During the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe, some thirty types of death penalties were in use, ranging from drawing and quartering to burning at the stake and breaking on the wheel. Physical torture of all forms was common, including mutilation, such as cutting out the tongue and burning out the eyes. Public flogging and other forms of public degradation were commonly in use for relatively minor offences. Imprisonment was not looked upon as a means of punishment, but was used rather for the purpose of guaranteeing the presence of the offender at his trial and ultimate punishment. With a relatively small population, there were eight hundred executions in a year in England alone towards the end of the 16th century. Then, even more than now, the recipients of these harsh punishments were mainly the poor and the `underprivileged.