torture

Justice is a relative thing even nowadays but luckily we live in the 21st century and we all know how justice was carried out in medieval times. What methods of torture from back then do you know? What do you think of it? I did a lot of research on the subject but I'm not sure I covered all. For instance someone suspected of commiting a petty crime was put to walk in a church with a hot iron in one's hand. I've read about a wity person of that time who said to the priest that was to hand him the hot iron that he would gladly carry the iron if the priest would also hand it with his bare hand, not with some pliers, as the custom was. Surprisingly, the cleric appreciated his wit and let him off the hook. But that's a rare case.

I've written a seminary paper for university on witch hunts and the Inquisition.
Most people when they hear inquisition they think about the Catholic Church of which they think is the main one to blame for all the people tortured in the medieval times (and killed). But that's not true. The Catholic Church takes the blame for just a tiny number. The local police and judiciary are the ones to blame. The Church even forbid for a time accusing someone of heresy because there were so many deaths...

But back to torture methods. From the variety of horrible methods, my \"favorite\" is the Judas Chair which was a pyramid-shaped seat. The victim was placed on top of it, with the point inserted into their anus, vagina or scrotum, then very slowly lowered by ropes, slowly impaling the victim.

Haha, someone made a thread about my specialty. Ok, I love medieval torture methods and I know some bad ones. Most of these were used in medieval times but some are still used today.

I just copied this from a site (with a few corrections from yours truly) cuz it's easier than typing it myself so here you go.

1. Hung up

There are two forms in this torture: (1) Normal Hanging Up: One is hung by a rope that is tied to the ceiling, with both feet off the ground. Those who have suffered from this kind of torture will feel numbness in their arms for several years. If tortured to a more severe extent, both arms will become crippled. (2) Being Hung up with Hands behind the Back: With both hands twisted behind the back and feet off the ground, one is hung with a rope. The pain is intense, and when used for prolonged periods of time, this torture may cause death.

2. Tied to a big board

The four limbs of the victim are stretched into four directions, and the victim is tied with strips of fabric onto a big wooden board. The whole body, except the head, is held down tightly. The victim is not released from this position, even during eating or relieving himself.

3. Pumping air into one's rectum

With the victim bound, the torturer inserts an air pump nozzle into the victim's rectum and pumps air into his body which causes excruciating cramps.

4. Freezing the practitioner

The victim is forced to hold a block of ice in his hands or stand barefoot on the snow for a long time. A more horrifying form of such punishment is putting an icicle into a condom and forcibly penetrating a female practitioner's vagina as a form of sexual torture.

5. Force-feeding with liquids, including excrement and urine

With the victim bound to a bed or chair, the persecutor pries his mouth open and force-feeds the victim using a funnel or tubing reaching into the stomach. The victim is fed with liquid food, or a concentrated saline solution, or sometimes excrement and urine. Force feeding human waste can cause massive infection and death in a short period of time. Some practitioners are subjected to force-feeding through the nostril by use of a rubber tube as thick as one's little finger. In order to try to force practitioner to give in, a doctor named Zhang Jingfu in Qinglong County, Qinhuangdao City in Hebei Province came up with the torture of injecting large quantities of liquid into one's rectum.

6. Hung upside down

The victim is hung upside down. Both feet are cuffed and hung onto a wooden frame. Very quickly, the victim's head is swollen, with the blood rushing to his head. The eyes will especially feel the excruciating pressure. Sometimes the guards put an electric hot plate or low flame right below the victim's head, using the heat to further torture the practitioner.

7. Punishment by having burning paper wedged between fingers and toes

With the victim bound onto a bed or a chair, paper is rolled into thin tubes and inserted between the practitioner's fingers and toes, and then lit on fire. The fingers and toes immediately suffer blisters from the burns as the flame travels down the rolled tube very rapidly. Other variations of this torture include burning one's nails with a lit cigarette. Punishment by burning is a most painful torture.

8. Smoke inhalation

The victim is bound in a corner of the room and the head immobilized against the wall, and he is inundated with smoke. It doesn't take long before he is overcome and loses consciousness.

