Inquisition and Torture During the Middle Ages
The inquisition and torture in the middle ages/ Renaissance was started by the Roman Catholic Church. It began as a way to stop evil in the cities and churches, however over time the church it turn, became evil itself. “The Christian resolve to find the world evil and ugly, has made the world evil and ugly.” - Friedrich Nietzsche
The Roman Catholic Church began the Spanish and witch hunting Inquisitions in 1478 when King Ferdinand the 2nd pressured Pope Sixtus the fourth to stop heretics and witches, when really he was worried about losing his crown. The Inquisitions were a series of cruel and unusual punishments inflicted on those accused of working in line with the devil. In 1254, Pope Innocent the fourth, decreed that accusers could remain anonymous to ease the job of inquisitors. Many of the accused consisted of young children and the elderly. Even the Roman Catholic Saint Jeanne D'arc (Joan of arc) was chained by the neck, feet, and hands. Inquisitors also had a horrid effect on the communities, which were left impoverished; while the church was flowing with wealth. Workers in charge of torturing those accused, would do so in private, in order to get the people to confess weather the really did commit a crime or not.
The Roman Catholic Church began the Spanish and witch hunting Inquisitions in 1478 when King Ferdinand the 2nd pressured Pope Sixtus the fourth to stop heretics and witches, when really he was worried about losing his crown. The Inquisitions were a series of cruel and unusual punishments inflicted on those accused of working in line with the devil. In 1254, Pope Innocent the fourth, decreed that accusers could remain anonymous to ease the job of inquisitors. Many of the accused consisted of young children and the elderly. Even the Roman Catholic Saint Jeanne D'arc (Joan of arc) was chained by the neck, feet, and hands. Inquisitors also had a horrid effect on the communities, which were left impoverished; while the church was flowing with wealth. Workers in charge of torturing those accused, would do so in private, in order to get the people to confess weather the really did commit a crime or not.
After the torture, the accused would go to the priest to confess. Even if they didn’t do anything wrong, they would still confess, so that they wouldn’t have to endure the pain anymore. Many people were murdered and locked into small cages. The total estimate of deaths between 1563 and 1603 is as high as 17,000 people. The torture advanced so far in all of its 356-year reign, they even created a way for heretic's to keep their mouth's shut on the way to be killed. Heretics were forbidden to speak on their way to be murdered and used a heretic’s fork to keep them from talking about all of the tortures they went through. It looked like a stick with two sharp prongs on each end. This was attached vertically to the neck, so is the accused tried to open their jaw, it would cut into their collar or into the underside of the chin. It was simple enough to do its job, and worked well.
Those accused of witchcraft would suffer the same fate as heretics. Witchcraft is the practice of magic or use of spells and communication with spirits. Around 900 “Witches” were murdered between 1623 and 1633. The Chronicler of Treves reported that almost all of the female population in two villages were killed by inquisitors. The Inquisition officaly started in 1254 and “ended” in 1810, however, it was never truly abolished until 1836. It lasted for a total of 580 years, during those 580 years, 800 to 20,000 people were murdered.
The tortures were all extremely painful and excruciating to go through. However, if you did faint from enduring the torture, than you would have to go through more of the torture. The reason is that the church thought when you fainted it was a gift from the devil in order to escape the pain. It was devastating, the kinds of things they experienced, awful. People are like this however and refuse to think that they, themselves, are wrong, so they play dirty. Some of the few torture devices were the Water Torture, the Wheel Torture [Breaking Wheel], and the Brodequin [The Boots]; these are just a few examples of many painful increments and tools used for exerting pain on others.
Water, wheels, and boots, how could these harmless things cause pain to another? First, the Water Torture, it consists of forcing a person to swallow so much water their stomach would be about to bust. They did this by plugging the nose and pouring water straight down the victim’s throat. Then they would lean the victim, forward so the stomach would start to crush the heart and lunges, used mainly for confessions. Second, the Wheel Torture [Breaking Wheel] would consist of tying the victim on a giant wheel, and turning them over a fire until they would either burn to a crisp or confess. The Third, Brodequin [The Boots], would consist of placing a persons legs in a pair of high boots that would manually have screws twisted into the legs and squeezed until broken in many parts. Like I said before, these are only a snapshot of what was done back in the middle ages/Renaissance to heretics and witches; but even so, this was not at all a great period of time in which you would want to live in.
Around [end date] the Inquisition came to a final closing, but not until March 12th 2002, did the Pope John Paul the second, apologized for the mistakes of the church for the last 2000 years. These were more than minor mistakes, however, in Salzburg, Austria, 1677-1681, only four years out of the whole 356 year inquisition, over 100 were killed. As you can see, the Roman Catholic Church soon became corrupt after it had started the inquisitions. Although many people were murdered; less than 2% of the victims were ever tortured.