The most famous torture device ever known to man is a device called the rack, the rack was a good weapon of choice for torture but it was never really used in england until the 15th century.
The church in medieval history was a good place to go and speak to the Lord (God) but most of the time it was used for criminals so they coulded get punished but the townspeople so the church was kind of a off limits place for punishment and pain.
Being beheaded with a sharp clean axe was considered privileged, only for noble high rank commanders that committed treason.