the execution and its message In the comfort given to delinquents in late medieval Bologna also Jesus Christ and the martyrs were central examples in how to endure the road to the execution. Meekness, calmness, and silence even when one sees oneself unjustly condemned, confession of all sins and receiving Christ in the communion – the footsteps are prepared and thus following them was the ideal given.409 The processions through the cities sometimes included stops at set places or at the place of the crime, torturing the delinquent as part of the punishment. This procession thus has some resemblance to the ecclesiastical commemorations of the road of Christ to the cross.410 Theformof the executions both in reality and in art could lead thoughts to the executed as a saint on the road to heaven, while the executioner could be interpreted as a more dubious, even satanic figure. Samuel Edgerton finds these interpretations especially in the form of beheading used in parts of Europe where the condemned knelt, easily seen as praying and penitent, with her back to the executioner as he wielded his sword.411 Many medieval forms of executions can, however, rather than proclaiming martyrdom, be seen as conveying a message of filth or prolonged pain.412 Could the diminishing use of such forms be one reason for a probable larger number of people seeking to be executed starting in the seventeenth century? The confessional conflicts of the age of reformation led to the actualisation of the martyrdom motif, especially when individuals were executed due to their confession.413 As protomartyrs of the time are often mentioned those burned as Lutherans in Brussels on July 1st 1523.414 Through the Counter-Reformation the interest for the martyrs rouse in Catholic spirituality.415 The theme of martyrdom therefore was revived 409 Falvey 1991 p 37 sqq, 43. 410 Puppi 1991 p 21. 411 Edgerton 1985 p 132 sqq, Edgerton 2003 p 244 sqq. 412 See e g Vincent-Cassy 1998 p 390 and Anners 1965 p 14 sqq. 413 See e g Tait 2001 p 143 and Nicholls 1988. 414 Duke 1990 p 71. 415 Meere 2015 p 14, 16, 20, 23, 27 sq. 118
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