Burning fires The accession of Mary I Tudor to the throne in 1553 meant a revolution in the relationship between state politics and the Church. The queen's main goal was to return England to the Catholic Church. Just like her predecessors, Mary used for this

This term meant clarifying the circumstances of a case by investigation, usually through interrogation, often with the use of force. Torture came in hundreds of varieties.

Chinese bamboo torture

A notorious method of terrible Chinese execution throughout the world. Perhaps a legend, because to this day not a single documentary evidence has survived that this torture was actually used.

Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants on Earth. Some of its Chinese varieties can grow a full meter in a day. Some historians believe that the deadly bamboo torture was used not only by the ancient Chinese, but also by the Japanese military during.

Bamboo grove. (pinterest.com)

How it works?

1) Sprouts of living bamboo are sharpened with a knife to form sharp “spears”;
2) The victim is suspended horizontally, with his back or stomach, over a bed of young pointed bamboo;
3) The bamboo quickly grows high, pierces the skin of the martyr and grows through his abdominal cavity, the person dies for a very long time and painfully.

Like torture with bamboo, the “iron maiden” is considered by many researchers to be a terrible legend. Perhaps these metal sarcophagi with sharp spikes inside only frightened the people under investigation, after which they confessed to anything.

"Iron Maiden"

The “Iron Maiden” was invented at the end of the 18th century, i.e. already at the end of the Catholic Inquisition.

"Iron Maiden". (pinterest.com)

How it works?

1) The victim is stuffed into the sarcophagus and the door is closed;
2) The spikes driven into the inner walls of the “iron maiden” are quite short and do not pierce the victim, but only cause pain. The investigator, as a rule, receives a confession in a matter of minutes, which the arrested person only has to sign;
3) If the prisoner shows fortitude and continues to remain silent, long nails, knives and rapiers are pushed through special holes in the sarcophagus. The pain becomes simply unbearable;
4) The victim never admits to what she had done, so she was locked in a sarcophagus for a long time, where she died from loss of blood;
5) Some Iron Maiden models had spikes at eye level to poke them out.

The name of this torture comes from the Greek “scaphium”, which means “trough”. Scaphism was popular in ancient Persia. During the torture, the victim, most often a prisoner of war, was devoured alive by various insects and their larvae who were partial to human flesh and blood.

Skafism. (pinterest.com)

How it works?

1) The prisoner is placed in a shallow trough and wrapped in chains.
2) He is force-fed large quantities of milk and honey, which causes the victim to have profuse diarrhea, which attracts insects.
3) The prisoner, having shit himself and smeared with honey, is allowed to float in a trough in a swamp, where there are many hungry creatures.
4) The insects immediately begin their meal, with the living flesh of the martyr as the main course.

Pear of suffering

This cruel tool was used to punish abortionists, liars and homosexuals. The device was inserted into the vagina for women or the anus for men. When the executioner turned the screw, the “petals” opened, tearing the flesh and bringing unbearable torture to the victims. Many then died from blood poisoning.

A pear of suffering. (pinterest.com)

How it works?

1) A tool consisting of pointed pear-shaped leaf-shaped segments is inserted into the client’s desired body hole;
2) The executioner little by little turns the screw on the top of the pear, while the “leaf” segments bloom inside the martyr, causing hellish pain;
3) After the pear is completely opened, the offender receives internal injuries incompatible with life and dies in terrible agony, if he has not already fallen into unconsciousness.

copper bull

The design of this death unit was developed by the ancient Greeks, or, to be more precise, by the coppersmith Perillus, who sold his terrible bull to the Sicilian tyrant Phalaris, who simply loved to torture and kill people in unusual ways.

A living person was pushed inside the copper statue through a special door. And then Phalaris first tested the unit on its creator - the greedy Perilla. Subsequently, Phalaris himself was roasted in a bull.

Copper bull. (pinterest.com)

How it works?

1) The victim is closed in a hollow copper statue of a bull;
2) A fire is lit under the bull’s belly;
3) The victim is roasted alive;
4) The structure of the bull is such that the cries of the martyr come from the mouth of the statue, like a bull’s roar;
5) Jewelry and amulets were made from the bones of the executed, which were sold at bazaars and were in great demand.

Torture by rats was very popular in ancient China. However, we will look at the rat punishment technique developed by the 16th century leader Diedric Sonoy.

Torture by rats. (pinterest.com)

How it works?

1) The stripped naked martyr is placed on a table and tied;
2) Large, heavy cages with hungry rats are placed on the prisoner’s stomach and chest. The bottom of the cells is opened using a special valve;
3) Hot coals are placed on top of the cages to stir up the rats;
4) Trying to escape the heat of hot coals, rats gnaw their way through the flesh of the victim.

Cradle of Judas

The Judas Cradle was one of the most torturous torture machines in the arsenal of the Suprema - the Spanish Inquisition. Victims usually died from infection, due to the fact that the pointed seat of the torture machine was never disinfected. The Cradle of Judas, as an instrument of torture, was considered “loyal” because it did not break bones or tear ligaments.

Cradle of Judas. (pinterest.com)

How it works?

1) The victim, whose hands and feet are tied, is seated on the top of a pointed pyramid;
2) The top of the pyramid is thrust into the anus or vagina;
3) Using ropes, the victim is gradually lowered lower and lower;
4) The torture continues for several hours or even days until the victim dies from powerlessness and pain, or from blood loss due to rupture of soft tissues.

Rack

Probably the most famous and unrivaled death machine of its kind called the “rack”. It was first tested around 300 AD. e. on the Christian martyr Vincent of Zaragoza.

Anyone who survived the rack could no longer use their muscles and became a helpless vegetable.

Rack. (pinterest.com)

How it works?

