Crime And Punishment In Britain Before The 13th Century

Crime and punishment

Beware, as many punishments will come if one makes the slightest offence. Extremely harsh punishments are taken out for all crimes such as fines, shaming, cutting off a body part or most likely death. People are held in a holding cell before trial than as a form of punishment. All must obey the king. Treason is the crime of betraying a singles country, especially by undertaking the killing of the ruler/s by performing a miracle. The punishments for treason are most commonly death.

Witches and witchcraft

Witches and witchcraft is a controversial crime, which is equally punishable by poisoning. If any of you are accused of witchcraft the charges can be dropped but only with a relatives defence and in

‘Maleficium”, which was a Latin word which at first meant wrong doing, came to mean malicious, presumably satanic, and magic. Magic is now viewed as a crime against society as well as god.

Torture was used as a control device to make people confess. Before the 13th century witchcraft was known as a collection of practices and beliefs associated with healing. The healing was practiced through spells, ointments, and potion ad forecasting the future through clairvoyance. In England, curative magic was practiced by “witch doctors.” Conversely, “toad doctors” were witches who were said to be able to undo evil witchcraft. Although they did not classify themselves as witches, all of the aforementioned were usually considered valuable to society. Some witches were also hired to curse enemies. Witches and witchcraft in the middle ages began to be considered as “demon-worship” by the beginning of the 13th century. Witchcraft has been feared throughout Europe for many centuries, as magic was believed to be a creation of the devil and associated with devil worship. Two types of magic are said to be practiced one being “Black Magic” which was the bad type of magic as it has more association to the devil and satanic worship. If someone falls ill of unknown

The test was one of life or death and the proof of innocence was survival. The person was considered innocent if they escaped injury or if their injuries healed. The procedure based on the premise that god would help the innocent by preforming a miracle on their behalf.

Ordeal by fire

Ordeal of fire required the accused to walk a certain distance (2.7 meters usually) over burning hot ploughshares or by holding hot iron. Innocence was sometimes confirmed by a complete lack of injury, but it was more common for the wound to be bandaged and re-examined after 3 day’s by a priest, who would pronounce that god had intervened to heal it, or it was solely festering but in this case the person would be executed.

Ordeal by boiling water form Ordeal by water required the accused to retrieve a stone from a pot of boiling water, oil, or lead. King Athelstan mad a law concerning the ordeal, the water had to be close to boiling temperature, and the depth from which the stone had to be retrieved was up to the wrist for one accusation and up to the elbow for three. The ordeal would take place in church and several people attended praying god to reveal the truth. Afterwards, the hand was bound and examined after 3 days to see whether it was healing, and if not healed the suspect was guilty of