Confess or Burn

The Inquisition's toolkit of coercion was systematic and cruel:

• The strappado hoisted victims by wrists tied behind the back until shoulders dislocated.
• Water torture forced cloth into the mouth while water poured endlessly, simulating drowning.
• The rack slowly stretched the body until joints separated.
• Sleep deprivation kept prisoners awake for days until they hallucinated confessions.

Officially, torture could not draw blood or cause death. In practice, inquisitors handed victims to secular authorities for the killing, keeping Church hands technically clean.