a mostly german debate on conversion and salvation mended could through the decision of a judge be granted the company of priests to the execution.736 Johann Christian Quistorp, a judge in the Swedish provinces in Germany and aprofessor of law in Rostock, agreed with Steinbart when he suggested that the priests because of the impression given to the spectators should not accompany the delinquents to their executions. On the other hand their visits to the delinquents should not be restricted but be trouble-free.737 A similar line of thought was delivered by Johann Friedrich Christoph Grässe. His idea was that the spirituality of the condemned should make a difference.The apostates were notto be accompanied,whilethose yearning for comfort should be given it. To refuse all condemned support would be barbaric.738 Also for Christian Gottlieb Gmelin, a professor of law in Tübingen, the spiritual status of the condemned was of importance when he argued that when there was no reason to be concerned for possible despair no priests should follow the delinquent.739 The professor of theology at Halle, August Herman Niemeyer, attempted to find a theologically founded answer without excesses on either side. The metaphorical middle way passes between two ditches where one distributes unfounded security, while the other creates hopelessness. Towards the first ditch, Niemeyer’s fence consists of the idea that conversion has a dimension of moral and its postponement carries irreparable damage and as death often is quick, no time for conversion is left. Toward the second ditch he asserts the infinite possibilities of God and that God surely would not leave somebody who yearns for repentance and conversion without hope. God does not desire the despair and hopelessness of men.740 That Niemeyer’s own position was influenced by En736 Schlegel 1811 p 265 sq. ”Die Frage, welche beurtheilt wurde, ob Missethäter von Predigern zum Tode begleitet werden sollten, könnte etwa auf die Art beantwortet werden, daß diese Begleitung eine Vergünstigung für die Maleficanten seyn könnte, worüber der Prediger mit dem Richter in Vereinigung treten möchte, wenn etwa der Prediger von der guten Gemüthsart des Missethäters ein geneigtes Zeugniß abgegeben hätte. Prediger aber haben die Seligpreisung auch der bußfertigen Missethäter sich zu enthalten.” 737 Quistorp 1782 p 147, 149. 738 Grässe 1803 p 40. 739 Gmelin 1785 p 394 sq §§ 242 sq. 740 Niemeyer 1799 p 480 sq. 204
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