Name: The Faithful Executioner
Rating: 3.125 (4 reviews)
ISBN: 9780809049929

Joel F. Harrington

Offering an unrivaled view of Europe on the cusp of modernity, this fascinating biography of an ordinary man struggling for his soul documents the life of a 16th-century executioner, who, deemed an official outcast, sought to prove himself worthy of honor and free his children from the stigma of his profession. 20,000 first printing.

Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century

The Faithful Executioner

Evan

The line between honest and dishonest was neither fixed nor always obvious.

Perhaps, in a cruel and capricious world, there is hope to be found in one man defying his fate, overcoming universal hostility, and simply persevering amid a series of person tragedies. Meister Frantz clearly thought so. And that, we can agree with him, is an act of faith worthy of remembrance.

Meet Frantz Schmidt: executioner, torturer and, most unusually for his times, diarist. Following in his father’s footsteps, Frantz entered the executioner’s trade as an Apprentice. 394 executions and forty-five years later, he retired to focus his attentions on running the large medical practice that he had always viewed as his true vocation. Through examination of Frantz’s exceptional and often overlooked record, Joel F. Harrington delves deep into a world of human cruelty, tragedy and injustice. At the same time, he poses a fascinating question: could a man who routinely practiced such cruelty also be insightful, compassionate – even progressive? The Faithful Executioner is the biography of an ordinary man struggling to overcome an unjust family curse; it is also a remarkable panorama of a Europe poised on the cusp of modernity, a world with startling parallels to our own.

Life and Death in the Sixteenth Century

Due to the titular executioner's journal not being terribly revealing about his life, much of "The Faithful Executioner" is droning on about the few notes he did take and a ton of guesswork. Fortunately for Harrington, I think his guesswork redeems a lot of this.

If you expected to read a book giving readers great depth into the life of an "average" man in the 1500s, expect to be disappointed. Schmidt only took great notes about who he killed and their crime -- it was rare for him to offer many details about the crimes and barely at all does he write about his own life and thoughts. As such, much of this book is Harrington citing a comical number of other sources to help paint the picture of the executioner's life and struggle.

Schmidt is born into an interesting dilemma and his attempt to dig himself out of it is quite noble -- which is why it's a shame that Harrington thinks the thing we're most interested in is the name, crime, and execution method of some poor sinners (historical term for someone executed). These come up constantly, sometimes just listed out to drive a point home that did not require the "evidence".

But again: Harrington's efforts to fill in the picture (because Schmidt's diary alone was never going to make a good read) is admirable. If you read this book, you will envision a life of a man in the 1500s, just probably not in a style you had hoped for. Honestly, had Harrington cut out a majority of the italicized text (this is the text taken directly from Schmidt's journal), the slimmer book would have made for a better read. The fact that I recognized a poor sinner's name being used by the author in multiple sections in an attempt to illustrate differing points shows how thin the material that Harrington wanted to stretch novel-length was.

I somewhat recommend "The Faithful Executioner". I think a lot of this book is dry as hell, but there's definitely moments of great work and input from Harrington here and there. I learned a bit about the execution trade and the city of Nuremberg in post-medieval Europe. It wasn't a total waste of time, but I think it was weaker non-fiction.

Due to the titular executioner's journal not being terribly revealing about his life, much of "The Faithful Executioner" is droning on about the few notes he did take and a ton of guesswork. Fortunately for Harrington, I think his guesswork redeems a lot of this.

  

If you expected to read a book giving readers great depth into the life of an "average" man in the 1500s, expect to be disappointed. Schmidt only took great notes about who he killed and their crime -- it was rare for him to offer many details about the crimes and barely at all does he write about his own life and thoughts. As such, much of this book is Harrington citing a comical number of other sources to help paint the picture of the executioner's life and struggle.

Schmidt is born into an interesting dilemma and his attempt to dig himself out of it is quite noble -- which is why it's a shame that Harrington thinks the thing we're most interested in is the name, crime, and execution method of some poor sinners (historical term for someone executed). These come up constantly, sometimes just listed out to drive a point home that did not require the "evidence".

  

But again: Harrington's efforts to fill in the picture (because Schmidt's diary alone was never going to make a good read) is admirable. If you read this book, you will envision a life of a man in the 1500s, just probably not in a style you had hoped for. Honestly, had Harrington cut out a majority of the italicized text (this is the text taken directly from Schmidt's journal), the slimmer book would have made for a better read. The fact that I recognized a poor sinner's name being used by the author in multiple sections in an attempt to illustrate differing points shows how thin the material that Harrington wanted to stretch novel-length was.

  

I somewhat recommend "The Faithful Executioner". I think a lot of this book is dry as hell, but there's definitely moments of great work and input from Harrington here and there. I learned a bit about the execution trade and the city of Nuremberg in post-medieval Europe. It wasn't a total waste of time, but I think it was weaker non-fiction.

The Faithful Executioner Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century

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