1. This instrument of torture is a special bed with rollers at both ends, around which ropes are wound to hold the victim’s wrists and ankles. As the rollers rotated, the ropes pulled in opposite directions, stretching the body;
2. Ligaments in the victim’s arms and legs are stretched and torn, bones pop out of their joints.
3. Another version of the rack was also used, called strappado: it consisted of 2 pillars dug into the ground and connected by a crossbar. The interrogated person's hands were tied behind his back and lifted by a rope tied to his hands. Sometimes a log or other weights were attached to his bound legs. At the same time, the arms of the person raised on the rack were turned back and often came out of their joints, so that the convict had to hang on his outstretched arms. They were on the rack from several minutes to an hour or more. This type of rack was used most often in Western Europe.
4. In Russia, a suspect raised on the rack was beaten on the back with a whip and “put to the fire,” that is, burning brooms were passed over the body.
5. In some cases, the executioner broke the ribs of a man hanging on a rack with red-hot pincers.

Shiri (camel cap)

A monstrous fate awaited those whom the Ruanzhuans (a union of nomadic Turkic-speaking peoples) took into slavery. They destroyed the slave's memory with a terrible torture - putting a shiri on the victim's head. Usually this fate befell young men captured in battle.

Shiri. (pinterest.com)

How it works?

1. First, the slaves' heads were shaved bald, and every hair was carefully scraped out at the root.
2. The executors slaughtered the camel and skinned its carcass, first of all, separating its heaviest, dense nuchal part.
3. Having divided it into pieces, it was immediately pulled in pairs over the shaved heads of the prisoners. These pieces stuck to the heads of the slaves like a plaster. This meant putting on the shiri.
4. After putting on the shiri, the neck of the doomed person was chained in a special wooden block so that the subject could not touch his head to the ground. In this form, they were taken away from crowded places so that no one would hear their heartbreaking screams, and they were thrown there in an open field, with their hands and feet tied, in the sun, without water and without food.
5. The torture lasted 5 days.
6. Only a few remained alive, and the rest died not from hunger or even from thirst, but from unbearable, inhuman torment caused by drying, shrinking rawhide camel skin on the head. Inexorably shrinking under the rays of the scorching sun, the width squeezed and squeezed the slave's shaved head like an iron hoop. Already on the second day, the shaved hair of the martyrs began to sprout. Coarse and straight Asian hair sometimes grew into the rawhide; in most cases, finding no way out, the hair curled and went back into the scalp, causing even greater suffering. Within a day the man lost his mind. Only on the fifth day did the Ruanzhuans come to check whether any of the prisoners had survived. If at least one of the tortured people was found alive, it was considered that the goal had been achieved.
7. Anyone who underwent such a procedure either died, unable to withstand the torture, or lost his memory for life, turned into a mankurt - a slave who does not remember his past.
8. The skin of one camel was enough for five or six widths.

Spanish water torture

In order to best carry out the procedure of this torture, the accused was placed on one of the types of racks or on a special large table with a rising middle part. After the victim's arms and legs were tied to the edges of the table, the executioner began work in one of several ways. One of these methods involved forcing the victim to swallow a large amount of water using a funnel, then hitting the distended and arched abdomen.

Water torture. (pinterest.com)

Another form involved placing a cloth tube down the victim's throat through which water was slowly poured, causing the victim to swell and suffocate. If this was not enough, the tube was pulled out, causing internal damage, and then inserted again and the process repeated. Sometimes cold water torture was used. In this case, the accused lay naked on a table under a stream of ice water for hours. It is interesting to note that this type of torture was considered light, and the court accepted confessions obtained in this way as voluntary and given by the defendant without the use of torture. Most often, these tortures were used by the Spanish Inquisition in order to extract confessions from heretics and witches.

Spanish armchair

This instrument of torture was widely used by the executioners of the Spanish Inquisition and was a chair made of iron, on which the prisoner was seated, and his legs were placed in stocks attached to the legs of the chair. When he found himself in such a completely helpless position, a brazier was placed under his feet; with hot coals, so that the legs began to slowly fry, and in order to prolong the suffering of the poor fellow, the legs were poured with oil from time to time.

Spanish armchair. (pinterest.com)

Another version of the Spanish chair was often used, which was a metal throne to which the victim was tied and a fire was lit under the seat, roasting the buttocks. The famous poisoner La Voisin was tortured on such a chair during the famous Poisoning Case in France.

Gridiron (grid for torture by fire)

This type of torture is often mentioned in the lives of saints - real and fictitious, but there is no evidence that the gridiron “survived” until the Middle Ages and had even a small circulation in Europe. It is usually described as an ordinary metal grate, 6 feet long and two and a half feet wide, mounted horizontally on legs to allow a fire to be built underneath.

Sometimes the gridiron was made in the form of a rack in order to be able to resort to combined torture.

Saint Lawrence was martyred on a similar grid.

This torture was used very rarely. Firstly, it was quite easy to kill the person being interrogated, and secondly, there were a lot of simpler, but no less cruel tortures.

Bloody Eagle

One of the most ancient tortures, during which the victim was tied face down and his back was opened, his ribs were broken off at the spine and spread apart like wings. Scandinavian legends claim that during such an execution, the wounds of the victim were sprinkled with salt.

Bloody eagle. (pinterest.com)

Many historians claim that this torture was used by pagans against Christians, others are sure that spouses caught in treason were punished in this way, and still others claim that the bloody eagle is just a terrible legend.

"Catherine's Wheel"

Before tying the victim to the wheel, his limbs were broken. During rotation, the legs and arms were completely broken off, bringing unbearable torment to the victim. Some died from painful shock, while others suffered for several days.

Catherine's Wheel. (pinterest.com)

Spanish donkey

A wooden log in the shape of a triangle was fixed on “legs”. The naked victim was placed on top of a sharp angle that cut straight into the crotch. To make the torture more unbearable, weights were tied to the legs.

