I’ve sat through all the Saw and Hostel movies, and I wasn’t the least bit affected by all the gore. It was all crappy special effects anyway. But reading about how the most horrifying torture devices in history--the real ones-- worked, is an entirely different thing. Maybe I just have an over-active imagination, but by the time I got to torture device no. 12, nausea was already setting in. I was thinking about listing at least 20 of these infernal contraptions, but I had to stop lest I throw up all over my keyboard.
I remember a scene in the TV series Jericho where the mysterious character Hawkins says “the prospect of torture is a much more effective means of interrogating people” or something along those lines. Too bad hundreds of thousands of sadists over the centuries didn’t know that, and proceeded to inflict on their millions of victims the worst pain imaginable, which, more often than not, resulted in a very painful death. Here are some of the twisted devices they used to do just that:
1. Heretic’s fork
One end of this device was pushed under the chin, the other into the sternum, with the strap securing this torture tool to the victim’s neck. Immobilized and in great pain, the victim will have to mouth off the Latin word “abiuro” (I recant), or they’ll end up being hanged or worse, burned at the stake.
2. Lead sprinkler
This tool, which kinda reminds me of a holy water sprinkler, was filled with either molten lead, tar, boiling oil or boiling water, then used to bless, errr, torture its victims by dripping its contents on their stomach, back and other body parts. Sounds like standard S&M practice to me, only with a greater deal of pain.
There are many variations on this torture device. Some were designed to slowly crush fingers, while others were built to do the same to toes, knees and elbows. Just a simple vise, really, but extremely painful.
4. Tongue Tearer
Countless heretics and blasphemers had their tongues roughly torn out with this simple device. My, weren’t they the popular ones during those times.
The rack is a contraption designed to dislocate every single joint in its victim’s body. Tied across the device’s board by the ankles and wrists, the victim’s body is then pulled in opposite directions by turning rollers at either end of the board. Great way of relieving a bad back, if you ask me. Of course, the subsequent pain caused by the multiple dislocations is another story.
This one is self-explanatory. Many women condemned as heretics, adulterers, blasphemers had their breasts ripped out using this device.
Not the 80s heavy metal band, but the iron cabinet found in Nuremberg, Germany. The interior of this device is lined with strategically-placed sharp objects that is intended to torture a person unlucky enough to be put inside it. These spikes impaled the victim in the eyes, the chest and the back, but usually missed vital organs, so as to leave the victim bleeding profusely and in great pain, but still alive for a period of time.
8. Crocodile shears
Had this device been still in use in the 20th century, people like Lee Harvey Oswald or John Hinckley, Jr. might have thought twice before doing the deeds they are infamous for. You see, captured assassins of kings in late medieval Europe often had a date with this device, which is actually an iron pincer with hemicylindrical blades that formed a long narrow tube when closed together. Teeth or spikes lined the inside of the blades, which are first heated until red-hot before being clamped on the victim’s penis. When his sex organ is “cooked” enough, it is then torn out from his body. Ouch.
9. Judas Chair
The Spanish Inquisition was said to have made use of, among other things, the Judas Chair, also known as the Judas Cradle. Victims were hoisted up by rope or chain and then made to sit on the pointed tip of the pyramid shaped device. You get the picture.
10. The Pear
Commit sodomy, adultery, incest, heresy, blasphemy or sexual union with Satan (!) in Medieval Europe, and chances are, you’ll get this intricately-decorated device inserted into your mouth, rectum or vagina. A screw mechanism then makes its pointed “leaves” expand while inside any of those orifices, resulting in severe internal mutilation. Yikes.
This device is known by many names, such as breaking wheel and Catherine wheel, but it only means one thing to those who perished by this means: pure agony.
The Wheel is more like an execution device, but the hours before actual death is excruciating. The victim is tied to the side of the wheel, then gets every bone in his body shattered one by one by an executioner using a hammer or an iron bar. Victims of this form of torture often took hours, or even days to die. Some were “fortunate” enough to be granted “mercy”, in the form of fatal blows to the chest or stomach.
12. Brazen Bull
This is one particularly brutal torture/execution device. From Wikipedia:
"The brazen bull is an execution/torture device designed in ancient Greece. Perillos of Athens, a brass-founder proposed to Phalaris, Tyrant of Agrigentum, the invention of a new means for executing criminals; accordingly, he cast a brazen bull, made totally of brass, hollow, with a door in the side. The condemned was shut up in the bull and a fire was set under it, heating the metal until it became "red hot" and causing the person inside to slowly roast to death. So that 'nothing unseemly might spoil his feasting', Phalaris commanded that the bull be designed in such a way that its smoke rose in spicy clouds of incense. The head of the ox was designed with a complex system of tubes and stops so that the prisoner's screams were converted into sounds like the bellowing of an infuriated bull. "
No way those who were roasted alive in this device looked anything like the serene faces in the above picture.
