different realities and reactions Rules of similar kind aimed to put terror in those considering murder were first introduced in Prussia in its military regulations. A royal ordinance of April 17th 1765 took aim at those committing murders motivated by boredom with their lives, and its solution went far to deter them. Such murderers were thought to be strengthened in what the ordinance called their superstition by the idea of the preparation for their death by the clergy. Thus, all visits by priests to such murderers were proscribed. They were to be executed without preparation and without any priest following them on the road to the site of execution. No exceptions were to be made for any confession. These murderers were to be made to a deterring example and the ordinance was to be made public, especially by reading it aloud in conjunction with the articles of war.451 Soon more convicted soldiers could be sentenced to this punishment. According to a circular of February 15th 1768 it would apply to soldiers who had planned to shoot their officers. In the articles of war of 1787, it was also introduced for any malicious killing of anybody of higher rank than oneself and for any planned murders. Those condemned for such crimes, regardless of their confession, were to die without any priests to prepare them. In the articles of war of 1797, the punishment was retained, and stated was its purpose to eradicate the view that through the preparation or through the actions of the clergy at the execution the eternal consequences of the crime for the condemned could be diminished or erased.452 Johann Heinrich Knauth has published a quite interesting story aiming to explain the origin of the ordinance of 1765. Knauth refers to and cites a 40-page manuscript by a man called Bastian living in Potsdam, who reported interesting events in the town between 1763 and 1774 and Knauth quotes a story from 1765. In April that year two soldiers had been der Kriminal-Senat zu ewige Gefängnißstrafe: der König aber schärfte das Urtheil dahin; das Inquisit, weil er ein Kindermörder, ohne Geistlichen auf den Richtplatz geführet, mit dem Schwert vom Leben zum Tode gebracht, und sein Körper verscharrt werden solle.” (Quotation p 15). 451 The ordinance is printed in Lehmann 1883 p 236. This ordinance does not seem to be as well known as the one from 1769, but Knauth 1825b p 23 mentions it. 452 Müller 1789 p 436 sq, Cavan 1801 p 122. 131
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