Replacing blood punishments with other penalties was not a practical option. Imprisonment was expensive, compared to mutilation and execution, and the Old Testament also made it clear that justice meant proper punishment. God had said to Moses, ‘Thou shalt not suffer evildoers to live.’ And in 1203, Pope Innocent had himself declared that criminals should be punished in the public interest.32 So judges feared public unrest if they failed to prosecute and punish crime. The theological problems of crime and blood punishment remained acute.
