the execution and its message thereby of church and salvation close to the delinquents, the southern and northern systems came closer. Thus, somewhat similar and still separate systems developed in different parts of Europe. One very rough impression might be that the systems developed later in the north and also started to dissolve earlier in some northern areas. In time, the liturgical and theological perspectives of the execution faded or rather became limited to the priest while the focus was on the person of the condemned. This was evident across the board, in many cases under the influence of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, although it may have started earlier. In an analysis by James Sharpe of speeches made in England at the site of execution by the condemned the theological time frame is quite early. He traces the interest for “[c]onfessions of guilt and expressions of repentance” back to executions for treason in the late fifteenth century. In the sixteenth century, there was a demand for such speeches – and thus for proper preparation of the condemned – beginning with executions for treason. After an apex in the seventeenth century Sharpe concludes his analysis: “But by the early eighteenth century public execution, despite the continued presence of clergymen at the scaffold, was becoming more of an embodiment of the secular power.” He also finds that contrite delinquents on the scene of execution ”were helping to assert the legitimacy of the power which had brought them to their sad end.”171 Krischer has argued that an alliance between church and court, between theology and law ”began to dissolve after 1700.” The result of this development, from the perspective of the state, was that the condemned as penitent and pious lost her value. The execution instead needed some other cause. According to Krischer, the disintegration started when the 170 See on these also e g Paglia 1982, Romeo 1993, Parisini 1988, Mereu 1988 p 27 sqq, Terpstra 1991, Terpstra 2008b, Parnisetti 1927, Calon 1957 p 24 sq, Renaudet 2003 p 94 sq, Csendes 1970 p 104, Terry 2009 p 628 sq, Froidcourt 1933-34 p 23, Dewez 1961, Stuart 2023 p219. In France a brotherhood in Aix-en-Provence followed Florant Tourrens to his execution in 1872, Carol 2017 p 136. The local brotherhood in Namur walked with a condemned man, Guillaume-Joseph Dorvillers, and prayed at his execution 18 April 1845, L’Indépendance Belge 19 April 1845. 171 Sharpe 1985 p 156, 165. 67
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