the execution and its message parish priests to specialised prison chaplains.258 Indeed, preparations could start so early that there were times when they were called off because the condemned was granted a reprieve, hindering an execution.259 In several parts of Germany, the three-day rule of the CCCwas observed for a few centuries. In Württemberg in the eighteenth century, the condemned was normally notified of the sentence of death a few days before the execution.260 An execution in Halle in 1736 came after ten weeks of preparation, starting during the trial.261 In Hamburg up to the late eighteenth century the normal seems to have been three days, with sentencing on Friday and execution on Sunday.262 Eventually, however, longer preparation times seem to have become standard in Germany too, and with so many states the picture was naturally even more diverse. The time for different delinquents could also vary. For example, in the county of Oldenburg in 1757 a directive was enacted ordering the priest to start the preparation as soon as a capital sentence had been passed in an inferior court. Every effort was to be made to both give the condemned a sufficient knowledge of the faith and if possible to achieve a full change of heart.263 While Leberecht Siegmund Jaspis, a priest in Dresden, in 1822 referred to eight days as the normal time of preparation, in a review of his book the reviewer, possibly the editor, Johann Friedrich Röhr, stated that he used four weeks. Four weeks was also given as the usual time in 1825 by Johann Heinrich Knauth.264 Usual was not always, of course. Three priests prepared Friedrich Christian Lorenz during more than three months prior to his execution in Hanover April 19th 1825.265 258 Bergman 1996 p 124 sqq, 134 sqq. 259 An example is two brothers whose capital sentences for arson and thus their preparation was ended by royal mercy, relation to the consistory in Härnösand byKJEdwall 26 January 1865 FXIIIa:1 Härnösands domkapitels arkivHLA. 260 Fritz 2004 p 807. 261 Stuart 2023 p 66 sq. 262 Stuart 2023 p 194. 263 Was ist 1793 p 8 sq. 264 Jaspis 1822 p 8, Knauth 1825a p 27, Röhr 1823 p 274. 265 Knauth 1825b p 55 sq. 87
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