File:Christian heroes and martyrs (1895) (14781374662).jpg

Identifier: christianheroesm00fost (find matches)
Title: Christian heroes and martyrs
Year: 1895 (1890s)
Authors: (Foster, William A.) (from old catalog)
Subjects:
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Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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the grim figureof the executioner pointed out to him, clothed in a long black gownwith a hood over his head and face. This terrifying form was sur-rounded by the dreadful instruments of his trade, and glared outupon the wretched prisoner through two eye-holes cut in the hoodwhich covered his head and face. The tortures most common in the Inquisition were those of therope and pulley, and the rack. In the first of these the hands of theprisoner were tied together behind his back, and a rope was attachedto them leading to a pulley in the ceiling; he was then drawn up inthe air by turning a windlass. Weights were hung to his feet tomake the strain upon his arms and shoulders more severe. As thevictim hung thus in mid air he was questioned, with deliberation, bythe inquisitors, who, to aid his memory, occasionally let slip therope and allowed the sufferer to fall a few feet, suddenly stoppinghim before he touched the ground. The rack was a very ancient instrument of torture and many forms
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TORTURES OF THE INQUISITION-THE ROPE AND PULLEY. 238 THE WORLDS CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. of it were used. That most commonly found in the chambers of theInquisition was built like a wide ladder, with rope, pulley, and wind-lass attached. The victim was stretched upon the cross-bars of thisladder and bound to them in various positions, according to the kindsof torture to be inflicted, each one of which had its name. The ropeand windlass were then made use of to stretch and dislocate theprisoners joints and limbs. Besides the pulley and the rack, there were many other murderousmachines used by the Inquisition in extorting confessions from un-happy victims, who might be, and very often were, in total ignoranceof what crime they were supposed to have committed or were expectedto confess. .The Palace of the Inquisition. The house or palace of the Inquisition was a massive stone build-ing containing council chambers, dungeons, and torture-rooms. Solarge was the whole structure that a stranger mig

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