a mostly german debate on conversion and salvation In an article, promoting a more positive view of suicide, Winterfeld depicted as a grave fault among Christians in general their understanding of the state at the moment of death, and not the life and moral of a lifetime, as deciding the eternal destiny of the person. Thereby suicide leads to hell while instead being a murderer could very well result in salvation. These beliefs were by Winterfeld deemed absurd and made the murders in order to be executed the responsibility of the church. An elevated Enlightenment would increase the number of suicides and reduce the number of murders.732 In 1797 Gerken in an article, later published as the bookUeber die auch unter Protestanten noch übliche Gewohnheit, Missethäter durch Prediger zum Tode vorbereiten und begleiten zu lassen, claiming that, like him, most of the literature that had been published took a firm line, supporting Steinbart or going even further.733 For a priest to accompany the condemned to the execution site was to act against morality and against the intention of society with the execution, which was the delinquent suffering as a horrible warning, showing fear and abandonment. Therefore, any comfort damages the impact of the execution.734 It is also not meaningful to inspire hope as there hardly exist any hope at this event. God gives salvation only to those that through their life will be judged worthy recipients of it. There are no shortcuts, and, as the Eucharist and the Absolution are meaningless acts for the delinquent, no hope should be given and nobody called saved. Accompanying the condemned threaten theology and diminish religion as those attending considered the hope of a late conversion and the mercy of God.735 The ideas and discussions emerging from Prussia also came to be spread among lawyers around Germany and beyond. The professor and Generalsuperintendent in Swedish Pomerania Gottlieb Schlegel stressed the importance of the pastoral care for the condemned but was open to different solutions concerning the execution. Adelinquent the priest recom732 Winterfeld 1791 p 333, 337 sq, 340. On the article of Winterfeld see Lind 1999 p 101 sq. 733 See e g Gerken 1797 p 245 sq, Gerken 1798 p 33 sq. 734 Gerken 1797 p 225, Gerken 1798 p 13. 735 Gerken 1797 p 236 sqq, Gerken 1798 p 24 sqq. 203
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