"When criminals are executed, priests always officiate, molesting
the delinquents with their presence.
In Prussia the unfortunate victim was led to the block by a pastor,
in Austria to the gallows by a Catholic priest, in France to the guillotine, in America to the electric chair by a clergyman and in Spain to a chair where he was strangled by an ingenious appliance. In Russia the revolutionary was taken off by a bearded Orthodox priest etc.
Everywhere on these occasions they used to march about with a crucified Christ figure as if to say: 'they're only cutting your head off, they're only hanging you, strangling you, putting fifteen thousand volts into you, but think what that chap there had to go through.'"
(The Good Soldier Svek - page 125)
average joe
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