Diana sighed. She knew it wasn’t likely he’d have agreed but at least she’d told him how she felt. Now there was nothing she could do but hope that this time the museum really wouldn’t turn out as bad as the other trips she’d been on.
“Well, ladies and gentlemen,” said Mr. Gonzales. “After the film has finished we will embark on a tour of the museum itself.”
The group settled down in the seats and watched the film. It began by talking about how the fear of witches and heretics had swept across Europe and how the Catholic Church had decided to try and stamp it out using violent means. Then he stopped the film for a moment to address them briefly.
“Although the Inquisition did not begin in Spain,” Mr. Gonzales explained, “it was in my country that it rose to the height of its power. We will now resume the film. This shows a woman being burnt alive at the stake. As you will observe, she is completely naked. She would certainly have been tortured severely before her final execution. Probably death came as a blessed release to her.”
Diana felt nauseated but the group of teenagers with her seemed to be fascinated by the poor girl’s ordeal. What a sick bunch they are, she thought angrily.
Then they all watched the woman burning alive at the stake, her screams of agony clear in spite of the fact that it was obviously a dummy that was being burnt. Or was it? Diana felt more and more uneasy.
“Here is another woman being hung,” said the smiling Mr. Gonzales. “As you see, she is also naked.”
Once more the students loved seeing the woman or dummy – Diana wasn’t entirely sure which any more – being hung naked. As the woman danced obscenely in her death throes, displaying her naked female charms to all and sundry, once again Tracey felt like throwing up. Why the hell had Mr. Chambers brought them to a place like this?
“And here is another of the cruellest methods of execution,” he told them. “This woman is being broken at the wheel. She is naked of course and her arms and legs are splayed out in an obscene public display of her nudity. The executioner breaks parts of her bones and eventually every part of her body is broken. She is then left naked on the wheel to die.”
Diana wanted to throw up but she didn’t dare. It was almost a relief when the film ended at last.
"I hope you have found my little film instructive,” he said. “Of course as well as death the Inquisition also liked to inflict pain. Please to follow me into the next part of the museum where I will show you the various instruments of torture used upon people held prisoner by the Inquisition. I hope that you will find them instructive, interesting and perhaps even enjoyable."
Diana controlled an almost irresistible wish to shudder when he said that. Enjoyable? Torture? Looking around at her students, she saw at once that all of THEM seemed to find it fascinating and enjoyable. She also saw that Senior Gonzales had noticed their reaction. With a slight smile, he continued.
“Of course women suffered perhaps more than men at the hands of the Inquisition. The church believed that women were the root of all evil, since through Eve’s disobedience sin had entered into the world. They also believed that all women were whores by nature who were constantly craving sex and therefore they concentrated a lot on what you might call forms of sexual punishment for female suspects.”
Diana was getting ever closer to throwing up or at least walking out in disgust. Of course her students loved every minute of it!
He led the group into the next room and pointed to a pair of metal plates with hinges and metal straps.
“This,” said Senior Gonzales, “is one of the various forms of chastity belt that were used for around five centuries. Because of the widespread fear and revulsion at female sexuality and adultery in particular, it was very common for women to be fitted with chastity belts to stop them from having sex outside marriage or even masturbating. The model you see here is one of the more merciful varieties. It was worn by the wife of the King of France so although it restricted her pleasure and prevented her from being unfaithful it was not in itself painful, though of course it was a degrading device for the woman to have to wear.”
And I bet they never fitted one to the men! Diana was getting angrier as his talk continued. She couldn’t wait to get out of the horrible place.
Then, typically, her students started acting up.
“So where would the chastity belt be fitted?” asked John.
He was Mr. Chambers’ son and one of the most consistently rude, lazy and disruptive students at the St Triennials Academy. Senior Gonzales smiled when he asked that question.
“Why, over the genital regions, of course. It would prevent access to the woman’s vagina.”
“Genital regions? Vagina? Sorry, sir, I don’t quite understand,” John lied through his teeth. “Are you saying the chastity belt went over the whore’s cunt?”
Senior Gonzales smiled amiably at the boy when he said that.
“Please to forgive my English. Yes, the chastity belt would be fitted over her cunt to prevent any access to it.”
“That sounds really cool!” said John. “And once it was fitted to her cunt there was no way to get it off again?”
“Only with a key,” said Mr. Gonzales. “In more sophisticated models, a combination lock would also be fitted.”
Diaa felt sick but her students were obviously fascinated. Then John chipped in again.
“And you said this was one of the milder versions? You mean there were other types that really hurt when they got fitted to her cunt?”
“Yes, that is correct,” said Senior Gonzales. “But we will come on to them in the next part of the tour. In the meantime let us turn to some other methods of sexual torture that were used on women. This,” he pointed to a cruel looking metal device that looked like a large pair of pincers, “was known as a breast ripper.”
John immediately spoke up again.
“Breasts, sir? Don’t you mean tits?”
“Ah, my English again. Yes, this is a tit ripper. It was used to rip and shred the flesh from a woman’s breasts – tits, I mean – and of course it was EXTREMELY painful.”
John laughed out loud when he said that.
“That’s so fucking cool!” he said. “Those Spanish Inquisition blokes knew how to have fun! Shame we can’t treat stuck-up modern bitches the same way – they had the right idea about dealing with uppity cunts!”
He looked straight at Diana when he said that and she turned away and flushed with embarrassment. A few of the other boys laughed and even a few of the girls giggled. Especially Lucy and Emily, the two worst-behaved of them all, Tracey noticed.
He led them on through a sickening catalogue of cruelty – the racks, the scavenger’s daughter, the boots, the Judas cradle, the pear, the cell of little ease, the whips, the iron chair, the heretic’s fork, the red-hot iron, the branks, the pillory and a long and lurid display of torture instruments.
Does Diana continue
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