Instruments of Unimaginable Torture

DO THE words “shackle,” “torture,” and “execution” make you shudder? To the many thousands of victims of the Inquisition and the witch trials in Europe (between the 13th and the 19th centuries), they were a painful reality. The instruments pictured here, belonging to a museum in Rüdesheim on the Rhine, in Germany, are from that time. They give us a hint of the suffering of the victims.

The poor victim went through indescribable agony when seated naked for interrogation on the Inquisition chair, which was covered with sharp thorns. The victim’s arms, legs, or joints were torn apart or destroyed by the knee screws. The cat’s paw was used to rip his flesh to shreds; no part of the body was spared. The thorned collar made the victim’s neck, shoulders, and jaw gangrenous, which quickly led to blood poisoning and death.

Inquisitors commissioned by the Roman Catholic Church used these and similar instruments to deal with dissidents—mostly ordinary people who had been denounced and whose “confession” was now forced out of them by torture. Indeed, during the papal Inquisition that involved the Waldenses, the instruments of torture were even sprinkled with holy water.

Christendom carries a heavy burden of guilt for the Inquisition. Historian Walter Nigg explains: “Christendom will experience no further blessings until it finally confesses—openly and with deep conviction—the sins committed in the Inquisition, sincerely and unconditionally renouncing every form of violence in connection with religion.”

[Pictures on page 31]

Inquisition chair

Knee screws

Thorned collar

Cat’s paw

[Credit Line]

All pictures: Mittelalterliches Foltermuseum Rüdesheim/Rhein