the execution and its message for Germany, in which three days were given as the time for preparation.178 In the seventeenth and eighteenth century the three days preparation in the condemned cell could in Germany be likened to the three days Christ was in the grave between his crucifixion and resurrection.179 Even though the law could be amended or superseded by individual states, its influence was immense. The British Isles, meanwhile, are treated as mostly Anglican, because the cases considered are generally English; the divisions among Anglicans and the strong Presbyterian and Catholic presence are mostly bypassed here. In early Christian thought and eventually in canon law the leading attitude, primarily through the position of various popes, but also due to synods and other bishops, was quite positive to the condemned taking communion before the execution. Repentance was often stated as necessary for communion or ecclesiastical funeral. However, in many times and areas it seems like both penance and communion, or just communion could be denied the condemned because of local clerical practice or through the actions of civil authorities, even against the protests of ecclesiastical authorities. Many of the sources both Johann Haring and Peter Browe use in their studies are synodical texts trying to abolish such denials. Denials seem to have been most widespread in France and Spain but are also known in for example England and Bohemia.180 Giving communion to the condemned was also problematic due to the risk that the most holy, the body and blood of Christ, could be desecrated, for example if the method of execution caused the delinquent to vomit. Therefore, there was a consensus that the communion should not be given on the day of execution. A synod in Valencia in 1255 went further than most 178 Köhler und Scheel 1900 p 45 Constitutio Criminalis Carolina 79. 179 Evans 1997 p 66. 180 Haring 1912 passim and esp p 3 sqq, 11 sqq, 24, Browe 1935 p 246 sqq, see also Huizinga 2007 p 34 sq. 71 Among Catholics
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