There is a huge mass of records of individual cases which have only begun to be explored, and they generally attest to the scrupulousness of the Inquisitors, notaries, and other officials in ***owing these regulations. No one could be arrested without some kind of evidence of guilt in hand, so whatever evidence had been supplied (usually by denunciations) was examined and a vote was taken before the inquisition proceeded to arrest. After that, the suspect was imprisoned for the duration of the trial, but before charges were formally brought against him or her–and this could take months–the suspect appeared before the tribunal and was questioned and admonished, or warned. The suspect could confess at any point – that would shorten the trial and lighten the punishment. If he or she didn’t confess, at least fully, at the first audience, two more attempts would be made and then a formal accusation was made.
The Inquisitors tended to be very rationalistic and for the most part didn’t believe there was such a thing as witchcraft. So, there was really only one outstanding episode of witch hunting in the 350-odd years of the Inquisition’s existence. This took place in the north of Spain in the Kingdom of Navarre, from 1609-1611. In fact, most scholars agree that Spain was notably free of witch trials in comparison to the rest of Europe.
Did the Inquisition use torture on prisoners?
Well, yes. But not as much as most people think. It didn’t apply torture indiscriminately. Most prisoners were not tortured at all. Torture was highly regulated. It took a lot of manpower and it was time consuming. It was only applied for two reasons. A) to gain a confession from a prisoner who was reluctant to confess, or B), to gain information about other heretics, more names to prosecute. So, if the tribunal was satisfied that a prisoner, after being interrogated, had confessed and supplied the information that was wanted, and this happened frequently, then they wouldn’t call for torture. The elderly and the sick wouldn’t be tortured. Whenever torture was administered, a physician was expected to be present in order to suspend the proceedings if they felt that the prisoner’s life was in danger. So, it was not automatic, it was not indiscriminate, and it was actually much more regulated than torture in civil courts at this time.
