Today most of us live in a world where we
are free to pursue whatever spiritual path we see fit, and worship whatever god- or gods-
we fancy, without fear of reprisal or persecution. That was not the case for medieval Europe
however, when starting in the 12thcentury the Catholic Church launched a bloody inquisition
that would last for hundreds of years and see tens of thousands of people tortured and
executed, all in the name of their version of God. Hello and welcome to another episode of The
Infographics Show- today we're taking a look at some of the greatest horrors of The Inquisition. Christianity, originally conceived in ancient
Israel, was at its inception persecuted as heresy by the Jewish leaders of the time. Jesus was famously humiliated, beaten, and
ultimately crucified for his claims that he was the living Son of God, and after his death
his closest followers went into hiding until, fueled by their belief that Jesus had risen
from the dead as promised and thus proven he was the son of God, they began to spread
their beliefs in Jesus as saviour. This led to their becoming known as Christians,
and of the original disciples, many would suffer terrible fates at the hands of the
Jewish leadership. Over a thousand years later though, Christianity
had arisen to become the prominent religion across Europe, and in a bit of irony, it now
became the faith that persecuted Jews for their beliefs. Yet Christianity was being challenged from
both within and without, with many Christians deeply unhappy with the Vatican's abuses of
power and calling into question problematic Catholic dogma. Others who simply wanted to worship God in
their own ways were also threatening the power and influence of the Church, and that could
not be tolerated. Publicly proclaiming that there could be only
one road to God and all else was dangerous heresy that threatened to steer people away
from God's love, the Inquisition was launched in the late 12thcentury, though sadly the
truth was that the church was more concerned with securing its own power and wealth rather
than the souls of the faithful it claimed were being threatened. The Inquisitors were specially trained priests
who were instructed in the art of discovering heresy and rooting it out, then extracting
penance and confessions from heretics, almost always through torture. When an Inquisitor arrived in town he would
immediately announce his presence to the local population, and would give citizens present
a chance to admit their heresy. If they did, then they would be doled out
a punishment befitting their level of heresy, everything from a forced pilgrimage to holy
sites in Rome to severe whippings which could scar a person for life. For Inquisitors, true penance could only be
achieved through deep pain, thus most Inquisitors would make use of special bullwhips which
would come with small metal beads at the end in order to deeply lacerate flesh. Others still used a tool known as a cat-of-nine-tails,
which was a whip with nine extensions, typically with each one inlaid with small pieces of
sharpened metal. The wounds would be so severe that often those
receiving this punishment would die from infection or be crippled afterwards. Those that survived bore the scars for life,
their backs forever disfigured by the horrible whipping. This was of course lighter punishment reserved
for those who freely confessed. If one did not confess, the Inquisitor would
immediately begin their investigation, calling in local townsfolk for one-on-one meetings. Citizens were encouraged to speak up about
the heretical practices of their neighbors, and once accused there was often little evidence
needed to determine guilt. This led to many cases of revenge in the form
of false accusations by angry neighbors, or perhaps just by individuals who coveted the
lands or even wives of others for themselves. With the scantest proof of heresy, one could
convince an Inquisitor that their neighbor was a horrible heretic, deserving of the fires
of hell itself. Of course the Church itself hardly ever needed
much incentive to persecute people as heretics. Count Raymond VII of Toulouse would regularly
burn people at the stake for heresy, even if they had confessed when given an opportunity. Because often those who were persecuted were
Jews, Muslims, or other religious minorities, the process of killing them was little more
than a handy way to cleanse the population of undesirables. That included gays, who were persecuted under
laws of sodomy and brutally tortured before being killed. In the kingdom of Aragon in Spain, the Inquisition
only stopped giving out the death penalty for sodomy after almost 1,000 trials- most
of which ended with torture and death for the accused. Diego Rodriguez Lucero, an inquisitor nicknamed
“the bringer of darkness”, operated from 1499 to 1506, and routinely used the power
of his position for his self-gain. Once he sent an innocent man named Julian
Trigueros to burn at the stake so that he could take the man's wife for himself after
his death, and later when he desired one of his many mistresses for himself, he sent her
husband and parents to burn at the stake. Nobody was safe from Lucero, and in one year-
1506- he handed out 100 death sentences. Eventually the marquis of Cordoba sent his
army to attack Lucero's prison and set all inside of it free. Unfortunately Lucero escaped, but he was so
hated and thoroughly corrupt that the Grand Inquisitor in Rome had him arrested two years
later. Because trying Lucero for corruption would
be the Catholic Church as the pot calling the kettle black, Lucero was quickly released,
and in a frustrating lack of karmic justice, would die peacefully in Seville that same
year. For the Inquisitor, extracting confessions
was paramount- and it mattered little whether they were real or false. Inevitably the accused would face one of many
different forms of punishment which weren't meant to actually punish the individual, but
rather just get them to confess. One of the preferred method of exacting confessions
was called Strappado. In this form of torture an individual would
have their hands tied behind their back and the rope attached to a pulley. Then they were raised so that they would hang
from their arms, which would inevitably lead to the shoulders being pulled out of their
sockets. Often the Inquisitor would raise the victim
up high and suddenly drop them before catching their fall, forcing the body to jerk violently. As if this wasn't enough, weights would often
be tied to the person's feet to make the hanging even more painful. The rack was yet another popular tool of the
Inquisition, and a very effective one at that. Here the subject had their hands and feet
