a mostly german debate on conversion and salvation Thus, an execution with unnecessary pomp could cost many innocent lives.744 A suggested solution to the problems of the public executions was that they should not be public, but instead witnessed by a deputation of sworn men. The method of execution should be secret but quick.745 In Hamburg in 1784 the order by the senate to end the presence of the priests at the executions sparked a local debate among the priests.746 Christoph Christian Sturm inUeber die Gewohnheit Missethäter durch Prediger zur Hinrichtung begleitet zu lassensupported the new legislation and expressed his satisfaction with the government’s earlier abolishment of excessive pomp at the executions. The punishment seeking to induce abhorrence at vices and sin lost its effect when the criminal was displayed in triumph as a martyr.747 He found the presence of the priest at the site of execution doing more harm than good. Either the priest was not in shape to help or the condemned was not in shape to receive the message and anyhow an unrepentant criminal would not be converted along the road to the execution.748 Sturm shared some of the doubts of Steinbart about late conversions. They were more the result of intense clerical activity than conviction. Sturm also saw visible religious signs as contrary to the inner distaste for sins and thorough conversion.749 Johann Melchior Goeze, a colleague of Sturm’s, rejected most of his ideas in Gewissenhaften Erinnerungen zu den Schrift Ueber die Gewohnheit Missethäter durch Prediger zur Hinrichtung begleitet zu lassen. The sensations experienced by delinquent and priest at the day of execution did not make any contact impossible.750 A converted delinquent needed her priest and suppositions of the impossibility of conversion were not enough to deny anybody the company of the priest.751 Would the actions of the church around the condemned and their effect be judged as Sturm wanted, they 744 Neues Hannöverisches Magazin 1800 nr 76 col 1419 sqq. 745 Neues Hannöverisches Magazin 1800 nr 76 col 1425, 1433 sqq. 746 On the discussion see also Stuart 2023 p 191 sqq. 747 Sturm 1784a p 14 sqq. 748 Sturm 1784a p 6 sqq. 749 Sturm 1784a p 13 sq. 750 Goeze 1784a p 11 sqq. 751 Goeze 1784a p 15 sqq. 206
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