List of people executed in the Papal States


This is a list of people executed in the Papal States under the government of the Popes or during the 1810–1819 decade of French rule. Although capital punishment in Vatican City was legal from 1929 to 1969, no executions took place in that time. 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 extrajudicially.
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 governments, papal or French. 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 ; after 1816, the guillotine became the norm. However, after 1816, two other methods—the mazzatello and drawing and quartering —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.

List of people executed by the Holy See

12th century

Note: Girolamo Savonarola, Domenico da Pescia and Fra Silvestro executed in Florence were condemned by a Florentine court. Similarly, Pietro Bernardino, a follower of Savonarola, was condemned and executed at Mirandola.

16th century

in the place of his execution in the Campo de' Fiori

1800–1810

The following executions were carried out by beheading under French rule.
Under Restored Pontifical Governance: