The justice system
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The justice system of the Early Modern Age

Emperor Charles V and his judicial reform

Corporal punishment, stripping of honour and financial penalties are the favoured sentences for medieval offenders - confinement is not considered a punishment until the Early Modern Age. While the corporal punishment of the day often goes hand in hand with brutal, physical abuse and mutilation, the goal of a ‘punishment of honour’ is to incur the ridicule and scorn of the community. A lot of the time this would involve the loss of civil rights as well.

The medieval judges generally go by the ancient principle of “an eye for an eye” and so the crime committed can be seen to be mirrored in many punishments of the time. Counterfeiters for instance would be dunked in simmering water, just as boiling hot liquids are used in coinage.

Emperor Charles V is the first to create a general penal and processual system with his Constitutio Criminalis Carolina in 1530. The title page can be seen above. It replaces the superstition-based legal reasoning of the medieval courts with modern evidence-gathering techniques such as witness examination. However even Charles V does not succeed in doing away with torture as a means of forcing a confession. And so it remains in the hands of the judge as to whether the accused receives a fair trial or not.

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