The Middle Ages in Europe are often considered to be an era of “economic, intellectual, and cultural decline” between two great eras of civilization. They lasted about a thousand years, from the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century to the rise of modern Europe, beginning with the Renaissance in the fifteenth century. The Middle Ages are also called “the Dark Ages,” a term first coined during the Renaissance. The term became popular during the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century, when people praised reason and science, idealized the more cultured classical age of Greece and Rome, and derided the barbaric and superstitious period in between when the Christian church dominated Europe. (The church was the dominant institution in the Middle Ages because it was one of the few institutions to survive the fall of the Empire.)

I recently watched a television documentary on “medieval torture devices.” These were said to have been in popular use in Europe during the Middle Ages (“Medieval” is Latin for “Middle Ages”). The documentary described a number of these devices.

The Iron Maiden. This was an iron cabinet with a hinged front and an interior covered with sharp spikes. The unfortunate victim was placed inside, and the cabinet was closed, driving the spikes into the body. The victim would slowly bleed to death in great pain.

Disembowelment. The victim was cut open while still alive, and his internal organs were gradually removed. Again, the victim would die in great agony.

The Rack. This was a bed or wheel on which the victim was tied by the hands and feet and gradually stretched apart until ligaments and tendons were torn and sometimes bones broken. This device was used to secure a confession or information. The victim did not necessarily die but was often maimed and left disabled for life.

The pear of anguish. This was a metal, pear-shaped mechanism that was inserted into the mouth, rectum, or vagina and then spread apart to silence the victim or to inflict great pain and internal damage.

The documentary was chilling and disturbing. However, listening carefully to the details produced a somewhat different understanding than the documentary’s assertion that these were medieval torture devices.

The Iron Maiden. The idea of the iron maiden was first developed in the nineteenth century, when several prototypes were manufactured. There are stories that the ancient Greek tyrant Nabis of Sparta used a similar device around 200 BC for extortion and murder. There are unconfirmed stories that the Roman Marcus Atilius Regulus was tortured and killed by such a device at the hands of the Carthaginians in the third century BC. The Muslim vizier Ibn al-Zawyyat is said to have created a wooden oven-like chest that had iron spikes for torture, which was also used during his own imprisonment and execution in 847. But there is no evidence one was ever built or used during the Christian Middle Ages in Europe.

Disembowelment. The earliest known use of this punishment was in 303 AD, when Erasmus of Formiae (Saint Elmo) was martyred by disembowelment during the persecutions of Emperor Diocletian and Maximian. During the Middle Ages, Western Slavic tribes such as the Wends are said to have revenged themselves upon Christians by binding the guts to an erect pole and driving the victim around it until he (or she) was fully eviscerated. In “Christian” Europe, its first recorded use was in 1584, when the man who assassinated William of Orange in the Netherlands was disemboweled. In England, disembowelment was one part of the punishment known as being “hanged, drawn, and quartered,” a punishment inflicted on only a few victims (convicted of high treason), beginning in 1326. In early 1941, 125 Jewish civilians were killed during the Bucharest pogrom in Romania, and multiple Jews were tortured, including disembowelment. In the 20th century, during the Vietnam War, members of the Viet Cong were said to have used disembowelment to intimidate rural peasants.

The Rack. The ancient Greeks used the rack on slaves and non-citizens. It was also used in 356 BC on Herostratus, who burned down the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. Alexander the Great used it in 328 BC on some pages and his court historian Callisthenes, who had plotted to assassinate him. A woman named Epicharis was racked in 65 AD in a vain attempt to acquire the names of those who had conspired to assassinate Roman Emperor Nero. The rack was also used on early Christians such as St. Vincent in 304 AD. Its first appearance in England is said to have been in 1447. The Protestant martyr Anne Askew was tortured on the rack before her execution in 1546, as was the Catholic martyr Nicholas Owen in 1606, and perhaps Guy Fawkes, who attempted to blow up the Parliament buildings in 1605.

The Pear of Anguish. There is no evidence of such a torture device existing in the Middle Ages, except for a possible device used to extract juices from fruit. After about 1600, there are unconfirmed stories of robbers using them to keep their victims quiet.

Contrary to the generally accepted notion, these “medieval torture devices” were used far more often in classical Greek and Roman civilizations than they were in the “Christian” Middle Ages—and also more often in modern societies based on reason and science.