Why did executioners live on the edge of town? Executioners were forced to live on the edge of town for the rather odd reason that, even though they were killing legally for the state, they were considered to be unclean.
The practice of executing people has probably existed for as long as people have lived together in groups. The idea of punishment for crimes is one of the things that make us human. There are some animals that punish members of their own species, but that appears to be an evolved response which stops certain behaviors and benefits the group. I suppose you could say that human punishment is also a behavior that benefits the whole group, but we are the only species that decide what punishment fits a crime, and we are the only species that think some crimes deserve the ultimate punishment. We are the only species that kill after a crime has happened and not in defense or for food.
Because the majority of us don’t want to kill people, if a state is going to have executions, it also needs to have executioners. Early civilizations, such as Ancient Egypt and Ancient Mesopotamia, had elaborate legal systems that carried a sentence of death for many offenses. They may have had professional executioners, but that is difficult to find evidence for. It is possibly more likely that they used soldiers or prison guards to carry out the deeds.
The Ancient Greeks are the first civilization where evidence of professional executioners can be found. Athens employed public executioners who were often enslaved people owned by the state. They operated under a group of eleven officials who were responsible for prisons and executions. One of their duties was preparing and administering the hemlock used to kill people. Socrates, the famous philosopher, was executed by hemlock poisoning in 399 BC, and maybe it was one of these slaves who administered it to him.
Rome also had public executioners, who were known as carnifices. They were in charge of condemning people, in particular slaves and non-citizens, administering torture, and executing them. This is one of the first civilizations where we can see that the role of executioner was considered to be deeply dishonorable. They were prohibited from living inside the city of Rome and had to live beyond the city boundaries in a specific place associated with executions and punishment.
Things changed in the Middle Ages because the law, courts, and systems became much more sophisticated. In the early days, executions were carried out by a lord’s servant, a soldier, an official, or someone else commanded by the system, but as the courts and governments became more organized, the paid occupation of executioner evolved. This became particularly common after the 13th century. By the later Middle Ages, many European towns had a professional executioner.
However, despite being employed by the state to carry out legal executions, these people were considered unclean and dishonest. This came from the belief that handling corpses, blood, or other impure things could contaminate the person handling them. Because of this, many executioners were excluded from trade guilds, citizenship, public office, and other social activities. They were also often forced to live outside of the town walls. Often, they were housed in neighborhoods with other people who were thought of as unclean, such as slaughterhouses, brothels, and hospitals for people with infectious diseases.
Very few people wanted the job for obvious reasons, so they were sometimes forced into it. There is a famous story of a German woodsman called Heinrich Schmidt who was ordered by his local lord to execute three men or face hanging himself. He did it and was ostracized. The stigma affected his family, and his son Franz ended up becoming not just an executioner himself, but one of Germany’s most famous executioners.
Executioners received a salary and sometimes free housing, but it wasn’t a lot of money. Many executioners managed to make ends meet, and sometimes become quite wealthy, by embracing their unclean status and doing the jobs that other people wouldn’t do. They might dispose of dead animals, clean waste, and administer corporal punishment. Some executioners controlled the brothels they lived near and gaming houses, which were also outside the city. Several executioners also worked as healers as well. They needed to know about anatomy to torture and execute people, which they could use to heal as well. And this is what I learned today.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executioner
https://historymedieval.com/the-executioner-life-on-the-edge-of-medieval-law
https://www.battlemerchant.com/en/blog/executioners-in-the-middle-ages-between-myth-and-reality