"The first torture was performed by fixing a pulley to the roof of the hall, with a strong hempen or grass rope passed through it. The executioners then seized the culprit, and leaving him naked to his drawers, put shackles on his feet, and suspended weights of one hundred pounds to his ankles. His hands were then bound behind his back, and the rope from the pulley strongly fastened to his wrists. In this situation he was raised about the height of a man from the ground, and in the meantime the judges coolly admonished him to reveal the truth. In this position, as far as twelve stripes were sometimes inflicted on him, according to the inferences and weight of the offence. He was then suffered to fall suddenly, but in such manner that neither his feet nor the weights reached the ground, in order to render the shock of his body the greater.
"The torture of the rack, also called that of water and ropes, and the one most commonly used, was inflicted by stretching the victim, naked as before, on his back, along a wooden horse or hollow bench, with sticks across like a ladder, and prepared for the purpose. To this his feet, hands, and head were strongly bound in such manner as to leave him no room to move. In this attitude he experienced eight strong contortions in his limbs, viz. two on the fleshy parts of the arm above the elbow, and two below, one on each thigh, and also on the legs. He was besides obliged to swallow seven pints of water, slowly dropped into his mouth on a piece of silk or ribbon, which, by the pressure of the water, glided down his throat, so as to produce all the horrid sensations of a person who is drowning. At other times his face was covered with a thin piece of linen, through which the water ran into his mouth and nostrils, and prevented him from breathing. Of such a form did the Inquisition of Valladolid make use, in 1528, towards the licentiate Juan Salas, physician of that city.
"For the torture by fire, the prisoner was placed with his legs naked in the stocks; the soles of his feet were then well greased with lard, and a blazing chafing-dish applied to them, by the heat of which they became perfectly fried. When his complaints of the pain were loudest, a board was placed between his feet and the fire, and he was again commanded to confess, but this was taken away if he persisted in his obstinacy. This species of torture was deemed the most cruel of all; but this, as well as the others, was indiscriminately applied to persons of both sexes, at the will of the judges, according to the circumstances of the crime, and the strength of the delinquents.
Tortures.—The Pulley and Fire.
"The torture by fire, however, does not appear to have been much in use except in Italy, and this when the culprit was lame, or through any other impediment prevented from being suspended by the pulley. In the latter country also, other minor tortures were used with persons unable to withstand those already described. Such were that of the dice, of the canes, and of the rods. For the first, the prisoner was extended on the ground, and two pieces of iron shaped like a die, but concave on one side, were placed on the heel of his right foot, then bound fast on with a rope, which was pulled tight with a screw. That of the canes was performed by a hard piece being put between each finger, bound, and then screwed as above. That of the rods was inflicted on boys who had passed their ninth year, but had not yet reached the age of puberty, by binding them to a post, and then flogging them with rods.
"The duration of the torture, by a bull of Paul III. could not exceed an hour; and if in the Inquisition of Italy, it was not usual for it to last so long, in that of Spain, which has always boasted of surpassing all others in zeal for the faith, it was prolonged to an hour and a quarter. The sufferer, through the intensity of pain, was sometimes left senseless, for which case a physician was always in attendance, to inform the court whether the paroxysm was real or feigned; and according to his opinion, the torture was continued or suspended. When the victim remained firm in his denial, and overcame the pangs inflicted on him—or when, after confessing under them, he refused to ratify his confession within twenty-four hours afterwards—he has been forced to undergo as far as three tortures, with only one day's interval between each. Thus whilst his imagination was still filled with the dreadful idea of his past sufferings, which the 'Compilation of Instructions' itself calls agony, his limbs stiff and sore, and his strength debilitated, he was called upon to give fresh proofs of his constancy, and again endure the horrid spectacle, as well as the repetition of excruciating pangs, tending to rend his whole frame to pieces."
But enough, and more than enough has been brought forward, on this inhuman and revolting practice of men, who nevertheless style themselves priests of the compassionate Redeemer!! Rather may we not call them and does not their horrid conduct entitle them to the appellation of ministers of darkness, and monsters of cruelty? "My soul come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united."
Such is a specimen of the tortures of the Inquisition, when there is not sufficient proof of the crimes of which their unhappy victims are accused. Instances, however, are on record, where the torture has been inflicted on persons who are condemned to death, as an additional punishment! One of these may be mentioned here. William Lithgow a British subject, informs us in his travels, that, in 1620, he was apprehended at Malaga, in Spain, as a spy, and exposed to the most cruel torments on what is called the wooden horse. But nothing having been extorted from him, he was delivered over to the Inquisition, as a heretic, under pretence that his journal contained blasphemies against the Pope and the Virgin Mary. Having acknowledged, in presence of the Inquisitor, that he was a Protestant, he was admonished to return to the Popish faith, and allowed eight days in a dungeon to deliberate on his conversion. In the mean time the Inquisitor and his minions often visited him, in order to persuade him to renounce his opinions—sometimes promising, sometimes threatening, and sometimes disputing with him on the heretical nature of his tenets. All their efforts being in vain, Lithgow was condemned, first to suffer eleven of the cruelest tortures, and then to be carried privately to Grenada, and burnt at midnight. He was accordingly carried to the hall of torture, where the inhuman process of filling him with water till he was ready to burst, was first resorted to. They next tied a cord round his neck, and rolled him seven times along the floor, till he was nearly strangled, after which they hung him up by the feet till all the water in his bowels had disgorged itself at his mouth. These and other cruelties having been finished, during which, notwithstanding the agonies he endured, he made no confession, he was remanded to his dungeon, till the last part of his sentence could be executed. But, by a remarkable interposition of Divine Providence, he was shortly afterwards delivered out of their hands, and arrived safely in England.