When you are making a series on horrible and creepy punishments, everybody expects a video
on Spanish Inquisition. For nearly 400 years, the Spanish Inquisition honed perfection in two
objectives, spreading Christianity and the art of torturing non-believers. Welcome to Nutty History,
and today let’s find out what horrific punishments were implemented by The Spanish Inquisition.
Strappado or Corda was the bane of shoulders in medieval times. One of the most popular methods
of punishing the “heretics”, Strappado was only an hour or less long ordeal. But it would burn a
horrible memory of anguish and cause a life-long trauma. To be honest the worst part about this
harsh punishment was that the likelihood of the victim dying wasn’t always likely. That means they
may have to live the rest of their lives with permanent nerve, ligament, and tendon damage.
Strappado came with three degrees of torture. The first and the most lenient one,
the victim would have their hands tied around their back in a fashion similar to how modern
cops handcuff someone while making an arrest. Then a rope would be tied to their wrists and
passed over a pulley, beam, or hook. Strappado also occurred mostly in the open markets,
making the whole thing traumatic for passersby as well! The least painful degree of punishment
with strappado was excruciating enough to pull out and separate the shoulders of the victim. As the
victims were pushed and pulled with their whole weight leaning on the shoulders over great height,
gravity would not be kind to these poor souls. The higher degrees of torture would include adding
weights to the pully. This would exert more stress on victims and sometimes break their shoulders
right in between the process of hoisting them up. The final horrendous trial to this contraption
would involve tying the victim’s ankles along with shoulders while adding ankle weights.
This would add extra damage to the hips and legs as well as add stress to the shoulders.
Thanks to spy movies such as the James Bond and Jason Bourne franchises,
holding someone’s head underwater has become a common trope of torment in movies. The underwater
shot of a person struggling to breathe and releasing air bubbles is an intense visual.
But it wouldn’t have been popular in movies if it wasn’t for the Spanish Inquisition.
Corda or interrogatorio mejorado del agua was the name for the punishment method.
The idea was to extract a confession by pulling on the victim’s fear of drowning.
Different cells of the Spanish Inquisition used a different method for Toca and controlled drowning
in Madrid may not be the same method the Mexican Inquisition would use in Sinaloa.
Interestingly every Spanish colony added something to Toca and favored it in local culture as if it
was some sort of celebration. The accused would be laid on his or her back and be strapped to a
board. They secured the ankles, wrists, arms, and legs to prevent the accused from thrashing around.
The mouth would be covered with cloth. officials of the tribunal would pour water over accused
simulating drowning. At first, they would repeat controlled drowning with ample break time, so the
tribunal officers could persuade the accused into confessing. There would be a lot of ‘good
cop bad cop’ roleplay to convince the accused to confess but if that doesn't happen then they
would up the ante. The breaks would get shorter and shorter between the controlled drowning,
and they would repeat the process until the accused breaks and confesses their sins against
Christianity. In case of no confession, the length of controlled drowning itself would also increase.
This would leave the accused gasping for breath with lungs finding it more and more difficult to
inhale air due to exhaustion and stress that may even result in death. Those who had to observe
this horrible ordeal mentioned the accused would lose their consciousness during the strategic
confession process due to their lungs getting filled with water. The officers would simply bring
the accused back to consciousness and repeat the process until he confesses or his heart gives in.
Now if you are wondering why witnesses were observing the punishment, well, obviously
to promote fear mongering. Spanish officials willingly and repeatedly used eye-witness accounts
of Toca to prevent the spread of heretics. Just hearing about Toca would be enough for someone
to willingly confess their sins or surrender information without ever being charged with
any crimes. Are you one of those people who hate it when someone cracks their knuckles around you?
The popping and the cracking sound of simple self-soothing for one person can be annoying
and cringe-inducing for another. If the act of cracking knuckles makes you feel like somebody
violated your boundaries imagine a whole torture system based on producing those sounds. The rack
wasn’t a product of the advancement in punishment techniques during the Spanish inquisition per se.
This technique has been around since ancient times but it was definitely at the peak of
its popularity during the Spanish inquisition. A person would be secured to a board by the wrists
and the ankles with some type of cuff, then chains would be attached to the cuffs. The chains would
be attached to a wheel and a crank would turn the wheel. As the chains were tightened, the body
would stretch and joints, ligaments, and tendons would snap, crack, and pop. While one of the
accused of heresy would be enduring this torment, others were forced to spectate and listen.
The horrible noises of tendons and ligaments popping and snapping coming from the rack
would prove to be enough to scare others into a confession. Those unfortunate souls who would
end up spending too much time on the rack would have their muscles lose the ability to contract.
