True in the Salem witchhunts. Largely true in England, I think. Not sure whether this is true in other European countries.
Um, I didn't pay enough attention in History lessons, but weren't the puritans anti-catholic? -- DrBob
torture was an absolute norm in judicial procedures until quite recently in the entire world. It still is in big chunks of the world. This needs to reflect that. Indeed, our most horrific descriptions of torture are usually NOT witchcraft trials, but proceedings against those accused of treason. The execution of witches was usually also more pleasant (if any execution can be called so) than the execution of traitors (drawing and quartering was not used for witches commonly; the 'drawing' part means extracting the entrails while the victim is still alive and roasting them. Quartering was usually done after death, but they didn't always wait for death before starting.). --MichaelTinkler