tied or chained up to rollers at one or perhaps both ends of a wooden frame. The Inquisitor then slowly turned the rollers
with a handle, which pulled on the ropes or chains and stretched the victim's arms and
legs until they dislocated. Sometimes the process would simply continue
until limbs were torn off completely. Even though mutilation was forbidden by the
Church, in 1256 Pope Alexander IV gave Inquisitors the power to forgive each other for any wrongdoing
they committed during their torture sessions. This meant that Inquisitors were free to add
any form of torture they could dream up to victims who were enduring the torture of strappado
or the rack, and thus they often did- because why waste a good chance to mutilate someone? If confessions weren't forthcoming, or perhaps
the Inquisitor didn't quite believe they were honest enough, they could get inventive with
their bound up prisoner. This would include the use of devices such
as the Boot, which was a wooden framed shoe that was placed on the foot of a victim and
was slowly tightened until eventually it crushed the bones of the feet and lower legs. Another popular device was the thumbscrew,
which was made up of small inserts for each of the fingers on a hand which were gradually
tightened until they crushed the finger bones completely. For women, one of the most horrific implements
of torture was known as the breast ripper, which was nothing more than a prong-like iron
device which would be heated in a fire and then affixed over each breast, with the Inquisitor
violently ripping away the breast tissue until there was little more left than a mass of
cauterized tissue. All of these were things the victim would
suffer along with their normal torture, and designed to not just exact confessions, but
to ensure that the guilty would be forever marked by the ordeal. The Judas Chair was number 3 of the top 3
torture devices used by the Inquisition, and consisted of a pyramid like seat with a sharpened
point at the top, upon which the accused was sat on. The point of the pyramid was forced into the
anus or the vagina, and the Inquisitor would gradually force the victim down upon the device
by lowering them from above by ropes they were attached to. Sometimes the ropes were attached from below,
allowing an inquisitor to turn a crank and slowly force the accused down onto the device. Ironically this was seen as the most humane
of the three main methods of torture, as this would rarely lead to death and instead would
disfigure the person and create lifelong difficulties walking. For women it would basically make child-bearing
all but impossible. A milder form of punishment was known as the
Heretic's Fork, and was an ingenious device which consisted of a two-pronged fork-like
device. The device would be tied around the person's
neck and one end of the forks would be placed below the neck, digging into the lower jaw. The other end of the fork would be gouged
into the flesh of the chest, securely holding it in place. Thus the victim would be unable to move their
head forward at all without impaling themselves, and the act of speaking was excruciatingly
painful. Victims would often be left like this for
days before trials in order to encourage their cooperation, even if those trials more often
than not ended in being burned at the stake. For any who wished to avoid their ultimate
fate by trying to impale themselves on the fork, the prongs were placed in such a way
that doing so was impossible and would only lead to even more pain instead. The Nuremberg Virgin, or Iron Maiden as it's
often known, was a sarcophagus like device in the shape of a woman, with a Virgin Mary
placed atop it by the Inquisitors to symbolize the triumph of Christianity over heresy and
dissidence. Models differed, but in essence they all worked
the same way: the victim was shoved inside it and then had the door thrown shut. In some models the inside of the maiden was
rigged with spikes several inches long, in others there were no spikes but instead small
holes through which long nails could be thrust through. In order to keep a victim from dying too fast
though the spikes or nails were situated in such a way that they did not pierce any vital
organs, thus ensuring the victim could stay alive for a long period of time. Models differ, but generally the victim was
stabbed through in both shoulders, the lower back, in three places across the chest, on
each buttock, and once in the stomach. Some models had special slots for inserting
nails that would impale the victim through the eyes, but not so deeply as to penetrate
into the brain. Inquisitors may throw someone inside and leave
them until they died of their wounds, the victim trapped in the enclosed space and unable
to move without deepening the wounds they are already suffering. Other Inquisitors would slam the door to the
maiden open and shut several times, stabbing the victim through over and over again. Curiously, the device was meant to symbolize
the victim entering into the embrace of the Virgin Mary herself, an act that symbolizes
the Catholic Church's absolution of the accused's sins. The Spanish Inquisition was a time of legalized
horror inflicted upon the religious minorities of Europe; mostly Jews, pagans, and Muslims. Often the motivations were nothing more than
a desire for more wealth and power, with the Church seizing the assets of the accused,
even if they were allowed to live after their accusation. Men in power who coveted the wives or lands
of others would send innocent men to be executed, and jealous lovers betrayed their partners
to Inquisitors for revenge. While the Inquisition was meant to combat
sin, it ironically only ended up enabling some of the greatest sins in European history. Today the world casts a mistrustful eye towards
organized religion in most parts of the world, partly due to the heritage of the Inquisition
and its many abuses. Yet while we like to think we are far removed
from such barbarism, one can't help but wonder given the particular, almost religious like
zeal of some extreme far-right political movements around the world just how far we really are
from a new age of torture in the name of God. One also can't help but wonder how those faithful
to a Christ who endured horrible torture would imagine that he would be ok with them inflicting
the same on others in his name. Found this video interesting, check out our
other video titled What Happens When You Die? See you next time?!
Nobody expected them
This version is shorter and has more swimming nuns.
"Do you believe in God or do you want to meet him right now?"
“The Horror Is of the Spanish Inquisition”?
https://youtu.be/1N6OOWtCYQA
I was expecting to learn something from the video, sadly it looks like a Buzzfeed article.