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 holy man must indulge his incendiary passion by pouring out upon some
human abode the blazing vessel, which he is represented as bearing in his
hand. The inscription is the same as that with which Reynard the Fox
adorned his castle Malepartus, and which might be translated:
“Saint Florian, thou martyr blessed,
Protect this house and burn the rest.”
Not only were insects, reptiles and small mammals, such as rats and mice,
legally prosecuted and formally excommunicated, but judicial penalties,
including capital punishment, were also inflicted upon larger quadrupeds.
In the Report and Researches on this subject, published by
Berriat-Saint-Prix in the _Memoirs of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of
France_ (Paris, 1829, Tome VIII. pp. 403-50), numerous extracts from the
original records of such proceedings are given, and also a list of the
kinds of animals thus tried and condemned, extending from the beginning of
the twelfth to the middle of the eighteenth century, and comprising in all
ninety-three cases. This list has been enlarged by D’Addosio so as to
cover the period from 824 to 1845, and to include one hundred and
forty-four prosecutions resulting in the execution or excommunication of
the accused, but even this record is by no means complete. (_Vide_
Appendix F for a still fuller list.)
The culprits are a miscellaneous crew, consisting chiefly of caterpillars,
flies, locusts, leeches, snails, slugs, worms, weevils, rats, mice,
moles, turtle-doves, pigs, bulls, cows, cocks, dogs, asses, mules, mares
and goats. Only those cases are reported in which the accused were found
guilty; of these prosecutions, according to the above-mentioned registers,
two belong to the ninth century, one to the eleventh, three to the
twelfth, two to the thirteenth, six to the fourteenth, thirty-four to the
fifteenth, forty-five to the sixteenth, forty-three to the seventeenth,
seven to the eighteenth and one to the nineteenth century. To this list
might be added other cases, such as the prosecution and malediction of
noxious insects at Glurns in the Tyrol in 1519, at Als in Jutland in 1711,
at Bouranton in 1733, at Lyö in Denmark in 1805-6, and at Pozega in
Slavonia in 1866. In the latter case one of the largest of the locusts was
seized and tried and then put to death by being thrown into the water with
anathemas on the whole species. A few years ago swarms of locusts
devastated the region near Kallipolis in Turkey, and a petition was sent
by the Christian population to the monks of Mount Athos begging them to
bear in solemn procession through the fields the girdle of St. Basilius,
in order to expel the insects. This request was granted, and as the
locusts gradually disappeared, because there was little or nothing left
for them to eat, the orthodox of the Greek Church from the bishop to the
humblest laymen firmly believed or at least maintained that a miracle had
been wrought. Pious Mohammedans exorcise and ostracize locusts and other
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