This is a list of people executed by the Holy See. It includes individuals executed by the Papal States and/or on the orders of the Pope. Although capital punishment in Vatican City was legal from 1929 to 1969, no executions took place. This list does not include people executed by other authorities of the Roman Catholic Church or those executed by Inquisitions other than the Roman Inquisition, or those killed in wars involving the Papal States, or those killed extra-judicially.
Most executions were related to the punishment of civil crimes committed within the Papal States, with the condemned convicted within the civil courts of the Papal States; for example, in 1585, Pope Sixtus V initiated a "zero tolerance" crackdown on crime, which according to legend resulted in more severed heads collected on the Castel Sant'Angelo bridge than melons in the Roman markets. The best records are from the tenure of Giovanni Battista Bugatti, the executioner of the Papal States between March 22, 1796 and August 17, 1861, who recorded the name of the condemned, the crime, and the location of the execution for each of the 516 "justices" he performed for the popes. Bugatti's list ends: "So ends the long list of Bugatti. May that of his successor be shorter".
Before 1816, the most common methods of execution were the axe and noose (with burning at the stake used in high profile instances); after 1816, the guillotine (installed by the French during their control of Rome) became the norm. However, after 1816, two other methods—the mazzatello (crushing of the head with a large mallet, followed by a cutting of the throat) and drawing and quartering (sometimes, but not always, after a hanging)—continued to be used for crimes that were considered "especially loathsome".
The execution sites of choice were the Ponte Sant'Angelo, the bridge in front of the Castel Sant'Angelo, the Piazza del Popolo, and Via dei Cerchi near the Piazza della Bocca della Verita. Papal law prescribed a payment of only three cents of the Roman lira per execution for the executioner to "mark the vileness of his work" but did not prohibit the free lodging, tax concessions, and large pension awarded to Bugatti.
- The date in parentheses is the date of the execution.
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—C.S. (Clive Staples)