CHAPTER II

MEDIÆVAL AND MODERN PENOLOGY

A striking and significant indication of the remarkable change that has come over the spirit of legislation, and more especially of criminal jurisprudence, in comparatively recent times, is the fact that whereas, a few generations ago, lawgivers and courts of justice still continued to treat brutes as men responsible for their misdeeds, and to punish them capitally as malefactors, the tendency now-a-days is to regard men as brutes, acting automatically or under an insane and irresistible impulse to evil, and to plead this innate and constitutional proclivity, in prosecution for murder, as an extenuating or even wholly exculpating circumstance. Some persons even maintain, as we have already seen, that such criminals are diabolically possessed and thus account for their inveterate and otherwise incredible perversity on the theory held by the highest authorities in the Middle Ages concerning the nature of noxious animals.

Mediæval jurists and judges did not stop to solve intricate problems of psycho-pathology nor to sift the expert evidence of the psychiater. The legal maxim: _Si duo faciunt idem non est idem_ (if two do the same thing, it is not the same) was too fine a distinction for them, even when one of the doers was a brute beast. The puzzling knots, which we seek painfully to untie and often succeed only in hopelessly tangling, they boldly cut with executioner’s sword. They dealt directly with overt acts and administered justice with a rude and retaliative hand, more accustomed and better adapted to clinch a fist and strike a blow than to weigh motives nicely in a balance, to measure gradations of culpability, or to detect delicate differences in the psychical texture and spiritual qualities of deeds. They put implicit faith in Jack Cade’s prescription of “hempen caudle” and “pap of hatchet” as radical remedies for all forms and degrees of criminal alienation and murderous aberration of mind. Phlebotomy was the catholicon of the physician and the craze of the jurist; blood-letting was regarded as the only infallible cure for all the ills that afflict the human and the social body. Doctors of physic and doctors of law vied with each other in applying this panacea. The red-streaked pole of the barber-surgeon and the reeking scaffold, symbols of venesection as a means of promoting the physical and moral health of the community, were the appropriate signs of medicine and jurisprudence. Hygeia and Justicia, instead of being represented by graceful females feeding the emblematic serpent of recuperation or holding with firm and even hand the well-poised scales of equity, would have been more fitly typified by two enormous leeches gorged with blood.

Even the dead, who should have been hanged, but escaped their due punishment, could not rest in their graves until the corpse had suffered the proper legal penalty at the hands of the public executioner. Their restless ghosts wandered about as vampires or other malicious spooks until their crimes had been expiated by digging up their bodies and suspending them from the gallows. Culprits, who died on the rack or in prison, were brought to the scaffold as though they were still alive. In 1685, a were-wolf, supposed to be the incarnation of a deceased burgomaster of Ansbach, did much harm in the neighbourhood of that city, preying upon the herds and even devouring women and children. With great difficulty the ravenous beast was finally killed; its carcass was then clad in a tight suit of flesh-coloured cere-cloth, resembling in tint the human skin, and adorned with a chestnut brown wig and a long whitish beard; the snout of the beast was cut off and a mask of the burgomaster’s features substituted for it, and the counterfeit presentment thus produced was hanged by order of the court. The pelt of the strangely transmogrified wolf was stuffed and preserved in the margrave’s cabinet of curiosities as a memorial of the marvellous event and as ocular proof of the existence of were-wolves.

In Hungary and the Slavic countries of Eastern Europe the public execution of vampires was formerly of frequent occurrence, and the superstition, which gave rise to such proceedings, still prevails among the rural population of those semi-civilized lands. In 1337, a herdsman near the town of Cadan came forth from his grave every night, visiting the villages, terrifying the inhabitants, conversing affably with some and murdering others. Every person, with whom he associated, was doomed to die within eight days and to wander as a vampire after death. In order to keep him in his grave a stake was driven through his body, but he only laughed at this clumsy attempt to impale a ghost, saying: “You have really rendered me a great service by providing me with a staff, with which to ward off the dogs when I go out to walk.” At length it was decided to give him over to two public executioners to be burned. We are informed that when the fire began to take effect, “he drew up his feet, bellowed for a while like a bull and hee-hawed like an ass, until one of the executioners stabbed him in the side, so that the blood oozed out and the evil finally ceased.”

Again in 1345, in the town of Lewin, a potter’s wife, who was reputed to be a witch, died and, owing to suspicions of her pact with Satan, was refused burial in consecrated ground and dumped into a ditch like a dog. The event proved that she was not a good Christian, for instead of remaining quietly in her grave, such as it was, she roamed about in the form of divers unclean beasts, causing much terror and slaying sundry persons. Thereupon she was exhumed and it was found that she had chewed and swallowed one half of her face-cloth, which, on being pulled out of her throat, showed stains of blood. A stake was driven through her breast, but this precautionary measure only made matters worse. She now walked abroad with the stake in her hand and killed quite a number of people with this formidable weapon. She was then taken up a second time and burned, whereupon she ceased from troubling. The efficacy of this post-mortem _auto da fé_ was accepted as conclusive proof that her neighbours had neglected to perform their whole religious duty in not having burned her when she was alive, and were thus punished for their remissness.

Döpler cites also the case of Stephen Hübner of Trautenau, who wandered about after death as a vampire, frightening and strangling several individuals. By order of the court his body was disinterred and decapitated under the gallows-tree. When his head was struck off, a stream of blood spurted forth, although he had been already five months buried. His remains were reduced to ashes and nothing more was heard of him.

In 1573, the parliament of Dôle published a decree permitting the inhabitants of the Franche Comté to pursue and kill a were-wolf or loup-garou, which infested that province; “notwithstanding the existing laws concerning the chase,” the people were empowered to “assemble with javelins, halberds, pikes, arquebuses and clubs to hunt and pursue the said were-wolf in all places, where they could find it, and to take, bind and kill it, without incurring any fine or other penalty.” The hunt seems to have been successful, if we may judge from the fact that the same tribunal in the following year (1574) condemned to be burned a man named Gilles Garnier, who ran on all fours in the forest and fields and devoured little children “even on Friday.” The poor lycanthrope, it appears, had as slight respect for ecclesiastical fasts as the French pig already mentioned, which was not restrained by any feeling of piety from eating infants on a _jour maigre_.

Henry VIII. of England summoned Thomas à Becket to appear before the Star Chamber to answer for his crimes and then had him condemned as a traitor, and his bones, that had been nearly four centuries in the tomb and worshipped as holy relics by countless pilgrims, burned and scattered to the winds.