Spanish donkey. (pinterest.com)

Spanish boot

This is a fastening on the leg with a metal plate, which, with each question and subsequent refusal to answer it, as required, was tightened more and more in order to break the bones of the person’s legs. To enhance the effect, sometimes an inquisitor was involved in the torture, who hit the fastening with a hammer. Often after such torture, all the bones of the victim below the knee were crushed, and the wounded skin looked like a bag for these bones.

Spanish boot. (pinterest.com)

Quartering by horses

The victim was tied to four horses - by the arms and legs. Then the animals were allowed to gallop. There were no options - only death.

Quartering. (pinterest.com)

From the 14th to the 16th centuries, the Holy Inquisition hunted witches. Those accused of witchcraft were brutally and sophisticatedly tortured to extract a confession and force them to name their accomplices. For two hundred years, thousands of innocent people were burned alive at the stake and tortured in the basements of the Inquisition.

Between 1435 and 1484, witch hunts spread like an epidemic across Europe. At least 28 treatises were written by clerics and demonologists, which told how to expose a witch. In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued a bull against witchcraft, and from that moment on, the persecution of witches reached its peak. The Catholic and Protestant Inquisition in Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland systematically eradicated heresy.

In 1484, after the admonitions of Heinrich Institoris Cramer, the author of the “Hammer of the Witches,” Pope Innocent VIII issued the bull “Summis desiderantes affectibus” (“With all the strength of the soul”), directed against witches, which became the cause of many Inquisition processes in the countries of Christian Europe.

Devil's Marks and Torture Machine

Moles on the body were considered sure signs of a witch. It was enough to have such a mark to fall into the clutches of the Inquisition. Those accused of witchcraft were stripped naked, shaved and examined for birthmarks, which were considered to be marks of the devil.

In 1627, in Cologne, the executioners were tired of torturing the daughter of the imperial postmaster, Katherina von Henot, accused of witchcraft. The young woman was tortured to such a state that “the sun shone through her,” but she did not admit to anything. And yet, her resilience did not save her from execution at the stake. The judges were unforgiving.

In the handbook of inquisitors, “The Hammer of Witches,” it was stated that most witches do not admit their guilt. Therefore, it was recommended to put them into a “torture machine.”

Before torture, the executioner usually took the victim aside and explained what was in store for her. “Isn’t it better to confess, darling?” - he said. Sometimes the threat of torture was enough to extract a confession that was considered voluntary. If the victim confessed after mild torture, such a confession was also considered voluntary.

Poor women, some of them were marinated in stone bags in prisons, into which they could barely squeeze through the hole. Others were kept in cells with sharp ribbed floors. But, despite the most sophisticated torture and humiliation, they demonstrated miracles of perseverance.

In “The Hammer” it was written that a witch who does not admit her guilt even under torture is helped by the devil. It is the unclean who makes her “so insensitive to pain that you would rather tear her into pieces than achieve the truth. But even in this case, torture cannot be neglected, since not all witches are endowed with this ability in equal measure.

Legal costs at the expense of relatives

The torture continued until the victim confessed. The executioner made sure that the woman did not die, and stopped the torture if the unfortunate woman lost consciousness from pain. She was taken to a cell, allowed to come to her senses, and the next day they began to torture her again. The accused who refused to give the necessary testimony under torture was considered an even more dangerous witch. Excommunication from the Church and the fire awaited her. To save herself from suffering, the woman had to admit her guilt and then name her “accomplices.” Only then was she allowed to renounce heresy and reconcile with the Church. But repentance usually did not save the victim from the fire.

“Witches” were accused of all sorts of crimes: covens and stealing milk, pacts with the devil and copulation with him, sending pestilence, diseases and bad weather, levitation, transformation into animals, killing babies and desecration of corpses.

Each new torture was more cruel than the previous one. Usually the executioner and the members of the tribunal were paid from funds confiscated from the accused. If a woman had no money, her relatives paid legal costs, which included not only the cost of torture, but also the cost of feeding the executioner, travel expenses, entertainment and fodder for the horse.

In Hungary in 1615, a large number of witches were executed so that their machinations would not cause hail and destroy crops.

The sophisticated imagination of the inquisitors invented more and more new tortures.

In the end, the witch hunters managed to extract from the accused those confessions that allegedly confirmed the reality of the woman’s deal with the devil. The duration of torture and its severity were determined solely by the judges.

The main accusation is sex with the devil

In 1597, in the imperial city of Gelnhauen, the 69-year-old widow of a day laborer, Clara Geisler, was interrogated. She was slandered by one of the previously executed witches: “Clara is a libertine, she immediately lives with three devils, dug hundreds of innocent babies out of their graves and tormented many people.”

The Inquisition conducted many inquiries, which were recorded. The main sin that women were accused of was lovemaking with the devil. Under torture, women described in detail how they copulated with the devil and how they felt. The unfortunates were forced to invent savory details that the respectable Christian inquisitors liked.

One claimed that the devil's genitals were cold as ice, the other that he had two reproductive organs, each of which was covered with scales. True, women did not agree on the size of the sinful organ. Some testified that he was huge, ejaculating semen in an amount equal to the eruption of a thousand men. Others claimed that the devil's penis was smaller than a finger.

However, the contradictory evidence did not bother the inquisitors at all. They savored the details and explained the contradictory testimony by saying that the devil appears to each woman in different guises.

Obviously, the inquisitors themselves were possessed by diabolical passion. Moreover, most of them observed a vow of chastity for many years.

Evidence of torture. For more than 40 years I was whoring with many devils who came to me in the form of cats and dogs, and even in the form of worms and fleas. I killed more than 240 people, old and young, with a miserable death; I gave birth to 17 souls of children from my devils, killed them all, ate their meat and drank their blood.

