Roman tourchure tools

Keys were produced as a single copy, and picks to them could not be created. A century later in Victorian England, a similar device with rings was invented for males which were worn to wean young boys away from masturbating. In those days it was customary to assume that masturbating lead to blindness, insanity, sudden death, and other dire consequences. However, loss of men especially the young, to sex or masturbation — this is a real torture for such behavior.

These devices were made of metal, sometimes supplied with studs, and most were just very tight and prevented full erections. But among the intimate forms there existed even more terrible devices. For example, pears and wooden phalluses. They were often used in conjunction with the interrogation of witches and heretics. Both instruments were designed to break the most sensitive of organs. Using the pear as punishment was considered more severe, since before it is applied it is heated, then injected into the mouth, anus, or vagina.

When the screw tightened, the pear segments were released to allow for maximum carnage. Victims of this device could very quickly die from blood loss and painful shock. Victims that were acussed and condemned for adultery, heresy, witchcraft and blasphemy were often treated with this hellish pronged-like device whose main purpose was to tear breasts off the chest. The victim was stripped, hoisted and hung over this pointed pyramid with iron belts.

Their legs were stretched out frontwards, or their ankles pulled down by weights. The tormentor would then drop the accused onto the pyramid penetrating both orifices. With their muscles contracted, they were usually unable to relax and fall asleep. The victim, naked and exposed, would slowly wither from hunger and thirst.

The weather would second the victims death by heat stroke and sunburn in the summer and cold in the winter. The victims and corpses were usually previously mutilated before being put in the cages to make a more edifying example of the punishment. The cadavers were left in the cages until the bones literally fell apart. The Catherine wheel was used to break peoples bones and they would be "broken on the wheel".

Medieval Crime and Punishment was fairly inconsistent and quite severe compared to today. Minor medieval crimes were dealt with by humiliation whereas severe medieval crimes were punished by torture and death.

The Garrotte device used to kill people is a more basic weapon than the Garrotte torture device that was made by the Spanish and used on Heretics during the Spanish inquisition. The Iron Maiden has to rank as one of the nastiest pieces of medieval torture devices, The Iron Maiden had hundreds of spikes inside of it that entered your body as the doors closed. The Judas Cradle was invented in the 16th century towards the end of the medieval period, it was of the new brand of particularly gruesome medieval torture devices that had been invented during this period.

There were different attitudes to witchcraft during different medieval periods. Medieval witchcraft was not tolerated in some medieval times and was punished with a death sentence, at other medieval times people were more tolerant of medieval witchcraft.

Read more about the Medieval Witchcraft and Wicked Witches! Medieval Torture devices such as The Pear were used to obtain confessions from medieval women who were accused of being witches and similar, however the Pear Torture device was so brutal that the victim was usually killed. The strappado torture device was used extensively during the Inquisition's. The strappado torture device was used to gain confessions from heretics, it was designed to stretch and dislocate its victims limbs and was of a simple design.

The scavengers daughter was a nasty Medieval torture device that used compression to torture its victims. The stocks torture device was used in medieval times to humiliate petty criminals, unlike the other medieval torture devices the stocks torture device purpose was not to kill the victim but to humiliate them.

Thumbscrew was a tool that was commonly used for getting confessions of victims. The torture rack was a popular and varied type of device used for medieval torture, this gruesome torture rack would pull the joints clean out of their sockets. Vlad the Impaler was probably one of the most evil people in History, his rule was around the late medieval period. Vlad the impaler was famous for the way he impaled people on spikes.

Medieval torture could have taken place anywhere in medieval times however most torture that took place during this period was in the many Castle dungeons across Europe. Dungeons were the ideal place to keep all the instruments of torture and torture devices used on medieval prisoners imprisoned in the castle. People of medieval times could also be whipped, Boiled in water, oil or even lead.

Starvation and cutting off various items of the anatomy such as hands, ears etc was also common, whatever would cause the most pain and distress was a viable option. A Popular Medieval Torture Device device was the infamous torture rack , which was very successful in extracting confessions from people. The tortured person was stretched out on a rack, tied by the ankles and wrists across a flat board that had rollers at both sides.

The torture rack was a truly gruesome torture device; unbelievably the victim could also be subjected to additional forms of torture at the same time as being stretched on the torture rack. One of the most famous and widely known uses of the torture rack was in the infamous Spanish Inquisition. The stocks became very popular medieval torture device because confessions could be extracted from the person without them actually dying, as they would often do on the rack!

The person being tortured would be lying down when both their feet were put into the stocks ; two pieces of wood were then clamped together. The torturers would then burn the soles of their feet , which were blistered and fried by a medieval torture device called a blazing brazier, this is why the Stocks deserves a place in this list of 13 Terrifying Medieval Torture Devices.

If the person being tortured did not make a confession of guilt then the board, which gave temporary relief, would be removed and the torture would commence again, until the correct confession was obtained. It was used in situations where the torturers needed to persuade children to testify against their parents for example. As well as using the rack there were other means of torture that were practiced upon children and women and people either of lower crimes or with less strength, as the purpose of the torture was to often to get results, not really to kill the person.

As such, people with less strength would not survive the more gruesome forms of torture such as with torture devices such as the pulley rack or fire. So types of torture that were considered acceptable were such pleasant things as removing ones nails from fingers and toes, pressing fingers with rods between them.