves: it would therefore ap-
pear, that it was a general opinion among them, that a
slave had such a tendency to falsehood, that the truth
could only be extorted from him. To the disgrace of
the professors of Christianity, torture was long practised
by those who called themselves Catholics, against those
whom they termed heretics; that is, those who differed
in opinion, from themselves. Finding that they could
not bring over others to adopt their sentiments by the
force of argument, they judged it proper to compel them
by the force of punishment. This practice was very ge-
neral among orthodox Christians, but especially among
Roman Catholics. See INQUISITION.
By the law of England, torture was at one period em-
ployed to compel those criminals who stood obstinately
mute when brought to trial, and refused either to plead
guilty or not guilty; but it is now abolished (see AR-
RAIGNMENT, and RACK). A history of the machines
which have been invented to torture men, and an ac-
count of the instances in which they have been em-
ployed, would exhibit a dismal picture of the human
character.