Favorites of evil spirits

It was believed that a real witch had at least once sexual relations with either the devil or a demon of a lower hierarchy. Therefore, the greatest suspicions among the inquisitors were those women who lived alone. At the same time, according to the Inquisition, demons gave special preference to immaculate nuns who, through carelessness, fell asleep on their left side.

According to beliefs, demons raped such nuns in their sleep. In addition, our ancestors believed that there were nine times more demons in the form of an incubus (seeking sexual relations with women) than demons who take the form of a succubus (those who prefer men).

The inquisitors were sure that women were much more lustful creatures than men. They were also considered more prone to sinful relationships. Women suspected of having sex with demons were impaled. This procedure was called “torture by vigil.”

Physical beauty remains purely external. If a man saw a woman from the inside, he would be disgusted. We cannot touch spit or dung with our fingertip. So how can you kiss an entire bag of sewage?

Legalized sadism

Many people accused of witchcraft were subjected to the water test. If a woman was thrown into the water and drowned, then she was not recognized as a witch. Well, if suddenly she didn’t drown, then she was pulled out of the water and burned...

The victims were beaten mercilessly with whips. The breasts were torn open with a special iron fork with sharp teeth. Pieces of flesh were torn out with hot tongs. In special cases, the Witches Hammer recommended giving the witch a red-hot iron bar. If she could not hold him back, then she thereby confirmed her guilt.

In the arsenal of the Inquisition there were special pliers that were used to tear off the nails of the accused. In 1590, in Scotland, a certain John Fayan, accused of witchcraft, was subjected to such torture.

Many people have probably heard about the “Spanish boot”. This torture device consisted of two boards, between which the leg of the interrogated witch was placed. The boards were the inside of a machine that pressed on them using a special device. The executioner hit the machine with a heavy hammer, forcing the boards closer together, squeezing the leg. Sometimes the bones of the interrogated person turned out to be crushed after such torture.

But that's not all. In The Witches' Hammer, it is recommended to boil the accused in cauldrons filled with boiling water. Sometimes the unfortunate person was lowered into a cauldron of cold water, and the executioner lit a fire under him so that the water boiled slowly, prolonging the person’s torment.

But even if the unfortunates confessed, their suffering did not end. As a rule, they were sentenced to death, in exceptional cases they were exiled and very rarely acquitted. On the way to the gallows or the fire, the condemned were flogged, burned with a hot iron, their fingers were cut off and their tongues were even cut out.

To be continued..

What do you think was the most terrible thing during the Middle Ages? Lack of toothpaste, good soap or shampoo? The fact that medieval discos were held to the tedious music of mandolins? Or maybe the fact that medicine did not yet know vaccinations and antibiotics? Or endless wars? Yes, our ancestors didn't go to movie theaters or send emails to each other. But they were also inventors. And the worst thing they invented was instruments for torture, instruments with the help of which the system of Christian justice was created - the Inquisition. And for those who lived in the Middle Ages, Iron Maiden is not the name of a heavy metal band, but one of the most disgusting gadgets of that time.

The term "Inquisition" comes from the Latin. Inquisitio, meaning "interrogation, inquiry." The term was widespread in the legal sphere even before the emergence of medieval church institutions with this name, and meant clarifying the circumstances of a case by investigation, usually through interrogation, often with the use of force. And only over time, the Inquisition began to be understood as spiritual trials of anti-Christian heresies.

The torture of the Inquisition had hundreds of varieties. At the same time, the interrogations were conducted in secret, and the execution in the squares was visually familiar to contemporaries, so the artists of those times sketched it with accuracy. But the tortures of the Inquisition were depicted based on the words of others, often relying on imagination. Some medieval instruments of torture have survived to this day, but most often even museum exhibits have been restored according to descriptions. Their variations are amazing. Here are twenty instruments of torture from the Middle Ages.

Above are iron shoes with a sharp spike under the heel. The tenon could be unscrewed using a screw. With the spike unscrewed, the victim of torture had to stand on the toes of his foot as long as he could. Stand on your toes and check how long you can stretch.
Central Europe is the main place of its popularity. The sinner was stripped naked and placed on a chair covered with thorns. It was impossible to move - otherwise not only puncture wounds, but also ruptures would appear on the body. If this was not enough for the inquisitors, they took spikes or tongs in their hands and tormented the victim’s limbs. Of course, you won’t have “reverse stilettos” under your heels, so the sinners endured much longer. But when their strength was exhausted, the body itself relied on the heel. Then everything is clear - pain and blood.

2. Heretic's Fork

Four spikes - two digging into the chin, two into the sternum - did not allow the victim to make any head movements, including lowering his head lower.

3. Witch bath chair

The sinner was tied to a chair suspended from a long pole and lowered under water for a while, then allowed to take a breath of air, and again - under water. A popular time of year for such torture is late autumn or even winter. A hole was made in the ice, and after some time the victim not only suffocated under the water without air, but also became covered with a crust of ice in such coveted air. Sometimes the torture lasted for days.

4. Spanish boot

This is a fastening on the leg with a metal plate, which, with each question and subsequent refusal to answer it, as required, was tightened more and more in order to break the bones of the person’s legs. To enhance the effect, sometimes an inquisitor was involved in the torture, who hit the fastening with a hammer. Often after such torture, all the bones of the victim below the knee were crushed, and the wounded skin looked like a bag for these bones.

5. Waterboarding

This method was "seen" by inquisitors in the east. The sinner was tied with barbed wire or strong ropes to a special wooden device like a table with a very raised middle - so that the sinner’s stomach would stick out as far as possible. His mouth was stuffed with rags or straw so that it would not close, and a tube was inserted into his mouth, through which an incredible amount of water was poured into the victim. If the victim did not interrupt this torture in order to confess to something or the purpose of the torture was clear death, at the end of the ordeal the victim was removed from the table, laid on the ground, and the executioner jumped on her bloated stomach. The ending is clear and disgusting.

