The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of AnimalsEvans, E. P. (Edward Payson)
History
The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals
Evans, E. P. (Edward Payson)
Animals -- Law and legislation -- History; Animals, Prosecution and punishment of -- History; Trials -- Europe
The trial began a couple of days later and was conducted with less “of the
law’s delay” than usual, inasmuch as it ended on the twenty-ninth day of
the same month. The defender of the insects was a certain Jean Perrodet of
Freiburg, who according to all accounts was a very inefficient advocate
and does not appear to have contested the case with the ability and energy
which the interests of his clients required. The sentence of the court
with the appended anathema of the bishop was as follows: “Ye accursed
uncleanness of the inger, which shall not be called animals nor mentioned
as such, ye have been heretofore by virtue of the appeal and admonition of
our Lord of Lausanne enjoined to withdraw from all fields, grounds and
estates of the bishopric of Lausanne, or within the next six days to
appear at Lausanne, through your proctor, to set forth and to hear the
cause of your procedure, and to act with just judgment either for or
against you, pursuant to the said citation. Thereupon our gracious Lords
of Berne solicited by their mandate such a day in court at Lausanne, and
there before the tribunal renewed their plaint in their name and in that
of all the provinces of the said bishopric, and your reply thereto through
your proctor has been fully heard, and the legal terms have been justly
observed by both parties, and a lawful decision pronounced word for word
in this wise:
“We, Benedict of Montferrand, Bishop of Lausanne, etc., having heard the
entreaty of the high and mighty lords of Berne against the inger and the
ineffectual and rejectable answer of the latter, and having thereupon
fortified ourselves with the Holy Cross, and having before our eyes the
fear of God, from whom alone all just judgments proceed, and being advised
in this cause by a council of men learned in the law, do therefore
acknowledge and avow in this our writing that the appeal against the
detestable vermin and inger, which are harmful to herbs, vines, meadows,
grain and other fruits, is valid, and that they be exorcised in the person
of Jean Perrodet, their defender. In conformity therewith we charge and
burden them with our curse, and command them to be obedient and
anathematize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost,
that they turn away from all fields, grounds, enclosures, seeds, fruits
and produce, and depart. By virtue of the same sentence I declare and
affirm that you are banned and exorcised, and through the power of
Almighty God shall be called accursed and shall daily decrease
whithersoever you may go, to the end that of you nothing shall remain save
for the use and profit of man. _Adiungendo aliquid in devotionem populi._”
The phrase _das si beswärt werden in die person Johannis Perrodeti irs
beschirmers_ does not imply that the vermin or the devils, of which they
were supposed to be incarnations, were to be conjured into him, but refer
to him merely as their proctor and legal representative. The results of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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