What I find interesting is the final part of this article which suggests people in those times under the church might have even been more kinder than 'modern people' today, or more kind than we think of? The notions of torture created out of imagination are a 'mirror' of projecting reflecting the minds of 'secular people' today and those brought up by that society:

"Our modern notions about medieval torture devices reflects other misconceptions we have about how torture was used in the Middle Ages and how widespread it was during that period. Perhaps, because we want to see ourselves as more civilized and intelligent than people who live hundreds of years ago, we will imagine that they were more eager to torture people and do it in a more cruel fashion. Therefore it allowed us to be convinced that devices like the Rack, the Iron Maiden, and the Pear of Anguish were somehow everyday objects of the Middle Ages. It might say more about us than about our medieval ancestors."

Good find.  The ideas about torture are part of a general trend to portray the medieval period as barbaric and ignorant.  The thinkers of the so-called "Enlightenment" liked to see themselves as superior to people of the past, hence the name they gave themselves.  This deprecation of the past was often connected to anti-Catholicism.

These ideas, although debunked by serious historians, are widely accepted. The unwarranted attitude of superiority to the past is a part of modern secular humanism.  As traditional Catholics we are opposed to them at a fundamental level because we look to the past with respect as a source of wisdom.

Here is an article about other myths concerning the middle ages .

Were people under Christendom blessed by God in any way perhaps? Even though peasants did not perfectly follow the way, society atleast centred around (light) more rather than darkness(evil). People were much more refined, chivalrous and polite than today. Evil/Darkness was less popular?
Ever since the ‘enlightenment’ humanity has been going downhill and many people like to choose evil. Seeing living a good life or a life for God as ‘weak’. Could there have been any specific evil spiritual forces opposed to God that were responsible for this? What might have been the reason for the plague too that struck Christendom, and its purpose?
The destruction of monasteries which educated people, and helped the poor by King Henry VIII, as well as his excommunication from behaviour in England seemed to mark when it started. Our type of society has only been around for atleast 200-300 years while Christendom far longer, only removed mostly by force called from the so-called ‘enlightenment’. Humans are infact more ruthless than their ‘medieval’ counterparts nowadays.
Another funny fact was that they found people or peasants under catholic rule had far more holidays than those under Protestant reformation or ‘secular’ society did. Atleast 150 or 80 per year from what I remember. Quite ironic.