DON'T MESS WITH THE HOLY OFFICE

The following post may be considered painful, graphic, or otherwise prove repulsive.
We recommend sensitive readers to stay away from it.

This post is dedicated to the never expected
SPANISH INQUISITION!
Let us start with a reference in Shakespeare's play The Winter's Tale:
The premise: in the kingdom of Bohemia (modern-day Czech Republic), boy meets girl (at harvest festival). He is royalty, while she is a shepherd lass (actually, an estranged royal child, adopted by a peasant family). A courtier is keeping an eye on the young lovers, and thus he informs His Majesty of the upcoming mesalliance. Threats imposed by the Crown on the heroine's relatives, should the fated marriage take place, ensue (in Act IV, Scene 4). The nastiest one of them, in my opinion, is the probable (but never carried out) fate of the Young Shepherd (or Clown), Perdita's foster brother...

who shall be flayed alive; then 'nointed over with

honey, set on the head of a wasp's nest; then stand till he be

three quarters and a dram dead; then recovered again with

aqua-vitae or some other hot infusion; then, raw as he is, and in

the hottest day prognostication proclaims, shall he be set

against a brick wall, the sun looking with a southward eye upon

him,—where he is to behold him with flies blown to death.

Glossary to understand the text 

• 'nointed: anointed
• three quarters and a dram dead: comatose, in a deep state of unconsciousness
• recovered: revived
• aqua-vitae: brandy (French eau-de-vie) (Norwegian aquavit)
• hot infusion: distilled liquor
• prognostication: weather forecasts
• the sun looking with a southward eye upon him: the youth shall be chained facing south, for the midday sun (at 12:00 AM) to shed its light directly on his body. The bugs would come attracted by the honey, and they may lay their eggs on his searing, blazing frame, where the larvae would certainly hatch. The larvae would gradually consume his flesh from within. Add this to the searing heat and excruciating pain... Could I have some more aqua-vitae?

Reaction of the Clown or Young Shepherd:
Give him (the courtier) gold. Show the inside of the purse to the outside of his hand, and do no more. Remember "flayed alive".

Shakespeare scholars remark that this was a punishment used by the SPANISH INQUISITION on HERETICS. Some of the spectators must have shuddered indeed.

The scenario practically writes itself, especially in Thermidor (mid-July through mid-August). Flayed alive and anointed with honey, that nest of wasps --thirsty wasps drawn to sweet drinks, such as the mix of blood, perspiration, and honey-- hanging overhead. When the victim is unconscious, recover to consciousness with strong drink --in the evening or night, I may guess, for a shot of liquor in the middle of a hot summer day makes anyone go out like a light!--. Then, the next day around at twelve or one --here in the Mediterranean, summers are pretty hot, but landlocked Bohemia is not that refreshing in Thermidor either!--, tied to the wall, raw and half-dead, for pregnant female houseflies and horseflies, especially the latter, to lay their eggs in the raw flesh of the heavily sunstruck victim, who must have also been thirsted to death throughout the procedure.


I have also previously blogged on Schwedentrank or Schwedentrunk as well:

Il achevait sa réflexion, lorsqu'un soldat entra, et lui 
dit, le sabre à la main : -- Goûte cette eau !
— Oui, mon ami, répondit le gouverneur en remplissant un 
verre qu'il vida d'un seul trait, quoique l'eau ne 
fût pas sa boisson favorite. 
— C'est bien, dit le soldat,  qui se retira en fermant la 
porte sur le gouverneur. 

" Qu' attendent-ils encore de moi, pensa le gouverneur, 
puisque l'épreuve est faite ? Pourquoi me laisser ici?... 
c'est sans doute par erreur... " 
Un second soldat paraît. 
-- Goûte cette eau ! s'écria-t-il en brandissant une lance 
sur la tète du gouverneur. 
— Mais j'ai déjà bu... 
— Goûte cette eau ! te dis-je. 
Le gouverneur ne résiste pas à un ordre si poliment 
exprimé; il boit un second verre d'eau. 
-- A merveille! a fût le soldat, qui s'en va comme le pré- 
mier, après avoir eu soin de fermer la porte de la cave. 

" Qu'est-ce à dire?" murmure le gouverneur; "celui-ci 
aussi m'enferme! Quand m'en irai-je donc?"
Un troisième soldat survient, armé d'un pistolet. 
Même ordre impératif. 
-- Goûte cette eau! 
— Mais infailliblement j'étoufferai, si cela continue. 
— Veux-tu y goûter!?
Le gouverneur Infailliblemsnt avala avec mille gri- 
maces et mille contorsions le troisième verre d'eau. 
Cette eau était horriblement glacée. 

Arrive un quatrième, arrive un cinquième, un 
sixième, arrive un douzième soldat!