9. Hanging up in a Strait Jacket

Clearwisdom.Net has reported such torture methods. The victim's arms are twisted and tied with rope, and then put into a strait jacket. Then the torturers hang up the victim by the arms, which has led to the deaths of several practitioners.

10. Pouring cold water onto the victim

With the victim pushed to the ground, the perpetrator pours cold water onto the victim, one barrel after another. The victim usually is shivering from the freezing cold after several barrels of cold water. There's another form of this known as, \"water drops dripping through a stone,\" which is having water continually dripping onto a person's head for long periods of time in the winter. I know of a practitioner who had over 200 barrels of cold water poured on him.

11. Sharpened bamboo splinters torture

The guards tie the victim onto a bed or a chair, and hammer sharpened bamboo splinters into the victim's fingers under the tips of the fingernails.

12. Letting insects bite practitioners

During insect and mosquito season, the victim is bound on a chair in a place where mosquitoes and insects are swarming. The victim is subjected to great numbers of bites from these insects while immobilized and unable to scratch the bites or fend off the insects, leaving the victim susceptible to disease carried by the insects.

13. Smothering

With the victim tied onto a bed, the guards put a thick quilt over him, and sometimes as many six layers of quilts. The victim is left in the sweltering heat, wrapped tightly in the thick quilts.

14. Body-folding

\"Body-folding\" refers to standing with two legs straight and close, and bending the head down as far as it will go toward the feet and pressed onto the wall. The arms are tied behind the back and lifted high onto a wall above one's head. The head is upside down, making the body to form a 90-degree angle. Maintaining this position for just several minutes will cause one's heart to pound and one would become muddle-headed. The victim also sweats a lot. The victim is typically forced to keep this position until he or she passes out.

15. Holding a Big Tree

The victim is forced to encircle a big tree with both arms, and the guards then cuff his hands together. This is referred to as \"normal holding.\" Sometimes the practitioner is forced to hold the tree behind his back and has both hands cuffed together in that position. In the winter, the victim is forced to hold the tree while wearing a thin shirt or even half-naked, so as to freeze the victim. In the summer, the victim is forced to wear thick cotton jackets and a winter hat and \"hold the tree\" for several days under the baking sun.

16. Forced to maintain an awkward posture

The victim is pushed against the wall. With the heels off the ground and only toes touching the floor, his knees and nose are pressed onto the wall. The victim is forced to stretch his arms and curve his legs. Only after a few minutes, the victim will be exhausted but still forced to maintain this posture.

17. Striking with Sticks

The perpetrator strikes the practitioners' back, hips and legs with a pick axe handle or clubs. Those who have been beaten cannot walk, even two weeks later. Moreover, the more vicious police apply salt onto the wounds and bruises to exacerbate the pain.

18. Little White Dragon (Hitting with a white plastic pipe)

The guards use white plastic pipes, which is used in construction, to strike the victim. The victim is stripped naked and forced to lie on his stomach on the ground. The guards beat the victim from the upper body to the ankles. After this abusive punishment, the victim cannot move at all and has to stay in bed for over two weeks before he can stand on his own.

19. Pulling out Hair

The victim is tied down first. Then the guards will pull out his mustache, beard or pubic hairs to cause pain.

20. Punishment with Toothbrush

This refers to placing a toothbrush between the fingers of the victim and pinching and twisting the fingers. Such torture can abrade the skin on the fingers to the extent that the bones become visible. In addition the toothbrush is also used to harshly scrub the arches of a victim's feet and genital areas.

21. Sleep Deprivation

The victim is deprived of sleep for a long time. As soon as the victim closes his eyes, the guards will strike his face with a shoe or boot.

22. Punishment by Taking the Riding Posture

The victim is forced to stand in the posture as if he were riding a horse. If the victim tries to move a little bit, the guards will beat him fiercely.

23. Hung up on a Tree

The guards hang a practitioner onto a tree with both hands twisted behind the back and tied with rope. Both feet are off ground, and the two arms are behind the back and high above one's head. The guards hang up practitioners in all kinds of postures. In winter, practitioners also suffer from extreme cold. This torture makes one's arms and hands numb and swollen. In Hebei Province's First Forced Labor Camp, there are nearly 100 persimmon trees and poplar trees used together with utility poles as torture instruments, dedicated to torturing practitioners.

