| has gloss | eng: The torture of witches is the various acts of torment and persecution used against the accused during the witch-trials in Early Modern Europe. Varied from non-physical, to extremely painful and even death, these tortures were used primarily to coerce confessions from the accused and perhaps cause them to name their co-conspirators. The torture of witches quickly began to grow after 1468 when the Pope declared witchcraft to be crimen exeptum and thereby removed all legal limits on the application of torture in cases where evidence was difficult to find. With the publication of the Malleus Maleficarum in 1487 the accusations and torture of witches again began to increase, leading to the deaths of thousands. |
