For Sean, who among many other things, loved history and understood so well why we need to remember it

The Story Thus Far: A forbidden Communion wafer falls out of Spanish Converso Benito Garcia’s pack in front of witnesses on his return trip home from his pilgrimage to holy Santiago de Compostela (see The Pilgrim).

Ever since 1144, when the English accused the Jews of Norwich of stabbing a boy named William to death, all Europe whispered that the Jews sought the blood of Christian children, especially little boys, for their satanic rituals. Rumors ran rife that Jewish sorcerors used this innocent blood and other Christian objects (like Communion wafers) to work magic. When the father of vanished two-year-old Simon of Trentino, Italy, accused the Jewish community of murdering him in 1475, a story circulated that the heartless butchers had killed the child over a large bowl to collect all his blood.

Benito’s drinking buddies knew what to do with a desecrating Marrano (literally, “pig;” despective term for a Christian convert backsliding into Judaism); they immediately dragged the terrified pilgrim off to Astorga’s (see pic) highest Church official, bishop’s vicar Pedro de Villada, who promptly ordered 200 lashes for him. Even though the whip could strip his skin into ribbons and if he passed out, he would be revived for more flogging until the 200th blow finally fell, Benito continued to protest his innocence throughout the ordeal. De Villada then “put him to the question” by moving him onto the “potro” (colt/young male horse) or rack.

The most popular torture device in Europe during the Middle Ages, this rectangular, usually wooden frame stood slightly off the ground. The vicar’s minions stripped Benito nearly or completely naked; laid him on his back on the framework; chained or roped his wrists to a movable bar above his head and his feet to a fixed bar at that end; and began to slowly turn a handle attached to a ratchet, thus also turning a roller on the movable bar where they had bound his hands. This gradually tightened the chains or ropes until they pulled on his limbs – and his joints.

As the interrogation proceeded, the tension increased, and Benito’s wrists, shoulders, ankles, knees, and hips dislocated with excruciating slowness. His tormentors not only listened to his cries of pain and desperate pleas for mercy, but also the loud pops as his cartilage, ligaments, and maybe even bones snapped under the inexorable pressure. They would repeat their questions and threats, and insist he repent and confess over and over…

But the alleged backslider hardened his heart (or maybe God did) and refused to give them what they wanted.

He fought a losing battle; the forces of good, right, and True Christianity ™ had rallied against this obvious diabolical enemy of Church and state; and so de Villada subjected him to the Spanish Water Torture.

Called the “toca,” this favorite involved binding Benito to another rack that hinged in the middle, so his interrogators could set his head lower than his feet and immobilize it with an iron band. After sealing his nostrils and stuffing a thick piece of cloth into his mouth, they poured water onto the cloth. Their prisoner felt like he was drowning, unable to struggle, spit his gag out, or even breathe until they decided to pause to give him a chance to answer their questions. Good torturers knew how to pace and time their gag-and-water application so that their subjects never even lost consciousness during the whole process—and Spain had some of the best in the business.

This finally broke Benito. He “confessed” that along with other Conversos and Jews, he had plotted to use the Host in concocting a magical potion designed to kill all Christians, thus leaving the earth to the Jews. The other main ingredient in their potion?

The heart of a Christian boy.

At once, victorious vicar de Villada sent a report to the Inquisitor General of Aragon, Valencia, and Catalonia, arguably the most powerful individual in Spain, second only if not equal in power to King Ferdinand himself:

Tomas de Torquemada.

Next: The “Rabbi”