Medieval Information

Chinese torture was a different way to punish offenders. It was meant to be "as painful as the human body can resist." Making a person laugh until his death--Chinese invention. The Chinese not only knew extremely well how to get the truth out of anyone, they made victims hate their torturers.
The most common way to make someone speak was with the use of a torture called "the blade." It consisted of a small--very sharp--dagger. The torturer would make one cut at a time to his victim, if he refused to speak, he could go on endlessly. A thousand cuts were not enough to kill a person. He could continue living until all his blood drained out of his body very slowly. This rarely happened since a victim could be cured and tortured for months--or years.

In medieval China, if someone didn't obey the emperor, he'd be killed. If anyone refused to believe in the emperor, he'd be tortured and killed. If someone offended the emperor, what was going to await him is best described as "hell."

That's the reason of the now infamous "Chinese Torture." But it didn't include only cutting and laughing; it was much more. They also developed highly psychological tortures. Depriving sleep was one of the most commonly used.

"The Ball" was totally psychological. It consisted of fixing a person to a wall (in good cases with ropes, bad cases with nails) and tying a small ball all the way from the roof to the head of the victim. The rope would go back and forth hitting the person's forehead until it reached his brain--after many months--and he finally died. In the middle stage of the torturing process, the victim would be shouting in agonizing pain since he could feel how the blood from his forehead was reaching his eyes (sometimes causing blindness).

Chinese torture was very cruel.

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.

Another common form of execution was by burning at the stake. This was mainly the case during the inquisition or when a heretic was found - additionally, witches were also famous for being burnt at the stake very frequently.

A repentant heretic would be hanged and then burnt in order to minimize his pain. Nevertheless, those who did not repent would find themselves burnt with green wood to enlarge the whole process and to give an spectacle for the whole family.

When many heretics were condemned and resources were scarce, they could be simply burnt together by tying one next to the other. Then they would be burnt alive.

When the church wanted extreme pain to be suffered while making the burning at the stake execution, they would very frequently place the victim(s) on top of hot coals and leaving them to roast.

The disembowelment torture was used to punish thieves and those accused of adulterism. This was generally done in public, for everyone to see; though later this practice was more common inside a dungeon - with mice.

The victim had a fine cut made in the gut - leaving some of his intestines to be seen. During the early Middle Ages, it was common to simply leave him to catch an infection. Nevertheless, during the later Medieval Times, torturers began using small animals to cause the victim's death faster and more painful.



Usually the torturer had a couple of starving mice in a box. When they were placed on top of the naked victim, they would begin eating him slowly. We have about 6 meters of intestines which were slowly eaten by the starving mice leaving the victim to stare in agonizing pain.

Ultimately, the victim suffered of an infection - which caused death in a couple of days.

During the Inquisition, new ways for torture were sought - that is ways without "breaking any skin" as the church dictated.

The Head Vice did not break any skin by itself, but it was nevertheless; very deadly and painful.

What did the Head Vice consist of? For Heretics, the church could sentence them to death with the Head Vice - a device just big enough to fit the victim's head which would be tightened eventually crushing the victim's teeth and breaking bones. Ultimately, the victim's eyes would fall out of their sockets.

This was, of course, a very innovative torture and also very messy. Reason for which, torturers sometimes preferred to make another vice instead of cleaning the one with the person's eyes on it. Of course meaner executioners took advantage of this and simply used it with all the remainings on the new victim - which were quite frequent.

When the offense was not serious enough, sometimes the victim would survice. Those who survived narrate The Wheel as being the most painful torturing device ever made.

Of course this is very subjective because there was no comparison in the first place, but there is something very clear: The Wheel was terribly painful and mostly deadly.

The wheel had many variants out of which using horses for pulling a person was the most common. In order to accomplish this, the victim would have his feet tied with a rope to a caged wild horse. His hands would be sometimes fixed to the wall (sometimes with nails to imitate Jesus Christ and give it a more religious meaning).

When everything was ready, the horse would be ordered to ride at full speed with the only impediment of the agonizing human. After much struggle from the horse, the person's bones would finally break. For very strong people, sometimes two or three horses were used instead of one to accelerate the process and make it overall more painful and faster.

In general, sepparating a person in two was almost impossible when using any variants of the wheel as bones had to be completely crushed and human skin is very resistant to this. Nevertheless, when horses were very hungry and ordered to run and when there were two or three or them, sometimes the victim would have his arms sepparated which was, in their words, "quite an spectacle".

Of course there were many other variants. The wheel itself was a device used for stretching a person using specifically a wheel. The torturer would turn a handle with a person tied to the wheel - the more he pulled, the more the wheel would be turned and the more the person would be stretched.

Sometimes to cause more pain, the wheel would itself move around with the person on top of it - like when roasting a chicken. To delve deeper into the analogy, sometimes fire was used as well to even cause more pain. Additionally, very mean torturers would place nails in the floor to potentially hurt the victim while not killing him.

The wheel's origins are unknown, but unfortunately for the tortured victims, it existed through most of the Dark Ages and it was very common in England, France and even Germany.

Punishments for witches varied from town to town. Some towns even believed that torturing a witch would cause them bad luck and furthermore they avoided it!

The most common cause of killing witches was to be burnt at the stake. This was easy, cheap and was said to "burn away evil spirits".

The Dunk Stool was also widely used as a witch could last many hours suffering and the townspeople could watch from a distance.

Of course torturing witches was a common practice as witches were very common themselves! Unfortunately, most of them were never proven guilty and they were just tortured and killed to force them to prove themselves guilty.

The inquisition was full of such false trials and witches were said to be everywhere.

People during the Dark Ages were very superstitious.

This torture was used to punish any type of offenders. Nevertheless, it was commonly reserved for thieves and unfaithful wives.

The cat's paw could be used to rip off the skin of any part of the body including, but not limited to, the breasts, face, back or chest.

This torture very frequently caused death not because of the injuries per se, but because of the infections that came along with the torture as sometimes the cat's paw would cut so deeply that one could see the bone itself which, combined with the fact that this device was very seldom - if at all - washed, could bring deadly infections and diseases.

The chastity belt was widely used in Italy and later on it spread to France during the XV century.

The true use of the chastity belt is unknown. Many historians state that the belt was made to prevent women from being raped while their husbands were away - this is backed up by the fact that many belts were made of luxurious materials such as silver and gold.

Nevertheless, other chastity belts have been found which suggest a much meaner use.



This devise was probably used for prostitutes or unfaithful wives.