24. \"Swallow Flying\"

The practitioners' hands are pulled backwards, behind the back, and tied with a special bandage on the wrists. Then one is hung onto a beam or a window. Practitioners' heads are bent upside down and become swollen.

25. Confined to a Metal Cage

The guards lock up a practitioner in a specially-made metal cage and hang him with arms above the head. Then the guards shake and wobble the metal cage.

Now here are some more medieval torture methods
By David Morton

The Middle Ages were not a nice period to live in by our cushy modern standards. Most people were poor, they suffered from disease, and their freedom was owned by wealthy landowners. And if you committed a crime and could not afford to pay a fine, your hand might have been chopped off or your tongue and lips cut out.

Torture was not as common as many people think, but God forbid if the authorities wanted you to confess something! The Middle Ages were the golden age of torture techniques and devices that inflicted horrible pain. Today’s “sanctioned” torture techniques are designed to cause psychological or emotional distress, with some limited physical hardship. But the devices used in the Middle Ages were truly frightening to behold, and there were more than a few people in those days who enjoyed conjuring the most gruesome devices. Warning: these descriptions are not for the faint of heart!

Impalement: A sharp pole is pushed, bottom upwards, through the victim’s body

If you were Vlad the Impaler (more commonly known as Dracula) of 15th century Romania, you simply impaled your victims by forcing them to sit on a sharp and thick pole. The pole was then raised upright and the victim was left to slide further down the pole by his or her own weight.

Often, the pole would emerge through the sternum so that its tip could be placed under the chin to prevent further sliding. It could take the victim three days to die. Vlad did this to between 20,000 and 300,000. It is said he enjoyed having a meal while watching impalements. (Photo by Trevor Matich)


Judas Cradle: The victim’s orifice is painfully stretched, flesh ripped

The Judas Cradle was perhaps a little less sadistic than impalement but still gruesome. The victim’s anus or vagina would be placed over the point of the pyramid-shaped cradle, then lowered on it by ropes. The intended effect was to stretch the orifice over a long period of time, or to slowly impale.

The victim was usually naked, adding to the overall humiliation of the torture and sometimes weights were added to the legs to increase the pain and hasten death. This torture could last anywhere from a few hours to complete days. The device was rarely washed, so the victim could also be plagued with a painful infection.


Coffin Torture: Torture in a metal cage, pecked at by preying birds

The Coffin Torture was feared in the Middle Ages, and is often seen in films depicting the time (see Monty Python’s Holy Grail). The victim was placed inside a metal cage roughly made in the shape of the human body. Torturers could force overweight victims into a smaller device, or even make the \"coffin\" slightly larger than a victim’s body to make him more uncomfortable. The cage was frequently hung from a tree or a gallows.

Serious crimes, such as heresy or blasphemy, were punished by death inside the coffin where the victim was placed under the sun allowing birds or animals to eat his or her flesh. Sometimes onlookers would throw rocks and other objects to further increase the pain. (Photo by Charles Bray)


The Rack: designed to dislocate every joint in its victim’s body

Who could forget the dreaded rack, commonly believed to be the most painful form of medieval torture? It consisted of a wooden frame usually with two ropes fixed to the bottom and another two tied to a handle in the top. As the torturer turned the handle, the ropes would pull the victim's arms, eventually dislocating bones with a loud crack. If the torturer kept turning the handles (they often went too far) some of the limbs were torn right off the body.

In the later Middle Ages, a new variant of rack appeared. Spikes were added that penetrated the victim's back when he or she were forced to lie on table. As the limbs were pulled apart, so was the spinal cord, increasing not only the physical pain, but the psychological pain of knowing that, even if he or she were to survive, mobility of any kind would be lost forever.


The Breast Ripper: Painfully tears and mutilates a woman’s breast

Used as a horrible punishment for women, the breast ripper was used to inflict pain, blood loss and the mutilation of their breasts. It was usually used for women accused of conducting abortions or of adultery.

The claws were often placed, red hot, on the victim's exposed breasts, the spikes penetrating to achieve a powerful grasp. They were then pulled to rip off or shred the breasts. If the victim wasn't killed she would be scarred for life as her breasts were literally torn apart.

