CHAPTER XXIII.
“THE KISS OF THE VIRGIN MARY.”
Reality of the Iron Virgin—Researches of Mr. Pearsall in Germany—His discoveries in Austria—Description of the Machine—Its origin in Spain—Victims of the Virgin.
Cruelty, as we have seen, is the distinguishing characteristic of the Romish Inquisition. And torture, as employed by that hated court upon its unhappy, helpless victims, was inflicted in various modes. These are described, generally, in Chapter XIII. But there is one particular machine for punishment, referred to in Chapter XIX., as employed by the inquisitors in Spain, of the most horrible kind; and which Colonel Lehmanowsky, who witnessed it in the Inquisition at Madrid, correctly declares, that it “surpassed all others in fiendish ingenuity.” This machine was denominated “The Virgin,” or “The Virgin Mary.”
Many persons have denied its existence, as too horrible to be credible; but, besides the evidence already adduced, from the testimony of that military officer, and of Madame Faulcaut, who had seen it in the Inquisition of Saragossa, it appears to have been common in Germany. The following testimony is from a work called “The Kiss of the Virgin; a Narrative of Researches made in Germany, during the years 1832 and 1834, for the purpose of ascertaining the mode of inflicting that ancient punishment, and of proving the often denied and generally disputed fact of its existence: by R. L. Pearsall, of Willsbridge, Esq., in a Letter to the Rev. H. T. Ellacombe, F.S.A., Vicar of Bitton in Gloucestershire.”
This narrative was read, January 12th, 1837, before the Society of Antiquaries, and published in their “Transactions,” vol. xxvii., pp. 227-256.
Mr. Pearsall remarks, “In England, thanks to the publicity of our judicial proceedings, those who fell under the hands of the executioner perished before the eyes of the world, in a mode prescribed by the law. This was not the case in other countries. Wherever there was a despotic monarch, or an irresponsible corporation endowed with an unlimited criminal jurisdiction, men were accused, imprisoned, and never more heard of. Their probable fate could be guessed only from circumstances, or from some unguarded expression from the lips of such as were likely to be aware of it.
“‘Passer par les oubliettes,’ was a well-known phrase in France; and yet few were able to define its meaning accurately. Every one, however, understood that when a man was considered by the tribunals to be guilty of certain crimes, he was doomed to pass, as it were, into oblivion, by descending through trap-doors, called oubliettes, into the nether regions of the prison, from which he never returned.
“‘The Kiss of the Virgin,’ (or Jungfern-Kuss), was an equally well-known phrase in Germany, and its import was almost as little understood. A general impression, however, reigned among the multitude, that, in certain towers and prisons, there was a terrible engine, which not only destroyed life, but also annihilated the body of the person sacrificed; and this, from being constructed in the form of a young girl, was called ‘The Virgin.’