Methods of Medieval Torture
Without a doubt, there is not a single person living today that would attempt to disprove the known fact that methods of torture during medieval times were both cruel and most definitely did not fit the crime in which they were intended to compensate for. This paper is intended to confirm the media’s portrayal, specifically Hollywood, of the tortuous methods of a time period where the techniques and procedures utilized to prove a point were perceived as reasonable. Contrary to most popular opinion, methods of medieval torture were actually chosen with much deliberation and were not executed until a legitimate conviction had been proven. A conviction “of serious crime required either the testimony of two impeachable eyewitnesses or the defendant’s confession before the judge.”1 It is evident that the methods used to torture, maim, and kill criminals between the 13th and 16th centuries were definitely heinous, but during that time period, these methods were proven to be successful, just, and a crucial element of a very historical judicial system. Within that “judicial torture” system, the most popular methods of horrific medieval torture included, but were not limited to, water torture,
Before scrutinizing the different methods of medieval torture, a more in-depth analysis must be written to explain the science behind all of these methods. In 1866, Edward H. Lecky put the strange science of medieval torture into his own descriptive words:
What strikes us most in considering the medieval tortures is not so much their diabolical barbarity … as the extraordinary variety, and what may be termed the artistic skill, they displayed. They represent a condition of thought in which men had pondered long and carefully on all the forms of suffering, had compared and combined the different kinds of torture, till they had become the most consummate masters of their art, had expanded on the subject all the resources of the utmost ingenuity, and had pursued it with the ardor
Before scrutinizing the different methods of medieval torture, a more in-depth analysis must be written to explain the science behind all of these methods. In 1866, Edward H. Lecky put the strange science of medieval torture into his own descriptive words:
What strikes us most in considering the medieval tortures is not so much their diabolical barbarity … as the extraordinary variety, and what may be termed the artistic skill, they displayed. They represent a condition of thought in which men had pondered long and carefully on all the forms of suffering, had compared and combined the different kinds of torture, till they had become the most consummate masters of their art, had expanded on the subject all the resources of the utmost ingenuity, and had pursued it with the ardor
Bibliography: Damaska, Mirjan. “Review: The Death of Legal Torture.” The Yale Law Journal 87, no. 4 (1978): 860-884.