约瑟夫-伊尼亚斯·吉约丹1738—1814

生平

1738年出生于法国西南部城市桑特，他是废除残酷死刑的主要倡导者之一，推动通过了一项要求所有死刑应由一个简单而高效的装置来执行的法律，使得斩首不再显示贵族的特权，尽量减少死刑不必要的折磨和痛苦。

因为在那个时代，被判处死刑的贵族用军刀斩首，平民用斧头砍头，弑君者及杀人犯被分尸，异端分子被烧死，盗贼被处以车轮刑或绞刑，制造假币者被放入大锅内活活煮死。

经他改进的断头台，在用绵羊及死尸进行了几个令人满意的试验后，于1792年4月25日在巴黎市政厅广场处死了一名盗贼。

最初，断头台在西方语言中以其发明人安托万·路易的名字命名为Louisette或Louison，后来改为以吉约丹的姓氏称断头台为吉约蒂纳（Guillotine）。但是他本人坚决反对用其姓氏作为断头台的名称。

1789年入选国民制宪议会。吉约丹医生本人在1814年因肩膀生疽而过世。在雅各宾专政的恐怖时期，有个里昂的同姓氏医生被送上了断头台，所以产生了“发明断头台者被其发明的工具而断头”的误传。

为避免和断头台扯上关系，吉约丹的后人更改了自己的姓氏。

Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (French: [ʒozɛf iɲas ɡijɔtɛ̃]) (28 May 1738 – 26 March 1814) was a French physician, politician, and freemason who proposed on 10 October 1789 the use of a device to carry out executions in France, as a less painful method of execution than existing methods. Although he did not invent the guillotine and opposed the death penalty, his name became an eponym for it. The actual inventor of the prototype was a French physician, Antoine Louis.

Early life and education

Guillotin was born on 28 May 1738 in Saintes, France, the second son of Joseph-Alexandre Guillotin and Catherine Agatha Martin. Legend has it that he was born prematurely because his mother was in distress after hearing the screams of a man being tortured to death on the breaking wheel.

Guillotin's early education was by the Jesuits in Bordeaux and he earned a Master of Arts degree at the College of Aquitaine of the University of Bordeaux in December 1761. The essay that he wrote to earn the degree impressed the Jesuits so much that they invited him to become a professor of literature at the Irish College in Bordeaux. However, he left after a few years and travelled to Paris to study medicine, becoming a pupil of Antoine Petit. He gained a diploma from the faculty at Reims in 1768 and his doctorate at the School of Medicine in Paris in 1770, which also gave him the title of Doctor-Regent. This allowed him to teach medicine in Paris.

Career

In Paris, Guillotin became a well-known physician. By 1775, he was concerned with issues of torture and death. That year, he wrote a memo proposing that criminals be used as subjects in medical experiments. Although he recognised that as cruel, he considered it preferable to being put to death. In 1784, when Franz Mesmer began to publicize his theory of "animal magnetism", which was considered offensive by many, Louis XVI appointed a commission to investigate it and Guillotin was appointed a member, along with Jean Sylvain Bailly, Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, Antoine Lavoisier, and Benjamin Franklin. The commission declared Mesmer to be a fraud, and this put Guillotin in the public eye.

Political career and guillotine

In December 1788, Guillotin drafted a pamphlet entitled Petition of the Citizens Living in Paris, concerning the proper constitution of the Estates-General. The French Parlement attempted to suppress his pamphlet and summoned him to give an account of his opinions, but the crowd during his testimony was very much in support of him, and he was released, which served to increase his popularity. On 2 May 1789, he became one of 10 Paris deputies in the Estates-General of 1789 and was secretary to the body from June 1789 to October 1791. On 20 June 1789, the National Assembly, as the members were now calling themselves, found itself locked out of its chamber. Guillotin suggested they reconvene in a nearby jeu de paume court, where the members swore the Tennis Court Oath, vowing "not to separate and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the Constitution of the kingdom is established".

Personal life

Family

The association with the guillotine so embarrassed Guillotin's family that they petitioned the French government to rename it; when the government refused, they instead changed their own family name. By coincidence, another person named Guillotin was indeed executed by the guillotine – he was J.M.V. Guillotin, a doctor of Lyon. This coincidence may have contributed to erroneous statements that J-I Guillotin was put to death on the machine that bears his name; however, in reality, Guillotin died at home in Paris in 1814 of natural causes, aged 75, specifically from a carbuncle, and is now buried in the Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. He was married to Louise Saugrain, sister of the physician and chemist Antoine Saugrain.

Freemasonry

Joseph Guillotin was initiated into Freemasonry, in 1765 at "La Parfaite Union" lodge in Angoulême. Very active as a mason, he joined several other lodges. As a deputy of the Grand Lodge from 1772 he took part in the birth of the Grand Orient of France and attended all its conventions until 1790. In 1773, he became Worshipful Master of the lodge "La Concorde Fraternelle" in Paris. In 1776, he founded the "La Vérité" lodge and often attended Les Neuf Sœurs.

In modern fiction

Guillotin features in Andrew Miller's Costa prize-winning novel Pure. He is also a primary character in the 1992 novel Dr Guillotine, written by the actor Herbert Lom. He is also the main character in the French drama series La Révolution.