Yay! The Two Worst People In The World Are Going At It

[GoblinCampFollower]

As I understand it, the rationale for torturing suspected witches or heretics was pretty much the same as is, more recently, the rationale for torturing suspected spies, traitors, class enemies or members of al Qaeda -- to extract a confession and information about their confederates and their plans. The inquisitors and witch hunters had the additional motive that by to bring the suspected heretic or witch to confess and repent, they were offering them the opportunity to save their immortal soul and, thus, sparing them the pains of hell.

Other than that I don't see much difference between the rationales of torturers at any point in history, whether they're inquisitors, witch hunters, or interrogators for the Gestapo, KGB, CIA or anyone else who uses "enhanced interrogation techniques."

For information, yes. But that obviously requires some way to verify the information. If a lone "witch" is being tortured just to confess her sins with no way to verify anything, then it's a bit of a different situation. It's kind of related to the absurd belief that a witch would float in water. People died for these beliefs that couldn't be verified.

Medieval people believed that god wouldn't allow an innocent person to be tortured into confessing. My point is that, this is a VERY strong matter of fact belief in god that sounds alien to most modern people.