UPDATE: Here are 10 more torture contraptions
1. Knee Splitter
A popular torture device during the Inquisition, the knee splitter does what it says: split victims' knees and render them useless. Built from two spiked wood blocks, the knee splitter is placed on top of and behind the knee of its victims. Two large screws connecting the blocks are then turned, causing the two blocks to close towards each other and effectively destroy a victim's knee.
2. Inquisitional Chair
An Indian fakir would absolutely love this chair, but not those victims of the Inquisition who were unfortunate enough to sit on it butt naked. Strapped tight to it with leather straps, those who sat on this chair felt the pain of hundreds of sharp and rusty spikes piercing their flesh, and that pain is magnified even more when torturers decide to press them down against the spikes. For added fun, torturers heated this iron chair and effectively roasted slowly the poor unfortunate souls sitting on it.
3. The "Boots"
If you think the Knee Splitter was murder on a person's lower limbs, wait til you know what the "Boots" were about. This horrible piece of equipment was made up of wedges that fitted the legs from ankles to knees. Pure pain ensues when the torturer violently pounds the wedges with a large, heavy hammer, a process that is done repeatedly until flesh and bone are completely destroyed, with some victims even gushing marrow from their crushed legs.
4. The Spanish Tickler
The Spanish Tickler tickled its victims pink, and ultimately very red as this device, also known as the Cat's Paw, ripped and tore their flesh away from the bone, targeting any part of the body.
5. The Skull Splitter
Just as it says: it splits skulls. This one resembles an angel's halo, but there's absolutely nothing angelic or holy about it. Inside this halo are very pointy spikes, which are driven into the side of the victim's skull as the screws on the outside are tightened. The skull splitting part comes when the torturer either grabs the halo by its handles and jerks the victim side to side or hoists him or her into the air, by those very same handles. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the top of the victim's skull is violently removed by the aforementioned actions, and that brains tend to spill out all over the place in the process.
6. Head Crusher
Here's another torture device with a self-explanatory name. The chin of the victim is placed on the lower bar, When the questioning starts, the screw starts to turn and the cap is forced down the victim's head. Use your imagination to see what happens when that cap is pressed all the way down a person's head.
The amazing part is, the Head Crusher is said to be still in use up to this day for interrogation purposes.
7. Revolving Drum
Think of this one as somewhat akin to grating cheese, only this one grates a human torso ever so slowly. A popular tool in Spain for extracting information from prisoners many years ago, the Revolving Drum calls for victims to be put into it face down, their heads through the upper pillory and their legs firmly strapped. Their torsos pressed against a spiked drum, the prisoners are then asked questions. Any sign of resistance, and the torturer then slowly rotates the drum one full revolution. This process is repeated, and torturers even go to the extent of placing weights on the backs of victims to further press their torsos towards the spiked drum and cause more pain. The result, naturally, is death by very slow disembowelment.
8. Spanish Donkey
A number of medieval torture devices have the word "Spanish" attached to it, but this one is probably the most gruesome. The Spanish Donkey gave victims an unimaginably horrible ride, and here's why. Victims are put astride, naked, the apparatus, which is actually a vertical wood board with a sharp V-shape wedge on top. Varying weights are then attached to their feet. Eventually, the victim's own weight and the extra baggage cause the wedge to slice through their bodies, splitting them in half. Yikes.
9. Rat Torture
This method tortures both man and rodent, but it is man who tends to end up dying a horrifying death. A victim is completely restrained, and a full-grown rat is placed upon his or her stomach. The rat will be confined within a cage placed on top of it, which would then be heated, freaking the rat out enough to frantically burrow its way into the only way out: the victim's stomach and intestines.
10. The Saw
Who would have thought that one of the most useful tools ever invented by man could also become one of the sickest? The saw, which has helped mankind slice through trees en route to building houses and shopping malls, also has a dark past as a torture / execution device. And the way it was used would make the strongest of stomachs churn out its lunch.
Victims of this indescribably brutal device were made to hang upside down, legs spread apart. Even this position has a purpose: to fill the victims' heads with blood, and therefore allow them to remain conscious as the torturers work the saw through their crotches, sometimes up to their midsection before they pass out or die. Just imagine the sound the whole process would have made, with the saw's serrated edge making contact with flesh and bone with each back and forth motion, on top of the victim's bloodcurdling screams of agony.
Image sources
CorkscrewBalloon Markville Mac OccasionalHell MrsSummers MedievaLity Wired
첫댓글 맨 마지막 그림은 톱으로 항문에서부터 썰어내는 것입니다.
밑에서부터 5번째 사진은 머리를 스크류를 돌려서 눌러서 눈알이 빠지면서 머리가 쪼개지게 하는 도구 입니다.
이런 기구들은 유럽내 곳곳에 있으므로 로마 카톨릭은 부인하지 못하고 그저 참회한다고 합니다.
진정으로 참회한다면 로마 카톨릭과 바티칸은 자진 해체 선언을 해야 할 것입니다.