Douze verres d'eau ont déjà passé par le gosier et 
clapotent dans l'estomac de l'infortuné gouverneur. 
Il n'en peut plus; il souffle, 
son ventre est tendu et rond comme un ballon. 
Pourtant il faut qu'il boive encore! Il le faut! 
Toujours ce même commandement gronde à ses oreilles 
entre des piques de fer, des bâtons rugueux, des épées et 
des mousquets gorgés de balles. 

-- Goûte cette eau ! ou bien... mille morts ! 

Enfin, au dix-huitième verre, écrasé par cet excès d'eau 
froide, le gouverneur tombe par terre, à la joyeuse et 
brutale satisfaction des soldats qui l'avaient abreuvé. 
Nous saurons plus tard s'il en mourut. 
After which comes my review of the PEAR
(This pear is no fruit)

Now you'd go "Oooh! A metal pear!"

Yes, this is a metal pear. Not only that, but also the Swiss Army knife of the Holy Office.

The pear was shut, thrust inside an orifice, and then slowly opened by means of the screw on the top.

It was inserted into witches' vaginas, into gay men's rectums, and down the throats of heretics.

Not quite pleasant in either case!

30YW VIDEO GAME

Este resumen no está disponible. Haz clic en este enlace para ver la entrada.

ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE - VII

Adapted from the retelling by Elsie Finnimore Buckley

Seventh and Final Story
In which Orpheus goes east, returns home as a Dionysian priest, provokes some local fellow priestesses, and is finally reunited with his beloved, to become famed in history and legend.

So, as soon as might be, he set forth again to wander the wide world alone with his lyre. Some say he went to Egypt, others say to Crete, but wherever he went he found at last the answer to his quest. For he found the great god Dionysos, the god of many names—Bromios, Bacchos, Zagreus—who fills men's minds with inspiration and divine madness, so that they become one with him and with the life that lives for ever behind the forms of things that die. He ate of the flesh of the mystic bull, which is the god himself, and to the sound of his lyre the Mænads danced over the mountains and through untrodden woods, and held to their breasts young lions, and cubs of the untamed wolf. Far away from villages and towns, where custom and language raise barriers between one person and another, on the bosom of the untouched earth they danced their mystic dance, and became one with Dionysos and with all things that have life in the present, or have lived in the past. There Orpheus found Eurydice again in the communion of soul with soul, and learnt what she had meant when she said, "Some day our love shall prevail, never again to be conquered." So it came to pass that he became the priest of the mystic god, who is one with Life and Love. And he wrote upon tablets the rule of life, by which, through purity and initiation, men may become one with the god, and when they have been purified by birth and re-birth in many diverse forms, they may win, because they are one with him, the immortal life that changeth not, like the life of the stars in heaven.

The tale goes of Orpheus that at last he came to Thrace and the wild mountain lands that lie to the north of Greece. There he tamed the fierce hill tribes with the magic of his song, and lived a life of abstinence and purity and ecstasy of the soul. But the followers of Dionysos who dwelt in those parts looked on him askance; for whereas they worshipped the god with shedding of blood and rending of goats, in the madness that is born of wine, the ecstasy of his worship was born of music and beauty, and he would have no part nor lot in their wild revels. And because there is no hate that is greater than the hate of those who worship one god in divers way, there came a day when the mad frenzy of the Mænads was turned against Orpheus himself. As he sat looking forth on the sunrise and singing as he touched his lyre, the raving band came up behind him, full of madness and of wine. And they tore him limb from limb in their frenzy, as they had torn the wild goats before, and cast his head into the Hebrus, thinking to silence his singing for ever. But his head floated on the waves of the eddying stream, fair and fresh as in life, singing as it floated its magic enchanting song. Gently the river bore it along and down to the sea, and the blue sea waves kissed it and passed it from one to the other, till at last they cast it up, still singing, on the shores of the isle of Lesbos. There, the Muses came and buried it, and made of its tomb a sacred shrine, where, for many a long year, men came from far and wide to worship and consult the oracle. About that shrine the nightingales sang more sweetly than in any other spot on earth, for they learnt their song from the lips of Orpheus himself. And men bound themselves in a holy brotherhood which they called by his name, and lived by the rules he had written on his tablets. Some of those who pretended to follow him were charlatans and rogues, and brought dishonour and ridicule upon his name, while others kept the letter without the spirit of his law; but among them were those of a pure and blameless life, who kept his doctrines, and handed them down from generation to generation, till in time they became the foundation-stones of the great philosophies of Pythagoras and Plato.

Thus did Orpheus live and die, and pointed out to men the path to immortality by purity and abstinence and ecstasy of the soul. There were many of old who hated his doctrine, and many who hate it now; and, indeed, it is not one by which every man can live. But there are those to whom it brings peace and joy, though they call it by other names than his; and these are the initiated, who have seen the inward light, and their souls are at peace.

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION AND OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT

The story of some brave people who dared to question the authorities in times of persecution, when death penalty was applied to those considered heretics by the powers that be.
And of how those powers finally learned to accept the discoveries of revolutionary researchers: