Gauntlet (punishment) - Post-Roman Usage

Post-Roman Usage

A very similar military punishment found in later armies was known as "running the gauntlet". The condemned soldier was stripped to the waist and had to pass between a double row (hence also known as die Gasse, "the alley") of cudgeling or switching comrades. A subaltern walked in front of him with a blade to prevent him from running. The condemned might sometimes also be dragged through by a rope around the hands or prodded along by a pursuer.

Various rules might apply, such as banning edged weapons, requiring the group to keep one foot in place, or allowing the soldier to attempt to protect his head with his hands. The punishment was not necessarily continued until death. If so, he might be finished off when unable to walk. Running the gantlet was considered far less of a dishonor than a beating (with exposure to ridicule) on the pillory, pranger, or stocks, since one could "take it like a man" upright and among soldiers.

In some traditions, if the condemned was able to finish the run and exit the gantlet at the far end, his faults would be deemed paid, and he would rejoin his comrades with a clean slate. Elsewhere, he was sent back through the gantlet until death.

• A Prussian cavalry variation was to beat the condemned with stirrup straps instead of rods.
• It was also common practice in the French army, especially for thieves.
• Also used in training, notably on military cadets, as in a scene in the movie Oberst Redl.
• There was also a naval version of the gantlet, notably used in the Royal Navy as a punishment for minor theft. The condemned was prevented from rushing by the master-at-arms with a cutlass and pushed forward by a corporal, while being beaten with rope yarns that were plaited into so-called "knittles", which looked like smaller, improvised versions of the cat o' nine tails. The condemned could also receive a dozen lashes from the cat o' nine tails beforehand, so that blows received while running the gantlet would aggravate the lacerations on his back.
• The Yiddish tale "Drei Matones" ("Three Gifts") by Isaac Leib Peretz, recounts the self-sacrificing acts of three Jewish martyrs; one of them, when forced to run the gantlet, finds that his yarmulka has been thrown off his head and thereupon turns back to retrieve it, being whipped on every extra step he takes.
• Mild forms, not intended to cause permanent damage, have also been used on or by children.

The practice persisted in parts of Germany (mainly Prussia) and Austria as the Spießrutenlaufen, or "pike-run", and also in Russia, until the 19th century.

A notable description of the process appears in Tolstoy's short story "After The Ball."

In Ernest Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls the aristocrats of the town are subjected to a form of the gauntlet wherein they are led to and run off a cliff by villagers.

In Sweden, running the gauntlet was also a civilian punishment for certain crimes until the 18th century.