The Pros And Cons Of Medieval Punishment

During the years of the middle ages in England; from the 11th century to the 13th century, many countries/communities based and governed by law, doctrine, and or royalty/parliament, embraced new forms of punishment in order to reflect a crimes illegality and align a punishment that is capable of keeping a safe social environment. While the majority of sentences reflected the religious point of view of those giving the sentence, crime could be a broad spectrum of what is morally, socially, or religiously wrong, though this is what determines punishment. The array of areas that can be condemned to medieval punishment had their own means of justice, however, the most interesting and most controversial was the use of torture; whether its point

Differing from classic prisons, debtor prisons would enlist both men and women and lock them up together in a single large cell until their families paid their debt. If the father of a family was imprisoned for debt, the family business often suffered while the mother and children fell into poverty. Unable to pay the debt, the father often remained in debtors’ prison for many years. Some debt prisoners were released to become serfs or indentured servants until they paid off their debt in labor. This includes one meal of gruel. Anything other than that also costs money, including blankets, better food, stay of execution, etc. As long as someone pays for the prisoners monthly expenses, they will be given the possibility to have these “luxuries.” These costs are added to the original debt and any other fines the magistrate has imposed. While in debtor’s prison, those that are able to can do certain tasks or even be “rented” to local nobility for a time, in order to work off their debts. The guards and the warden always take a cut of everything, so the cost of going to prison usually ends up double the original judgment against the prisoner. If a prisoner cannot pay their fees, they will end up executed or will meet an “accident” at the hands of another prisoner; which ironically so, would help pay off that prisoner’s own