the execution and its message Directly after the execution a speech could be delivered – with warning and deterrence as its principal motive. Often the priest making the speech used the freshly executed as an example to drive home the message of warning.338 According to Wilhelm Peter Henschen the purpose was to stamp an indelible mark of horror of vice in fellow Christians.339 Similar speeches were also given after the executions of penalties other than death.340 Elisabeth Salvi interprets the role of the priest at the scene of execution as: ”Gardien des bonnes mœurs, le pasteur officie au rite de passage du condamné de la justice des hommes à celle de Dieu.”341 Studying sermons from a political point of view she sees them as a part of the judicial system and the clergy is described as becoming, since reformation until the eighteenth century, increasingly the servants of the state, especially responsible for public morale.342 Similar views were held also further north. For Denmark Michael Bregnsbo calls the priests ”systemets mænd”, being the local representatives and spokesmen of the government.343 In the late eighteenth century the Swedish state could perceive the priests as its most numerous group of civil servants and it occurred that the speech of the priest at the execution was officially requested. Anders Chydenius mentions that he was charged by the county governor to give a speech of warning after the execution of Matts Hjelt, Abraham Frodig, and Peter Lindström at Kronoby April 12th 1786.344 The speech by Chydenius is the oldest printed in Sweden. Roland Borgards also links these speeches to the time where long painful executions disappeared, and the message of the execution had to be given rather through speeches than by the pain of the executed.345 338 Some Swedish examples are Strömvall 1820 p 1, Luthman 1814 p 1, Nordlander 1828 p 1, Börgesson 1824 p 1. 339 Henschen 1800 p 139 note y. 340 See e g three such speeches in Ms in 4° 590 e VöLB. 341 Salvi 2010 p 323. ’Protector of good morals, the pastor officiates at the rite de passage of the condemned from the justice of man to the justice of God.’ Also Anne Carol compares the events culminating in the execution to a rite de passage, Carol 2017 p 171. 342 Salvi 2010 p 318 sq, 322 sq. 343 Bregnsbo 1997 p 326 sqq. ’the men of the system’ (p 328). 344 Aronsson 1992 p 281, Chydenius s a p 16. 345 Borgards 2002 p 89. 104
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