Barely huddled in a flock, people began to establish certain rules for life within the community. Not everyone liked it. Violators, when caught, were tried and punished. For a long time, people knew only one type of punishment - death. Chopping off the head for a stolen bunch of radishes was considered quite fair.
Each man was a warrior, knew how to wield a sword or, in extreme cases, a club, and could always personally execute a thief who encroached on the most sacred thing - on property. If it was a question of murder, then the sentence was carried out with pleasure by the relatives of the murdered person.
As society developed, the legal procedure also improved, the punishment had to correspond to the severity of the crime, for a broken arm one should also carefully break the arm, and this is much more difficult than killing.
A person's imagination woke up, he knew the torment of creativity, such types of punishment as flagellation, branding, cutting off of limbs and all kinds of torture appeared, for the implementation of which specialists were already needed. And they appeared.
The executioners were in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. This is, if not the oldest profession, then one of the most ancient. And in the Middle Ages not a single European city could do without an executioner. Execute a criminal, interrogate a suspect of high treason with passion, conduct a demonstration execution in the central square - there is no way without an executioner!
Officially, the executioner was an employee of the city magistrate. A contract was signed with him, he took an oath, received a salary, the magistrate provided the worker with a "working tool". The executioner was given uniforms and office housing. The executioners never wore any hoodie with slits for the eyes. They were paid piece by piece, for each execution or torture.
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The bill from 25.03.1594 of the executioner Martin Gukleven to the Riga magistrate: executed Gertrude Gufner with a sword - 6 marks; hung thief Martin - 5 marks; burned a criminal for the false weight of firewood - 1 mark 4 shillings, nailed 2 posters to the pillory - 2 marks.
As you can see, the most expensive thing was cutting off the head (this required the highest qualifications), hanging was cheaper, and the cost of burning was sheer nonsense, like nailing 1 poster on a notice board.
As in any craft, there were masters and virtuosos among the executioners. The skilful executioner owned several dozen types of torture, was a good psychologist (he quickly determined what the victim was afraid of most), made a qualified scenario of torture and knew how to carry it out so that the interrogated did not lose consciousness and did not die before the end of the investigation, which was considered a marriage in work.
Both old and young people gathered for executions in the medieval city. In the morning heralds walked around the city and called out to the people. The poor crowded in the square, the nobility bought places in houses with windows on the block. A separate box was built for the noble ones. The executioner, like a real artist, did his best to please the audience with heart-rending cries of the condemned man and make the spectacle unforgettable, so that he would be remembered for a long time.
Such a highly qualified specialist was a rarity, so the executioners were paid well, their salaries were not delayed. There was also a kind of "bonus": the clothes of the executed belonged to the master of the ax. Receiving on the scaffold a high-born gentleman sentenced to death, the executioner assessed whether his trousers were strong and whether his shoes were too worn out.
However, the "ax workers" also had additional sources of income. The executioner was not only engaged in executions and torture. Initially, he supervised city prostitutes from the magistrate. The infamous position of brothel caretaker was very lucrative. City officials soon realized what a fool they were making the city's sex industry into the wrong hands, and by the early 16th century, the practice was largely discontinued.
Until the 18th century, the executioner was responsible for cleaning the city's public latrines, that is, he served as a goldsmith. In many cities, the executioner also served as a flayer: he was engaged in trapping stray dogs. And the executioner also removed carrion from the streets, drove out lepers.
However, as the cities grew, the executioners became more and more of the main work, and gradually they began to be freed from functions unusual for them, so as not to be distracted.
In private, many executioners practiced healing. By the nature of their work, they knew anatomy very well. If city doctors for their research were forced to steal corpses from cemeteries, then the executioners did not experience problems with "visual aids".
There were no better traumatologists and chiropractors in Europe than a master of torture. Catherine II mentioned in her memoirs that her spine was treated by a famous specialist - an executioner from Danzig. The executioners did not disdain illegal earnings. Warlocks and alchemists for their studies required either a hand cut off from a criminal, or a rope on which they hung him. Well, where can I get all this if not from the executioner?
And the executioners also took bribes, which were given by the relatives of those sentenced to a painful execution: "For God's sake, give him a quick death." The executioner took the money, strangled the poor fellow, and the corpse was already burned at the stake. Even those sentenced to death paid for the executioner to try and chop off his head with one blow, and not bale it 3-4 times.
The executioner could kill a person sentenced to scourging: to carry out the execution in such a way that the poor man died on the third or fourth day after the execution (so the score was settled). And, on the contrary, he could only rip the skin on the back of the condemned man with a whip. A sea of blood, the spectators are happy, and only the executioner and the executioner tied to the pillar knew that the pillar took the main force of the whip blow.
In Germany and France, the executioners were very wealthy people. But, despite this, the work of an executioner was considered an unremarkable occupation, they were not liked, they were feared and bypassed. The social status of the executioners was at the level of prostitutes and actors. Their houses were usually located outside the city. No one has ever settled near them. The executioners had the privilege of taking food on the market for free, because many refused to accept money from them. In the church, they had to stand at the very door, behind everyone, and be the last to approach the sacrament.
They were not accepted in decent houses, so the executioners communicated with the same pariahs - gravediggers, flayers and executioners from neighboring cities. In the same circle they were looking for a companion or life partner. Therefore, whole dynasties of executioners practiced in Europe.
The work was dangerous: the executioners were attacked, the executioners were killed. This could have been done both by the accomplices of the executed, and by the crowd dissatisfied with the execution. To the Duke of Monmouth, the inexperienced executioner John Ketch chopped off the head with the 5th blow. The crowd roared with indignation, the executioner was taken away from the place of execution under guard and sent to prison to save him from the massacre.
There were few highly skilled executioners. Every city that had its own "specialist" treasured him, and almost always a clause was included in the employment agreement that the executioner should prepare a successor for himself. Most often, the executioners were inherited. The executioner's son actually had no choice but to become an executioner, and his daughter had no choice but to become the executioner's wife. The eldest son accepted the position of his father, and the youngest left for another city.
It was not difficult to find a place for an executioner; in many cities this vacancy was empty for many years. In the 15th century, many Polish cities did not have their own craftsmen and had to hire a specialist from Poznan.
Often the executioners were those sentenced to death, buying themselves life at such a price. The candidate became an apprentice and, under the guidance of a master, mastered the craft, gradually getting used to the screams of the tortured and blood.
In the 18th century, European enlighteners regarded the customary medieval executions as savagery. However, the death blow to the executioner profession was inflicted not by humanists, but by the leaders of the Great French Revolution, putting executions on stream and introducing the guillotine into the process.
If possession of a sword or ax required skill, then any butcher could handle the guillotine. The executioner is no longer a unique specialist. Gradually, public executions became a thing of the past. The last public execution in Europe took place in France in 1939. Serial killer Eugene Weidmann was executed on the guillotine to the sound of jazz rushing from open windows. The lever of the machine was turned by the hereditary executioner Jules Henri Defourneau.
Today, more than 60 countries practice death sentences, there are also professional executioners who work in the old fashioned way with a sword and an ax. So, Mohammed Saad al-Beshi, the executioner of Saudi Arabia (work experience since 1998), works with a sword, cutting off an arm, leg or head with one blow. When asked how he sleeps, he answers: "Strongly."
Klim Podkova