When Stephen VI. succeeded to the tiara in 896, one of his first acts was to cause the body of his predecessor, Formosus, to be exhumed and brought to trial on the charge of having unlawfully and sacrilegiously usurped the papal dignity. A writ of summons was issued in due form and the corpse of the octogenarian pope, which had lain already eight months in the grave, was dug up, re-arrayed in full pontificals and seated on a throne in the council-hall of St. Peter’s, where a synod had been convened to adjudicate upon the case. No legal formality was omitted in this strange procedure and a deacon was appointed to defend the accused, although the synodical jury was known to be packed and the verdict predetermined. Formosus was found guilty and condemned to deposition. No sooner was the sentence pronounced than the executioners thrust him from the throne, stripped him of his pontifical robes and other ensigns of office, cut off the three benedictory fingers of his right hand, dragged him by the feet out of the judgment-hall and threw his body “as a pestilential thing” (_uti quoddam mephiticum_) into the Tiber. Not until several months later, after Stephen himself had been strangled in prison, were the mutilated and putrefied remains of Formosus taken out of the water and restored to the tomb. The Athenian Prytaneum, as we have already seen, was guilty of the childishness of prosecuting inanimate objects, but it never violated the sepulchre for the purpose of inflicting post-humous punishment on corpses. The perpetration of this brutality was reserved for the Papal See.

From the standpoint of ancient and mediæval jurisprudents the overt act alone was assumed to constitute the crime; the mental condition of the criminal was never or at least very seldom taken into consideration. It is remarkable how long this crude and superficial conception of justice prevailed, and how very recently even the first attempts have been made to establish penal codes on a philosophic basis. The punishableness of an offence is now generally recognized as depending solely upon the sanity and rationality of the offender. Crime, morally and legally considered, presupposes, not perfect, for such a thing does not exist, but normal freedom of the will on the part of the agent. Where this element is wanting, there is no culpability, whatever may have been the consequences of the act. Modern criminal law looks primarily to the psychical origin of the deed, and only secondarily to its physical effects; mediæval criminal law ignored the origin altogether, and regarded exclusively the effects, which it dealt with on the homœopenal principle of _similia similibus puniantur_, for the most part blindly and brutally applied.

Mancini, Lombroso, Garofalo, Albrecht, Benedikt, Büchner, Moleschott, Despine, Fouillée, Letourneau, Maudsley, Bruce Thompson, Nicholson, Minzloff, Notovich and other European criminal lawyers, physiologists and anthropologists have devoted themselves with peculiar zeal and rare acuteness to the study and solution of obscure and perplexing problems of psycho-pathological jurisprudence, and have drawn nice and often overnice distinctions in determining degrees of personal responsibility. Judicial procedure no longer stops with testimony establishing the bald facts in the case, but admits also the evidence of the expert alienist in order to ascertain to what extent the will of the accused was free or functionally normal in its operation. Here it is not a question of raving madness or of drivelling idiocy, perceptible to the coarsest understanding and the crassest ignorance; but the slightest morbid disturbance, impairing the full and healthy exercise of the mental faculties, must be examined and estimated. If “privation of mind” and “irresistible force,” says Zupetta, are exculpatory, then “partial vitiation of mind” and “semi-irresistible force” are entitled to the same or at least to proportional consideration. There are states of being which are mutually contradictory and exclusive and cannot co-exist, such as life and death. A partial state of life or death is impossible; such expressions as half-alive and half-dead are hyperbolical figures of speech used for purely rhetorical purposes; taken literally, they are simply absurd. It is not so, however, with states of mind. The intellect, whose soundness is the first condition of accountability, may be perfectly clear, manifesting itself in all its fulness and power, or it may be partially obscured. So, too, the will, whose self-determination is the second condition of accountability, may assert itself with complete freedom and untrammelled force, or it may act under stress and with imperfect volition. Moral coercion, whether arising from external influences, abnormities of the physical organism or defects of the mental constitution, is not less real because it is not easy to detect and may not be wholly irresistible. For this reason, it involves no contradiction in terms and is not absurd to call an action half-conscious, half-voluntary, or half-constrained. “Partial vitiation of mind” is a state distinctly recognized in psychiatrical science. In like manner, there is no essential incongruity in affirming that an impulse may be the result of a “semi-irresistible force.” But these mental conditions and forces do not manifest themselves with equal obviousness and intensity in all cases; sometimes they are scarcely appreciable; again they verge upon “absolute privation of mind” and “wholly irresistible force;” and it is the duty of the judge to adjust the penalty to the gradations of guilt as determined by the greater or less freedom of the agent.

The same process of reasoning would lead to the admission of quasi-vitiations of mind and quasi-irresistible forces as grounds of exculpation. Thus one might go on analyzing and refining away human responsibility, and reducing all crime to resultants of mental derangement, until every malefactor would come to be looked upon, not as a culprit to be delivered over to the sharp stroke of the headsman or the safe custody of the jailer, but as an unfortunate victim of morbid states and uncontrollable impulses, to be consigned to the sympathetic care of the psychiater.

Italian anthropologists and jurisprudents have been foremost and gone farthest, both theoretically and practically, in this reaction from mediæval conceptions of crime and its proper punishment. This violent recoil from extreme cruelty to excessive commiseration is due, in a great measure, to the Italian temperament, to a peculiar gentleness and impressionableness of character, which, combined with an instinctive aversion to whatever shocks the senses and mars the pleasure of the moment, are apt to degenerate into shallow sentimentality and sickly sensibility, thereby enfeebling and perverting the moral sense and distorting all ideas of right and justice. To minds thus constituted the cool and deliberate condemnation of a human being to the gallows is an atrocity, in comparison with which a fatal stab in the heat of passion or under strong provocation seems a light and venial transgression. This maudlin sympathy with the guilty living man, who is in danger of suffering for his crime, to the entire forgetfulness of the innocent dead man, the victim of his anger or cupidity, pervades all classes of society, and has stimulated the ingenuity of lawyers and legislators to discover mitigating moments and extenuating circumstances and other means of loosening and enlarging the intricate meshes of the penal code so as to permit the culprit to escape. To this end they eagerly seized upon the doctrine of evolution and endeavoured to seek the origin of crime in hereditary propensities, atavistic recurrences, physical degeneracies and other organic fatalities, for which no one can be held personally responsible, and constructed upon the basis of the most recent scientific researches a penological system giving free scope and full gratification to this pitying and palliating disposition.

But, although the Italians have been pioneers in this movement, it has not been confined to them; it extends to all civilized nations, and expresses a general tendency of the age. Even the Germans, those leaders in theory and laggards in practice, whose studies and speculations have illustrated all forms and phases of judicial procedure, but who adhere so conservatively to ancient methods and resist so stubbornly the tides of reform in their own courts have yielded on this point. They no longer regard insanity and idiocy as the only grounds of exemption from punishment, but include in the same category “all morbid disturbances of mental activity,” and “all states of mind in which the free determination of the will is not indeed wholly destroyed, but only partially impaired.” In order to realize the radical changes that have taken place in this direction within a relatively recent period, it will suffice merely to compare the present criminal code of the German Empire with the Austrian code of 1803, the Bavarian code of 1813, and the Prussian code of 1851. It must be remembered, too, that these changes have been effected under the drift of public opinion in spite of the political preponderance of Prussia and her strong bureaucratic influence, which has always been exerted in favour of severe penalties, and shown slight consideration for individual frailties and criminal idiosyncrasies in inflicting punishment. As the stronghold of a stolid and supercilious squirearchy (Junkerthum) in Germany, Prussia has stubbornly resisted to the last every reformatory movement in civil and social, and especially in criminal legislation.