6. Iron hook (cat's claw)

It is clear that it was not used to scratch your back. The victim's flesh was torn - slowly, painfully, to the point that not only pieces of her body, but also ribs were torn out with the same hooks.

7. Rack

The same rack. There were two main options: vertical, when the victim was suspended from the ceiling, turning out the joints and hanging all the large weights from her feet, and horizontal, when the sinner’s body was fixed on a rack and stretched by a special mechanism until her muscles and joints were torn .

8. Quartering by horses.

The victim was tied to four horses - by the arms and legs. Then the animals were allowed to gallop. There were no options - only death.

9. Pear

This device was inserted into the openings of the body - it is clear that not into the mouth or ears - and opened so as to cause unimaginable pain to the victim, tearing these openings.

10. Cleansing the soul

In many Catholic countries, the clergy believed that the soul of a sinner could still be cleansed. For these purposes, they had to use either pouring boiling water into the sinner’s throat, or throwing hot coals there. You understand that in caring for the soul there was no room for caring for the body.

11. Hanging cage

It assumed two extreme methods of exploitation. In cold weather, like a witch's bathing chair, the sinner in this cage, suspended from a long pole, was lowered under the water and taken out of it, causing him to freeze and suffocate.

And in the heat, the sinner hung in it in the sun for as many days as he could endure without a drop of water to drink.

12. Skull press

How a sinner could somehow repent of anything when first his teeth clenched and crumbled, then his jaw crumbled, followed by the bones of his skull - until the brain poured out of his ears - I don’t understand. Even more baffling to my awareness is that some countries still use a version of this crusher as an interrogation tool.

13. Bonfire

This was the main way to eradicate witch influence on other people's sinless souls. The burnt soul excluded any possibility of confusing or staining the sinless soul. What doubts can there be?

14. Vigil or Cradle of Judas

The know-how belongs to Hippolyte Marsili. At one time, this instrument of torture was considered loyal - it did not break bones or tear ligaments. First, the sinner was lifted on a rope, and then sat on the Cradle, and the top of the triangle was inserted into the same holes as the Pear. It hurt to such an extent that the sinner lost consciousness. He was lifted, “pumped out” and put back on the Cradle. I don’t think that in moments of enlightenment the sinners thanked Hippolytus for his invention.

15. Cradle

Cousin of the Judas Cradle. I don't think the picture leaves much room for imagination as to how this instrument of torture was used. Also quite disgusting.

16. Iron Maiden. Iron Maiden. Maid of Nuremberg.

This is not “three girls under the window.” This is a huge sarcophagus in the form of an open, empty female figure, inside of which numerous blades and sharp spikes are reinforced. They are located in such a way that the vital organs of the victim imprisoned in the sarcophagus are not affected, so the agony of the person sentenced to execution was long and painful.

The "Virgin" was first used in 1515. The condemned man died for three days.

17. Interrogation chair

Central Europe is the main place of its popularity. The sinner was stripped naked and placed on a chair covered with thorns. It was impossible to move - otherwise not only puncture wounds, but also ruptures would appear on the body. If this was not enough for the inquisitors, they took thorns or tongs in their hands and tore the victim’s limbs.

18. Col

In the east they came up with this terrible execution. The fact is that a person who was skillfully impaled - its end should have stuck out of the victim's throat (and not as depicted in this picture) could live for several more days - suffer physically and mentally, since this execution was public.

19. Saw

The executioners and inquisitors of those years showed remarkable ingenuity in their work. They knew better than us why a person experiences pain, and they knew that in an unconscious state he would not feel pain. And what kind of execution in the Middle Ages would be without sadism? A person could encounter ordinary death everywhere; this was not uncommon. And an unusual and very painful death is sawing. The victim was hung upside down so that the blood would not stop supplying oxygen to the head, and the person would experience the full horror of pain. It happened that he lived to the moment when they slowly, slowly managed to saw his body down to the diaphragm.

20. Wheeling

A person sentenced to be wheeled was broken with an iron crowbar or wheel, then all the large bones of the body were broken, then he was tied to a large wheel, and the wheel was placed on a pole. The condemned person found himself face up, looking at the sky, and died this way from shock and dehydration, often for quite a long time. The suffering of the dying man was aggravated by the birds pecking at him. Sometimes, instead of a wheel, they simply used a wooden frame or a cross made of logs.
And, although it is believed that instruments of torture were more often demonstrated than used, nevertheless, it is not for nothing that the UN has proclaimed June 26 as the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture since 1997.

32 instruments of torture, their description and method of use.

Viewing this material is strictly not recommended for impressionable people!!!

1. "Rack"

This is one of the most common instruments of torture found in historical accounts. The rack was used throughout Europe. Usually this tool was a large table with or without legs, on which the convict was forced to lie down, and his legs and arms were fixed with wooden blocks. Thus immobilized, the victim was "stretched", causing him unbearable pain, often until the muscles were torn.

The rotating drum for tensioning the chains was not used in all versions of the rack, but only in the most ingenious “modernized” models. The executioner could cut into the victim's muscles to speed up the final rupture of the tissue.

The executioner could cut into the victim's muscles to speed up the final rupture of the tissue. The victim's body stretched more than 30 cm before exploding. Sometimes the victim was tied tightly to the rack to make it easier to use other methods of torture, such as pincers for pinching nipples and other sensitive parts of the body, cauterization with a hot iron, etc.

2. "Rack-suspension"

This is by far the most common cap, and was initially often used in legal proceedings, as it was considered an easy form of torture. The accused's hands were tied behind his back, and the other end of the rope was thrown through the winch ring. The victim was either left in this position, or the rope was pulled strongly and continuously.

Often, additional weights were tied to the victim's notes, and the body was torn with tongs, such as a "witch spider", to make the torture less gentle. The judges thought that witches knew many ways of witchcraft, which allowed them to endure torture calmly, so it was not always possible to obtain a confession. We can refer to a series of trials in Munich in the early 17th century against eleven people.

