The Effectiveness Of Punishment In Medieval Times

Crime is something that needs to be punished but during the Middle Ages the punishments were meant to reflect the crimes that were committed. Because the punishments were very effective but were not very reasonable todays world had to change those extreme punishments. Crime should not be taken lightly but it should not be punished as harshly as it was during the Medieval Times. So, because the punishments were very effective but weren’t very reasonable today’s world had to change those extreme punishments. People of the Middle Ages were convicted of anything. Anything that was slightly considered a bad thing of that time was considered a crime. Even writers of the Medieval era would write about the crimes of that era. Geoffrey Chaucer wrote

There were only a few things allowed in prison and writing books was one of them. Morte D’ Artur was written in prison (Kinsinella). Most of the time a trial would be used if there was no hard evidence against the incriminated. There were three types of ordeals that a person could be put through. The fire ordeal would be where the accused would have to walk a distance of about nine feet while holding something that was scolding hot such as a rod (Duhaime). After they walked the distance their hand would be wrapped in bandages. Then the person that was wrapped in bandages would be told to meet back after three days in front of the court if there were any signs of healing then that person was looked at as innocent. The ordeal of water was done in two different ways cold and hot. The cold way was where the accused had their hands and feet tied up and they were put into a body of water, if they floated they were innocent if they drowned they were guilty. The hot way was very similar to the fire ordeal, where the accused had to put hands in boiling water to grab a stone and after three days if healed they were innocent (Duhaime). The reason for the two types of ordeals being involved as much healing as it did because it was believed that the God would intervene and help the innocent and let the guilty perish. The third type of ordeal is combat and this would be used if two parties were accused with no witnesses the two parties would fight, most of the time it was to the death, the winners were said to be innocent (Duhaime). Most of the time the people that had enough money would hire champions (Alchin). In the early 1300’s the Medieval customs of trial by ordeals would be replaced with jury because people started to realize it was too hard to convict someone under the