The Opelousas courier., 1889-05-18
A CRUEL PUNISHMENT.
The Introduction and Abolition of tl
Penalty Of the Wheel.

The Introduction and Abolition of the
Penalty Of the Wheel.
The wheel symbolized not the sun
only, but also the lightning. It was
used as a means of kindling a fire by
turning it rapidly about on an axle.
In the island of Null. till the introduce
ton of lucifer matches, this method of
kindling a fire was customary. Con-
sidering the sacredness of the symbol
of the wheel, it is rendered most prob
able that victims to the sun were Of
fered by entwining their limbs about
the nine spokes and then erecting the
wheel on a long pole, SO as to expose
the victims face to the sky. We find
this method of execution OF criminals
in Europe, and it is probably, like
hanging, a survival of a sacri-
fee to the sun. The Romans knew
of fastening a criminal round the
tire of a wheel and then rolling
it. This vas the inligare in GURUS OF
Livy, but among the German nations
the other was the form of execution.
Gallonius, in his book on martyrdoms
of the saints, gives several plates rep
presenting the tortures OF the wheel,
aid in his text quotes his authorities.
In the first a man bound to a wheel is
rolled down a hill; in the next we have
the man bound to the wheel, with
| limbs twisted in and out from the
| spokes, set up in the sun; in the third a
~,,,4vr hound about a whaal jc
turned over flames, and another over
| spikes. That the Greeks and Romans
| did sometimes employ the mode of
twining the limbs among the spokes
and exposing to a lingering death In the
| sun is almost certain. In n of the
doubtful epistles of Phalaris it is par
| ticularized, but it was not common,
land those acts of the martyrs which
| mention it are also not genuine.
1t is, however, spoken Of by
| Gregory of Tours in the sixth century.
In 1910 the Parliament OF Toulouse
ordered the execution of a robber cap
tain by the wheel, and Francis L, in
1885. decreed death on the wheel to all
highwaymen. In 1926, Frederic, Count
of Isenburg, the murderer of Engel-
bert, Bishop of Cologne, was thus exc
cuted, but his limbs were broken be-
fore he was affixed to the wheel. This
was a modification, a concession to
humanity. that came in1With Chris
tianity. Originally the victims were
allowed to linger for many dayson
their wheels, bound in the most tor
turing %eontortions, and deprived OF
food and water. But ever when their
limbs were broken they lived for
manv hours. A still further conces-
sion to humanity came in the seven
teenth century, when the crimi-
nails were beaten on the chest and neclf
with an iron bar. But this concession
was moi general, and in the sentence of
the Judges, oEder was given whether
the execution was to take place from
below or from above II from be-
low, that signified that the extremities
were to be struck with the bar, and
only the final blow to be dealt on the
breast. Curtius. a French writer OF
the sixteenth century, describes the
penalty of the wheel. ut is a mode
of death more like that Of the cross
than of the gallows. In the first place
bka limbs r bound TO four cross.
beams, then are broken with an iron
bar; after that the shattered body il
taken of the cross and fastened to 8
wheel, which is set upright. 80 that
still living and feeling. still writhing,
the victim may die slowly in the full
glare OF the sun. lying on his back, fact
upward The last case of the use o
the,wheel In Germany was about lS4O
-Gentleman's Magazine.
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