Medieval torture...how bad?

[matteus the inbred]

thanks Rosacrux, that's an epilogue i didn't know!!

[Samurai Waki]

Speaking of Painfuls ways to die, or torture. The Blackfeet Tribe would practice a rather grim way of torturing enemies and settlers. They would essentially crusify the person, only they just tied them to a pole instead of nailed them, left them out in the sun until they got a really bad sunburn, then they would take hot irons and stick them into the victim and literally flay the flesh right off their bodies, generally they would only take off small bits at a time, until the person died many days later in agony.

[Scurvy]

I still think Hung drawn and quaterd is the worst.

Although ive heard aof a torture that involves a Thin cilinder of glass.
that is inserted in to mans penis. "through the only hole"

And then the mans penis is hit with a hammet or other blunt object that smashes the glas cilinder in to Loads of little slivers.

(BOUND TO HURT!)

you have to wonder who thinks these up....

[Don Corleone]

I can't believe some of the folks saying medieval torture wasn't really all that bad. Just guess all the places you can stick this: .
You could then promptly expand it to approximately twice the diameter. It was used on men and women in all of their orifices for practicing sexual indiscretions (sodomy, adultery) etc. YEOW!!!

[Watchman]

Torture as a legal remedy was supposed to be pretty horrible - what'd be the point if it didn't make people cringe at the very thought ?

I don't think there's any contest to the basic statement that the answer to the titular question "how bad?" is a solid "definitely bad enough, especially if you happen to be the recipient."

Mind you, if I were the type to have nightmares I'd probably get them from the bare-bones references I've seen in passing to the things perfectly modern tyrannies do to people in their custody... so it's not exactly a medieval phenomenom. Heck, the medieval guys were by far better; they at least reserved the more creepily creative stuff to capital punishements of convicts...