the execution and its message In Germany too this kind of speeches clearly carried an official quality. At an execution in Reutlingen in 1829 the priest confirmed to the condemned that it was his sad duty to hold a speech after the execution.346 It could be delivered by a judge or by a priest. A priest was not expected to use the opportunity of a speech permitted or ordered by the authorities to criticize the penalty or the criminal law.347 An early printed example given by a priest is from Berlin in 1718.348 In Bavaria as a result of a sermon not popular with the government an ordinance 1783 August 12th forbade all ”Galgenpredigten”.A short prayer to comfort the condemned was, however, allowed.349 In 1814, however, a speech by the priest to end the ceremony was again prescribed, but it was first to be submitted to the court in charge for approval, and the same legislation banned solemn processions and funeral hymns. In 1854 finally the speeches by the priests were forbidden again because they were seen to counter deterrence through descriptions of conversions of the condemned. This decision, Petra Overath has found, was due to a wish of the state to limit ecclesiastical influence over the execution to a minimum and increase its own control.350 In Switzerland this kind of speeches can be found up to the late 1860’s. These and a speech by a priest given at an execution in Modena in 1868, showing that they also existed in Italy, are probably the latest occurrences.351 Also in Switzerland the speeches at executions were not always seen positively.Before the execution in Geneva of Louis-Frédéric Richard June11th 1850thegovernmentforbadespeeches from both the delinquent and the priests. Richard anyhow gave a short speech: ”Mes amis, je quitte 346 Eppenberger Vogel und Güttinger 2013 p 29. 347 Quistorp 1783 p 1514, Steinbart 1779 p 34. In the early nineteenth century the law in Württemberg requested the speech of the priest after the execution, Sauer 1984 p 24 sq. 348 Wahrhaffter Theologischer Bericht 1720 p 49 sqq. 349 Meyr 1784 p 216. ’Gallow sermons.’ 350 Overath 2001 p 183, 191, Evans 1997 p 204 sq, 310. Bavaria is in this general wish only one example from the German states in late eighteenth and nineteenth century, see examples from Prussia and Hamburg in Bergman 1996 p 108 sqq and Bergman 2010 p 144 sq. 351 In Zürich a clegyman spoke after the last execution of the city in 1865, Wettstein 1958 p 155. Another example can be found from 1867, Schürch 1867, and a speech was made after an execution in Moudon 1868, Choffet 1980 p 130 sq. Nicassio 1990-91 p 416, 420 sq. 105
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