Six of them were constantly tortured with an iron boot, one of the women had her chest dismembered, the next five were wheeled, and one was impaled. They, in turn, reported on another twenty-one people, who were immediately interrogated in Tetenwang. Among the new accused was one very respectable family. The father died in prison, the mother, after being tried on the rack eleven times, confessed to everything she was accused of.

The daughter, Agnes, twenty-one years old, stoically endured the ordeal on the rack with additional weight, but did not admit her guilt, and only said that she forgave her executioners and accusers. It was only after several days of continuous ordeal in the torture chamber that she was told of her mother's full confession. After attempting suicide, she confessed to all the terrible crimes, including cohabiting with the Devil from the age of eight, devouring the hearts of thirty people, participating in the Sabbath, causing Ouryu and renouncing the Lord. Mother and daughter were sentenced to be burned at the stake.

3. "The Heretic's Fork"

This instrument - a leather belt tightly covering the neck with four sharp spikes piercing the body under the chin and in the sternum area - prevented any movement of the victim, without, however, preventing the accused from admitting his guilt.

This type of fork was used in trials for heresy and witchcraft, as well as for common crimes.

4. "The Violin of Gossip Girls"

It could be wooden or iron, for one or two women. It was an instrument of mild torture, with rather psychological and symbolic meaning.

There is no documented evidence that the use of this device resulted in physical injury. It was applied mainly to those guilty of libel or insult to personality.

The victim's arms and neck were secured in small holes, so that the punished woman found herself in a prayer position. One can imagine the victim's suffering from poor circulation and pain in the elbows when the device was worn for a long period of time, sometimes for several days.

5. "Witch's Chair"

The chair of the Inquisition, known as the "witch's chair", was highly valued as a good remedy against silent women accused of witchcraft. This common instrument was especially widely used by the Austrian Inquisition.

The chairs were of various sizes and shapes, equipped with spikes, with handcuffs, blocks for restraining the victim and, most often, with iron seats that could be heated if necessary.

Evidence has been found of the use of this weapon for slow killing.

In 1693, in the Austrian city of Gutenberg, Judge Wolf von Lampertisch led the trial of Maria Vukinetz, 57 years old, on charges of witchcraft. She was placed on the "witch's chair" for 11 days and nights, while the executioners burned her legs with a hot iron. Maria Vukinetz died under torture, going crazy from pain, but never confessing to the crime.

6. "Vigil" or "Guarding the Cradle"

According to the inventor, Ippolito Marsili, the introduction of the Vigil was a turning point in the history of torture.

This system of obtaining confessions does not involve bodily harm. There are no broken vertebrae, twisted ankles or shattered joints, the only substance that suffers is the victim's nerves.

The idea of ​​torture was to keep the victim awake for as long as possible. It was torture with insomnia.

The "vigil", which was not initially considered a cruel torture, took on various forms during the Inquisition. For example, the victim was raised to the top of the pyramid and then gradually lowered. The top of the pyramid was supposed to penetrate the area of ​​the anus, testicles or coccyx, and if a woman was tortured, then the vagina. The pain was so severe that the accused often lost consciousness. If this happened, the procedure was delayed until the victim woke up.

In Germany, "vigil torture" was called "cradle guarding."

7. "Maid of Nuremberg" (Iron Maiden)

The idea of ​​mechanizing torture was born in Germany and nothing can be done about the fact that the “Maid of Nuremberg” has such origins.

She got her name because of her resemblance to a Bavarian girl, and also because her prototype was created and first used in the dungeon of the secret court in Nuremberg.

The accused was placed in a sarcophagus, where the body of the unfortunate man was pierced with sharp spikes located so that none of the vital organs were touched, and the agony lasted for quite a long time.

The first case of legal proceedings using the "Maiden" dates back to 1515. It was described in detail by Gustav Freytag in his book "Bilder aus der deutschen vergangenheit". Punishment befell the perpetrator of the forgery, who suffered inside the sarcophagus for three days.

8. "Witch's Chair"

This device, widely used not only in the Middle Ages, but also in concentration camps of the 20th century, was constructed very simply - a wooden chair or just a support, the seat of which was studded with sharp spikes. The man was tied to this chair and he tried to keep himself away from the spikes on the seat as long as he had enough strength. Then he fell and sharp thorns pierced his buttocks. The pain forced him to rise above the seat again, then another fall.

In more sophisticated examples, like this one from an Italian museum, the armrests and the part of the chair adjacent to the legs were also studded with spikes, so that if the prisoner tried to rise above the seat, the spikes of the armrests and legs of the chair would pierce his body, no matter how hard he tried He couldn't avoid injections.

The chair's spikes were of such length that they caused severe pain, but did not cause serious injury that would threaten the life of the interrogated person. A person exhausted by prolonged pain most often confessed to everything of which he was accused.

9. "Chastity Belt"

It is traditionally believed that the crusaders put such a device on their wives to guarantee their fidelity when they went on a campaign to Palestine.

This was technically possible, but for a short period of time, no more than a couple of days. However, the result was infections that entered the body where the metal edges came into contact with the body, as well as all sorts of complications arising from the inability to wash properly.

It seems that the main purpose of the device was some kind of protection against rape, especially when troops were stationed nearby or when ladies were forced to travel and stay overnight in hotels.

Thus, the idea that women themselves asked for such belts looks quite convincing. However, it should be noted that “chastity belts” were still an instrument of torture to which women were subjected of their own free will in order to avoid violence from men.

10. "Male chastity belt"

This device was discovered quite recently, in one of the places visited by tourists.

It is not known for sure whether this was an invention of a local artisan, made for the amusement of tourists, or whether this item actually existed and was used. It seems that such a weapon serves as a kind of “opposition” to the female “chastity belt”.

