10 brutale Foltermethoden der Spanischen Inquisition, mit denen Frauen gequält wurden

PART 2:

  Some historians believe that between 10,000 and more than 35,000 women in Spain and its colonies were subjected to the rack.  Not all of them died.  Many survived crippled and paralyzed, branded as cleansed.  And yes, the church paid doctors to keep them alive so they could answer.  But when the body could no longer endure it , they went a step further to a method that burned from the ground up , where pain became the final test of patience.  Number 8: Foot roasting.

Here’s something that most people overlook when they talk about the Inquisition .  Torture was not always about killing.  Sometimes it was about keeping someone alive just long enough until they begged for death. This is where foot roasting came into play.  It was called Lado Doca de Fuego, or the interrogation by fire.

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  Already done? Great.  Thanks.  Let’s continue. The accused woman was strapped to a wooden bench.  Their bare feet were coated with lard, oil, or animal fat .  Then the soles of their feet were slowly, agonizingly slowly, exposed to glowing or burning coals .  The trick lay in the precision.  If she burned too quickly , she lost consciousness before she could confess.

  It was too slow, and the torture had to be repeated the next day .  Records from the Tribunal of Walladolit mention that the inquisitors determined the duration of torture based on smell.  “When the meat begins to sweeten the air,” wrote a scribe in 1582, ” the truth is near.”  One can imagine what kind of world that was. They called it a purifying flame.

Some victims even had their feet bandaged afterwards so that they were healed just enough to be interrogated again the following week.  And when the fire went out, a new form of torment took its place.  One that did n’t burn the skin, but  cut through muscles and bones like invisible knives. Number 7, Manquerda.

If you believe that ropes are harmless, the Inquisition would have proven you wrong within seconds .  The Manquerda looked simple, a thin hemp rope that was sometimes moistened beforehand, but it was designed for cruelty.  When twisted, it not only bound tightly, but cut through skin, tendons and muscles like a carrot for the limbs.  That’s how it worked.

  The accused, often women suspected of witchcraft , midwives or healers, were placed on a bench or tied to it. Then the ropes were tightly wrapped around her arms, legs, and sometimes even her thighs.  With each turn of the wooden tonic, the pressure increased until the flesh around the rope swelled.

  Eyewitnesses reported that it shed blood down to the bone .  There is a documented case from Quenka in 1575 in which a woman named Maria Laverde was accused of making a love potion for the wife of a nobleman .  After she refused to confess under questioning, the inquisitors used Demonquerda.  Within 20 minutes her skin ripped open and the fibers were torn so deeply that doctors later said her bones could be identified by the string lines.

   What is particularly frightening is how precisely she proceeded.  Every twist had its rule.  Three for the first warning, five for the confession, seven for the persistent ones.  Furthermore, the body often went into a state of shock. But here comes the really disturbing part.  The survivors were unable to hold a spoon after that .

  Her nerves were destroyed, her hands permanently curled like claws. And if such pain was not enough, the inquisitors resorted to a completely different method, one that initially seemed merciful, until it filled the lungs with death itself. Number 6: Water torture. What made the Inquisition so terrifying was not just its violence, it was its creativity.

  They found ways to  drown a person over and over again without him dying.   They called it Ladocka.  The cloth.  Sounds harmless, right?  But it was one of the most psychologically destructive torture methods ever documented .  The preparations were almost a ritual.  The accused woman was tied flat on her back, with her hands and feet bound.

  Her head was tilted back just far enough that gravity held her in place.  Then a thin linen cloth was placed tightly over the mouth and nose, and water was slowly poured from a jug.  Sometimes one cup after another, sometimes liters by the liter.  The fabric caught the liquid and forced it into her throat and sinuses until she gasped for air and swallowed air that wasn’t there.

  According to the Toledo court records from 1628, the inquisitors often counted how many jugs a woman could hold before she confessed.  Four jugs were considered mild, ten were considered heavy, some withstood more than 15, worse still.  After each session, they revived her, wiped her face clean, and started again, because technically she hadn’t bled.

  The Inquisition called this purification by water and claimed it cleansed both body and soul.  In reality, it mimicked drowning so accurately that modern psychologists recognize it as an early form of what we now call waterboarding.  And when water could no longer break, the Inquisition resorted to something colder, something made of iron, specially designed to destroy women in ways no man could imagine.

Number 5: Chest rippers. Some torture methods were designed to break the body.  Others should completely erase a person’s dignity .  The breast ripper was both. It was not the most common instrument of the Inquisition, but it became infamous for what it symbolized: the idea that a woman’s body itself could be punished for sins .

  The device looked deceptively simple.  four metal claws attached to an iron handle, which were sometimes heated to a red-hot glow .  It was clamped to the chest and then either ripped away with a brutal movement or slowly twisted, tearing the flesh to shreds .  Some models had hooks on each claw that dug deeper into the meat with every turn .

  It was used throughout Europe , in Spain, Germany, France, everywhere where the shadow of the Inquisition hung. Historians believe it was reserved for women  accused of sexual heresy.  Witches, midwives, or widows who were said to  seduce men through the art of the devil.  A report from Seville in 1590 accused a healer named Isabelle de Santo Thomas of using her body to seduce souls.

  The inquisitors tied them to a stake, heated their claws, and cleaned them with fire. She died three days later from an infection.  Officially, however, this was described as a cleaning.  There were even reports that nobles attended such punishments as a warning to the weak.  That’s the part that people forget.  It wasn’t just torture, it was theater.