어마 어마한 고문기구들이 존재하고 있다는것은 마지막때 적그리스도한테 굴복하지 않는
예수믿는 순교자들에게 가해질것 같음이 소름이 돋는데요
그들이 더 강해져 주 예수 그리스도를 대적하기 위하여 준비중이겠지요^^
스스로 높아져 자칭 하나님이라 숭배함을 받으려면 주 예수 를 믿는 자들이 걸림이 됨 입니다
다른사람들은 다 자기한테 무릎을 꿇지만 주 예수의 이름을 굳게잡고 죽기까지 예수믿음을 지키니 그들을 결국은 죽이겠지요~
살펴보았지만..
양손과 발에 못을 박고 십자가 위에서 죽을 때까지 매달려 고통 당하게 하는 것보다 더 잔인한 것들은 없는 것 같습니다..
나의 주 나의 하나님..
주 예수님께서 우리를 위하여 고난 당하셨음을 이 시간 다시 한번 깊이 생각합니다.
'the pear'는 영어의 'piercing'을 연상시킵니다. 아마도 스페인어인가 봅니다. 입과 직장(항문), 그리고 여성의 vagina나 까지...
종말이 오면 세계 통합종교는 이런 고문기구들을 다시 활용할 것으로 예상됩니다. 제발 양심범, 종교신념사범들에게는 이런 고문이나 신체적 형벌이 가해져서는 안된다고 강조하고 싶습니다. 그러나 오늘날 아싸드 정권처럼 자기 민족을 고문 살육하는 독재정권들이 붕괴되고 나면 바로 고문방지나 사형금지에 기대거나 묵비권 행사로 피해간다는 것이며 바로 독재정권이 그런 헛점을 이용하여 과감히 자기 백성을 탄압하고 살육하고 있다는 것입니다. 일반 형사범과 양심범은 명확히 구분되어야 합니다. 로마 카톨릭이 바로 이런 기구들을 양심수, 종교신념범에게 적용하였습니다.
분명한 것은 이땅에는 이단으로 살아갈 자유가 있다는것입니다
위에 인용된 사이트 중에서 스페인 종교재판에 대한 사이트가 중복되어 삭제되고 크라카오 고문 박물관 사이트가 추가되었습니다. 크라카오는 폴란드 남부에 있는 종전 폴란드 왕국의 수도였으며, 아우슈비츠로부터 50 킬로미터 정도 떨어진 곳입니다.
종교재판이 605년간 지속되는 동안 80여명의 교황들이 있었는데 그들 중에 어느 누구도 종교재판이 잘못임을 지적한 교황은 없었습니다.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=xbBBezxalXU
여기에 나오는 해설가는 로마 카톨릭 신부였습니다.
로마 카톨릭이야말로 계시록의 17장에 나오는 짐승을 탄 음녀이며 땅의 창녀들의 어미, 라고 말합니다.
이러한 고문과 종교심문의 배경에는 로마카롤릭의 기본 교리 가운데는 믿음을 강제할 수 있다는 교리가 자리잡고 있습니다. 그리고 세상 권력을 사용할 수 있을 때는 사용하라는 것이 바로 교리의 핵심입니다. 이것을 가르친 사람이 바로 어거스틴인데 이 이론을 Coercion 이라 하고, 큰스탄틴이 도나티스트들을 살육하며 재산 몰수한 역사적 사실을 어거스틴이 칭송하였습니다.
앞으로 이러한 고문과 살육이 있을 때를 대비하여 어떻게 준비할 것인가? 에 대해 생각해본다면, 우선 저들을 철저히 알고 저들에게 속아서는 안된다는 것, 저들이 선대하리라고 기대해서는 안된다는 것, 피할수 있는대로 피해야 한다는 것, 선한 싸움으로 능히 변박할 수 있도록 저들의 교리에 대해 반박할 수 있는 진리를 많이 알아야 한다는 것, 정규직이 아닌 비정규직에 의한 최선의 생존 유지 비법을 터득해두는 것, 등이고 어떤 저명한 성도들은 ( 몇 혹은 더러는) 죽이기도 할 것이라는 것입니다.
지금 교파교인들이 마녀사냥 하는것도 극심하게 혐오하는데 위에 글은 진짜 증오하고 혐오스럽습니다
카톨릭교도인들 싸이코패쓰 아닙니까?
이런 가증하고 더러운 역사가 있는데 저 안에 아직도 소속되어 있는 사람은 생각이 있는건지 모르겠습니다.
저러한 카톨릭 안에 구원이 있을 수 있는가? 하는 질문에 저는 긍정적으로 대답하는 것을 지극히 혐오합니다만, 극히 예외적으로 구원이 있을 수 있다고 믿어집니다. 올바른 기독교가 없는 곳들에서는 구원얻은 사람들이 드물게 있을 수 있습니다. 시니취가 그런 사람이었습니다.
카톨릭은 이러한 고문 살육에 대해 애써서 축소시키는 한편, 그것을 교도권이라는 이름으로 이단에 대해서는 불가피하게 교도권을 행사하였다고 말합니다. 이 교도권이라는 이름으로 이것이 하나님을 섬기는 예라 하여 핍박살육할 것을 예수님은 예견하셨습니다(요한 16장 2-3 절)