The toys of the inquisition

“Of course women suffered perhaps more than men at the hands of the Inquisition. The church believed that women were the root of all evil, since through Eve’s disobedience sin had entered into the world. They also believed that all women were whores by nature who were constantly craving sex and therefore they concentrated a lot on what you might call forms of sexual punishment for female suspects.”

Tracey was getting ever closer to throwing up or at least walking out in disgust. Of course her students loved every minute of it!

He led the group into the next room and pointed to a pair of metal plates with hinges and metal straps.

“This,” said Senor Gonzales, “is one of the various forms of chastity belt that were used for around five centuries. Because of the widespread fear and revulsion at female sexuality and adultery in particular, it was very common for women to be fitted with chastity belts to stop them from having sex outside marriage or even masturbating. The model you see here is one of the more merciful varieties. It was worn by the wife of the King of France so although it restricted her pleasure and prevented her from being unfaithful it was not in itself painful, though of course it was a degrading device for the woman to have to wear.”

And I bet they never fitted one to the men! Tracey was getting angrier as his talk continued. She couldn’t wait to get out of the horrible place.

Then, typically, her students started acting up.

“So where would the chastity belt be fitted?” asked John.

He was Mr. Chambers’ son and one of the most consistently rude, lazy and disruptive students at the Payne Academy. Senor Gonzales smiled when he asked that question.

“Why, over the genital regions, of course. It would prevent access to the woman’s vagina.”

“Genital regions? Vagina? Sorry, sir, I don’t quite understand,” John lied through his teeth. “Are you saying the chastity belt went over the whore’s cunt?”

Senor Gonzales smiled amiably at the boy when he said that.

“Please to forgive my English. Yes, the chastity belt would be fitted over her cunt to prevent any access to it.”

“That sounds really cool!” said John. “And once it was fitted to her cunt there was no way to get it off again?”

“Only with a key,” said Mr. Gonzales. “In more sophisticated models, a combination lock would also be fitted.”

Tracey felt sick but her students were obviously fascinated. Then John chipped in again.

“And you said this was one of the milder versions? You mean there were other types that really hurt when they got fitted to her cunt?”

“Yes, that is correct,” said Senor Gonzales. “But we will come on to them in the next part of the tour. In the meantime let us turn to some other methods of sexual that were used on women. This,” he pointed to a cruel looking metal device that looked like a large pair of pincers, “was known as a breast ripper.”

John immediately spoke up again.

“Breasts, sir? Don’t you mean tits?”

“Ah, my English again. Yes, this is a tit ripper. It was used to rip and shred the flesh from a woman’s breasts – tits, I mean – and of course it was EXTREMELY painful.”

John laughed out loud when he said that.

“That’s so fucking cool!” he said. “Those Spanish Inquisition blokes knew how to have fun! Shame we can’t treat stuck-up modern bitches the same way – they had the right idea about dealing with uppity cunts!”

He looked straight at Tracey when he said that and she turned away and flushed with embarrassment. A few of the other boys laughed and even a few of the girls giggled. Especially Lucy and Emily, the two worst-behaved of them all, Tracey noticed.

He led them on through a sickening catalogue of cruelty – the racks, the scavenger’s daughter, the boots, the Judas cradle, the pear, the cell of little ease, the whips, the iron chair, the heretic’s fork, the red-hot iron, the branks, the pillory and a long and lurid display of instruments.

“Now that you have seen the film and actual examples of some of the tools of the Inquisitor’s trade, perhaps you would like to follow me,” he said. “In this room we try to bring history alive by using what we like to call an interactive approach to learning.”

John immediately chipped in again.

“What exactly does that mean?” he asked.

“Well, I will show you some of these methods in action,” said Senor Gonzales. “Of course you must understand that you will see naked women being tortured and executed in public. Will that offend anyone?”

Tracey thought about speaking out but held her peace. The rest of the group shouted out an enthusiastic “no way!” or variations on that sort of thing.

“So,” he said, “please follow me into our interactive room. We will begin with what the Inquisitors always referred to as a mild – although I do not think their victims would agree.”

His smile chilled Tracey’s blood and she wondered increasingly nervously what exactly he meant by “interactive” and execution.

As the group entered the room there were a lot of wax dummies on display in various stages of pain and discomfort. Tracey relaxed as she realised he was only going to a few waxwork models. The students, as soon as they realised the same thing, looked disappointed.

Even so, it was horrific enough, and blood-curdlingly realistically done. The naked wax model had the thumbscrews fitted to her and even though the accompanying screams obviously came from a soundtrack they still made Tracey’s flesh crawl with fear and disgust. God, I wish I was anywhere other than this terrible place, she thought. The students all laughed and the girls giggled, even Mr. Chambers and Senor Gonzales seeming to swap secret smiles.

A simulated hanging followed, again with enthusiastic enjoyment from the rest of the group and total disgust from Tracey. Finally he showed the group a simulated breaking on the wheel. All the students thoroughly enjoyed the display but for Tracey it was the last straw. She honestly felt like throwing up and had to fight to control the nausea that filled her stomach.