Editing Pendulum (section)

=== Torture device ===
[[File:PitandthePendulum-Clarke.jpg|thumb|Illustration to [[Edgar Allan Poe]]’s [[The Pit and the Pendulum]] by [[Harry Clarke]]]]
It is claimed that the pendulum was used as an instrument of [[torture]] and [[execution]] by the [[Spanish Inquisition]]<ref name="Scott">{{cite book
 | last1  = Scott
 | first1 = George Ryley
 | title  = The History Of Torture Throughout the Ages
 | publisher = Routledge
 | date   = 2009
 | pages  = 242
 | url    = https://books.google.com/books?id=PVPYAQAAQBAJ&q=pendulum&pg=PA242
 | isbn   = 978-1136191602
 }}</ref> in the 18th century. The allegation is contained in the 1826 book ''The history of the Inquisition of Spain ''  by the Spanish priest, historian and [[Classical liberalism|liberal]] activist [[Juan Antonio Llorente]].<ref name="Llorente">{{cite book
 | last1  = Llorente
 | first1 = Juan Antonio 
 | title  = The history of the Inquisition of Spain. Abridged and translated by George B. Whittaker
 | publisher = Oxford University
 | date   = 1826
 | pages  = XX, preface
 | url    = https://books.google.com/books?id=oZS63BNSlLMC&q=pendulum&pg=PR20
 }}</ref>  A swinging pendulum whose edge is a knife blade slowly descends toward a bound prisoner until it cuts into his body.<ref name="Abbott" >{{cite book |title=Execution: The Guillotine, the Pendulum, the Thousand Cuts, the Spanish Donkey, and 66 Other Ways of Putting Someone to Death |last= Abbott |first=Geoffrey |year=2006 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-0-312-35222-6}}</ref>  This method of torture came to popular consciousness through the 1842 short story "[[The Pit and the Pendulum]]" by American author [[Edgar Allan Poe]].<ref name="Poe">{{cite book
 | last  = Poe
 | first = Edgar Allan
 | title  = The Pit and the Pendulum
 | publisher = Booklassic
 | date   = 1842
 | url    = https://books.google.com/books?id=86IQCgAAQBAJ
 | isbn   = 978-9635271900
 }}</ref>

Most knowledgeable sources are skeptical that this torture was ever actually used.<ref name="Roth">{{cite book
 | last  = Roth
 | first = Cecil 
 | title  = The Spanish Inquisition
 | publisher = W. W. Norton and Company 
 | date   = 1964
 | pages  = [https://archive.org/details/spanishinquisiti00ceci/page/258 258]
 | url    = https://archive.org/details/spanishinquisiti00ceci
 | url-access = registration
 | quote = pendulum.
 | isbn   = 978-0-393-00255-3
 }}</ref><ref name="Mannix">{{cite book
 | last  = Mannix
 | first = Daniel P.
 | title  = The History of Torture
 | publisher = eNet Press
 | date   = 2014
 | pages  = 76
 | url    = https://books.google.com/books?id=ktX9AwAAQBAJ&q=pendulum&pg=PA76
 | isbn   = 978-1-61886-751-3
 }}</ref><ref name="Pavlac">{{cite book
 | last1  = Pavlac
 | first1 = Brian  
 | title  = Witch Hunts in the Western World: Persecution and Punishment from the Inquisition through the Salem Trials
 | publisher = ABC-CLIO
 | date   = 2009
 | pages  = 152
 | url    = https://books.google.com/books?id=cOmyAcgxFgAC&q=pendulum&pg=PA152
 | isbn   = 978-0-313-34874-7
 }}</ref>  The only evidence of its use is one paragraph in the preface to Llorente's  1826 ''History'',<ref name="Llorente" /> relating a second-hand account by a single prisoner released from the Inquisition's Madrid dungeon in 1820, who purportedly described the pendulum torture method.  Modern sources point out that due to Jesus' admonition against bloodshed, Inquisitors were only allowed to use torture methods which did not spill blood, and the pendulum method would have violated this stricture.  One theory is that Llorente misunderstood the account he heard; the prisoner was actually referring to another common Inquisition torture, the ''[[strappado]]'' (garrucha), in which the prisoner has his hands tied behind his back and is hoisted off the floor by a rope tied to his hands.<ref name="Pavlac" /> This method was also known as the "pendulum".  Poe's popular horror tale, and public awareness of the Inquisition's other brutal methods, has kept the myth of this elaborate torture method alive.