Imposing castles, walled cities, kings and knights in shining armor would sound like a good place to
live to anyone today who did not know how hard life was in the Middle Ages. The unhealthiness,
ignorance and hostility of the environment combined with the barbarity of the punishments
you could get for even the slightest offense would make today's problems seem insignificant.
Practiced for several centuries as a method to purify or simply punish
the accused by means of pain and suffering, these ingenious methods
of chastisement were a favorite of the Holy Inquisition to exercise its divine justice,
often deliberately causing the death of thousands of people.
Today we will share a little of the agony that these terrible
punishments caused in those unfortunate people, Welcome to Copernicus’s Galaxy.
The Garrote
Although you may not believe it, this type of execution was the most humane
and benevolent way someone sentenced to death could die in the Middle Ages,
since according to King Ferdinand VII, they lost their lives sitting comfortably.
The apparatus was simple, the garrote was a chair with an iron collar installed at neck level
which held the victim and kept him upright, behind his neck was a piece of metal with a pointed end
attached to a spiral screw and two handles so that the executioner could hold it.
This method of execution was supposed to be fast and induce a coma as the pointed object penetrated
the skin and destroyed the cervical vertebrae and spinal cord with each turn of the screw that
the executioner gave, thus ending his suffering. But this was far from the truth, because it only
happened if all the conditions were ideal, being many times that the device pierced
the neck without being lethal causing immense pain and causing death due to lack of oxygen.
Rat Torture
Rat torture dates back to ancient China and was brought to Europe by the Dutchman Ditriku Sonoyu.
Those suspected of conspiracy would be brought before the executioner for interrogation,
but, if he was unable to extract a confession from them, he would give way to the rats.
A cage modified to have an opening on one side would be placed on the abdomen of the immobilized
accused with at least one hungry rat inside. Burning embers would be poured over it so that
the heat would force the rat to look for a way out. Caged and unable to quickly gnaw through the
metal, its best option would be to dig a tunnel of flesh and guts to preserve its life. This way,
those who refused to confess would end up being slowly eaten by a rat,
suffering unimaginable agony. Iron Spider
Among the numerous, varied tortures and executions dedicated especially to women,
was the "Iron Spider" with which they tore the mammary glands from the body,
destroying all the adjacent tissues in the most painful way imaginable.
It was used cold or red-hot, placing it on the mammary tissues and turning slowly as
the executioner pulled them forcefully until they were torn from the body.
In case you survived the torment and they decided not to execute you,
you would live marked for life and without the possibility of breastfeeding your future children.
The most shocking and grotesque case was that of Ana Pappenheimer,
a German woman accused of witchcraft in 1600,
who was subjected to punishment and then had her flesh flayed. And to finish the show,
her children, now of age, were forced to feed on the mammary glands of their own mother.
The bronze bull One of the best known
is this beautiful statue commonly known as "The Bull of Falaris",
a legendary torture device that was also intended to be a terrifying spectacle.
The tyrant of Agrigento Falaris was a cruel and ruthless King of ancient Greece
who enjoyed torturing his enemies, so he was always looking for new ways to make them
suffer. Seeing this, Perillos of Athens, a bronze worker, devised a method of torture
that at first glance seemed like a work of art, and sold it to Falaris for a good sum of money.
It was a beautiful bronze bull that hid a dark secret.
Its totally hollow interior could house a person to be cooked alive by embers that were placed
under the statue and which heated the interior up to 400 degrees. As if this were not enough,
to the delight of the tyrant, the orifices of both the nose and the snout were open.
This way, the gasses produced from the person’s scorched skin would come out through the nose
and the screams of the victim would give life to the bellows and sounds of the bull.
Legend has it that the first victim of this atrocious machine was its creator,
who was forced into it by Falaris himself to test its effectiveness.
The iron chair
In short, a chair full of spikes... this method of punishment was intended for the
crimes of adultery, witchcraft and mainly murder. It may remind you
of the bed of nails on which you can lie safely thanks to the uniform distribution
of your weight, but unfortunately here different factors are at play.
The iron chair offered a slow and painful agony where the prisoner was forced to sit
down and then restrained with metal straps and rods. As the interrogation progressed,
the executioner would tighten the latches more and more, exerting greater pressure that would
drive the spikes deep into your skin. And as an extra point, burning coals could be
placed under the chair to heat the metal and cause severe burns... this could last for days
and death rarely came until you were released, when the infections claimed your life.
Drunkard's cloak
This one, unlike the others, stands out for being more funny than shocking and painful,
humiliating perhaps, but it would not go beyond public embarrassment and possibly some sniffles.
Some drunks and rioters in medieval times who caused continuous disturbances
would probably wake up inside the same barrel from which they drank all night,
with a terrible hangover and in the middle of the crowd, because in these times a punishment
was established to raise awareness of the consequences of alcohol abuse.
This consisted in forcing the drunkard to wear a modified barrel as clothing for hours
or even the whole day, having to parade through the streets enduring the taunts, insults and
rotten tomatoes that the citizens threw at them, not to mention that on certain occasions,
people would throw buckets of ice water at them... you would surely consider drinking less next time.
Caterina's wheel
The wheel, as a method of punishment and execution was used from ancient times until
the beginning of the modern age for thieves, murderers and arsonists who had caused deaths.
The method they most commonly used was one where the prisoner was fastened to a wheel in the middle
of a public square and his bones were broken with heavy mallets or metal rods. Since the first phase
was intended to provoke the greatest possible agony and the entertainment of the masses,
they began by first destroying the legs, followed by the arms, and finally breaking the back.
In case the above did not end your life, you would be intertwined with the same wheel
thanks to your broken limbs and hung from a wooden pole as if it were a crucifixion,
death coming after a few hours or even days.
Pillory
The pillory consisted of a post attached to two independent wooden planks with
slots that held the arms and head of the culprit immobilizing him when closed,
commonly used to punish dishonest merchants, slanderers and liars.
The mechanism was usually located in the middle of frequented public spaces, such as markets
and squares so that everyone could see. A sign was hung on the prisoner explaining the crime
committed and he was left there for the crowd to mock him, or throw rotten food at him. Sometimes
the tempers among the crowds heated up, which ended up causing the man to be stoned to death.
Depending on the seriousness of the crime, the guards themselves whipped the prisoner
or even punished him by cutting off his limbs while he was restrained.
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.
The horrors of humanity never seem to end, although many of these punishments and tortures
have ceased to be used, at least publicly. The ingenuity of human beings has only evolved to more
sophisticated methods, but no matter what these new methods are or what we have yet to unearth,
we will be here to tell you about them, at Copernicus's Galaxy.