  But when even fire and iron could not force a confession, the Church still had one weapon left.  Number 4: Public flogging.   Do you know what’s terrifying?  The Inquisition didn’t always need iron claws or burning coals to destroy someone.  Sometimes shame was the weapon.  Public flogging was one of the most humiliating punishments ever invented , especially for women.

  She transformed pain into spectacle and regret into theatre.  Imagine this .  The year is 1583 in Valencia.  A young woman named Catalina Perez, accused of inappropriate cheekiness, walks barefoot across the town square, wearing only a linen shirt.  Behind her, an official of the Holy Office cracks a  whip on her back every few steps.

  The crowd sings prayers while priests cry out for mercy .  She has to repeat aloud with every hit .  I have sinned.  The number of blows is usually 100 to 200, depending on the severity of the charges.  It was n’t just about punishment, it was about power.  Women convicted of heresy, dishonor, or even gossiping about priests could be  sentenced to whip-wielding for the moral edification of others.

  The Inquisition treated this as a spiritual cleansing.  But do n’t be mistaken.  It was psychological torture disguised as faith.  What is particularly frightening is how precise the rules were.  If a woman fainted, she was sprinkled with holy water, revived, and the business continued.  And if the blows caused blood to flow, it was said that the body was expelling impurities.

But while the crowd cheered her repentance , the real torment began in the silence.  The next method of the Inquisition did not touch the meat at all.  She attacked the spirit. Number 3: Sleep deprivation. Do you know what the Inquisition eventually discovered?  She didn’t always need chains or fire to force someone to confess.

  She just had to keep the prisoners awake long enough. Then the psychological torture began. A torture that left no wounds , but only broke the mind piece by piece. Women accused of witchcraft, heresy, or blasphemy were imprisoned in pitch-black cells where time simply stood still.  No sun, no sound, just the dripping of water somewhere in the distance.

  The guards were instructed to wake them up every time they closed their eyes.  Some prisoners were held like this for 5 to 10 days , others for weeks. There is a record from Dolor dating back to 1604 about a woman named Maria de La Cru who was accused of witchcraft.  She endured seven nights without sleep.

  In the eighth grade, she started talking to the walls.  The inquisitors described this as proof of demonic possession.  It was her brain that shut down. And here’s the problem.  The Inquisition considered this a mercy. They claimed that no bones were broken and no blood was shed, so it did not  violate their own laws against mutilation.

  But this type of torture was far worse.  She made women  doubt their own memories. She began confessing to things that had never happened.  Conversations with the devil, night flights, cursing neighbors, all just to be allowed to rest .  Sometimes false evidence was planted to turn their exhaustion into guilt.  A priest may have whispered, “You already admitted this yesterday,” and after days without sleep, the mind can no longer  distinguish between truth and suggestion.

When the spirit finally broke, the body became the target.  Then the Inquisition resorted to instruments so cruel that even its own scribes refused to write down their names. Number 2: Torture pear. This instrument rarely appeared in official records, which makes it all the more worrying.  The torture pear was a small metal object in the shape of a fruit with four leaves that could be extended by a screw mechanism .

  It looked harmless, even elegant, but its purpose was more than cruel.  Depending on the crime, it was inserted into the mouth, the rectum, or, in the case of women, usually into the vagina.  Once inserted, the torturer slowly turned the screw, causing the metal sheets to open outwards and tear the soft tissue from the inside out.

  It did not lead to immediate death, that was n’t the point.  It should punish silence itself .  There is evidence of this in French and Spanish documents from the late 16th century, often in connection with women accused of lying under oath or seducing priests.  A chronicler from Aragon mentioned a woman named Beatrice who was accused of poisoning her husband.

  When she refused to confess, they fed her the pear.  The entry ended abruptly.  No death, no acquittal, only silence.  Even worse, many scientists believe that the device was not always used for confessions.  Sometimes it was simply used as punishment for loose tongues , women who gossiped, challenged men, or spoke out against clergy.

  But even the pear had its limits.  She was an intimate horror.  The last method transformed cruelty into a public statement. Number 1: Garotte. The garrote should be merciful.  It was considered a humane alternative to burning. In reality, it was a masquerading as a mild execution in slow motion.  This is how it works.

  The victim was tied upright to a wooden stake.  A metal collar was placed around his neck .  A screw in the back was  turned slowly, sometimes for several minutes, crushing the spine or strangling the throat until the body went limp. Women accused of heresy , especially those from noble families, were often given the garrote instead of being burned alive .

  Sounds like mercy, doesn’t it?  Except that it was never quick.  In Madrid in 1571, a woman named Juana Sanchez was executed with a carrot for false visions .  The executioner, nervous in front of the crowd, missed the spine on the first attempt.  It took minutes for her to die. Between 1800 and 1980, approximately 32,000 people were executed by the Inquisition, and historians estimate that about 15% of them were women.

  The mob ended more lives than the fire because it appeared civilized.  But it was no mercy.  It was a theatrical performance, death so polished that it looked like forgiveness.  And that is precisely what made the Inquisition so terrifying.  She not only invented pain, but disguised it as salvation. Thanks for watching.

  These were the ten most brutal torture methods.  If this glimpse into the darkest truths of history has impressed you, please give us a like, subscribe to our channel and activate the bell to not miss any more videos .  Let us know in the comments how you liked the video and which method shocked you the most .  And if you have half a spare, please use it for this video and don’t forget to check out our latest videos.

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