The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth CenturyThe extraordinary story of a renaissance-era executioner and his world, based on a rare and overlooked journal. In a dusty German bookshop, the noted historian Joel F. Harrington stumbled upon a remarkable document: the journal of a sixteenth-century executioner. The journal gave an account of the 394 people Meister Frantz Schmidt executed, and the hundreds more he tortured, flogged, or disfigured for more than forty-five years in the city of Nuremberg. But the portrait of Schmidt that gradually emerged was not that of a monster. Could a man who practiced such cruelty also be insightful, compassionate—even progressive? In The Faithful Executioner, Harrington teases out the hidden meanings and drama of Schmidt's journal. Deemed an official outcast, Meister Frantz sought to prove himself worthy of honor and free his children from the stigma of his profession. Harrington uncovers details of Schmidt's life and work: the shocking, but often familiar, crimes of the day; the medical practice that he felt was his true calling; and his lifelong struggle to reconcile his craft with his religious faith. In this groundbreaking and intimate portrait, Harrington shows us that our thinking about justice and punishment, and our sense of our own humanity, are not so remote from the world of The Faithful Executioner. |
Other editions - View all
The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent ... Joel F. Harrington No preview available - 2013 |
The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honour and Shame in the Turbulent ... Joel Francis Harrington No preview available - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
Bamberg banishment beheading burning capital punishment career chaplain committed lewdness condemned convicted corporal punishments council councilors crime criminal death dishonorable Dülmen Early Modern Germany especially executioner executioner's father flogging Franconia Frantz Schmidt FSJ Feb FSJ Jan FSJ Jul FSJ Mar FSJ Oct gallows Georg German hanging hangman healing Heinrich Schmidt honor human imperial individuals interrogation Iron Maiden Johann journeyman jurists justice Keller Knapp Kriminalrecht Kunrad later magical magistrates Margaretha margrave Maria master Meister Frantz mercenaries mercy Michel de Montaigne murder Nowosadtko Nuremberg Nürnberg offenses official patrician Pegnitz River poor sinner popular prison professional public executions Raven Stone remained reputation ritual robbers Rotwelsch Scharfrichter Schlegel sentence sixteenth century social StaatsAN stabbed stole strappado sword theft thief thieves torture town victims violence wheel wife Wilbertz witch witch craze women young executioner youth