Role Of Executioners In Middle Ages

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Mika Kobayashi English 4 Ms. Hitchens 28 April 2011 The Executioners In Middle Ages, executions were often held by the judges from the criminal trials, or the prosecutors to behead those who were found guilty or given a death penalty. Later, throughout the ages, societies started to call these men the “executioners” or the “Henkens”. These executioners’ main jobs were to use swords or axes to behead the criminals. In Middle Ages, judges gave these punishments even to thieves, depend on the degree of what they stole from who. These jobs might sound easy since there were not many people getting executed, but in fact, it was not an easy job considering their nearly low incomes, families, and society positions. “They were seen sociological…show more content…
They might have had to execute someone they knew just because the stole some things from one wealthy family to feed his family. Today’s executioners are given some kind of consideration when carrying out an execution, the administrator won’t ask them to execute someone they know, because most of the people think that it is against the ethics. It requires abundant practices and skills so that they could take the criminals’ breathe at once. Though it is a tough job, you don’t get any earnings for executing someone, which makes them have a side jobs and businesses to support their family. Probably their sons who became executioners might have lost their job due to the influences of the church on morality of the human being. “Later laws reflect the growing influence of the church, as for instance with the introduction of fines for offenses against ecclesiastical officials, and a preference for mutilation over the deaths penalty in order to give the offender time to repent.” (Life in Anglo-Saxon England) The influence of church and increase in morality of people decreased the number of executions over the
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