A recent decision of the supreme court of the German Empire (pronounced in the summer of 1894) seems to put a check upon this tendency by rejecting the plea of “moral insanity” in the extenuation of crime. As a matter of fact, however, the question whether such a state of mind as “moral insanity” exists or can exist has not yet been settled; and so long as psychiaters do not agree as to the actuality or possibility of this anomalous mental condition, courts of justice may very properly refuse to take it into consideration or to allow it to exert the slightest influence upon their judgment in the infliction of judicial punishment. Moral insanity, as usually defined, involves a disturbance of the moral perceptions and a derangement of the emotional nature, without impairing the distinctively intellectual faculties. The supposed victim of this hypothetical form of madness is capable of thinking logically and often shows remarkable astuteness in forming his plans and executing his criminal purposes, but seems utterly destitute of the moral sense and of all the finer feelings of humanity, performing the most atrocious deeds without hesitation and remembering them without the slightest compunction. In moral stolidity and the lack of susceptibility he is on a level with the lowest savage. German psychiaters, on the whole, are inclined to regard such persons, not as morally insane, but as morally degenerate and depraved; and German jurists and judges are not disposed to admit such vitiation of character as an extenuating circumstance, especially at a time when criminals of this class are on the increase and are banded together to overthrow civilized society and to introduce an era of anarchy and barbarism. The decision of the German judicatory is therefore not reactionary, but merely precautionary, and simply indicates a wise determination to keep the administration of criminal law unencumbered by theories, which science has not yet fully established and which at present can only serve to paralyze the arm of retributive justice.

Mediæval penal justice sought to inflict the greatest possible amount of suffering on the offender and showed a diabolical fertility of invention in devising new methods of torture even for the pettiest trespasses. The monuments of this barbarity may now be seen in European museums in the form of racks, thumbkins, interlarded hares, Pomeranian bonnets, Spanish boots, scavenger’s daughters, iron virgins and similar engines of cruelty. Until quite recently an iron virgin, with its interior full of long and sharp spikes, was exhibited in a subterranean passage at Nuremberg, on the very spot where it is supposed to have once performed its horrible functions; and in Munich this inhuman instrument of punishment was in actual use as late as the beginning of the nineteenth century. The criminal code of Maria Theresa, published in 1769, contained forty-five large copperplate engravings, illustrating the various modes of torture prescribed in the text for the purpose of extorting confession and evidently designed to serve as object lessons for the instruction of the tormentor and the intimidation of the accused. That Prussia was the first country in Germany to abolish judicial torture was due, not to the progressive spirit of the nation or of its tribunals, but solely to the superior enlightenment and energy of Frederic the Great, who effected this reform arbitrarily and against the will of jurists and judges by cabinet-orders issued in 1740 and 1745. Crimes which women are under peculiar temptation to commit, were punished with extraordinary severity. Thus the infanticide was buried alive, a small tube communicating with the outer air being placed in her mouth in order to prolong her life and her agony. A case of this kind is recorded in the proceedings of the “Malefiz-Gericht” or criminal court of Ensisheim in Alsatia under the date of February 3, 1570. In 1401, an apprentice, who stole from his master five pfennigs (then as now the smallest coin of Germany and worth about the fifth of a cent), was condemned to have both his ears cut off. Incredible barbarities of this kind were practised by some of the best and noblest men of that age. Thus Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, who was pre-eminent among his contemporaries for the purity of his life and the benevolence of his character, did not hesitate to condemn Fra Tommaso di Mileto, a Franciscan monk, to be walled up alive, because he entertained heretical notions concerning the sinfulness of eating meat on Friday, and expressed doubts touching the worship of images, indulgences, the supreme and infallible authority of the pope, and the real presence in the eucharist. This cruel sentence, a striking illustration of the words of Lucretius,

“Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum,”

was pronounced December 16, 1564, as follows: “I condemn you to be walled up in a place enclosed by four walls, where, with anguish of heart and abundance of tears, you shall bewail your sins and grievous offences committed against the majesty of God, and the holy mother Church and the religion of St. Francis, the founder of your order.” A bishop, who should impose such a punishment now-a-days, would be very properly declared insane and divested of his office.

Much ridicule has been cast upon the so-called “Blue Laws” of Connecticut on account of the narrowness and pettiness of their prevailing spirit. From our present point of view they are absurd and in many respects atrocious, but compared with the penal codes of that time they mark a great advance in human legislation. They reduced the number of crimes, then punishable in England by death, from two hundred and twenty-three to fourteen. In the mother-country, as late as the seventeenth century, counterfeiters and issuers of false coin were condemned to be boiled to death in oil by slow degrees. The culprit was suspended over the cauldron and gradually let down into it, first boiling the feet, then the legs and so on, until all the flesh was separated from the bones and the body reduced to a skeleton. The Puritans of New England, relentless as they were in their dealings with sectaries, were never so ruthless as this; nor is it probable that they would have inflicted capital punishment upon their own “stubborn and rebellious sons,” or upon persons who “worship any other God but the Lord God,” had it not been for precedents recorded in laws enacted by a semi-civilized people thousands of years ago and supposed to have been dictated by divine wisdom. They failed to perceive the incongruity of attempting to rear a democratic commonwealth on theocratic foundations and made the fatal mistake of planning their structure after what they regarded as the perfect model of the Jewish Zion.

If we compare these barbarities with the law recently enacted by the legislature of the state of New York, whereby capital punishment is to be inflicted as quickly and painlessly as possible by means of electricity, we shall be able to appreciate the immense difference between the mediæval and the modern spirit in the conception and execution of penal justice.

A point of practical importance, which the criminal anthropologist has to consider is the relation of moral to penal responsibility. If there is no freedom of the will and the commission of crime is the necessary result of physiological idiosyncrasies, hereditary predispositions, brachycephalous, dolichocephalous or microcephalous peculiarities, anomalies of cerebral convolution, or other anatomical asymmetries, over which the individual has no control and by which his destiny is determined, then he is certainly not morally responsible for his conduct. But is he on this account to be exempt from punishment? The vast majority of criminalists answer this question unhesitatingly in the negative, declaring that penal legislation is independent of metaphysical opinion, and that punishment is proper and imperative so far as it is essential to the protection and preservation of society. If the infliction of the penalties depriving a man of his freedom or his life is found to secure these ends, it is the duty of the tribunals established for the administration of justice to impose them without troubling themselves about the mental condition of the culprit or stopping to discuss problems which belong to the province of the psychiater. Legal tribunals are not offices in which candidates for the insane asylum are examined or certificates of admission to reformatories issued, but are organized as a terror to evil-doers in the general interests of society, and all their decisions should have this object in view. If a madman is not hanged for murder, it is solely because such a procedure would exert no deterring influence upon other madmen; society protects itself, in cases of this kind, by depriving the dangerous individual of his liberty and thus preventing him from doing harm; but it has no right to inflict upon him wanton and superfluous suffering. Even if it should be deemed desirable to kill him, the method of his removal should be such as to cause the least possible pain and publicity. Here, too, the welfare of society is the determinative factor.

