8 Gruesome Execution Methods Used By Popes

The Papal States, Italian areas under direct papal rule, banned some brutal execution methods in the early 19th century, though...The Papal States held on to drawing and quartering.They used drawing and quartering for crimes that were "especially loathsome."

If you have never seen Braveheart,BraveheartDrawing and quartering has two parts. First, the condemned is dragged by horses to the execution site; that hurts badly. Next, the execution happens, and methods vary. One version of quartering involved tying each condemned's limbs to different horses and spurring them off.Each condemned's limbs were tied to different horses and spurred off.You can guess how that ended.

Inanother version, "hanged" was added, making it "hanged, drawn, and quartered," a common phrase in execution history. This involved horse dragging, hanging, removing genitals, evisceration, decapitation, and finally chopping the corpse into pieces (quartering)."Hanged, drawn, and quartered" is a common phrase in execution history.

Burning at the stake served both sexes, but it was the preferred method for women.Burning at the stake was the go-to for women.Women avoided drawing and quartering because it was too vile for them.Joan of ArcJoan of Arc went this way because the Vatican convicted her for wearing men's clothes.She was convicted of wearing men's clothes.Men faced burning at the stake.

Men were burned at the stake.Men were burned at the stake.William Tyndale, who translated the Bible into English for common readers, happened to be burned at the stake.

During the Roman Inquisition, people needed to keep their ideas quiet and non-controversial. However, civil law student Pomponio Algerio did not follow this advice.Pomponio Algerio didn't follow this advice..

His ideas against the Church grabbed attention. They put him in prison. After a year, he kept his views. They boiled him alive in hot oil. It took him 15 minutes to die.

Water torture, or the water cure, was a common Spanish Inquisition technique. Those with Catholic authority used it to brutalize accused heretics and others they disliked. They pried open the accused's mouth with iron and stuffed cloth inside. Then, buckets of water were forced down the accused's throat.Buckets of water were forced down the accused's throat.The water also lodged the cloth in the throat, adding extra choking.

Interrogators sometimes used boiling water or large amounts of vinegar, using a funnel to speed up the process. In at least one documented case,a man accused of demon possession and being a werewolf died from a distended stomach.Interrogators claimed the werewolf in him became wild and drank so much water that he died.

Sometimes, simple methods work best. As the Medieval Inquisition grew, Church agents moved from village to village, finding new supposed witches and heretics to pursue.

The issue was, if these agents found someone guilty, they lacked the normal tools for execution. So, they settled for axes to decapitate people. It was crude, but it worked.

You probably haven’t heard ofimmurementTo be immured meant the Church put you in a space withno exit.Sometimes, this involved building a room around the condemned. In other, simpler cases of immurement, the condemned was justshoved into a coffin..

True immurement meant starving to death or dying from dehydration. Immurement in a tight space, like a coffin, caused death by suffocation.

Popes and their helpers thought they were merciful when spearheading an inquisition or hunting down Satanists and witchcraft practitioners. Accused of heresy faced questioning and torture, giving them a chance to confess.

If you confessed your heretical ways to Church officials, theyshowed mercy. If you did not confess, you would probably be burned at the stake.They strangled you to death. If you did not confess, you would likely be burned at the stake.

Garroting was another strangulation method used in executions across Spain and Portugal for centuries. During the Inquisition, a garrote wasused to execute somepeople who avoided burning at the stake by converting to Catholicism or taking back their beliefs or statements. Conquistadors also used it.They employed it working for God and Spain in Latin America.worked in the name of God and Spain in Latin America.

Garrote has multiple meanings. Abstractly, the garrote is a way to strangle someone to death. Specifically, it can be a sharpened wire or rope used to strangle someone by hand. Alternatively, a garrote might be a chair with a metal band attached. This band wraps around the neck of the seated person and tightens to suffocate the condemned. It also means a post with a rope around it, used for strangulation.