Medieval Information

During the Dark Ages, torture was used to punish offenders. Whether they were spies, traitors or thieves, torture was the most common method used to punish them. If a criminal's offense was bad enough, he could be sentenced to death after a long painful death. Most punishments were given in the town's main square; to show villagers what happened if they committed a crime.

After its invention in the late XVIII century, the most common way to kill someone was with the guillotine. Though this punishment was always painless, criminals who offended someone in the previous centuries were not as lucky for very painful devices existed.

If someone denied giving away valuable information, there were many ways to make him talk. Known as the Judas Chair, an offender would be forced to sit on a pyramid-shaped chair making his or her anus gradually bigger; thus killing him in a matter of days. When he agreed to talk, he would be removed from the chair; but the damage was already done.

The wheel was largely used for blasphemers, traitors, homosexuals and spies. A person sentenced to the wheel would try to look for ways to kill himself because he knew that the pain awaiting him was going to be enormous.

We have the misconception of thinking that the church was against these practices. While some archbishops were actually against torture, many others used these methods as a way to punish blasphemers and people who insulted God--or the church--somehow.

Torture was widely used throughout the Dark Ages and it was very notorious in rulers who wanted honesty and peace such as Vlad Tepes.

Though its use slowly declined as centuries passed, torture was still widely used until the XIX century in Europe when it was banned from most European countries. Many important people such as Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (contributor to the guillotine's creation) were against torture and argued that death should be given painlessly without any pain caused on purpose.

Obviously it took much time for such claims to be heard, but in the case of the guillotine, a new beginning was marked for human dignity was respected and the French church finally believed in not causing much pain before a person's death.