I. introduction
• hook – Just exactly how saddening was medieval torture?
• background – Torture is defined as the sole act of inflicting agony and torment both physically and mentally upon an individual through several different instruments.
• thesis – Social Status, gender, and the severity of the crime of the accused greatly influenced how a victim would be tortured during medieval times.
• quote – “The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be either good or evil,” as stated by Hannah Arendt.
II. In fact torture was used primarily as a means of extracting information.
For instance once someone was accused of a crime and the court had enough evidence to prove that person was indeed the one who committed the crime, the person would be …show more content…
Likewise any doubts as to the guilt of the accused had to be "overcome with evidence as clear as day," according to the Klagspiegel, Germany’s oldest code of law.
"In general, there are many indications that the people living at the time did not perceive the brutality of execution in the same way we would perceive it today, because they were filled with a deep sense of sin and thus were open to torture," says Schild.
III. SOCIAL STATUS
A. Noblemen accused of a crime were sentenced to an Ordeal by combat where they would engage in combat with the accuser, the innocent was chosen if the accused became the winning party, the losing party usually wound up dead (Trueman).
B. Peasants/poor would be tortured according to the crime they committed.
For instance a man accused of stealing, even if what was stolen was a loaf of bread to feed himself, would be executed if a person of higher standing was injured or killed during the crime (“Dark”).
C. For nobility and royalty punishment didn’t really exist and if a situation appeared where one was accused it was more for political reason, instead as actual punishment (“Dark”).
IV.
• hook – Just exactly how saddening was medieval torture?
• background – Torture is defined as the sole act of inflicting agony and torment both physically and mentally upon an individual through several different instruments.
• thesis – Social Status, gender, and the severity of the crime of the accused greatly influenced how a victim would be tortured during medieval times.
• quote – “The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be either good or evil,” as stated by Hannah Arendt.
II. In fact torture was used primarily as a means of extracting information.
For instance once someone was accused of a crime and the court had enough evidence to prove that person was indeed the one who committed the crime, the person would be …show more content…
Likewise any doubts as to the guilt of the accused had to be "overcome with evidence as clear as day," according to the Klagspiegel, Germany’s oldest code of law.
"In general, there are many indications that the people living at the time did not perceive the brutality of execution in the same way we would perceive it today, because they were filled with a deep sense of sin and thus were open to torture," says Schild.
III. SOCIAL STATUS
A. Noblemen accused of a crime were sentenced to an Ordeal by combat where they would engage in combat with the accuser, the innocent was chosen if the accused became the winning party, the losing party usually wound up dead (Trueman).
B. Peasants/poor would be tortured according to the crime they committed.
For instance a man accused of stealing, even if what was stolen was a loaf of bread to feed himself, would be executed if a person of higher standing was injured or killed during the crime (“Dark”).
C. For nobility and royalty punishment didn’t really exist and if a situation appeared where one was accused it was more for political reason, instead as actual punishment (“Dark”).
IV.