different realities and reactions The alternatives would continue to struggle – would the fear of going to hell without the help of a priest or not executing the criminals be the most fruitful action against these murders? The focus on the preparation of the condemned led to the CriminalOrdnung vor die Chur- und Renmarck of 1717 stating that to ease the preparation only the priest and the closest relatives could visit, and if the condemned had not been sufficiently well prepared the execution could be postponed for a few days. A similar provision for regulated visits and short respites was made in the HanoverianCriminal-Instructionof 1736.449 In Prussia much of the legislation and debate of relevance here came to focus on the preparation of the condemned and if any priests were to be present at the execution. An early example of a new strategy, ignoring the salvation of the condemned, was shown by a decision concerning a case in Berlin 1757. A man had killed a child, probably to be executed. According to a physician, he did not seem to be in his right mind at the time of the crime and by the supreme court he was sentenced to imprisonment for life. However, FriedrichII judged him to be achild murderer and sentenced him to be taken to the execution site, not accompanied by any priest, and to be decapitated.450 und für sie ein läuterndes irdisches Fegefeuer bilden.” A related thought was voiced a hundred years later in the Swedish diet when Fredrik Ridderstolpe claimed that those sentenced to the severer forms of the death penalty were swifter and better prepared, RD 1840–41RoAV:279. 448 Mylius s aII, 3 col 107 chapter XII §§2sq: ”§. 2. Währender dieser Zeit, damit der Gefangene, in der Vorbereitung zum Tode, und in seiner Andacht nicht gestöhren werde, soll ausser denen Predigern, und des Gefangenen nächten Befreundten, keiner in das Gefängniß zu ihm gelassen werden, und denen Gefangen-Wärtern, so zuweilen um schnöden Gewinstes willen, zu nicht geringem Verdruß der Gefangenen, allerley Leute in das Gefängniß, bloß um den Gefangenen zu sehen, hereinlassen, solches unter Straffe der Remotionvon Dienst, Krafft dieses untersagen seyn. §. 3. Da auch einer Christlichen Obrigkeit obliegt, so viel möglich dahin zu sehen, damit der Gefangene nicht in seiner Unbußfertigkeit dahin sterbe, so soll dieselbe, im Fall der Gefangene annoch wenig, oder gar keine Reue und Busse spüren last, dieExecutioneinige Tage aussetzen, und denen Predigern, um ihres Amts dabey wahrzunehmen, Zeit geben.” See, for Swedish parallelles, Bergman 1996 p 160 sqq. 449 Krause 1991 p178 sq, Chur-Braunschweig-Lüneburgische Landes-Ordnungen 1740 p880 sq Criminal-Instruction Cap 13 §§ 1-3. 450 Gnothi sauthon 1784II:I:13 sqq. ”Auf den Medizinal-Bericht des Hofrath Lesser, daß der Inquisit bei Begehung der That seines Verstandes nicht mächtig gewesen, verurtheilte ihn 130
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