ABSTRACT
In the history of penal administration several epochs can be distinguished during which entirely different systems of punishment were prevalent. Penance and fines were the preferred methods of punishment in the early Middle Ages. The different penal systems and their variations are closely related to the phases of economic development. The law of feud and penance was essentially a law regulating relations between equals in status and wealth. Penance was carefully graded according to the social status of the evildoer and of the wronged party. The intense class conflicts in Flanders, upper Italy, Tuscany, and upper Germany which marked the transition to capitalist forms in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries led to the creation of a harsh criminal law directed against the lower classes. Cruelty itself is a social phenomenon which can be understood only in terms of the social relationships prevailing in any given period.
