More warrants were issued for the torture of Edmund Campion than anyone in English history. I was not looking forward to reading about his racking, but Gerard Kilroy wisely refrains from description. He makes the point that torture, always outside the common law of England (which is why the Privy Council issued warrants of immunity for the torturers), disgusted people in Elizabeth I’s reign as much as it does us.Campion was racked on 31 July, 7 and 14 August, and even more severely on 31 October and 2 November 1581. He gave the names of people who had entertained him in their houses, but revealed nothing of the confessions he had heard. The upshot was that the Privy Council set about arresting and questioning 500 leading Catholics, the breadth of the country. The Catholics were alie