Penal Methods of the Middle Ages

Penal Methods of the Middle Ages is a study of the history of European punishment by the American scholar and translator George Burnham Ives (1856–1930). Originally published as Penal Methods of the Middle Ages: Criminals, Witches, Lunatics, the Chinese edition was translated by Wang Xiao, PhD in World History from Nankai University, and first published in 2025 by Sichuan People's Publishing House, with nearly 150 historical illustrations added. The book takes as its thread three groups regarded by mainstream society as heretical or marginal—criminals, witches, and lunatics—and unfolds in three chapters. The first surveys penal methods and prison systems in medieval Europe, covering judicial practices such as trial by ordeal, judicial combat, torture to extract confessions, imprisonment, and the execution of sentences; it shows how ecclesiastical imprisonment gradually degenerated into a tool for amassing wealth, and how the flaws in legal statutes themselves gave rise to various absurd punishments. The second chapter focuses on witch trials, asking how the image of the "chosen of the devil" was constructed, how witch hunters persecuted large numbers of innocent women and children, and what complex relations obtained between victims and persecutors. The third chapter discusses the "treatment" of the insane, analyzing how the mad were stigmatized, why madhouses tolerated or even arranged entertainments for onlookers, and the special methods of ancient exorcism and the so-called "devil-fearing" ways of driving out demons. The author analyzes the theories and assumptions behind the legal statutes of various countries one by one, points directly at their flaws, criticizes the harm done to innocents by collective ignorance and popular prejudice, and expresses deep sympathy for those who suffered torture. Rich in historical sources and supported by mutual corroboration of text and image, the book offers readers abundant historical material and data for understanding social conditions and legal evolution in medieval Europe, and is a work of social and legal history that combines scholarly value with readability.