Medieval Torture in all its Infamy Quiz

Answer: The Rack

Being broken on the Rack was simple in principle, but a horrible torture which had a couple of different forms. Most commonly, a sufferer was strapped to a table with ropes pulling their arms and legs in different directions. A variation had the victim suspended over a wooden horse (wedge), with the ropes pulling downward.

Answer: A Judas Chair

The Judas Chair (or Judas Cradle) involved the victim being suspended by an iron loop around the waist, being slowly lowered onto the wedge. It would create an ever widening wound in the poor unfortunate's nether regions.

Answer: A wagon wheel

In this execution for particularly heinous criminals, the victim had their limbs woven through the spokes of a large wagon wheel, which was rotated while the torturer struck their extremities with a club. The mangled person would then be suspended on a high pole for birds to feed on until they died a slow, excruciating death.
In variations on this torture method, the victim would be beaten with the wheel itself. In still others, the sufferer might be strapped to the wheel and rolled down a hill, or else over spikes or coals.

Answer: A metal bull

Also called the Sicilian Bull, the device was meant to be an entertaining execution. The condemned was meant to be sealed inside the Brazen Bull, and a fire lit under it, roasting the victim to death. Supposedly, the bull's inventor (Perillos) designed the thing to sound like a real bull when someone screamed inside it. Unfortunately for him, the king he presented it to (Phalaris) required a demonstration. Perillos was the inventor and first victim of the Brazen Bull.

Answer: Pear

The name sounds so nice, but the effect really is not. The Pear would expand a natural opening far beyond its natural abilities, tearing flesh and breaking bones.

Answer: A cage

Another relatively simple torture, the sufferer would be locked in a person-shaped cage and suspended from a high place. The poor soul could hardly move, and would die from thirst or exposure.

Answer: Tickler

Also called a Cat's Paw, the Spanish Tickler was a set of iron claws which would be raked over a person's body. The nasty device was supposed to be able to tear through both muscle and bone.

Answer: The Scavenger's Daughter

This torture could last an unbelievably long time. A victim would be twisted into a metal A-frame and compressed, forced into a kind of fetal position. After days of this, even an innocent person would confess to almost anything.

Answer: Lead Sprinkler

The Lead Sprinkler was not unlike a watering can, only filled with molten metal. The searing liquid would burn its way right into (or through) the body of the condemned, and the torture could be as long ... or as quick and lethal, as the torturer intended.

Answer: Garrotte

The garotte exists in a number of forms, but is probably most familiar in its modern style of a piece of wire connected to two wooden handles, used to strangle an unsuspecting person from behind. The ancient version looked more like a loop attached to a pole, with a crank to tighten the loop once the neck of the condemned person was in place.

It sounds like a cruel way to treat a heretic who has been so good as to confess willingly, but keep in mind those who did NOT confess were burned at the stake.