The ''Mazzatello'' (abbreviated ''mazza''), more properly ''mazzolatura'' (''to hit with a mace''), was a method of

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

occasionallly used by the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...

for the most loathsome crimes, involving the infliction of head trauma.Megivern, James J. 1997. ''The Death Penalty''. Paulist Press. . p. 155.Abbott, Geoffrey. 2007. ''What a Way to Go''. Macmillan. . p. 239. The method was named after the implement used in the execution: a large, long-handled

mallet A mallet is a tool used for imparting force on another object, often made of rubber or sometimes wood, that is smaller than a maul or beetle, and usually has a relatively large head. The term is descriptive of the overall size and proport ...

pollaxe The poleaxe (also pollaxe, pole-axe, pole axe, poleax, polax) is a European polearm that was widely used by medieval infantry. Etymology Most etymological authorities consider the ''poll''- prefix historically unrelated to "pole", instead mea ...

. The last reported use of this form of punishment was in September 1806: the much more common capital punishments inflicted by the Papal States were hanging or beheading. According to author Geoffrey Abbott, ''mazzatello'' constituted "one of the most brutal methods of execution ever devised, requiring minimal skill on the part of the executioner and superhuman acquiescence by the victim". Megivern cites ''mazzatello'' as one example of an execution method devised by the Papal States that "competed with and in some instances surpassed those of other regimes for cruelty". The condemned would be led to a

scaffold Scaffolding, also called scaffold or staging, is a temporary structure used to support a work crew and materials to aid in the construction, maintenance and repair of buildings, bridges and all other man-made structures. Scaffolds are widely use ...

in a public square of Rome, accompanied by a priest (the

confessor Confessor is a title used within Christianity in several ways. Confessor of the Faith Its oldest use is to indicate a saint who has suffered persecution and torture for the faith but not to the point of death.); the platform also contained a coffin and the masked executioner, dressed in black. A prayer would first be said for the condemned's soul. Then, the mallet would be raised, swung through the air to gain

momentum In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. If is an object's mass an ...

, and then brought down on the head of the prisoner, similar to a contemporary method of slaughtering cattle in stockyards. The condemned was usually knocked unconscious rather than being killed instantly, so the throat of the prisoner would then be slit with a knife.Quigley, Christine. 1996. ''The Corpse''. McFarland. . p. 143. Along with

drawing and quartering To be hanged, drawn and quartered became a statutory penalty for men convicted of high treason in the Kingdom of England from 1352 under King Edward III (1327–1377), although similar rituals are recorded during the reign of King Henry III ( ...

(sometimes, but not always, after a hanging), ''mazzatello'' was reserved for crimes that were considered "especially loathsome".Allen, John L., Jr. 2001, September 14.
He executed justice - papal execution Giovanni Battista Bugatti's life and work
. ''National Catholic Reporter''. A variation of this method appears in chapter 35 of

Alexandre Dumas Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer ...

' novel ''

The Count of Monte Cristo ''The Count of Monte Cristo'' (french: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo) is an adventure novel written by French author Alexandre Dumas (''père'') completed in 1844. It is one of the author's more popular works, along with ''The Three Musketeers''. Li ...

'' as ''la mazzolata'' and '' mazzolato'', when a prisoner sentenced to execution is bludgeoned on the side of his head with a mace.

Notes

{{Capital punishment Execution methods Papal States

See also

Notes