This doctrine reduces confirmed criminals to the condition of ferocious beasts and venomous reptiles, and logically demands that they should be eliminated for precisely the same reason that noxious animals are exterminated, although neither the human nor the animal creatures are to blame for the perniciousness of their inborn proclivities and natural instincts. In the eyes of Courcelle-Seneuil a prison is a “kind of menagerie”; Naquet, the French chemist and senator, goes still farther, declaring that men are no more culpable for being criminal than vitriol is for being corrosive, and adding that it is our own fault if we put this stuff into our tea and are poisoned by it. The same writer maintains that “there is no more demerit in being perverse than in being cross-eyed or hump-backed.” In a recent lecture on criminal jurisprudence and biology Professor Benedikt cites the case of a Moravian robber and murderer, whose brain was found on dissection to resemble that of a beast of prey and who was therefore, in the opinion of the eminent Viennese authority, no more responsible for his bloody deeds than is a lion or a tiger for its ravages. The corollary to this anatomical demonstration is that one should treat such a man as a lion or a tiger and shoot him on the spot. Atavistic relapses, defective cerebral development and other abnormities undoubtedly occur in criminals, whose acts may be traced, in some degree, to these physical imperfections and therefore be pathologically stimulated and partially necessitated by them. On the other hand, there are thousands of persons with equally small and unsymmetrical craniums, who do not commit crime, but remain respectable, safe, and useful members of society.

Lombroso discovers in habitual malefactors a tendency to tattoo their bodies; but this kind of cuticular ornamentation indicates merely a low development of the æsthetic sense, a barbarous conception of the beautiful or what would be called bad taste, and has not the slightest genetic or symptomatic connection with crime and the proclivity to perpetrate it. As a means of embellishing the exterior man it may be rude and unrefined, but after all it is only skin-deep, and does not extend to the moral character. Honest people of the lower classes take pleasure in disfiguring themselves in this way, and soldiers and sailors, who are very far from furnishing the largest percentage of criminals, are especially addicted to it, simply because they find ample leisure in the barracks and the forecastle to undergo this slow and painful process of what they deem adornment. According to Lombroso criminals have as a rule thick heads of hair and thin beards; but as the majority of them are comparatively young, these phenomena are by no means remarkable. He has also found that the hair of such persons is usually black or dark chestnut; had his investigations been carried on in Norway and Sweden instead of in Italy, he would have certainly come to the conclusion that flaxen hair is an index of a criminal character.

It would be difficult to deny the existence of a constitutionally criminal class, a persistently perverse element, which is the born foe of all law and order, at war with every form of social and political organization and whose permanent attitude of mind is that of the Irishman, who, on landing in New York, inquired: “Have ye a government here?” and, on receiving an affirmative answer, replied, “Then I’m agin’ it.” Criminal anthropologists have been especially earnest in their endeavours to define this pernicious type and to determine the physiological and physiognomical features, which characterize and constitute it. This line of research is unquestionably in the right direction, but as a reaction against barren scholastic speculations and brutal penal codes has been carried to excess by enthusiastic specialists and led to broad generalizations and hasty deductions from insufficient data. Taine’s definition of man as “an animal of a higher species, that produces poems and systems of philosophy, as silkworms spin cocoons and bees secrete honeycomb,” applies with equal force to the vicious side of human nature. Criminal propensities, as well as creative powers, are the resultants of race, temperament, climate, food, organism, environment and other pre-natal and post-natal influences and agencies, to which the individual did not voluntarily subject himself and from which he cannot escape. The acts, therefore, which he performs, whether good or evil, are as independent of his will as the colour of his hair or the shape of his nose; for while they are apparently volitional impulses, the will itself, from which they seem to proceed, is determined by forces as fixed and free from his control as are those which render him blue-eyed or snub-nosed.

The penological application of this philosophical principle has given rise to numerous theories concerning the nature and origin of crime. Lombroso and his disciples, as we have already intimated, attribute it to atavism or the survival in the individual of the animal instincts and low morals of the aboriginal barbarian. The criminal is simply a savage let loose in a civilized community and ignoring the ethical conceptions developed by ages of culture and performing actions that would have seemed perfectly proper and praiseworthy in the eyes of our pre-historic ancestors. The hero of the Palæolithic age is the brigand and cut-throat of to-day. The criminal type is nothing but a reversion to the primitive type of the race, and the representatives of this school of anthropologists have been untiring in their efforts to discover physical and moral characteristics common to both: long arms like chimpanzees, four circumvolutions of the frontal lobes of the brain like the large carnivora, small cranial capacity like the cave-men, canine teeth like anthropoid apes and a simian nose. This analogy extends to the eyes, the ears, the hair, and even to the internal organs, the liver, the heart and the stomach, and the diseases by which they are affected. It has also been observed that assassins are brachycephalous and thieves dolichocephalous. Marro maintains that in many cases metaphors express real facts and embody the common conclusions of mankind based upon centuries of observation: swindlers have a foxy look, long-fingered persons are naturally thievish, whereas a club-fisted fellow is pretty sure to have a pugnacious disposition, and to be a born rough. Nevertheless social surroundings, educational influences and other outward circumstances are important factors, not so much in changing the character as in giving it direction; the same cerebral constitution and consequent innate predisposition may make a man a hero or a bravo, a dashing soldier like Phil Sheridan, or a daring robber like Fra Diavolo, according to the place of his birth and the nature of his environment.

