people (murder, assault). The means of proof was rational (largely testimony), and
punishment included execution, imprisonment, banishment, and corporal punishment.
Criminal justice in the Frankish kingdom, on the other hand, was conceived of much as
civil justice, as a matter in which two families confronted one another. The traditional
ven-geance sought (faida) was replaced with monetary compensation (wergeld) detailed
in exhaustive lists. The procedure was accusatory, and proofs invoked were co-oaths
(families and neighbors swearing to the honor of the accused) and ordeals.
The feudal period saw the rise of seigneurial and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, in criminal
as well as civil matters. The high and late Middle Ages saw three fundamental changes:
the development of municipal courts, the growth of royal justice, which tended to
overshadow the old seigneurial jurisdictions, and the reintroduction of Roman principles
of justice, especially of procedure, at first through the church and canon law, then also
through royal justice and some lower courts, especially in towns. With the strengthening
of the notion of the state, inquisitory procedure began to supplement and then to replace
the old accusatory procedure. Testimony and confession, both sometimes induced by
torture, replaced co-oaths and ordeals as proof, and the practice of appeal was introduced.
Individual responsibility tended to replace collective responsibility, and the intention of
the accused became as important a factor as the facts of the crime.
With the growth of public authority, persons accused of crimes against religion
(sacrilege, witchcraft, blasphemy), against public authority (treason, counterfeiting), and
against public order (procuring, concubinage, gaming, sodomy) were prosecuted, as well
as those having committed crimes against people (homicide) and property (theft). The
principal forms of capital punishment were decapitation, hanging (especially for theft),
and burning (for heresy, witchcraft, and sodomy). Corporal punishment was
reintroduced; the most common mutilation was the cutting off of ears, normally for theft.
Whipping was a common punishment, as was being exposed at the pillory for several
days. Banishment was frequent; imprisonment, however, was rarely used as punishment.
Confiscation of goods often accompanied other punishments, especially when the
accused was noble or in cases of heresy, usury, or suicide. Fines were common, and the
sum varied greatly; sixty sous, the standard fine in Frankish times, remained the most
common.
Leah L.Otis-Cour
Gonthier, Nicole. Délinquence, justice et société en Lyonnais (fin XIIIe-début XVIe siècles). Thesis.
Lyon (Lettres), 1988.
Laingui, André, and Arlette Lebigre. Histoire du droit pénal. 2 vols. Paris: Cujas, 1979–80.
CROISADE CONTRE LES ALBIGEOIS,
CHANSON DE LA
. A historical epic retelling the events of the Albigensian Crusade, the Chanson is an
invaluable historical and literary resource. The author of the first 131 laisses (2,772
lines), Guilhem de Tudela (fl. first quarter of the 13th c.), began writing in 1210 and
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