the execution and its message officially proclaimed? What is certain, however, is that Geneva continued to give very little notice. When François Rosay was hanged on June 14th 1787, he left the gaol for the gallows one hour after his request for grace was denied.284 Before the execution of Johann Heinrich Waser in Zürich in 1780 the question if he would like to be reprieved was put to him the day before his execution, thus a pattern similar to the one the Genevan pastors recommended was followed.285 This reasonably was not a publicly known question, especially as the practice formally was that the official sentencing in Zürich was held the same day as the execution. Yet the sentence seems to have been something of an open secret known by several, given that Zurich’s pastors made daily visits to prepare the condemned in weeks or even months before?286 This informal knowledge of a coming sentence however hardly avoided the hope the Genevan pastors wanted to suppress. In acase in the canton of Bern in 1817 the sentence was passed on September27thand arrived to the condemned in the evening. The execution then took place on the 30th, thus giving the condemned two full days for the preparation.287 From the perspective of securing a safe journey to heaven through salvation a short and fixed period of time for preparation might have dissuaded those considering committing a capital crime in order to go to heaven. When the pastors of Geneva stated that at least twenty-four hours were given for preparation in the Netherlands it was an underestimate. Anna Katharina Merks, executed in Rotterdam in 1763, had a fortnight for preparation.288 The parallel to the standard fortnight in Sweden at the same time gives us an indication of a possible widespread development of prolongation, maybe especially in Northern Europe. 284 Gogniat 2004 p 70. 285 Hadorn 1891 p 93 sqq. 286 Wirz 1794 p 370 sqq. 287 Histoire 1818 p 154 sq, 160. 93
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