Nos tamen cum sacrilegos aliquos et incestos, parricidas etiam defendendos et tuendos suscipiebamus, hos nec audiendos in totum putabamus, ut torqueremus confitentes ad negandum, videlicet ne perirent, exercentes in his perversam quaestionem, non quae verum erueret, sed quae mendacium cogeret.
At the time when we used to undertake the defence and protection of cases of sacrilege or incest or even murders, we regarded Christians as not even entitled to a hearing; sometimes under pretence of pity, with savage cruelty we tortured those who confessed, to make them deny, in order to save their lives; in their case we reversed the usual practice, employing torture not to elicit truth, but to compel falsehood.
final_alignments\Minucius_Felix_Octavius.json