Halsgerichtsordnung of Bamberg, 1507

In 1507, at the direction of the Prince-Bishop of Bamberg, Johann of Schwarzenberg drew up the Halsgerichtsordnung (Procedure for the judgment of capital crimes) of Bamberg (also known as the Bambergensis). It was based on the humanistic school of Roman law, and it was in turn the basis for the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina. The Carolina was agreed in 1530 at the Diet of Augsburg under Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and ratified two years later at the Diet in Regensburg (which was judicially a Hoftag, an informal meeting), at which point it became law. It predominantly covered civil law alongside criminal law. Under the terms of the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina, actions such as murder, manslaughter, robbery, arson, homosexual relations and witchcraft were henceforth defined as severe crimes. In particularly the Carolina specified that those found guilty of causing harm through witchcraft should be executed with fire, laying the foundation for the mass witch trials between 1580 and 1680. It was also the basis for the use of obtaining confessions by torture

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1500s 1507 Bamberg Behead Beheading Cruel Cruelty Decapitate Decapitation Execute Executed Executing Infamous Inhumane Inhumanity Interrogate Interrogation Method Notorious Persecute Persecuted Persecuting Persecution Punish Punishing Sixteenth Suffering Torturer Torturing

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