The freedom of expression that we enjoy today, with our diverse beliefs,
and ways of dressing, would seem to be an apocalyptic vision for society from 1478 to 1834,
and would deserve all the divine punishment that the Spanish Inquisition would impose on you.
Established to maintain Catholic belief throughout the Spanish dominion by the monarchs Ferdinand II
of Castile and Isabella of Aragon, the Spanish Inquisition was highly feared for its ruthless
and humiliating punishments, invented for the sole purpose of causing terrible pain to the victims,
in order to punish them or to obtain a confession of their acts against the
Catholic faith, which many times ended irremediably with their early death.
Today we will get to know all those instruments of punishment that caused
unimaginable pain to more than 150,000 people, either for thinking differently
or just because their neighbor didn't like them so much. Welcome to Copernicus’s Galaxy.
Strappado
One of the 3 most used punishments by the Inquisition
and that was taken as inspiration to be used by the Nazis in World War II, was the Strappado,
a rather simple device that provoked great pain on the upper extremities of the accused.
This torture consisted of tying the sinner's hands behind his back with a rope
that, by means of a pulley system, raised the person several meters in the air
and then let him fall without touching the ground.
In this way, the full weight of the unfortunate defendant was supported
only by his arms, causing dislocations of the clavicle and tears in the humerus...but
it would be very naive of us to believe that the inquisitors would stop the torture there.
In the case he did not confess his "crime" with the first fall, a couple of heavy
iron blocks were attached to him and the procedure was repeated over and over again.
At the end, if they had resisted without confessing,
they were taken to a platform where their legs and what was left of their arms were broken
until they died... and if you still refused to pass away, your destiny would be the stake.
The Goat
You might imagine a unique device similar to this animal,
but this time, a goat was actually used to inflict pain in a rather ingenious way.
For this punishment, the prisoner of the Inquisition was tied up so that he couldn’t
move and the soles of his feet were then smeared with salt water or grease. Once the goat was in
the torture room, it was attracted by the smell and taste of the feet and began to lick them.
The tickling that the person initially experienced might’ve be annoying, but it would be the
least of his or her worries. Due to the rough characteristic of this animal's tongue, as the
licking continued, the skin would begin to crack, sometimes even reaching the defendant's bone.
Rack
Possibly the best known is this simple but effective mechanism of punishment,
being the one most frequently employed by the Inquisition.
It was a large wooden table with four ropes where the prisoner was tied down. The wrist ropes
were fixed, while the ankle ropes were wound around a wheel with each turn of the rudder.
This caused a gradual stretching of the limbs of 30 centimeters, which caused extreme pain in
the arms and legs that eventually broke along with the cartilage and ligaments.
Generally the punishment consisted of two phases, in the first, after a few turns,
the accused was incited to confess. If he did not do so, the executioner continued turning the wheel
until he spoke. Sometimes extra tortures were used while the rack was still in operation
and in others it could go as far as dismemberment.
Water cure
So effective that it’s still used today by the intelligence agencies of different countries,
such as the CIA, for interrogating prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, water cure is one of the
tortures with a psychological impact as great as the pain it causes.
This technique consists of immobilizing the prisoner on a table and putting a linen rag
in his mouth and then pouring water through it, causing a desperate sensation of drowning.
With each drop of water that enters, breathing becomes more difficult, causing convulsions
and tremors, which can lead to distension or rupture of the stomach... in other words, death.
The Judas Cradle
This torture consisted of a device in the shape of a sharp pyramid
and a system of pulleys with which the victim was lifted several meters in the air.
It was especially used to punish women accused of practicing witchcraft. The person was tied
to the pulleys while an executioner lifted her to different heights depending on the
seriousness of the offense committed, and then let her fall with all her weight on
the tip of the device repeatedly, destroying her reproductive organs.
Sometimes they were even left for hours, forcing the poor victim to remain alert.
If for some reason they relaxed their body or fainted, the pyramid would harm them even more.
The Pear of Anguish
This would be, by far, the torture mechanism that would cause us to wake up sweating from
our nightmares. Just as its name implies, this device was used to punish heretical preachers,
women accused of having relations with Satan or homosexuals.
It was introduced mainly in the mouth or any orifice of our anatomy that you can imagine.
Then it was opened to its maximum capacity by turning a screw, so the interior of the accused
was torn by the expansion of the device, as well as by the series of spikes located all
around the object, causing internal hemorrhages that usually ended the life of its victim.
The iron maiden
Being the inspiration for many films of reference in the medieval times,
this mechanism of punishment is one of the cruelest that was conceived
to punish those sinners by the inquisition.
Its appearance was that of a large iron cabinet,
at least two meters tall with a woman's face on top, which sometimes resembled the Virgin Mary.
Two doors opened wide, revealing a series of sharp spikes inside arranged in such a
way that when it was time to put the person in and close the doors, they would stick into his
flesh avoiding vital organs to cause a slow and painful death that would take up to 2 or 3 days.
The saw
All torture from the Spanish Inquisition was terrifying and often ended
in "involuntary" death, since its main objective was to obtain a confession...
but this time we’re faced with a grotesque and brutal execution,
that, with no intention of achieving anything, causes a suffering of which we can only speculate.
With the intention of putting an end to an alleged demonic spawn with which the accused
woman had been impregnated, the inquisitors hung her upside down, with her legs wide open,
so that two executioners could reach inside the womb. The woman had to go
through all of this while unable to faint from the intense pain or quickly bleeding to death,
thanks to the position in which she was hung, which kept her brain oxygenated.
The Witch Hunt and the Punishment of Water
As a preemptive measure on the part of the church to maintain its status as the sole intervenor
between God and mankind, massive witch hunts were organized all over Europe from the 13th century
onwards, where accusations of witchcraft, mainly against women, were the daily bread and butter.
The inquisitors relied on any accusation
to sentence alleged witches to be burned at the stake.
Meaning that anyone could be a candidate to be burned just for reasons of envy or jealousy.
Without the possibility of defending themselves, since anything said in court would be taken as an
attempt by the devil to persuade the court, the accused women were sometimes judged by means of
divine rituals, where supposedly a higher power would decide whether she was guilty or innocent.
One of the most used was the water test, where it was believed that witches and warlocks,
not having souls, weighed less than the rest of the mortals. So when they were
put into a lake and completely immobilized, they would float if they were followers of
Satan. If they sank in the water, it was confirmed that they were normal people,
but it would be too late to get them out of the lake, as most of them would die from drowning.
It’s estimated that between 40,000 and 60,000 people were burned at the stake by the Inquisition
on charges of witchcraft.....atrocious acts have been perpetuated in the name of faith, guided
by ignorance and backed by hatred of what is different. Whether highly guarded secrets of this
gigantic institution called Catholicism come to light or a new inquisition is created to subjugate
whatever seems a threat to them, we will be here to tell you about it, at Copernicus’s Galaxy.