A common variant was known as \"The Spider,\" which is a similar instrument attached to a wall. The victim's breasts were fixed to the claws and the woman was pulled by the torturer away from the wall, removing or mutilating them. This was a brutal punishment that often resulted in the victim's death.


The Pear of Anguish: Rips orifices, dislocates jaw bones

This brutal instrument was used to torture women who performed abortions, liars, blasphemers and homosexuals. The pear-shaped instrument was inserted into one of the victim's orifices: the vagina for women, the anus for homosexuals and the mouth for liars and blasphemers.

The instrument consisted of four leaves that slowly separated from each other as the torturer turned the screw at the top. The device would tear the skin at the very least or expand to mutilate the victim’s orifice. It could dislocated or break the jawbones

Pears of Anguish still in existence are lavishly engraved or adorned to differentiate between the anal, vaginal and oral pears. This torture rarely brought death, but was often followed by other torture methods.


The Breaking Wheel: Designed to render victims' limbs useless

Also called The Catherine Wheel, this device always killed its victim, but did so very slowly. The victim's limbs were tied to the spokes of a large wooden wheel. The wheel was then slowly revolved while the torturer smashed the victims’ limbs with an iron hammer, breaking them in many places.

Once his bones were broken, he was left on the wheel to die. Sometimes the wheel was placed on a tall pole so birds could pick and eat the flesh of the still-living human. It could take up to two or three days for himto die of dehydration.

Sometimes it was 'mercifully' ordered that the executioner strike the criminal on the chest and stomach, blows known as the coups de grâce (French: \"blow of mercy\"), which caused lethal injuries, leading to the end of the death bytorture.


Saw Torture: Common saw cuts victim in half

Saws were was common torture devices because they were readily found in most houses and no complex devices were required. It was a cheap way to torture and kill a victim accused of witchery, adultery, murder, blasphemy or even theft.

The victim was tied upside down, allowing blood to be diverted to the brain. This ensured that the victim maintained consciousness for as long as possible, it slowed the loss of blood and caused maximum humiliation. Thetorture could last several hours.

While some victims were cut completely in half as a symbolic gesture, most were only cut up to their abdomen to prolong the time it tookto die.


The Head Crusher: Compresses the skull, shatters teeth, squeezes out the eyes

The head crusher was a popular torture method used by the Spanish Inquisition, among other users. The chin was placed over a bottom bar and the head under an upper cap. The torturer slowly turned the screw, pressing the bar against the cap. The head was then slowly compressed, first shattering the teeth into the jaw, then a slow death with agonizing pain. Some variants of thisdevice included small containers that received the eyeballs as they were squeezed out of the victims’ eye sockets.

This instrument was an effective way to extract confessions, as the period of pain could be prolonged for many hours if the torturer chose to. If thetorture was stopped midway, the victim often had irreparable damage done to the brain, jaw or eyes.


The Knee Splitter: Severs the knees and other limbs

Another tool favoured by the Spanish Inquisition because of its versatility, was the knee splitter. It was a vice-like instrument with sharp spikes outfitted on both sides of the grip. As the torturer turned the handle, the claws slowly squeezed against each other mutilating and penetrating the skin and bones of the knee. Although its use rarely resulted in death, the effect was to render the knees completely useless. It was also used on other body parts including elbows, arms and even the lower legs.

The number of spikes the knee splitter contained varied from three to more than twenty. Some claws were heated beforehand to maximize pain - others had dozens of small claws that penetrated the flesh slowly and painfully.

Some more tortures weeee


Its inventor, Perillos of Athens, proposed to Phalaris; a tyrant, the need of a more painful way to kill criminals. This was done hoping to disuade the poor population from committing any more crimes.

As the story goes, when Perillos finished the brazen bull, Phalaris asked Perillos to try it out by himself. He then ordered him locked inside the brazen bull and set a fire underneath it. He was very pleased with the results. Being burned alive was a very exciting act to watch.

When a victim is placed inside the brazen bull, he or she is slowly burned to death. This device gradually became more sophisticated until the Greek invented a complex system of tubes in order to make the victim's screams sound like an infuriated ox.