In common discourse we speak of atrabiliary, spleeny, choleric, or even stomachous persons, but such expressions are, in most cases, survivals of antiquated beliefs concerning the functions of certain physical organs. Hypochondria has no more originary connection with the cartilage of the breastbone than with the cartilage of the ear. In the literal sense of the terms a large-brained man is not necessarily of superior intellectual power any more than a large-hearted man is naturally generous or a large-handed man instinctively grasping. So, too, the theory that intelligence and morality are in direct proportion to the size and symmetry of the encephalon is not sustained by facts; at least the exceptions to the rule are so many and so remarkable as to render it extremely misleading and therefore of little practical value as a scientific principle. Gambetta’s brain, for example, weighed only 1294 grammes, being fifty-eight grammes less in weight than that of the average Parisian, and was so abnormally irregular in its configuration as to seem actually deformed. Any physiologist, says Dr. Manouvrier, who should come across such a skull in a museum, would unhesitatingly pronounce it to be that of a savage. The third frontal circumvolution of the left lobe of his brain had in the posterior part a supplementary fold said by some to be the organ of speech and by others to be the organ of theft; perhaps both combined in the ability of the orator to steal away men’s hearts, as Antony says of the seductive eloquence of Brutus. The distinguished physiologist Bichat was an ardent advocate of this doctrine of the causal connection between cranial capacity and symmetry and vigorous and well-balanced mental faculties, but after his death his own cranium was found to be conspicuously lacking in the very characteristics which he deemed so essential to man as a moral and intellectual being. The late German professor Bischoff based his argument against the higher education of woman on the fact that the average female brain weighs only 1272 grammes, and asserted that a person with such a light encephalon must be organically incompetent to master the various branches of study taught in our universities. A post-mortem examination proved his own brain to be considerably inferior in weight to that of the average woman.

Careful investigations would doubtless furnish additional examples of this comical application of the _argumentum ad hominem_ in refutation of the notion that intellectual capacity is determined by the bulk of the brain or the shape of the skull. Ugo Foscolo, one of the most celebrated of modern Italian poets, had a cranium, which, according to this standard of appreciation, ought to have belonged to an idiot. On the other hand, the brain of the “Hottentot Venus,” examined by Gratiolet, far surpassed in the symmetry of both hemispheres and the perfection of its circumvolutions the normal brains of the Caucasian race. The same phenomenon has been observed, although in a less striking manner, occasionally in cretins and quite often in criminals. Character is the resultant of a multitude of combined forces, the great majority of which are still unknown and perhaps unknowable quantities. The impulse given by each must be exactly estimated in order to predetermine the joint effect. No factor which contributes to its formation must be overlooked, and the acceptance of any one of them, however important it may seem to be, as the basis on which to reform and reconstruct our penal legislation, would be premature and pernicious. This hobby-horsical tendency, which is the vice of every specialist, is now the besetting sin of criminal anthropologists, each of whom is firmly convinced that he can reach the goal only on his own garran.

“The more advanced criminalists,” says Professor Von Kirchenheim, “are becoming thoroughly convinced that the penal codes of to-day do not correspond to the criminal world of to-day. No science has remained so deeply rooted and grounded in scholasticism as jurisprudence; and this evil is most clearly perceptible in the province of criminal law. The necessity of a change in our penal legislation has already made itself widely felt. The contest with crime must now be carried on in a different manner from what it was when men waged war with bows and arrows; modern criminality must be fought, as it were, with repeating rifles.” In other words, we can never suppress crime by meeting it with bludgeons and boomerangs and other rude implements of barbarous warfare, but must encounter it with the finest and most effective weapons of precision, which the armoury of modern science can put into our hands. Society has outgrown the crude conception of punishment as mere retaliation or retribution incited by revenge. There is no doubt that even in the most enlightened countries, penology as a science is still in its infancy, and is only just beginning to feel the uncomfortable girding of its scanty swaddling-bands and blindly kicking itself free from them. That this first emancipatory effort should be somewhat clumsy, and occasionally attended by comical casualties and even serious disasters, lies in the very nature of the case. It is evident, too, that the antiquated and utterly irrational methods now employed for the suppression of crime tend directly to increase it. It is the aim of the positive, in distinction from the classical school of criminalists to discover the real causes of criminal actions, and thus to endeavour to eradicate or neutralize them. A casual criminal, for example, whom external conditions, accidental circumstances, sudden temptations or bad influences have led astray, should not be treated in the same manner, although guilty of the same overt act, as the habitual or constitutional criminal, whose wrong-doing arises from a diseased, ill-balanced or undeveloped mental or physical organization, and is therefore an inborn and perhaps irresistible proclivity. The latter is hardly responsible for his conduct, and the possibility of reforming him is slight. The only proper thing to do with such a culprit is to render him personally harmless to society either by death or perpetual incarceration, and to prevent him from propagating his kind. The law of the survival of the fittest through selection suggests as its necessary sequence the suppression of the unfittest through sterilization. Nature has her own effective and relentless method of attaining this desirable result; but man is constantly thwarting her beneficent purposes by all sorts of pernicious schemes originating in factitious sentimentalism and maudlin sympathy, which under the plea of philanthropy tend to foster and perpetuate moral monstrosities to the discomfort and detriment of civilized society and the permanent deterioration of the race. To sentence persons of this class to eight or ten years’ imprisonment and then to turn them loose again as a constant source of peril to mankind, is the greatest folly that any tribunal can possibly commit. It is a wrong done both to the criminal and to the community of which he is a member. The penalties imposed by the law should be determined not solely by the enormity of the crime, but chiefly by the character of the criminal. Paradoxical as such a conclusion may be, it is nevertheless a strictly logical deduction from the premises, that the more corrupt he is by his physical constitution and therefore the less culpable he is from a moral point of view, the more severe should be the sentence pronounced upon him. Where the vicious propensity is in the blood and beyond the reach of moral or penal purgations, the only safety is in the elimination of the individual, just as the only remedy for a gangrened limb is amputation. We ridicule ancient and mediæval courts of justice for prosecuting bugs and beasts, but future generations will condemn as equally absurd and outrageous our judicial treatment of human beings, who can no more help perpetrating deeds of violence, under given conditions, than locusts and caterpillars can help consuming crops to the injury of the husbandman, or wild beasts can help rending and devouring their prey. It is also interesting to know that in former times the animal was not punished capitally because it was supposed to have incurred guilt, but as a memorial of the occurrence, or in the language of canonical law: _Non propter culpam sed propter memoriam facti pecus occiditur_. It was put to death not because it was culpable, but because it was harmful; and this is the ground on which the radical wing of criminal anthropologists would repress and eliminate a vicious person without regard to his mental soundness or moral responsibility; to use Garofalo’s metaphor he is a microbe injurious to the social organism and must be destroyed.

Lombroso carries his theory of the innateness, hereditability and ineradicableness of criminal propensities so far as to affirm that “education cannot change those who are born with perverse instincts,” and to despair of correcting an obstinate bias of this sort even in a child. In accordance with this idea his disciple, Le Bon, proposes to “deport to distant countries all professional criminals or persistent relapsers into vice (_récidivistes_) together with their posterity,” and would thus practically revive the barbarous principle of visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children, although he does not regard their conduct as sinful in the sense of being a voluntary transgression of the moral law, but as the result of a transmitted taint and organic deficiency, for which the individual is in no wise responsible. It is hardly necessary to add that this doctrine is not sustained by the statistics of reformatories, houses of refuge and similar institutions, which have now taken the place of the prison and the scaffold in the case of juvenile offenders.

