It has been reported that at the time of the Spanish Inquisition, from 1547 to 1640, around a hundred capital punishments were enforced against homosexuals and people who had had “deviant” sexual intercourse, like oral or anal sex. Copulation with animals was also liable to bring a death sentence. In fact, any sexual activity not directed toward procreation was considered a capital sin. Sometimes the confession of those sins was wrung out by torture, even though at the time of the Spanish Inquisition it was not necessary to torture the suspect, because the mere sight of the instruments of torture was enough to persuade the alleged culprit to confess all their sins—or whatever else the inquisitor wanted them to confess, for that matter.

While heretics went directly to the stake to be burnt alive, homosexuals and sexually indecent people usually, as an act of mercy to make their death less agonizing, were strangled or hanged before being burned at the stake. In any case, those kinds of death sentences were enforced publicly to serve as a deterrent to others.

This is an excerpt from A Hidden Sicilian History by Ettore Grillo
Ettore Grillo author of these books:
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo