TORTURES IN THE INQUISITION.
Torture to force confession--Hall of
Torture--Stripping--Binding--Squassation--Fire-pan--Rack--Horse--
Dice--Wet cloth--Various devices.
Prisoners in the Inquisition are of different characters; and many of
them naturally deny their guilt. Others would only in part confess their
faults and crimes, employing different terms in successive examinations.
Others again, being innocent of the criminality with which they were
charged, could not confess or acknowledge that they were guilty. While
others, holding fast the doctrine of Christ, were willing rather to
suffer death than deny the Gospel of their Lord and Saviour.
If the prisoner do not confess according to the deposition of the
witnesses against him, or do not satisfy the inquisitors, torture is
employed, chiefly to induce the accused to confess regarding friends or
associates, who may hold opinions deemed heretical. Determined to humble
their victims, they employ extensively a most cruel system of torture,
the records of which have justly procured for the Inquisition the
character of _sanguinary_ and _diabolical_. Surely, none but the evil
spirit, “the devil, who was a murderer from the beginning,” could have
devised such revolting methods of cruelty, and prompted men, with the
most ingenious devices, so to outrage all the dictates of humanity, as
to act on the system which was the practice of the Romish inquisitors.
They yet attempt its justification on the plea that “Paul delivered the
Corinthian to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit
may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” (1 Cor. v. 5.) Paul
inflicted no bodily tortures, but such is the Romish perversion of the
Scriptures.
These tortures of the Inquisition it will be necessary here briefly to
describe, that the character of the atrocious system may be the more
clearly understood by the reader.
1. THE HALL OF TORTURE.--This, in Spain, is a subterraneous chamber, in
the centre of the prison, so that the cries of the sufferer may not be
heard by any one outside. It is entered by a passage through several
doors; at one end of it a tribunal is erected, on which the inquisitors,
the inspector, and the notary are seated. The lamps being lighted in
this dark room, the prisoner is brought in and delivered to the
executioner, who makes a dreadful appearance; as he is covered all over
with a black linen garment down to his feet, and tied close to his body,
while his head and face are all hidden with a hood, having in it only
two small holes, through which he may see. All this is intended to
strike terror into the miserable wretch, when he sees himself in the
power of one who has the appearance of an infernal spirit.
Those who are employed as torturers are required to be such as are born
of “ancient Christians,”--undoubted Catholics; and they are sworn to
secresy as to what is said and done in this terrible place of
punishment.
2. STRIPPING.--All who are tortured are stripped naked, both men and
women, without regard to decency or honour; and the prisoner has no
clothing except a pair of linen drawers. This process, to some, is an
inexpressible torment. While he is being stripped, he is exhorted to
confess and declare all the truth, being admonished that if he should
die under the torture, the judges would be clear from blame, which would
rest alone with himself, as a criminal. The notary present writes down
everything that is said or done in the act of torture. If the
inquisitors are not satisfied with the confession, the prisoner is
threatened with various punishments, the instruments of which he is
shown in the hall.
3. BINDING.--This is done by cords, fastening the hands behind the back,
the wrists bound together, with weights tied to the feet; so that it is
impossible for the prisoner to extricate himself from the power of the
executioner.
4. THE PULLEY.--By this instrument, the hook being passed under the rope
at the wrists, the victim is drawn up till his head reaches near the
pulley, fixed to the roof of the hall. Thus he is suspended; so that by
the weight of the body, with what is hung at the feet, all the joints of
the emaciated frame are dreadfully stretched, and the bones dislocated.
5. SQUASSATION.--This is performed by a jerk of the rope, but without
allowing the body being suspended from touching the ground. By this a
terrible shake is given to the whole frame, and the arms and legs
disjointed, by which the sufferer is put to the most exquisite pain. The
shock which is thus received oftentimes occasions death. Romish authors
observe on this mode, “When the senate orders, ‘Let him be interrogated
by torture,’ the person is lifted or hoisted up, but not put to the
squassation. If the senate orders, ‘Let him be tortured,’ he must then
undergo the squassation at once, being first interrogated as he is
hanging upon the rope and engine. If it orders, ‘Let him be well
tortured,’ it is understood that he must suffer two squassations. If it
orders, ‘Let him be severely tortured,’ it is understood of three
squassations, at three different times within an hour. If it says, ‘Very
severely,’ it is understood that it must be done with twisting, and
weights at the feet. When it says, ‘Very severely, even unto death,’
then the criminal’s life is in immediate danger.”
6. THE FIRE-PAN.--This was applied to the prisoner while he was fastened
in the stocks, when a fire-pan, full of burning charcoal, was brought
near to the soles of his feet. These were rendered increasingly
susceptible of pain, by being rubbed with grease; so that they would
literally be fried, and the suffering be most excruciating. During the
process, the prisoner was exhorted to confess; and if he promised this,
a board was put between his feet and the fire; but if he did not satisfy
them, the board was removed, and the torture renewed. The Rev. Archibald
Bower, once an inquisitor, but afterwards a clergyman in the church of
England, states, that frequently the inquisitors and other officers,
regardless of the groans and tears of the unhappy sufferer, converse
before him on city news, or add insult to his misery while entreating by
all that is sacred for a moment’s relief from the dreadful torment.
7. THE RACK.--Several instruments were so called: one was a plank with a
windlass attached, having two pulleys. The prisoner, nearly naked,
placed with his back on the board, was drawn by a rope tied to the iron
ring on each wrist; so that his arms were drawn until they were
dislocated, producing extreme agony to the victim.
8. THE HORSE.--This was a frame of wood--a sort of trough, across which
was a round bar, like the step of a ladder. On this bar the prisoner was
laid, with his feet elevated higher than his head. He was then bound to
the horse by a cord drawn thrice round each arm, and the same round each
leg. By means of sticks, after the manner of screws, the cord being
twisted, it was thus tightened, and, cutting into the flesh, much
bloodshed was caused. The rope was then removed to the sounder parts,
and the torture repeated, producing excruciating agony.
9. THE DICE.--Sometimes iron dice were fastened to the heels of the
feet, when screws were forced through the flesh till they reached the
bones, producing indescribable suffering.
10. THE WET CLOTH.--The prisoner, while bound to the horse, in some
cases, had thrown over his face a thin cloth, forming a bag to pass into
his mouth, so that he was scarcely able to breathe; and, at the same
time, a very small stream of water was directed to fall into the mouth,
sinking the bag down his throat. Six or seven English pints of water
have been thus poured into one person, and the convulsive agonies
produced were like a sense of suffocation. Sometimes the cloth was
removed from the face, to allow the wretched victim to answer the
questions proposed by the inquisitors; when the pain occasioned by the
pulling up of the bag from the throat was as if the bowels were being
drawn through the mouth, and it was found to be soaked with blood as
well as with water. In his struggling efforts to breathe, the sufferer
would rupture a blood-vessel, and, in not a few instances, die under the
horrid torture.
Various other modes of cruelty were employed in some courts, according
to the will of the inquisitors. Some used canes put between the fingers,
which were then pressed together, so as to dislocate the joints, and
occasion exquisite pain. Others tied small cords round the thumbs, so
tightly as to force blood from under the nails. Red-hot irons were
pressed upon the naked breasts, and iron slippers heated were put on the
feet, so as to burn the flesh to the bone. And in perpetrating these
enormities, especially on the persons of women, the inquisitors behaved
in the most inhuman and revolting manner, indicating the execrable
character of the Romish “mystery of iniquity.”