Torture
By Sophia DeCapua and Terra Collichio
Torture was a very common form of punishment in the Middle Ages, especially during the Inquisition. During the Inquisition people were tortured for not being Catholic. People were also tortured to gain information, revenge, and to intimidate. The most common reason people were tortured during the Inquisition was to get them to confess to Catholicism.
Who was tortured and who were the torturers? Some of the people that were tortured during the Middle Ages were slaves, foreigners, and prisoners. Also if someone of a higher rank found someone dishonorable then they could torture him or her. Only people of authority, like police officers, had the power to torture somebody.
By Sophia DeCapua and Terra Collichio
Torture was a very common form of punishment in the Middle Ages, especially during the Inquisition. During the Inquisition people were tortured for not being Catholic. People were also tortured to gain information, revenge, and to intimidate. The most common reason people were tortured during the Inquisition was to get them to confess to Catholicism.
Who was tortured and who were the torturers? Some of the people that were tortured during the Middle Ages were slaves, foreigners, and prisoners. Also if someone of a higher rank found someone dishonorable then they could torture him or her. Only people of authority, like police officers, had the power to torture somebody.
There were many different forms of torture in the Middle Ages. Some of them were: drowning, cutting, tongue removal, starvation, bone breaking, blinding, dislocation, and ripping out teeth or nails. Those were all used many times but the three most common forms of torture were: burning, beating, and suffocating. If someone were to commit a very bad crime then they would get one of the more painful techniques. Some of the more painful techniques sometimes resulted in death.
One of the worst torture devices ever used on human beings was the crocodile tube. The victim was placed in a tube, barely big enough to fit. The tube had many teeth-like spikes around it. The tube was slowly closed on the victim, the victim became incapable of moving. Only the victim’s feet and head were out of the tube. There was often a fire under the tube, which gradually heated the tube until the victim confessed. To make it worse the torturer could rip off toenails, or injure the person in any way while they were in the tube. This was not very common, but when it was used it often ended in death. Torture was not made to kill people, just make people talk, but sometimes, in very bad cases, if the person did not confess then the torture would go on until they were dead.
Where did torturing take place? Most of the time torturing took place in torture chamber, which were located in the basement of most castles. The entrances to the torture chamber were not easy to get to. You had to climb down long, winding hallways and staircases. They were so far down because the people in the castle wanted to muffle the screams and cries of the torture victims, so that they could not be heard from the main part of the castle. These chambers were normally about 11 feet by 7 feet and they held 10-20 people at a time.
What was the Inquisition? The Inquisition was a court trial led by Catholics getting Jews or Muslims to confess to Christianity. Priests would go around trying to find non-Catholics and when they were found they would go to court and the Catholics would try to convince them to “switch” religions. If they said “no” or they said “yes” but then never followed the Catholic religion they were tortured. They were tortured until they confessed or until death.
Pope Innocent III instituted the Inquisition and then later Pope Gregory IX established it. After it was all over Pope John Paul II apologized for the Roman Catholic and for the entire Inquisition itself. There were several different Inquisitions. There were 3 main Inquisitions, The Spanish, Portuguese and Roman Inquisitions.
The first Inquisition was established in Languedoc (south of France). Then the word spread and the first Inquisition was in Spain in 1233 AD. It eventually spread throughout the world and it ended up in Central and Western Europe. It also spread to the colonies in the New World and Asia.
Torture proved that respecting the authority was very important and if you did something against an authority figure then there were huge consequences. That is still true today, for example, if you break the law then you will probably have to go to jail. If your crime was very bad, like murder, then you could be executed. Church today is much more excepting when it comes to joining the religion or church. Some religions just walk in the church and some have to go through a ceremony to be fully committed to a church. In the Middle Ages they were stricter and not as excepting.
Works cited:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Inquisition.html
http://www.medievality.com/torture.html
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/5218373/ns/world_news/t/vatican-downgrades-inquisition-toll/#.U0bEvlHBeQ9
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vatican/esp_vatican29.htm#The%20Tortures
http://www.lordsandladies.org/middle-ages-torture.htm
http://www.google.com/search?q=crocodile+tube&safe=active&es_sm=91&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=nwBQU4HWELjLsASwhoHwAw&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1334&bih=781&surl=1#facrc=_&imgrc=W_UQXY5LO5__fM%253A%3B_bXaCKKpMVO1RM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252F1888.org%252Fimages%252F2013%252F08%252F23%252F12701%252F10-TheCrocodileTube.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.worldslastchance.com%252Fend-time-prophecy%252Fromes-ongoing-inquisition-what-you-must-know.html%3B400%3B300
http://quest.eb.com/images/109_109703?subjectId=0&collectionId=0&keyword=torture+chamber&localizeMetaData=false
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Inquisition.html
http://www.medievality.com/torture.html
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/5218373/ns/world_news/t/vatican-downgrades-inquisition-toll/#.U0bEvlHBeQ9
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vatican/esp_vatican29.htm#The%20Tortures
http://www.lordsandladies.org/middle-ages-torture.htm
http://www.google.com/search?q=crocodile+tube&safe=active&es_sm=91&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=nwBQU4HWELjLsASwhoHwAw&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1334&bih=781&surl=1#facrc=_&imgrc=W_UQXY5LO5__fM%253A%3B_bXaCKKpMVO1RM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252F1888.org%252Fimages%252F2013%252F08%252F23%252F12701%252F10-TheCrocodileTube.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.worldslastchance.com%252Fend-time-prophecy%252Fromes-ongoing-inquisition-what-you-must-know.html%3B400%3B300
http://quest.eb.com/images/109_109703?subjectId=0&collectionId=0&keyword=torture+chamber&localizeMetaData=false