Medieval Ordeals Sought Facts While Witch Trials Extorted Forced Confessions
Peter Leeson · a16z Podcast | The Why Behind the Weird · Jan 2, 2019 · at 20:28
Peter Leeson, an economist studying historical institutions, contrasts medieval judicial ordeals with late-medieval and early-modern witchcraft prosecutions.
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“Ordeals are about finding fact when you don't know. They're about doing the same thing that contemporary legal systems do. But witch trials were about basically extorting confessions from people that you wanted to hear.”
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