Santo Mukiza’s Reviews > The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century > Status Update

“A young woman who became pregnant in this manner taced a grim set of options: acknowledge the …. seek an abortion, which was illegal and often deadly; or hide the pregnancy and then abandon the baby. Some women who chose this third option-most of them young, poor, and without family support— labored alone and in desperation committed intanticide, a crime that if discovered meant certain execution.”157

“For most people of the era, one's reputation was inextricably bound up in one's identity, and much of that identity was inherited, including place of origin and social status.For Frantz Schmidt, the importance of such identity was undeniable, but character and deeds-two factors within his own control-determined reputation,not birth.”

“A technically proficient and reliable executioner was himself the very embodiment of the sword of justice in action-swift, unwavering, deadly, but never appearing susceptible to arbitrary or gratuitous cruelty.”(67)

“The ritualized violence that the executioner administered on the community's behalf at once|(1) avenged victims; (2) ended the threat represented by dangerous criminals; (3) set a terrifying example; and (4) forestalled further violence at the hands of angry relatives or lynch mobs.“ 14