[Elsie]

At the time it was used, it was thought of as a sound interrogation technique. We would not use it today.

So; the 'church' was wrong.

Ineresting...

[annalex]

the 'church' was wrong.

Well, yes. Why the quotes? The Church is also people who have their beliefs that they get from the contemporary culture. Prelates believed at some time that the earth was flat, that the sky is hard, that torture reveals a true testimony, that distance and time do not depend on the movement of the reference point, etc. But the Church never taught geography, astrophysics, criminalistics, laws of Newton... We rely on the general culture for that, and we may get things wrong.