Those who look upon crime as a pathological phenomenon find a striking illustration and strong confirmation of their views in violations of the law committed under the impulse of hypnotic suggestion. Some maintain that all acts originating in this manner are purely automatic, and acquit the person performing them of all moral and legal responsibility, since they express the will and purpose of the hypnotizer, who alone should be held accountable. Others hold that the man, who consents to be hypnotized and thus voluntarily surrenders his will-power and permits himself to be used as an instrument for the perpetration of crime, should be punished for his offences and not allowed to go scot-free by pleading the _force majeure_ of hypnotic suggestion. The liability to punishment, it is justly argued, would be a safeguard to society by putting a wholesome and effective check on hypnotic experimentations. There is at least no reason why the hypnotized subject should not be called to account for accomplicity. Any passion may become automatic and irresistible by long indulgence and assiduous cultivation, so that the man is overmastered by it and cannot help yielding to it under strong temptation; but the victim of a vicious habit has no right to urge the force of an evil propensity in exculpation of himself. The inborn or inveterate badness of a man’s character may explain, but cannot excuse his bad conduct in the impartial and inexorable eye of justice. So, too, he who sins against his own worthiness and dignity as a rational being by choosing to annul his power of self-determination as a voluntary agent and become a helpless tool in the hands of another, ought not wholly to escape the consequences of his folly. That the hypnotizer should be made fully responsible for the realization of his suggestions, no representative of either the positive or classical school of criminalists would probably deny. To take a man’s life by means of hypnotic suggestion is as truly subornation to murder as to hire an assassin to plunge a dagger into his heart.

As regards hypnotism itself, it would be strange enough if we should discover in it the real scientific basis of witchcraft, and modern legislation should prosecute and punish hypnotizers as mediæval legislation prosecuted and punished sorcerers. The sympathetic influence of a morbidly imaginative mind upon the body in directing the currents of nervous energy and increasing the flow of blood towards particular points of the physical organism, so as to produce stigmata and similar abnormal phenomena, has long been recognized as an adequate explanation of much mediæval and modern miracle-mongering. It would now seem as if hypnotism, or the magnetic influence of one man’s will upon another man’s mind and body were destined to furnish the key to still greater marvels and reveal the true nature and origin of what has hitherto passed for divine inspiration or diabolical possession. Charcot, Renaut, Fowler and other eminent neuropathologists have conclusively shown that certain forms of hysteria sometimes produce tumors, ulcers, muscular atrophy, paralysis of the limbs and like affections apparently organic, but really nervous. In such cases any kind of faith-cure, in which the patient has confidence, prayer, the laying on of hands, the water of Lourdes or of St. Ignatius, medals of St. Benedict, scapularies of the Virgin, seraphic girdles, a pilgrimage to the shrine of a saint or contact with a holy relic may prove far more efficacious than drugs and are therefore recommended by priests and occasionally even prescribed by physicians, who are far too enlightened to regard such healings as miraculous or supernatural. The success of scientific research in disclosing the physical basis of intellectual life is gradually undermining the foundations of so-called spiritualism, and rendering it more and more impossible to mistake symptoms of chlorosis and hysterical weakness for spiritual gifts and signs of God’s special favour. Sickly women are no longer treated as seeresses and their vague and incoherent sayings treasured as oracular utterances.

One of the chief difficulties encountered by those who seek to frame and administer penal laws on psycho-pathological principles arises from the fact that no one has ever yet been able to give an exact and adequate definition of insanity. However easy it may be to recognize the grosser varieties of mental disorder, it is often impossible even for an expert to detect it in its subtler forms, or to draw a hard and fast line between sanity and insanity. An eminent alienist affirms that very few persons we meet in the counting-room, on the street or in society, or with whom we enjoy pleasant intercourse at their firesides, are of perfectly sound mind. Nearly every one is a little touched; some molecule of the brain has turned into a maggot; there is some topic that cannot be introduced without making the portals of the mind grate on their golden hinges,--some point at which we are forced to say,--

“O, that way madness lies; let me shun that.”

It is possible, however, that this very opinion may be a fixed idea or symptomatic eccentricity of the alienist himself. The theory that all men are monomaniacs may be merely his peculiar monomania. Still there is unquestionably this much truth in it, that nearly every person has developed some faculty at the expense of the others and thus destroyed his mental equilibrium. Every tendency of this kind, which is not checked or balanced and in some way rounded off in the growth of the character, becomes morbidly strong and leads to a sort of insanity. The specialist is always exposed to this danger of growing into a man of one idea; his monomania may be in the direction of valuable research or in the pursuit of a foolish whim, resulting in useful inventions or dissipating itself in chimerical projects; it may be a harmless crotchet or a vicious proclivity, philanthropic or misanthropic; it is, nevertheless, a bent or bias and so far a deviation from the norm of perfect intellectual rectitude.

A madman, says Coleridge, is one who “mistakes his thoughts for person and things.” But here the frenzies of the lunatic intrench on the functions of the poet, who “of imagination all compact,” takes his fancies for realities,

“Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name.”

Coleridge’s definition includes also the mythopœic faculty, the power of projecting creations of the mind and endowing them with objective actuality and independent existence, which in the infancy of the race peopled heaven and earth with phantasms, and still croons over cradles and babbles of brownie and fairy in nurseries and chimney-corners. No progress of science can wholly eradicate this tendency to mythologize. In the absence of better material, it seizes upon the most prosaic and practical improvements in modern household life and clothes them with poetry and legend. The imaginative child of New York or Boston, after feeding the mind on fairy tales, converts the ordinary gas-pipe into the den of a dragon, which puts forth its fiery tongue when the knob is turned. The sleeping figure of a virgin carved in marble and copied from an ancient Greek sculpture of Ariadne, which reposes on an arch in the park of Sans-souci at Potsdam, has been transformed by the popular imagination into an enchanted princess, who will awake as soon as a horseman succeeds in springing over it three times with his steed. So vivid is the belief in this story that many good Christians never pass through the archway without making the sign of the cross as a prophylactic against possible demonic influences. The Suabian peasant still believes that the railroad is a device of the devil, who is entitled by contract to a tollage of one passenger on every train; he is in a constant state of anxiety lest his turn may come on the next trip and always wears a crucifix as the best means, so far as his own person is concerned, of cheating the devil of his due. As the Church has uniformly consigned great inventors to the infernal regions, his Satanic Majesty could have never had any lack of ingenious wits among his subjects capable of advising him in such matters.

