Stuff I Care About

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Timeline With The Judas Cradle

To do this series, I am going to present key findings in the history of the Inquisition followed by a torture device that they used against accused heretics.

To backtrack, before the atrocities began in Europe, this was a key happening in the history of the Inquisition. It begins with declaring all non Christian behaviour illegal.

Theodosius becomes the eastern emperor in AD 379 and rapidly settles the religious splits within the empire by declaring pagan worship and Christian heresies (such asArianism) to be illegal. A law of 380 orders all citizens to subscribe to the Catholic doctrines agreed under the chairmanship of Constantine the Great at the Council ofNicaeain 325.

Read more:http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?gtrack=pthc&ParagraphID=dfi#ixzz0hEMdF3ep

And, here is one of the instruments that the love of Jesus created- The Judas Cradle.

Judas Cradle (Torture)

The Judas Cradle, a terrible medieval torture where the victim would be placed on top of a pyramid-like seat. The victim's feet were tied to each other in a way that moving one leg would force the other to move as well - increasing pain.

The triangular-shaped end of the judas cradle was inserted in the victim's anus or vagina. This torture could last, depending on some factors discussed below, anywhere from a few hours to complete days.

Death Factors

The time it took someone to die varied enormously from individual to individual. Torturers would sometimes add weight to the victim's legs as to increase pain and hurry the victim's death. Other torturers would place oil on the device which increased pain considerably.

This device was rarely, if at all, washed. If the victim did not die quickly enough, or their painful execution was interrupted, they would invariantly die from an infection.

The victim was sometimes rocked or made fall repeatedly onto the "pyramid". This was done so torturers could acquire vital information from the victim. If he or she refused to talk, the torturer would either add more weight to the victim or make him or her fall repeatedly on the device.

Other information

The Judas cradle was called the culla di Giuda in Italian, the Judaswiege in German and The Wake in French.

The victim was usually naked when subject to the Judas Craddle. This was to increase humiliation.

To prolonge the victim's life and cause more pain, torturers would sometimes rise the victim with ropes for the night and continue the torture during the morning.

A common variant of the Judas Cradle was the Impalement Torture - equally painful.

http://www.medievality.com/judas-craddle.html

5 comments:

  1. Early Christianity is so complex. There were numerous Christian ideologies that were quashed beyond the Arians, both at the time and throughout the Middle Ages. Add to this the fact that the Eastern Orthodox churches were outside the influence of Rome at varying times (since the beginning for the Oriental Orthodox, and after the 11th century schism for Eastern Orthodox), so they continued to develop independently.

    Then there's the little matter of the other schism, when Protestantism was born (1517). With this, you have a complete shedding of responsibility regarding all wrong doing, as Protestants (which includes all Evangelicals, Calvinists, and other annoying strains of Christianity) are technically no longer part of the offending Roman Catholic Church. Since Catholics hate themselves and never defend their faith anymore, I find it futile to mention things like the Inquisition, because most Protestants see that church in the same light we atheists do: wretched and far removed.

    Unless there's some Catholic blogger I'm unaware of, I feel like you're just preaching to the choir on this one. Protestants hate the Whore of Babylon.

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  2. Ginx,
    There are quite a few Catholics out there who try to defend their faith...exceedingly badly, but they try at least.

    Tink,
    Now, for some satire...

    Please name some Xians who did this and point out the specific scripture reference they used and read out loud while supposedly torturing their victims. Oh yeah, and where were the atheists speaking out against this supposed torture. It's obvious that Xianity is what stopped the torture.

    Can you guess who I am?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I know who it is.... Believe me, he got me thinking about this stuff. Because, the genius claims that more men died from this stuff than women. JD also claims that Catholic schools are okay to put your kids in because the majority of the abuse that has happened to children in orphanages, and that would never happen to his kids.

    Ginx- You are right. You have a point on that, there is no doubt about it. And, I do kinda consider this being like shooting fish in a barrel. But, recent conversations that I have had has made me realize that there is many people out there who lack this basic knowledge. I am going back here for two reasons; 1. To have a refresher for myself... 2. Cause this is kinda the roots of my atheism and this whole blogging project has been about understanding what brought me here. And, then in moving forward.

    Nevertheless, you are absolutely correct that Protestants and denominations deriving from this sect absolve themselves of having to look at this information because of their seperation. And, yes, the early roots of Christianity are extremely complex. What is interesting is that I have actually talked to some very devout Catholics, and they deny that this even happened. It is insane.

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  4. i think that the ting you have to remember here is just that human beings are flawed. I do happen to believe in a God, i don't go to church because i don't believe in organized religeon-however you can't particularly say that this torutre device was born out of the love of Jesus, for in actuallity it is born out of the twisted mind of man. and at the time, we were partularaly barbaric. if you don't believe in what i do you must be punished, sadly not much has changed from that idiolgy but i hope that somedya it will.
    people are blinded by thier illuminated religeon, and unless humanism just reandomly shows up again i'm sure that we are going to continue on this path.
    sadly, these thoughts and tortures are what humans have created in thier higher dillusions.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Judas Cradle is a historical myth. There is no evidence that it was ever used by the Inquisition or anyone else during the Middle Ages.

    ReplyDelete

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