the explanations of the acts without having committed acrime, as his conscience would not allow him such an act.902 A similar case seems to have occurred in Hamburg, when a woman from another town came to apriest and said that she at arecent execution had seen the condemned die so calm and content that she no longer was interested in continuing her life.903 There seems to be a connection to theology and spirituality, but is there a closer connection as is suggested from Denmark with Pietism, or from Sweden with the Moravians, or from England with the Methodists? A connection could possibly be made to the rather open definition of Pietism used by Rainer Lächele which uses the term Pietism for any revivalist movement in Protestant context in late seventeenth and early eighteenth century emphasising a personal faith, wanting to gather those of the same inclination and longing for a change of church and society through the Holy Ghost.904 Although close, applying this definition we find that a pietistic or any other revival movement do not fully fit those committing these murders. Despite the assertion of Nyholm there is no evidence of a group or gathering around these ideas, nor was the problem exclusively Lutheran. As there are murders of this kind known from Catholic areas such as for example France, perhaps there are other reasons that we mostly have heard of such murders from areas with a dominating or strong Lutheran presence. For example, Pascal Bastien has noted that judicial studies in France did not deal with the question of the salvation of the condemned – instead it was left to the manual for the priests attending them.905 902 Harms 1929 p 158. 903 Jaspis 1822 p 63. 904 Lächele 1996 p 180: ”Wenn hier von Pietismus die Rede ist, dann ist jene in einem europäischen Kontext stehende protestantische Erneuerungsbewegung des späten 17. und frühen 18. Jahrhunderts gemeint, die bestimmt war von einem sehr persönlichen Glauben, aber auch von der Sammlung Gleichgesinnter und schließlich von der Hoffnung auf einen durch den Heiligen Geist bewirkten Wandel der kirchlichen und gesellschaftlichen Situation.” 905 Bastien 2010 p 308: ”À ma connaissance aucun traité de droit n’évoque, à l’égard des peines élimatrices, la moindre notion de salut ou de rédemption. Ce ne sont que les manuels de confession qui le font.” 253
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