An important consideration, which did not disturb the minds of mediæval jurists, nor stay the hand of strictly retributive justice, is the fact, now generally admitted, that crimes, like all other human actions, are subject to certain fixed laws, which seem to some extent to remove them from the province of free will and the power of individual determination. Professor Morselli has shown statistically that suicide, which we are wont to consider a wholly voluntary act, is really dependent upon a great variety of circumstances, over which man has no control: climate, seasons, months, days, state of crops, domestic, social, political, financial, economical, geographical and meteorological conditions, sun, moon, and stars all work together, impelling him to self-destruction or keeping him from it. Suicide increases when the earth is in aphelion, and decreases when it is in perihelion. Race and religion are also important factors in aggravating or mitigating the suicidal tendency, Germans and Protestants being most, and Semitic nations and Mohammedans, including those of Aryan and African blood, being least addicted to it. Suicide is, in fact, the resultant of a vast number of complicated and far-reaching forces, which we can neither trace nor measure, and of which the victims themselves are for the most part unconscious. To a very considerable degree, it is a question of environment in the broadest sense of the term; “an effect,” says Morselli, “of the struggle for existence and of human selection, working according to the laws of evolution among civilized peoples.” What is proved to be true of self-slaughter is equally so of murder and every other crime.

An additional reflection, that “must give us pause” in the presence of crime, is that some of the chief causes operating to produce the manifold evils afflicting society and threatening to subvert it, are due in a great measure to the present egoistic organization of our social and industrial system, the selfish and unscrupulous power of wealth directed and stimulated by superior intelligence and energy, on the one hand, and the brute forces of ignorance driven to despair by the disheartening and debasing pressure of poverty, on the other hand, arrayed against each other in fierce and bitter conflict. Much of the individual viciousness, which society is required to punish, springs directly from the unjust and injurious conditions of life, which society itself has created. It is the perception of this fact that disturbs the conscience, puzzles the will, and palsies the arm of the modern law-giver and executor of justice.

Mediæval legislators were not restrained by any scruples of this sort; they regarded the criminal, both human and animal, as the sole author of the crime, ascribing it simply to his own wickedness and never looking beyond the mere actual deed to the social influences, psychical and physical characteristics and inherited qualities, that impelled him with irresistible force to do iniquitous things. This was doubtless a very narrow, superficial and utterly unphilosophical view of human action and responsibility; the danger now-a-days lies in the opposite extreme, in the tendency to pity the vicious individual as the passive product and commiserable victim of unfortunate conditions, and while engaged in the laudable attempt to improve these conditions by working out broad and benevolent plans of permanent relief and reformation for the future amelioration of society, to relax penalties and to fail in providing by sufficiently stringent measures for its present security. Tribunals have only to do with individual criminals as their conduct affects the general welfare. In what manner their characters have been formed by ancestral agencies and other predispositions may be an interesting study to the psychologist and the sociologist, but does not concern the judge or the jurist in the discharge of their official functions. The problem of crime is therefore a very simple one, so far as the criminal lawyer has to deal with the concrete case, but very complex, when we look beyond the overt act to its genesis in the life of the race. The proper administration of penal justice is weakened and defeated by mixing itself up with psycho-pathological inquiries wholly foreign to it.

It is a curious coincidence that the theory of evolution, in its application to man’s free agency, should arrive at essentially the same conclusion as the theology of Augustine and Calvin. Predestination, which the suffragan of Hippo and the Genevan divine attributed to the arbitrary decrees of God, evolution traces to the influences of heredity upon individuals, predetermining their bodily and mental constitutions. There is, however, a wide difference between these two doctrines in their workings. From the clutch of a deity “willing to show his wrath and to make his power known,” no man can by any effort of his own effect his escape. Against this imperious and general sentence of damnation no process of development, no upward striving, no individual initiative can be of any avail. Evolution, on the contrary, promises a gradual release from low ancestral conditions--the original sin of the theologians--and opens up to the race a way of redemption, not only through natural selection and spontaneous variations resulting in higher and nobler types of mankind, but also through the modification of inherited traits by careful breeding, thorough discipline and the conscious and constant endeavour of every human being to improve and perfect himself. Salvation through the “election of grace” is by no means identical with salvation through the “survival of the fittest.” The righteousness of those whom God has chosen as “the vessels of mercy whom he had afore prepared unto glory,” may be and probably is “as filthy rags”; evolutionary science, on the contrary, recognizes and appreciates redeemable qualities by selecting, strengthening and propagating them and by this means aims ultimately to redeem the world. It imposes upon each man the duty and necessity of working out his own salvation, not with fear and trembling at the prospect of meeting an angry deity, but with hope and cheerfulness, knowing that the beneficent forces of nature are working in him, as in all forms of organic life, in obedience to the laws of development, towards the goal of his highest possible perfection by gradually eliminating the heirloom of the beast and the savage, and letting the instincts of the tiger and the ape slowly die within him. “The best man,” said Socrates, “is he who seeks most earnestly to perfect himself, and the happiest man is he who has the fullest consciousness that he is perfecting himself.” This utterance of the Athenian sage expresses the fundamental principle of the ethics of evolution, according to which there can be no greater sin than the neglect of self-culture, holding, as it does, in the province of science a place corresponding in importance to that which the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost holds in the province of theology. No one is blamable for inheriting bad tendencies; but every one is blamable for not striving to eradicate them. If evil impulses prove to be irresistible, then society must step in and render them harmless by depriving of life or liberty the unfortunate victims of such propensities.

Again, if the mental and moral qualities of the lower animals differ from those of man, not in kind, but only in degree, and the human mammal is descended from a stock of primates, to which apes and bats belong, and dogs and cats and pigs are more remotely akin, it is difficult to determine the point at which moral and penal responsibility ceases in the descending, or begins in the ascending scale of being. That beasts and birds and even insects commit acts of violence, which in human agents would be called crimes, and which spring from the same psychical causes and, as we have shown in another work (_Evolutionary Ethics and Animal Psychology._ New York: D. Appleton and Co.; London: William Heinemann, 1898), are punished by the herd, the flock or the swarm in a more or less judicial manner, is undeniable. The zoöpsychologist Lacassagne divides the criminal offences of animals into six classes or categories, the ground of the classification being the motives which underlie and originate them. The lowest or most rudimentary motive to crime in both man and beast is hunger, the operation of which is seen in the spectacle of one savage killing another in order to get sole possession of a wild beast slain by them in common, and in the ferocity of two dogs fighting over a bone. Perhaps the great majority of crimes afflicting society at the present time have their origin in this source. Next to the desire of the individual to preserve himself comes the desire to preserve his kind; this motive is commonly considered a more generous impulse and is praised as parental affection. This earliest and most primitive of altruistic emotions is exceedingly strong in the lower animals, especially in those whose offspring are comparatively helpless in infancy, as is the case with all species of monkeys, and manifests itself not only in tender care of the young, but also in theft, robbery, and other acts of violence committed for their sake. The wanton love of destruction characterizes both beasts and men; there are roughs and vandals among the former as well as among the latter, who take a malicious delight in doing injury to persons and property. Vanity and the desire of “showing off” play no small part in the wrongdoings of apes and apish men and women. Other incentives to crime are ambition, sexual passion, gregariousness, the concentrated egoism and merciless brutality of a crowd even in the most civilized communities, the outrages so recklessly perpetrated by what a French jurist, M. Tarde, calls “that impulsive and maniac beast, the mob.” It may be remarked, too, that the kinds of criminal actions, which civilization tends to diminish among men, domestication tends to diminish among the lower animals.

