14. The Heretic’s Fork ensured an ironically devotional pose
The Spanish Inquisition, lest we forget, though they were the good guys. After all, they were merely weeding out evil for the good of both the wrongdoers and the general public. They only executed people to ensure that they had a spell of penance in the hope of improving their lot in the next life. The victims must have been jolly grateful. Anyway, in order to ensure that the penance was enough to appease God and that true confession were extracted, the Inquisition resorted to some particularly cruel and devious methods of torture. One example was the Heretic’s Fork.
The Heretic’s Fork was a double-ended iron implement with two prongs at each end. It was strapped to the victim’s neck whilst they were kneeling, with one end pushing into the chest, the other into the fleshy area around the chin. The ends were sharp, so forced the head into an upward pose, and precluded talking. Falling asleep would cause the head and chest to be penetrated by the fork, and thus prove lethal. But this was all very kind, you see: this was a devotional pose that ensured victims could keep quiet and pray to God! Thanks, Inquisition.