Therefore, without the elasticity of muscles, they won’t be able to move on their own any
longer. They would also lose their ability to control their bowels and other bodily functions.
Now despite producing such horrible results, the Inquisition felt that the tried and tested ancient
method of ‘racking’ wasn’t effective enough. Really? So, they added their own medieval flavors
to it. Sometimes, a part of a bed used in the rack may have nails or other sharp objects coming out
of it which would then scrape against the skin as the rack would stretch their body. In the new
world, the Spanish Inquisition went one step ahead and combined rack and strappado together. In this
case, the victim’s ankles would be stretched while hanging by their wrists from a tall tree or pole.
The Catherine Wheel or The Breaking Wheel was another ‘spin’ of the rack and was meant to
deliver capital punishment. Spanish Inquisition was a fan of variety and surprise when it comes
to punishment methods. They were actually proud of their expertise in coming up with innovative
methods of inflicting harm on heretics and purging the ‘lord’s earth’ of non-believers.
Dating back to the time of antiquity, the Wheel was also used as a punishment device.
The accused would be tied down on a wagon wheel stretching them in all directions.
After securing their bounds, officials would start beating the accused, the space between
spokes would allow bones to break easily as the accused would be barraged by clubs and maces.
Sometimes, they would let the accused go if he confessed but that wasn’t the guarantee
if the fate of the poor guy was already sealed by the tribunal before the punishment commenced.
As repeated hits from clubs, maces, thick branches would break the bones,
the accused would pass away shrieking and yelling for reprieve. The wheel remained popular for some
reason until the nineteenth century. Maybe because like Strappado, Wheel torments were performed in
public and thus were a good advertisement of why you shouldn’t cross the authority.
Known by many names such as cilice or sackcloth, the hairshirt was perhaps the most irritating way
of punishment and it was mostly a self-induced method of affliction. A garment made with raw
animal hair with a neck hole and would rest upon shoulders with the sides tied under the arms.
It was worn against bearskin with the idea of inflicting skin irritation on one’s self.
For Catholics in the early days of Christianity, hairshirts were used as a method of repentance
during the season of Lent, the 40 days before Easter. To intensify the irritation of the skin
other items were added like twigs, rocks, or metal. The Spanish Inquisition made the
hairshirt their tool of repentance in the New World. Those who would confess to the charges
of heresy and other sins before a death sentence was given, were asked to wear the hairshirt as
penance to repent their sins. The sentence could last for multiple hours or even multiple days,
but it was still a convenience in comparison to the rack and the wheel.
For those who faced the Tribunal, it was required that they publicly proclaim their devotion to God,
Jesus, and the Church. So, wearing the hairshirt publicly was considered an endorsement of
the teachings of the church and promising that one would never commit heresy again.
The Hairshirt may have been a mild discomfort in Europe where temperatures were cooler, but in the
New World, heat and humidity prevailed. Animal fur is no joke, and hair shirts were quite heavy.
Obviously, the church would force people repenting to not break their
fast as well during the penance. So, no food, no water, and they were dying of extreme heat
while wearing a hairshirt in the market. We don’t need to tell you, viewers, the math here, do we?
Centuries before the United States of America would adopt the use of sleep deprivation and
enforced standing to entice confessions and acquire intelligence, the Inquisition achieved
the same objective with a simple fork. Simple as it was, the heretic’s fork was not an ordinary
fork from the dining table. It was a bi-pronged fork that was attached to a belt that was strapped
around the victim’s neck. This would secure the angle of the head and if the victim let
his head droop, they would puncture themselves in the throat and the neck simultaneously.
Victims were not allowed to lie down and thus the heretic fork would also keep them from sleeping.
This made keeping their head steady, a necessity for victims. And it was no easy
feat as the fork was designed to be large enough to throw the victim’s head back to the skies,
prohibiting them from pulling their chin down. The human neck cannot endure that pose for long
and sooner or later these poor souls would end up pierce themselves and embracing the long death.
They would bleed not only from the wounds but also from their eyes, nostrils, and mouth as well.
What makes the Heretic Fork so saddening is that the primary objective of this device was
no different than any other torture device used by the Spanish Inquisition, to get a confession.
But as more often than not victims would end up puncturing themselves and it was the perfect tool
to keep them silent for the rest of their life. Tell us in the comments, what do you
think was the most extreme method of punishment incorporated by the Spanish Inquisition. And
which period shall we cover next in this series? As always, thanks for watching Nutty History.