Gregg Roeber

Monastic Prisons and Torture Chambers

History & Biography

“In this path-breaking, lucid book, Ulrich Lehner challenges conventional wisdom on the nature and purpose of prisons and punishment in early modern central Europe. Exploiting neglected evidence on monastic prisons and trial procedures, he demonstrates that the Mendicant orders continued medieval standards as the post-Tridentine religious adopted milder discipline. . . . A book of major significance, it will spur further research into our understanding of confinement and punishment.”