Why Is Torture Important In The Middle Ages

The Renaissance was not only a time of recreation and enjoyment, but also a time filled with crime and brutality. People who were caught committing crimes were met with the law. In the Renaissance Era there were many strict laws, common crimes, and brutal punishments.

Common torture methods were beating, burning, drowning, poisoning, and stretching a criminal 's body. Cutting off limbs, such as fingers, toes, and ears were also a typical form of torture. These punishments were considered normal and not excessive at all. The following unusual punishments and people seem exceedingly cruel, but it was an everyday sight of the 16th century (Lestikow).

In Michael Levin's The Case for Torture, Levin provides an argument in which he discusses the significance of inflicting torture to perpetrators as a way of punishment. In his argument, he dispenses a critical approach into what he believes justifies torture in certain situations. Torture is assumed to be banned in our culture and the thought of it takes society back to the brutal ages. He argues that societies that are enlightened reject torture and the authoritative figure that engage in its application risk the displeasure of the United States. In his perspective, he provides instances in which wrongdoers put the lives of innocent people at risk and discusses the aspect of death and idealism. The author believes that the thoughts of enlightened societies are unwise and ascertains that there are situations whereby torture becomes morally mandatory in dealing with terrorists.

Hanging was one of the most commonly use for punishments. Getting caught with treason is a automatically death sentence by being hanged. Another commonly use punishment is being burned to death. Once again getting caught with treason could be burned to death. Being hanged or burned to death are taking place in the public.

People would not be able to get away with such a cruel action towards other humans, that they might of been allowed to in the Elizabethan era times. Why in the world were punishments for crimes so cruel during the Elizabethan era? In this time period, punishments were a lot more harsh than they are now. People kill others in this time and just get sentenced to life in prison, they are still fed and have shelter. Torture then at that time was used to punish a person for his or her crimes, intimidate them and the group to which he or she belongs, gather information, and/or obtain a confession. During the Elizabethan era, treason was considered as the worst crime a person could ever commit. There were many torcherous forms of punishment in the Elizabethan era that ranged from burning, or stretching, hanging, to suffocating a person accused of a crime.

My opposition to torture fall under the beliefs of the absolutist Kant, who states that no matter what the circumstance is, something that is wrong will always be wrong (Boothe 2006, 12). Therefore, concerning the issue of torture, in this world or any other world, torture is immoral. In this paper, I will employ the ethical frameworks of virtue, rights, and fairness to argue against torture when viewed from the perspective of the victim, the torturer, and any outside source. Furthermore, I will dismantle the ticking-bomb scenario by deducing the incapability to achieve full certainty deeming these scenarios unrealistic.

In this essay, the author suggested that it is not quite black and white to determine if torture is right and wrong. There is space for arguments to determine to what extent torture can be accepted as the right choice of action and to what extent this is not applicable.

Physical torture drastically dehumanized slaves as they had no personal opinion when they were tortured because slave masters would whip them more if they complain. With physical torture and other dehumanizing factors, came the dwindling of liberties such as freedom of speech. For example, in the Douglass Narrative, master Lloyd had a huge stable of horses under the care of two slaves, Old Barney and Young Barney. When Master Lloyd felt like Old Barney was at fault for not taking care of the horses well enough, Lloyd spoke to him and all Old Barney could do was “stand, listen, and tremble,” then he was literally whipped right after with “more than thirty lashes.” This example shows how terribly many slave masters tortured their slaves and how slaves were not allowed to defend their positions as they had no freedom of speech. Physical torture was routine to many slaves in this era. This was surely dehumanizing because humans are born with a voice and when they are enslaved and tortured it takes away their voice and their passions. It is almost like they are zoo elephants, and have to be tortured just to be tamed and stay under the control of the slave masters. Slave masters would tame their slaves by filling them with fear which came with physical torture. Additionally, another example that displayed physical torture in

There existed a myriad of torture devices throughout medieval period, but many of them used degradation, disfigurement and intense heat, all of which are torture in and of

In reality torturing includes physical, mental, or verbal to be exact. Article 5 from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, “Nobody has the right to torture, harm, or humiliate you. Presently, in the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel in chapter 4 pg.64 says, “I saw Idek with a young Polish girl, half-naked on a mattress. Idek leapt up turned around and saw me while the girl tried to cover up her breasts.” Also on chapter 4 pg.65 states, “Lie down on it, on your stomach!” I obeyed. “Then I was aware of nothing but strokes of the whip.” In this chapter Eliezer caught Idek sleeping with a Polish girl and Idek see’s Eliezer and punishes him by giving him 25 lashes on his back with a whip. Accordingly, to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Eliezer's 5th Article of human rights was broken by Idek because he was tortured by Idek for no apparent

1. Before the rise of imprisonment there were a number of alternatives to incarceration that were being used. These alternatives include; flogging, which is historically, the most widely used of physical punishment. The bible mentions instances of whipping, and Christ himself was scourged. Whipping was widely used in England throughout the Middle Ages, and some offenders were said to have been beaten as they ran through the streets, hands tied behind their backs. As such, American colonists carried the practice of flogging with them to the New World. Mutilation was another know alternative, which involved a strategy of specific deterrence that made it difficult or impossible for individuals to commit future crimes. Throughout history, various

During the Elizabethan era (1558-1603) thousands were tortured for the truth. However, many were tortured and gave false truths just to make the pain stop. It was more common for men to be tortured for information. One of the most common ways of torturing men for information was with the rack. The rack was a torture device that the victim would be tied too laying down. Once the victim was tied

Schiemann, John W. "Interrogational Torture: Or How Good Guys Get Bad Information With Ugly Methods." Political Research Quarterly 65.1 (2012): 3-19. Academic Search Complete. Web. 08 Feb. 2016. This source explains that torture is actually one of the last methods used when they are interrogating someone since many know that it has a very low success rate. If the person is not willing to cooperate, they go down a list. Many people thought to use the top methods as they are not as immoral. Getting to the end of the list thought means they have nothing else to make the person talk which is why they use

Torture played a huge role in the powers of the inquisitors. “Document 5: The Case of Marina Gonzalez” in the book The Spanish Inquisition written by Lu Ann Homza, is an example of how important torture was for confessions however torture was ineffective when revealing truths. To torture an entire group of a population, it would have required a very thorough process. An inquisition began with an Edict of Grace after a Catholic Mass, in which those in community who were guilty of heresy were invited to the town center to declare any acts against the church.

The court also played the dominant role in conducting the trial, questioning the witnesses and interrogating the accused. Methods of interrogation commonly included the use of torture to extract