ABSTRACT

Public punishment was a predictable part of the urban routine. For the urban routine was not only maintained by custom, but also sustained by an extensive system of documentation. But the records which sustained the urban routine consisted overwhelmingly of handwritten documents. Certainly the dominant role in maintaining the urban routine was played by secular governments. In almost every city, secular institutions, the various levels of government along with the guilds, played the dominant role in regulating urban life and organizing the urban routine. Throughout the early modern era, in Catholic and Protestant towns alike, one role of the church was to function as an arm of urban administration. The city government tried to keep a grip on things with a ceaseless stream of ordinances and directives covering every aspect of urban activity. The right formally to terminate a human life was one of the most exalted attributes of government in early modern Europe.