Andreas was skeptical about the existence of witches. Accusations of witchcraft can be filed even without a victim, but aside from that period forty years ago, most special trials have ended in acquittal.
"Guilty verdicts come down when the accused is a heathen or when the evidence is solid. There have been almost no convictions resting on nothing but rumor, as in this case."
"Then how exactly does Father Nikolaus plan to prove it?"
"Outrageously, that priest, who isn't even a trained torturer, was poring over texts on torture!"
"Don't tell me he means to torture her in the middle of the trial..."
Torture was a common method of interrogation in the medieval era, but using it at a public trial like this was rare. Torturing someone to death at the execution grounds, maybe, but this?
When Andreas confronted him, demanding to know why they should be studying texts on torture, Father Nikolaus insisted that torture was an excellent means of quickly separating truth from lies.
