tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post236754354979946748..comments2024-03-28T21:41:32.110-04:00Comments on Grim's Hall: Good Heavens, NoGrimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-63620225820806349412015-11-24T18:36:09.926-05:002015-11-24T18:36:09.926-05:00I've never heard the gunpowder thing before. ...I've never heard the gunpowder thing before. <br /><br />It's an irony of sorts that most of the really horrifying punishments we associate with the term "medieval" are really from the Renaissance, Reformation or Enlightenment. Even in the Middle Ages, the rulers characteristically famous for horrible punishments -- Edward I of England, for example -- were well-educated modernizers who got the ideas from studying the history of Rome. The Romans were real innovators, and so the recovery of new works of classical civilization that inspired the early scientific revolutions also inspired really thoughtful tortures and edifying, exemplary ways of putting your opponents to death. Grimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-54825887889167376222015-11-24T16:51:39.898-05:002015-11-24T16:51:39.898-05:00I don't know about the Middle Ages, but during...I don't know about the Middle Ages, but during the frantic religious persecutions of the Reformation, if you were unlucky you were burned to death. If they wanted to cut you some slack, you might be strangled before the flames hit; sometimes friends were allowed to supply you with bags of gunpowder to wear so that the flames would set off an explosion that would dispatch you quickly. If you were really lucky you would be beheaded--especially if you had a competent headsman.Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-57790464771311894432015-11-24T08:57:41.113-05:002015-11-24T08:57:41.113-05:00It was also his belief that a standard death penal...<b>It was also his belief that a standard death penalty by decapitation would prevent the cruel and unjust system of the day.</b><br /><br />I think given the number of executions in the Reign of Terror, what he did made it easier to do so because:<br /><br />It distributed responsibility from the executioner and the judge, to some machine built by unseen hands. Easier to justify, easier to maintain, and one doesn't need to muscle carve one's way through bone and neck by hiring thousands of executioners.<br /><br />It made execution less painful on the public awareness, which dramatically increases people's tolerance to it, much like pro war propaganda vs anti war propaganda.<br /><br />Giving him the benefit of the doubt, he had some unintended consequences, rather than intended consequences.Ymar Sakarnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-320661383320197042015-11-24T08:54:05.322-05:002015-11-24T08:54:05.322-05:00The Reign of Terror. Technically, they should appl...The Reign of Terror. Technically, they should apply that to their own traitors first, not the foreigners.<br /><br />The Blood Eagle would be closer to the era in question, although on the pagan/tribal side of things.Ymar Sakarnoreply@blogger.com