Torture Chamber
Torture chambers were windowless rooms that held the modes of torture. These rooms existed in places where society was settled. They made sense in regions with a larger population where the Tribunal would be required to hear charges of heresy for several people. Since members of the Tribunal had to witness the torture so that they could hear a confession, these chamber rooms made sense.
The Spanish Inquisition in the New World was a somewhat different story. Conquistadors made initial contact with native populations. They read a proclamation that stated all the people, plants, and animals on the land were now subjects of the Spanish Crown. Clerics would then read the Rites of Baptism, which meant that all native populations were now members of the Church and expected to follow Church doctrine. It did not matter to the Tribunal if the native people understood what had happened to them or not.
The viceroyalties of the New World included New Spain, Peru, Rio de la Plata, and New Granada. This land was almost the entire North and South American continent. It was impossible for accused heretics to travel from the high elevations of the Andes down to Buenos Aries to a torture chamber. Not that the trip was impossible, it would require the removal of several guards and representatives of the Tribunal to leave areas that required their vigilance to deter heresy.
In the New World, the torture happened in public spaces instead of in dark, windowless rooms beneath a prison. This was an attempt by the Tribunal and Spanish officials to ensure that the native population that had involuntarily become Christian adhered to Church doctrine. Public torture put fear into all that witnessed it. The agonizing screams of the tortured and the sounds their bodies made would keep the community heretic free.
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