The ‘privilege’ (right) of a gibbet is believed to have been vested in Halifax around the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, although the earliest reference to it dates from 1280. At that time, there were said to be one hundred other places in Yorkshire that similarly enjoyed this distinctive honour. Continue reading “The Halifax gibbet”
Category: Carnifex
La lignée de Jacob Pasteur
En 1626 naĂźt Ă Bienne, dans le canton de Berne, en Suisse, Jacob Pasteur. ExĂ©cuteur de Haute Justice, il est restĂ© dans l’histoire comme le bourreau de Moudon.
Jacob s’Ă©teint en 1692 Ă l’Ăąge de 66 ans. Il a cinq fils, qui tous se font bourreaux et Ă©pousent, comme le veut la tradition, des filles de bourreaux. Continue reading “La lignĂ©e de Jacob Pasteur”
Bourreaux et guérisseurs dans le pays de Vaud
On sait quelles Ă©troites relations ont longtemps existĂ© entre lâexĂ©cuteur de la justice et la pratique, plus ou moins avouĂ©e, parfois officiellement reconnue, de lâart de guĂ©rir. Voici quâen 1384 le bourreau de Cossonay, Nicolet Quinnaz, teste. Il ne se borne pas Ă faire de nombreux legs pies, entre autres Ă lâabbaye du Lac de Joux et aux deux couvents de Lausanne, prĂȘcheurs et mineurs; ce qui nous intĂ©resse est de le voir revendiquer sa qualitĂ© de bourgeois et dĂ©clarer sa volontĂ© dâĂȘtre inhumĂ© dans lâĂ©glise, avec pĂšre et ancĂȘtres. En gĂ©nĂ©ral, mĂȘme lorsquâil est apprĂ©ciĂ© pour son habiletĂ© de guĂ©risseur, le bourreau Ă©tait rangĂ© parmi les intouchables, les parias, hors cadre. Ce nâĂ©tait apparemment pas le cas au XIVe siĂšcle dans cette partie du pays. Continue reading “Bourreaux et guĂ©risseurs dans le pays de Vaud”
Carnifex, the public executioner at Rome
CARNIFEX, the public executioner at Rome, who put slaves and foreigners to death (Plaut. Bacch. iv.4.37; Capt. v.4.22), but no citizens, who were punished in a manner different from slaves. It was also his business to administer the torture. This office was considered so disgraceful, that he was not allowed to reside within the city (Cic. Pro Rabir. 5), but he lived without the Porta Metia or Esquilina (Plaut. Pseud. i.3.98), near the place destined for the punishment of slaves (Plaut. Cas. ii.6.2; Tac. Ann. xv.60; Hor. Epod. v.99), called Sestertium under the emperors (Plut. Galb. 20).
It is thought by some writers, from a passage in Plautus (Rud. iii.6.19), that the carnifex was anciently keeper of the prison under the triumviri capitales; but there does not appear sufficient authority for this opinion (Lipsius, Excurs. ad Tacit. Ann. ii.32).
Source: William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D., A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875.