Crime In The Renaissance Era

The Renaissance was a time for human achievement, art, and literature. The effects of the Renaissance can still be seen today, and it changed man greatly forever, hence Renaissance meaning rebirth. Prior to the Renaissance, however, the Middle Ages occurred. The Middle Ages were a time of war and conquest after the fall of Rome, lasting from about 500 to 1300. Throughout Europe, a system referred to as Feudalism was in effect, and the Roman Catholic Church was the dominating power. Serfs worked for nobles on their land, and were said to be bound to the land. Feudalism was highly reliant on the social pyramid and the system of working for superiors, but this all eventually changed. The Renaissance was a time after the Middle Ages for man to

Jackson The Lottery By: Yarmove, Jay A. Explicator. Summer94, Vol. 52 Issue 4, p242. 4p. Reading Level (Lexile): 1230. , Database: MasterFILE Premier

Most took it with great deal, but some didn't mind because there were very rich. The thieves normally were not wealthy and were jealous of more fortunate ones. They wanted money but wouldn't work for ir. This is why Queen Elizabeth would have punished them.

Many people do not realize how fortunate they are to have the medical advances and medical technology we easily have the right to use. People from many years ago did not have specialized doctors and medicine to cure their diseases that we easily have access to today. (Ramsey) Many civilizations used what they thought to be alleviating processes, but medical experts today know now were pointless and dangerous. Among these people were the Elizabethans. (Chamberline) The Elizabethan Era was a time of accusations. People believed certain procedures were curing people when in fact they were killing them. (Ramsey) They also blamed mysterious acts they could not explain on innocent people, creating a handful of superstitions we know and use today. Unexplainable events and hazardous medical customs sparked the era of the Elizabethan Age. (Elizabethan Superstitions)

Law was much different in Puritan society from what it is now. In Puritan society, almost everyone had the same beliefs. They believed that their beliefs were the rules people should live their lives by. Many people took advantage of this in various ways.

A man named W.S Gilbert once said, “Let the punishment fit the crime.” In the Elizabethan Era this idea was nowhere near hypothetical. The punishments were only as harsh, heartless, and unusual as one could imagine for every act that was considered a crime. The most inhuman behaviors were demonstrated at every hour, of every day, throughout this time period. Although the upper and lower class committed mostly contrasting crimes, they all had similar punishments involving humiliation from villagers that were classified as common or rare.

One out of the many punishments people can live through was the pillory. The pillory is a wooden farm work for heads and hands were people were exposed to public abuse. The pillory was set up to hold petty criminals by crossroads, market places, and ect. People were only held in the pillory for two hours at least. When there was a person in the pillory people can walk by and throw tomatoes, rotten food, mud, dead animals, and anything they basically want at the prisoner. Sometimes people will get very violent and throw bricks or pieces of metal and sometimes pieces of glass at the prisoner. (“Internet Shakespeare Editions”).

However, the severity of punishments and the methods used by the law were beneficial and practical and they helped to reduce the amount of crime in England. The article “Crime and Punishment in the Elizabethan Era” expresses that crime was an issue in Elizabethan England, and a threat to the stability of society. To maintain order the penalties for committing minor crimes were generally punished with some form of public humiliation. For major crimes including thievery, murder, and treason those convicted were put to death. The sheer ruthlessness of the punishments discourage any sort of crime as they will scare the citizens into never breaking the law in fear of the consequences. The document “Crime and Punishment in the Elizabethan Era” also points out that the law was flexible and could be applied differently based on the situation. When a person was convicted of treason, they were not always executed immediately. Some were inhumanely tortured for more information to see if they were working with others, despite the obvious lack of morality in doing this, it worked. However, on the other hand, the Elizabethan Law did have at least some moral sense to it as people some were spared from torture, and even execution in certain circumstances. When pregnant women were sentenced to death they could be spared for their the lives of their unborn children. The severe Elizabethan Law provided England the means to help reduce crime, practical application of torture, and even some sense of

The Renaissance began in 1350 and lasted until around 1700. The Renaissance was a rebirth of man’s view of the world. More of the lower class became bankers and merchants, which required them to become literate. New inventions and ideas were being created. Many of those advances in art, literature, and science made the world more realistic and lighter for people.

In medieval England, social status and rank are very important in everyday life. There are some things a person is obligated to do because of his/her social rank, and some things a person is forbidden to do because of his/her social class.

To conclude, a significant extent of the nature of crime and punishment changed between social classes and over the years since the Medieval Period. This is seen through the significant groups that were involved in medieval crime and punishment, the effects of a person’s social class on crime and punishment, the sort of crime each punishment was used for and the difference between crime and punishments between the Medieval Period and today. The Medieval Period lasted from 476 CE to 1453 CE, with different punishments for each crime committed by different social

Man’s view of the world changed greatly in a blink of an eye during the Renaissance, and for good reasons. The Middle Ages (which stretched from about 500 CE to 1350 CE), were a time of little schools, widespread illiteracy, and the Catholic Church ruling everything in Europe, meaning almost everyone had to look up to them to explain the world. During this time period, many of the population were peasant farmers named serfs under the rule of a lord who they worked for. However, At the backend of this period, the world started to change. Improved farming methods meant serfs depended less on their lords, meaning they could gain freedom and migrate to different towns to do different jobs such as being a banker or merchant. From there, literacy

“Rebirth” is a general term that many historians use to define the European Renaissance. Lasting from approximately 1300-1700, the Renaissance was a period of great change that led to many inventions, advances and achievements. Significantly, during the Renaissance people focused on the humanist belief. Humanism is a belief with a central idea that people should live a meaningful life. This “meaningful life” focuses on philosophy, science, art, and education as a whole. With the focus on education, humanist ideas overall were able to provide starting ideas to shape modern art and education. To put in other words, numerous changes were made during the Renaissance. Undoubtedly the massive number of changes made cause people

The Act for the Relief of the Poor, primarily known as the Elizabethan Poor Law, was passed in 1601. It was required in order to establish a law system for the poor in England and Wales.

The renaissance was a time of many different improvements and changes to the era previous to it, the medieval ages, the renaissance re-introduced many different Roman and Greek traditional aspects, so much so that renaissance literally translates into “rebirth” in French. Other changes include social such as the rise of humanism and humanist beliefs, secularism, individualism, big changes in mathematical studies, sciences and all types of learning in general, the printing press invention, as well as religious changes, and the arts were also affected and changed with techniques such as chiaro-scuro, perspective, sfumato, and further more to be explained. The renaissance started in the end of the 14th century and ended in the 17th century.