The Judas Cradle, also known as the Judas chair, is a torture

Torture

Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...

 device falsely attributed by legend to the Spanish Inquisition

Spanish Inquisition

The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...

. Though in popular culture it is still occasionally claimed that the Judas Cradle was a medieval torture instrument, thus far it has proved impossible to locate the device in the historical record of the Middle Ages. It would appear that the Judas Chair owes its origins to early modern horror fiction and carnival side-shows rather than any historical use as a judicial torture device. In Italian it is the culla di Giuda; in German the Judaswiege; and in French the la veille - "the wake" or "nightwatch" (as when the muscles contracted the victim could not fall asleep).

The Judas Chair is a pyramid

Pyramid

A pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a single point. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or any polygon shape, meaning that a pyramid has at least three triangular surfaces...

-shaped seat. The victim would presumably be placed on top of it, with the point inserted into their anus

Anus

The anus is an opening at the opposite end of an animal's digestive tract from the mouth. Its function is to control the expulsion of feces, unwanted semi-solid matter produced during digestion, which, depending on the type of animal, may be one or more of: matter which the animal cannot digest,...

, vagina

Vagina

The vagina is a fibromuscular tubular tract leading from the uterus to the exterior of the body in female placental mammals and marsupials, or to the cloaca in female birds, monotremes, and some reptiles. Female insects and other invertebrates also have a vagina, which is the terminal part of the...

 or scrotum

Scrotum

In some male mammals the scrotum is a dual-chambered protuberance of skin and muscle containing the testicles and divided by a septum. It is an extension of the perineum, and is located between the penis and anus. In humans and some other mammals, the base of the scrotum becomes covered with curly...

, then very slowly lowered by ropes. Supposedly the intended effect was to stretch the orifice

Body orifice

-External orifices:In a typical mammalian body such as the human body, the external body orifices are:* The nostrils, for breathing and the associated sense of smell.* The eyes, for the sense of sight and crying....

 over a long period of time, or to slowly impale

Impalement

Impalement is the traumatic penetration of an organism by an elongated foreign object such as a stake, pole, or spear, and this usually implies complete perforation of the central mass of the impaled body...

.

Some have imagined another use for this device based on the idea that the raising or lowering of the victim could change the pressure. The pyramid shaped seat is able to stretch the anus or the vagina, but the point of the pyramid may have been used to cause pain by pressing against the inside of the orifice. This contrasts to the notion of stretching, in that the actual torture is caused not by the stretching of the vagina or anus, but by the different effects achieved by positioning the victim against the pyramid's point. Additionally, stretching of the anus or vagina could result in rips and tears causing pain and even death.

Related Devices

A similar device, known as a horse

Wooden Horse

A wooden horse is a torture device, of which there exist two variations.The first is a sharply angled device with the sharp point of the angle pointing upward, mounted on a saw-horse like support. The victim is made to straddle the triangular "horse" and place her full body weight on her vulva,...

, is sometimes said to have been used in Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

to discipline soldiers. This device was not designed to break the skin but instead cause damage to the genitals.

External links

• http://www.occasionalhell.com/infdevice/detail.php?recordID=Judas%20Cradle
• http://www.corkscrew-balloon.com/misc/torture/21.html
• http://www.medievality.com/torture.html