The ancient world held to the oral tradition of law, with punishment generally based on legal precedent and handed down by tribal rulers. During the Middle Ages, efforts were sought to codify certain laws, and this period saw the emergence of parliaments or parliament-type organizations, as seen in Viking society and the societies in England. Parliaments enacted the laws, handled the public disputes, and served as places of appeal for the wealthy.
Capital punishment was extremely common for those who committed serious crimes. Executions occurred in public, and the locations of the executions varied according to region, country, and contintent. In China and Africa, executions occurred outside the city walls; in medieval Europe, they happened in towns or cities. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in the center city of Rouen, and Jacques de Molay (last Grand Master of the Knights Templar) was executed outside of Notre Dame Cathedral in 1314. The method of execution also varied depending on the region, but the most common type of execution was by hanging or beheading. Other methods of execution included: strangulations (China), hanged and drawn and quartered (medieval Europe), impalement (the favored method of Vlad Dracula), flaying alive (England), and boiled alive (Japan). Burning was preferred method used by the Church, as the church authorties were not permitted to shed blood. People were sometimes fined, but this would only happen in cities where a town court or civil authority existed that could receive the fines, and only for the noble class who could afford to pay the fines. Fines were not practical in rural areas.
Prisons existed but were generally used to hold political prisoners for ransom or people awaiting trial. Imprisonment with large numbers of inmates, as seen today in modern culture, was not common.
Additional Reading:
Medieval Legal History. Medieval Sourcebook.
The Trial of Joan of Arc. Medieval Sourcebook.
Clifford Edmund Bosworth, The Medieval Islamic Underworld: The Banu Sasan in Arabic Society and Literature, 2 vols. (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1976).
G. R. Evans, Law and Theology in the Middle Ages (London: Routledge, 2002).
Maureen Mulholland, Anne Pullen, and Brian Pullen, The Trial in History (Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press, 2003).
Anthony Musson, ed., Expectations of the Law in the Middle Ages (Rochester, N.Y.: Boydell Press, 2001).
Jerome A. Offner, Law and Politics in Aztec Texcoco (London: Cambridge University Press, 1983).
Rudolph Peters, Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law: Theory and Practice from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
Zvi Razi and Richard Smith, Medieval Society and the Manor Court (Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1996).
Source:
Crabtree, Pam J. “crime and punishment in the medieval world.” Encyclopedia of Society and Culture in the Medieval World. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Ancient and Medieval History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?
ItemID=WE49&iPin=ESCMW128&SingleRecord=True (accessed December 29, 2008).