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

“We know much too little of Frantz's personal experiences …. But it can be stated with certainty that it was a singularly purposeful life. Perhaps, in a cruel and capricious world, there is hope to be found in one man defying his fate…and simply persevering amid a series of personal tragedies.Meister Frantz clearly thought so. And that, we can agree with him, is an act of faith worthy of remembrance.” 238

“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)