Even though this torture was not used as frequently during the Middle Ages as it was used earlier by the Greek and Romans, it was still used in Central Europe. This torture is similar to being boiled alive.



A cheap and effective way to torture someone was with the use of rats. There were many variants, but the most common was to force a rat through a victim's body (usually the intestines) as a way to escape. This was done as follows:

The victim was completely restrained and tied to the ground or any horizontal surface. A rat was then placed on his stomach covered by a metallic container. As the container was gradually heated, the rat began to look for a way out - through the victim's body.

Digging a hole usually took a few hours of agonizing pain for the victim. This almost invariantly resulted in death.



The Iron Maiden, otherwise known as the Virgin of Nuremberg, was a device used from the XVI century to torture criminals.

It stands 7 feet tall and is able to accommodate a man. The victim was tied inside the Maiden and one of the two doors was shut, penetrating the victim's flesh with the strategically-placed spikes that didn't penetrate any vital organs. When completely closed, the screams from the victim could not be heard outside, nor could the victim see any light or hear anything. This increased the psychological pain. Additionally, the spikes blocked the wounds so it took many hours - or even days - for death to occur.

If the door was opened, the victim would stand in the exact same position so if the torturer chose to close the door again, the spikes would penetrate the exact same wounds. Sometimes the door was intermittently closed to maximise the victim's pain without delivering death.



The crocodile tube wasn't common, but it was used to kill many infidels and thieves.

The victim was fixed inside a tube just big enough for the victim's entrance. The tube, having crocodile teeth-like spikes, was slowly compressed leaving the victim totally immobilized. The torturer could only see his face and feet.

With the help of carbon and fire underneath the tube, the torturer gradually heated the tube until he extracted a confession or killed the victim. The former was most common, as this is one of the cruelest and most painful tortures ever used on human beings.

With the face and feet exposed, the torturer was able to inflict painful wounds on the victim. Facial mutilation and toe ripping were preferred choices.



The Brank was used to humiliate women who \"by brawling and wrangling amongst her neighbours breaks the public peace, increases discord and becomes a public nuisance to the neighbourhood.\" In short, women who gossiped with their neighbors with no purpose other than to offend, ridicule or lie about someone else were subject to this torture.

The device was a metal cage or mask that enclosed the head, often with ridiculous adornments designed to humiliate its victim. In some towns, the Brank had a bell attached to its rear only to announce the presence of the victim who was instantly mocked by the people she \"endangered\" through gossip.

Many variants of the Brank appeared throughout the Middle Ages, some included spikes that penetrated the victim's flesh when she spoke.

The duration of this torture could range from a few hours, to months. In some cases, the victim was left to die with the Brank; if she ever removed it, she'd be tortured with another method and sometimes killed.



Think of this one as somewhat akin to grating cheese, only this one grates a human torso ever so slowly. A popular tool in Spain for extracting information from prisoners many years ago, the Revolving Drum calls for victims to be put into it face down, their heads through the upper pillory and their legs firmly strapped. Their torsos pressed against a spiked drum, the prisoners are then asked questions. Any sign of resistance, and the torturer then slowly rotates the drum one full revolution. This process is repeated, and torturers even go to the extent of placing weights on the backs of victims to further press their torsos towards the spiked drum and cause more pain. The result, naturally, is death by very slow disembowelment.




A number of medieval torture devices have the word \"Spanish\" attached to it, but this one is probably the most gruesome. The Spanish Donkey gave victims an unimaginably horrible ride, and here's why. Victims are put astride, naked, the apparatus, which is actually a vertical wood board with a sharp V-shape wedge on top. Varying weights are then attached to their feet. Eventually, the victim's own weight and the extra baggage cause the wedge to slice through their bodies, splitting them in half. Yikes.


So there you go. There are many more that I know of but I think this is sufficient enough for you sick minds.

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That is so sick.

Lolz, your welcome.

That was a very educational experience and some looked quite fun or enjoyable. Though even today after thousands of years of existence we still haven't behaved much better or actually become more peaceful. Just look around watch the news and so forth we are still the same. The methods are just a bit different than in the past.