496 MISCELLANEOUS RECOLLECTIONS -II 



and punishment. Much time during two or three years 

 was given to this subject, and a winter at Stuttgart in 

 1877-1878 was entirely devoted to it. In the course of 

 these studies I realized as never before how much dog 

 matic theology and ecclesiasticism have done to develop 

 and maintain the most frightful features in penal law. I 

 found that in Greece and Borne, before the coming in of 

 Christianity, torture had been reduced to a minimum and, 

 indeed, had been mainly abolished ; but that the doctrine 

 in the mediaeval church as to &quot;Excepted Cases &quot; 

 namely, cases of heresy and witchcraft, regarding which 

 the theological dogma was developed that Satan would 

 exercise his powers to help his votaries had led to the 

 reestablishment of a system of torture, in order to baffle 

 and overcome Satan, far more cruel than any which pre 

 vailed under paganism. 



I also found that, while under the later Eoman emper 

 ors and, in fact, down to the complete supremacy of Chris 

 tianity, criminal procedure grew steadily more and more 

 merciful, as soon as the church was established in full 

 power yet another theological doctrine came in with such 

 force that it extended the use of torture from the &quot;Ex- 

 cepted Cases&quot; named above to all criminal procedure, 

 and maintained it, in its most frightful form, for more 

 than a thousand years. This new doctrine was that since 

 the Almighty punishes his erring children by tortures in 

 finite in cruelty and eternal in duration, earthly author 

 ities may justly imitate this divine example so far as their 

 finite powers enable them to do so. I found this doctrine 

 not only especially effective in the mediaeval church, but 

 taking on even more hideous characteristics in the Protes 

 tant Church, especially in Germany. On this subject I 

 collected much material, some of it very interesting and 

 little known even to historical scholars. Of this were 

 original editions of the old criminal codes of Europe and 

 later criminal codes in France and Germany down to the 

 French Eevolution, nearly all of which were enriched with 

 engravings illustrating instruments and processes of tor- 



