Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, Part I, Chapter XIV
A covenant to accuse oneself, without assurance of pardon, is
likewise invalid. For in the condition of nature, where every man
is judge, there is no place for accusation: and in the civil state,
the accusation is followed with punishment; which being force, a man is not obliged not to resist. ... Also accusations upon torture, are not to be reputed as testimonies. For torture is to be used but as means of conjecture, and light, in the further examination, and search of truth: and what is in that case confessed, tendeth to the ease of him that is tortured; not to the informing of the torturers: and therefore ought not to have the credit of a sufficient testimony: for whether he deliver himself by true, or false accusation, he does it by the right of preserving his own life.
Accessed from http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/585 on 2009-08-21
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