THE WAGES OF DEATH
In 1757 the Prince-Archbishop of Cologne became exasperated by the price of execution and torture. His High Executioner was already paid a handsome annual retainer (80 Reichsthaler, 20 Albus, 12 malder of grain, and 4 cords of wood) but costs and expenses were still inflated. Consequently, on January 16, 1757, a tariff of torture was published in Bonn delineating 55 payments for execution, torture and the associated equipment and expenses. Some of these payments included:
Description of punishment Price: Reichsthaler/Albus
Tearing apart and quartering by four horses 5/26
Quartering 4/0
Beheading and burning, everything included 5/26
Strangling and burning 4/0
Burning alive 4/0
For rope and for preflaring and igniting the stake 2/0
Breaking alive on the wheel 4/0
Beheading only 2/52
The necessary rope for this purpose, and for cloth to cover the face 1/0
Making a hole and disposing of the corpse 1/26
Cutting off a hand or several fingers and for beheading, all together 3/26
Beheading and sticking the head on a pole 3/26
Hanging 2/52
Cutting out the tongue ... and burning the mouth with a red-hot iron 5/0
Exiling a person from the city or country 0/52
Thrashing 0/52
Putting in the pillory 0/52
Putting the ladder to the gallows 2/0
— (regardless whether one or several are hanged on the same day)
Terrorising by showing the instruments of torture 1/0
The first degree of torture 1/26
Arranging and crushing the thumb for this degree 0/26
The second degree of torture 2/26
Daily food 1/26
Each help 0/39
Sounds like a party animal to me!
But Jed, if you are down there at Lympstone reading this then remember that 4 x 4 that i wanted!!!!!!