11. "Collar and Handcuffs"

Seemingly harmless, this weapon is not just a fancy looking handcuff.

Using a tool wrapped around the prisoner's neck and equipped with strong handcuffs, the jailers effortlessly suppressed the will of the victim of the Inquisition. Torture followed automatically: as soon as the victim’s strength left him and he could no longer hold his arms up, the thorns pierced the flesh, often causing sepsis and then death. Justice was done.

12. "Iron Slipper"

This device was developed in Austria at the end of the 17th century and looks like the comfortable slippers of our time.

Using a screw, the size was adjusted in accordance with the punishment. The culprit was obliged to walk through the streets of the city with a bell, so that people would know that public punishment was being carried out.

This saved the executioners’ strength, since the “slippers” themselves provided the torture. Just imagine what it's like to walk in slippers that are three sizes smaller than yours.

13. "Water Torture"

In order to best carry out the procedure of this torture, the accused was placed on one of the types of racks or on a special large table with a rising middle part.

After the victim's arms and legs were tied to the edges of the table, the executioner began work in one of several ways.

One of these methods involved forcing the victim to swallow a large amount of water using a funnel, then hitting the distended and arched abdomen.

Another form involved placing a cloth tube down the victim's throat through which water was slowly poured, causing the victim to swell and suffocate. If this was not enough, the tube was pulled out, causing internal damage, and then inserted again and the process repeated.

Sometimes cold water torture was used. In this case, the accused lay naked on a table under a stream of ice water for hours.

It is interesting to note that this type of torture was considered light, and the court accepted confessions obtained in this way as voluntary and given by the defendant without the use of torture.

14. "Pillory"

Pillory has been a widespread method of punishment at all times and under any social system. The convicted person was placed in the pillory for a certain time, from several hours to several days.

Bad weather during the punishment period aggravated the situation of the victim and increased the torment, which was probably considered as “divine retribution”

The pillory, on the one hand, could be considered a relatively mild method of punishment, in which the guilty were simply exposed in a public place to public ridicule. On the other hand, those chained to the pillory were completely defenseless before the “court of the people.” Anyone could insult them in word or action, spit at them or throw a stone - such treatment, the cause of which could be popular indignation or personal enmity, sometimes led to injury or even death of the convicted person.

15. "The Throne"

This instrument was created as a pillory in the shape of a chair and was sarcastically called the "Throne".

The victim was placed upside down, and her legs were strengthened with wooden blocks.

This type of torture was popular among judges who wanted to follow the letter of the law. In fact, the legislation regulating the use of torture permitted the use of the Throne only once during the interrogation. But the majority of judges circumvented this rule, calling the next session a continuation of the same first one. Using "Tron" allowed it to be declared as one session, even if it lasted 10 days.

Since the use of the Tron did not leave permanent marks on the bodies of the victims, it was very suitable for long-term use.

It should be noted that at the same time as this torture, the prisoner was also “used” with water and a hot iron.

16. "Brazier"

In the past, there was no Amnesty International association, no one intervened in the affairs of justice and did not protect those who fell into its clutches.

The executioners were free to choose any, from their point of view, suitable means for obtaining confessions. They often also used a brazier.

The victim was tied to bars and then "roasted" until genuine repentance and confession were obtained, which led to the discovery of more criminals. And life went on.

17. "Skull Press"

This medieval device, it should be noted, was highly valued, especially in northern Germany. Its function was quite simple: the victim's chin was placed on a wooden or iron support, and the cap of the device was screwed onto the victim's head. First, the teeth and jaws were crushed, then, as the pressure increased, brain tissue began to flow out of the skull.

Over time, this instrument lost its significance as a murder weapon and became widespread as an instrument of torture.

In some Latin American countries, a very similar device is still used. Despite the fact that both the cover of the device and the lower support are lined with a soft material that does not leave any marks on the victim, the device brings the prisoner into a state of “readiness to cooperate” after just a few turns of the screw.

18. "The Janitor's Daughter or the Stork"

The use of the term "stork" is attributed to the Roman Court of the Holy Inquisition in the period from the second half of the 16th century. until about 1650. The same name was given to this instrument of torture by L.A. Muratori in his book “Italian Chronicles” (1749).

The origin of the even stranger name "The Janitor's Daughter" is unknown, but it is given by analogy with the name of an identical device in the Tower of London. Whatever the origin of the name, this weapon is a magnificent example of the vast variety of coercive systems that were used during the Inquisition.

The victim's position was carefully thought out. Within a few minutes, this body position led to severe muscle spasms in the abdomen and anus. Then the spasm began to spread to the chest, neck, arms and legs, becoming more and more painful, especially at the site of the initial occurrence of the spasm.

After some time, the one tied to the Stork passed from a simple experience of torment to a state of complete madness. Often, while the victim was tormented in this terrible position, he was additionally tortured with a hot iron and other means. The iron bonds cut into the victim's flesh and caused gangrene and sometimes death.

19. "Spiked shoes"

These are iron shoes with a sharp spike under the heel. The tenon could be unscrewed using a screw. With the spike unscrewed, the victim of torture had to stand on the toes of his foot as long as he could. Stand on your toes and check how long you can stretch.
Central Europe is the main place of its popularity. The sinner was stripped naked and placed on a chair covered with thorns. It was impossible to move - otherwise not only puncture wounds, but also ruptures would appear on the body. If this was not enough for the inquisitors, they took spikes or tongs in their hands and tormented the victim’s limbs. Of course, you won’t have “reverse stilettos” under your heels, so the sinners endured much longer. But when their strength was exhausted, the body itself relied on the heel. Then everything is clear - pain and blood.

20. "Witch Bathing Chair"

The sinner was tied to a chair suspended from a long pole and lowered under water for a while, then allowed to take a breath of air, and again - under water. A popular time of year for such torture is late autumn or even winter. A hole was made in the ice, and after some time the victim not only suffocated under the water without air, but also became covered with a crust of ice in such coveted air. Sometimes the torture lasted for days.

