#TerrificTuesday — Terrifying medieval facts to spice up your Tuesday
Medieval times was already bad enough with the public executions and torture but if the crime was not too bad there was other ways to punish.
Welcome to ‘Terrrrifying Tuesdays’, when we will share the weirdest, most terrifying things we find on the internet with you … on a Tuesday.
In the first picture you will see a woman wearing what looks like a horse’s bridle, but this was not some game – it was more a form of torture and discipline.
It was called the Scold’s Bridle, or even the witch’s bridle and was used in medieval times on people who was accused of talking too much or gossiping. It was thought that talking too much was the work of the devil. Although mainly used on women, it was used on men as well. However, it was not the only terrifying thing about the medieval times.
Photo: Wikipedia.
Another form of punishment was to act like a ghost. Yes, that’s weird. We know. This method was used by the Catholic church when someone had sinned and wanted to repent their sins.
How did it work? Well, if you needed to repent, you could drape yourself in a white sheet and stand outside a local church while your family and friends would beg for forgiveness inside.
There was also a thing called a ducking stool. This was mainly used on women who were considered to have behaved in a disorderly manner, by talking back or saying or doing something unladylike. You would be tied into the chair and paraded around as a form of humiliation. Sometimes, victims were even dunked in water while tied up.
Photo: Wikipedia.
And if the community was not sure if you were guilty or innocent, there were ways of determining the truth. You could be submerged in cold water, and if you sank to the bottom you were innocent, but if you floated to the top, that meant that you were guilty.
Alternatively, you would be given dry bread or crackers blessed by a priest to eat. If you choked while eating them, you were guilty. But if you could swallow them, you were innocent.
There was also a hot water ordeal, in which you had to pluck a stone from a cauldron of boiling water. If the wounds you sustained doing so healed within three days, that meant you were innocent.
As if the famine, the black death and the general living conditions weren’t enough, there were hundreds of ‘interesting’ ways you could have been punished, tortured or executed.
Aren’t you glad we live in a modern age?
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