Torture is a hot-button topic today, but if human rights activists ever get a hold of a time machine we hope they head straight for Europe in the Middle Ages. People back then did some stupid crazy crap for minor to major offenses ranging from lying, blasphemy and performing abortions through theft, conspiracy and murder.

We’re warning you, Oddee’s listicle of 10 Terrifying Torture Techniques from the Middle Ages isn’t for the squeamish. Seriously, our knees actually started hurting when we read about the knee splitter (at right), and it might be the least traumatically brutal of the techniques outlined in this listicle. Strangely fascinating, though, the creepily inventive stuff we can invent to destroy each other. If only we were so creative in dealing with, for instance, climate change.