Medieval
Punishment
When
talking about the Medieval punishment, we must first speak
of torture, which might be either previous or preparatory;
previous, when it consisted of a torture which the condemned
had to endure previous to the capital punishment; and preparatory,
when it was applied in order to elicit from the culprit the
acknowledgement of his crime or of his accomplices. It was
also called ordinary, or extraordinary, according to the duration
and the violence of the means to inflict it. In some cases,
the torture lasted five or six hours, in others it rarely
exceeded one hour.
The Iron Cage
The Medieval punishment by torture included the compression
of the limbs by special instruments, or by ropes only; injection
of water, vinegar, or oil, into the body of the accused; application
of hot pitch, and starvation were the processes most in use.
Other means were placing hot eggs under armpits, tying lighted
candles to the fingers, so that they might be consumed simultaneously
with the wax, letting water trickle drop by drop from a great
height on the stomach, or watering the feet with salt water
and allowing goats to lick them.
In
France, the torture varied according to the provinces, or
rather according to the parliaments. In Brittany, the culprit,
tied in an iron chair, was gradually brought near a blazing
furnace. In Normandy, one thumb was squeezed in a screw in
the ordinary, and both thumbs in the extraordinary torture.
At Orléans, for the ordinary torture, the accused was
stripped half naked, and his hands were tightly tied behind
his back, with a ring fixed between them. Then, by means of
a rope fastened to the ring, they raised the man, who had
a weight of one hundred and eighty pounds attached to his
feet, a certain height from the ground. At Avignon, the ordinary
torture consisted in hanging the accused by the wrists, with
a heavy iron ball at each foot.
 After
the torture, the next step in the Medieval punishment was
the execution. The person carrying the task, the executioner,
did not hold the same position in all countries. For certain
areas in France, Italy and Spain, a certain amount of opprobrium
was attached to his terrible craft. In Germany, on the contrary,
successfully carrying out a certain number of capital sentences
was rewarded by titles and the privileges of nobility.
In France,
the executioner was generally forbidden to live within the
precincts of the city, unless it was on the grounds where
the pillory was situated. In some cases, so that he might
not be mistaken amongst the people, he was forced to wear
a particular coat, either of red or yellow.
On
the other hand, the role this sinister personage held in the
last stage of Medieval punishment ensured him certain privileges.
In Paris, he possessed the right to take all he could hold
in his hand from every load of grain which was brought into
the market. However, in order that the grain might be preserved
from the ignominious contact, he levied his tax with a wooden
spoon. And, beside the personal property of the condemned,
he received the rents from the shops and stalls surrounding
the pillory, in which the retail fish trade was carried on.
In consequence of the receipts from these various duties forming
a considerable source of revenue, the prestige of wealth by
degrees dissipated the unfavorable impression traditionally
attached to the duties of executioner.
 The
Pillory In Central Paris
The popular belief also ascribed to the executioner a certain
practical knowledge of medicine, which was supposed inherent
in the profession itself, and the acquaintance with certain
methods of cure unknown to doctors. More than once during
the 13th Century the duties of the executioner were performed
by women, but only in those cases in which their own sex was
concerned.
There
were different ways of carrying out the final stage of the
Medieval punishment. The punishment by fire was always inflicted
in cases of heresy or blasphemy. The Spanish Inquisition made
a constant use of it. In France, in the beginning of the 14th
Century, fifty-nine Templars were burned at the same time
for the crimes of heresy and witchcraft. And three years later,
on the 18th of March 1314, Jacques de Molay, the Great Master
of the Order of the Templars, also perished in the flames
on the Island of Notre Dame. Joan of Arc was condemned to
death by fire as a witch and a heretic.
Decapitation
was another mode to carry out the death sentences. In some
countries, it was performed with an axe, or, as in France,
with a two-handed sword. The victim was allowed to choose
whether he would have his eyes covered up or not.
One of
the most horrible methods of Medieval punishment was the quartering,
performed using ropes attached to each of the limbs of the
condemned. The ropes were fastened to four bars, to each of
which a strong horse was harnessed.
Overall,
hanging was the most used method of execution in France. In
every town, and almost in every village, there was a permanent
gibbet.
When it
was only necessary to stamp a culprit with infamy, the Medieval
punishment consisted in the penalty of the lash and the pillory.
The pillory was a sort of a scaffold bearing on its front
the arms of the feudal lord. In Paris, it was actually a tower,
built in the centre of the market. It had a horizontal wheel
with holes, made so they hold the head and hands of the culprit,
who, on passing before the eyes of the crowd, came in full
view, and was subjected to their hooting.
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