21. "Spanish Boot"

This is a fastening on the leg with a metal plate, which, with each question and subsequent refusal to answer it, as required, was tightened more and more in order to break the bones of the person’s legs. To enhance the effect, sometimes an inquisitor was involved in the torture, who hit the fastening with a hammer. Often after such torture, all the bones of the victim below the knee were crushed, and the wounded skin looked like a bag for these bones.

22. "Pear"

This instrument was and is still used today, not much modified, perhaps without decoration - in oral and anal forms, as shown in the picture, and a slightly larger one - vaginal. It was inserted into the mouth, anus or vagina, and when the screw was tightened, the pear segments opened to their maximum extent. Internal organs were seriously damaged during this torture, often leading to death. The elongated sharp ends of the segments dug into the wall of the intestine, pharynx or cervix. The oral pear was used for interrogating heretical preachers, the anal pear was used for men accused of passive homosexuality, and the vaginal pear was used for interrogating women suspected of having an intimate relationship with the Devil or his servants.

It must be said that torture of female breasts and genitals occurred everywhere and at all times. You should not think that a person could endure this pain, since the dimensions of the instrument were much larger than it seems from the picture. As soon as the pear was deeply inserted into the natural openings of the body, it opened using a screw mechanism and the segments were spread to their maximum aperture. The sharp ends tore at the soft tissue of the throat, intestines or cervix. The injuries they caused were beyond anything imaginable. The fear of this terrible weapon was so great that people often confessed to all mortal sins immediately after the introduction of the pear. And then they were all convicted.

24. "Garrote"

This execution weapon was used in Spain until recently. The last officially recorded execution using a garrote was carried out in 1975. The suicide bomber was seated on a chair with his hands tied behind his back, and an iron collar rigidly fixed the position of his head. During the execution process, the executioner tightened the screw, and the iron wedge slowly entered the skull of the condemned man, leading to his death. Another version, more common recently, is strangulation with a metal wire. This method of execution is often shown in feature films, especially espionage films.

25. "Wheeling"

A very popular system of both torture and execution was used only when accused of witchcraft. Typically the procedure was divided into two phases, both of which were quite painful. The first consisted of breaking most of the bones and joints with the help of a small wheel called a crushing wheel, equipped on the outside with many spikes. The second ball is designed in case of execution. It was assumed that the victim, broken and mutilated in this way, would literally, like a rope, slide between the spokes of a wheel onto a long pole, where he would remain to await death. A popular version of this execution combined wheeling and burning at the stake - in this case, death occurred quickly. The procedure was described in the materials of one of the trials in Tyrol. In 1614, a tramp named Wolfgang Zellweiser from Gastein, found guilty of intercourse with the devil and sending a storm, was sentenced by the court of Leinz to both be thrown on the wheel and burned at the stake.

26. "Chest Ripper"

Having heated the sharp teeth of such an instrument white-hot, the executioner tore the victim's chest into pieces. In some areas of France and Germany, this instrument of torture was called the “Tarantula” or “Spanish Spider.”

27. "Impaling"

A very cruel execution that came to Europe from the East. The essence of this execution was that a person was laid on his stomach, one sat on him to prevent him from moving, the other held him by the neck. A stake was inserted into the person's anus, which was then driven in with a mallet; then they drove a stake into the ground. Sometimes a person was simply lowered onto a stake fixed from below, having first smeared the anus with fat.

Pictures often show the tip of the stake coming out of the mouth of the executed person. However, in practice, this was extremely rare. The weight of the body forced the stake to go deeper and deeper, and, most often, it came out under the armpit or between the ribs. Depending on the angle at which the tip was inserted and the convulsions of the executed person, the stake could also come out through the stomach. Vlad Tepets (the famous Count Dracula) especially widely used impalement, who executed thousands of Turks after the victory in the battle for Wallachia.

28. Torture by fire. The next earthly element, widely exploited by the investigative bodies, is fire. The inquisitors used it in the following way: the heretic’s legs, clamped in a block, were lubricated with oil, then an open fire was brought to them, and so on until there was a fume of burnt meat and exposed bones.

In other cases, a person was placed on a grate under which a fire was made, or hung over a fire in an iron cage, or done as shown in the picture (they were seated on a special chair, and a fire was made under it). Torture by fire was widely used at all times and in Rome , and in Madrid, and in Moscow, and in Beijing, and in the forests of America, and in the African jungle.

In addition to fire, the use of coals and especially red-hot iron was also widespread. Which was explained by the ease of use compared to open fire. It became especially widespread when branding criminals and burning out eyes. There were also more exotic rituals, such as placing a red-hot iron helmet on the victim's head.

29. Iron gag (mouth opener)- an iron tube inside a ring, which was tightly thrust into the victim’s throat, and the collar was locked with a bolt at the back of the head. The instrument was used to stop the victim's shrill screams during execution. In 1600, Giordano Bruno was executed in Rome with an iron gag in his mouth.

30. Quartering by horses- The victim was tied to four horses - by the arms and legs. Then the animals were allowed to gallop. There were no options - only death.

31. Iron hook (cat's claw)- It is clear that it was not used to scratch your back. The victim's flesh was torn - slowly, painfully, to the point that not only pieces of her body, but also ribs were torn out with the same hooks.

32. Hand saw. There is nothing to say about her, except that she caused death even worse than death at the stake. The weapon was operated by two men who sawed the condemned man suspended upside down with his legs tied to two supports. The very position itself, which caused blood flow to the brain, forced the victim to experience unheard-of torment for a long time. This instrument was used as punishment for various crimes, but was especially readily used against homosexuals and witches. It seems to us that this remedy was widely used by French judges in relation to witches who became pregnant by the “devil of nightmares” or even by Satan himself.