the execution and its message sacrifice seeking to fulfil the wishes of God. Eleven were tried and found guilty of criminal acts and sentenced to imprisonment for terms varying from six months to sixteen years. The condemned was accused of yearning to climb the scaffolds to become martyrs.421 At the Swedish diet of 1877 it was claimed by Severin Löwenhielm that the public in attendance was easily convinced of the martyrdom of a condemned person persistently claiming innocence to the end.422 It could also occur that the bodies of the executed were understood and honoured like those of saints and martyrs. In January 1748 several processions in Toulouse went to the bodies of two men hanging in the gallows. Except for the presumed sanctity of the executed, indicated by the pristine condition of their bodies – presumably due to the cold weather – they were also increasingly understood as innocent. Therefore, the response of the authorities was to secretly bury the bodies one night.423 Also in Berlin, where the Prussian government at least since the 1760’s had been persistent in making the executions deterring, we can hear in a text from 1798 the crowds gathering to the executions described as travelling full of joy to the grave of a holy person.424 We may be modern and consider that those who harboured murderous thoughts and acted on them were more or less mentally ill, but their interpretations of the services and liturgy that accompanied the execution were reasonable. The executed – when forgiven, had taken communion, and had been blessed – looked like a saint and would sometimes even be dressed fully in symbolic clothes, mostly white and sometimes black. Dresses for sorrow or wedding – dresses preparing for the heavenly wedding, where Jesus is the bridegroom. Nightcaps could also be worn.425 421 ”Les coupables se laissent charger de fers en bénissant la main de Dieu qui les frappe; le ciel en les livrant à la rigeur des lois, les a réservés à de glorieuses épreuves, et ils aspirer à monter à l’échafaud, pour mériter la palme des martyrs.” Relation 1824 esp p II sq (quotation), 12, 27 sqq, 110 sqq, Georget 1825 p 119 sqq. 422 RD1877mot AK12:4. 423 Soula 2015 p 118 sq. 424 Mercier 1798 p 73 sq. 425 See e g Bergman 1996 p108, Krogh 2000 p 290, Tait 2001 p 143, Bælter 1783 p 575, Odhelius 1842 p 50 sq, Henschen 1800 p 105, Charpentier 1969 p 79, Dülmen 1984 p 222, Dülmen 1988 p 103, Evans 1984 p 199 sq, Trinkler 1834 p 92, Rabus 1851 p 3, Radzinowicz 120
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