If these statements be correct, why should not animals be held penally responsible for their conduct as well as human beings? There are men apparently less intelligent than apes. Why then should the man be capitally punished and the ape not brought to trial? And if the ape be made responsible and punishable, why not the dog, the horse, the pig, and the cat? In other words, does evolutionary criminology justify the judicial proceedings instituted by mediæval courts against animals or regard the typical human criminal as having in this respect no supremacy over the beast? Does modern science take us back to the barbarities of the Middle Ages in matters of penal legislation, and in abolishing judicial procedure against quadrupedal beasts is it thereby logically forced to stay the hand of justice uplifted against bipedal brutes? The answer to these questions is unhesitatingly negative. Zoöpsychology is the key to anthropopsychology and enables us to get a clearer conception of the genesis of human crime by studying its manifestations in the lower creation; we thus see it in the process of becoming, acquire a more correct appreciation of its nature and origin and learn how to deal with it more rationally and effectively in bestial man.

Another point discussed by Plato and still seriously debated by writers on criminal jurisprudence is whether punishment is to be inflicted _quia peccatum est_ or _ne peccetur_; in other words, whether the object of it should be retributive or preventive. The truth is, however, that both of these motives are operative and as determining causes are so closely intermixed that it is impossible to separate them. As the distinguished criminalist, Professor Von Liszt, has remarked one might as well ask whether a sick man takes medicine because he is ill or in order to get well. The penalty is imposed in consequence of the commission of a crime and also for the purpose of preventing a recurrence of it, and is therefore both retributory and reformatory. Punishment is defined by Laas as “ethicized and nationalized revenge, exercised by the state or body politic, which is alone impartial enough to pronounce just judgments and powerful enough to execute them.” Civilization takes vengeance out of the hands of the injured individual and delegates it to the community or commonwealth, which has been outraged in his person. The underlying principle, however, is, in both cases, the same, and the idea of justice, as administered by the community, does not rise above that entertained by the aggregate or average of individuals composing it.

The recent growth of sociology and especially the scientific study of the laws of heredity thus tend, by exciting an intelligent interest in the psychological solution of such questions, to render men less positive and peremptory in their judicial decisions. The intellectual horizon is so greatly enlarged and so many possibilities are suggested, that it is difficult for conscientious persons, strongly affected by these speculations and honestly endeavouring to make an ethical or penal application of them, to come to a prompt and practical conclusion in any given case. The voice of decision loses its magisterial sternness and

“the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.”

If it be true, as Mr. Galton affirms, that legal ability is transmitted from father to son, criminal proclivity may be equally hereditary, and the judge and the culprit may have reached their relative positions through a line of ancestral influences, working according to immutable and inevasible laws of descent.

Schopenhauer maintained the theory of “responsibility for character,” and not for actions, which are simply the outgrowth and expression of character. The same act may be good or bad according to the motives from which it springs. This distinction is constantly made both in ethics and in jurisprudence, and determines our moral judgments and judicial decisions. Yet the chief elements, which enter into a person’s character and contribute to its formation, lie beyond his control or even his consciousness, and in many cases have done their work before his birth. Responsibility for character is equivalent to responsibility for all the inherited tendencies and prenatal influences, of which character is the resultant, and leads at last to the theological dogma of the imputation of sin all the way back to Adam as the federal head of the race, a doctrine which Schopenhauer would be the first to repudiate. Besides, evil propensities and criminal designs are recognizable and punishable only when embodied in overt acts. The law cannot deprive a man of life or liberty because he is known to be vicious and depraved, although the police in the exercise of its protective and preventive functions and as a means of providing for the general security, may feel in duty bound to keep a watchful eye on him and to make an occasional raid on the dens and “dives” haunted by him and his kind. There are also instances on record, in which it is impossible to trace the culpable act to any marked corruption of character.

A rather remarkable illustration of this fact is furnished by the trial of Marie Jeanneret, which took place at Geneva in Switzerland in 1868 and which deservedly ranks high among the _causes célèbres_ of the present century, both as a legal question and a problem of psycho-pathology. [At the time when this trial occurred, the writer directed attention to the peculiar and perplexing features of the case in _The Nation_ for January 7, 1869, p. 11.] Dumas in his novel _Le Comte de Monte Christo_, describes the character and career of a young, refined and beautiful woman, moving in the best circles of Parisian society, and yet poisoning successively six or seven members of her own family; but even the most imaginative and audacious of French romancers did not dare to delineate such criminality without ascribing it to some apparently adequate motive. Madame de Villefort administered deadly potions to her relatives under the impulse of a morbidly intense maternal love, which centred all her moral and intellectual faculties on the idea of making her son the sole heir to a large estate. Affection and social ambition for her offspring incited her to the murder of her kin. But the invention, which created such a monster of sentimental depravity, has been far surpassed in real life by the exploits of Marie Jeanneret, a Swiss nurse, who took advantage of her professional position to give doses of poison to the sick persons confided to her care, from the effects of which seven of them died.

In the commission of this monotonous series of diabolical crimes, the culprit does not seem to have been animated either by animosity or cupidity. On the contrary, she always showed the warmest affection for her victims, and nursed them with the tenderest care and the most untiring devotion, as she watched the distressful workings of the fatal draught; nor did she derive the slightest material benefit from her course of conduct, but rather suffered considerable pecuniary loss by the death of her patients. The testimony of physicians and alienists furnished no evidence of insanity, nor did she show any signs of atavistic reversion, physiological abnormity or hereditary homicidal bent. Monomaniacs usually act fitfully and impulsively; but Marie Jeanneret always manifested the coolest premeditation and self-possession, never exhibiting the least hesitation or confusion, or the faintest trace of hallucination, but answered with the greatest clearness and calmness every question put by the president of the court. Even M. Turrettini, the prosecuting attorney, in presenting the case to the jury, was unable to discover any rational principle on which to explain the conduct and urge the conviction of the accused; and after exhausting the common category of hypotheses and showing the inadequacy of each, he was driven by sheer stress of inexplicability to seek a motive in “_l’espèce de volupté qu’elle éprouverait à commettre un crime_,” or what, in less elegant, but more vigorous Western vernacular, would be called “pure cussedness.” Not only was such an explanation merely a circumlocutory confession of ignorance, but it was wholly inconsistent with the general character of the indictee.

Indeed, the persistent and pitiless perpetration of this one sort of crime by this woman, under circumstances which should have excited compassion in the hardest human heart, seems more like the working of some baneful and irrepressible force in nature, or the relentless operation of a destructive machine, than like the voluntary action of a free and responsible moral agent. M. Zurlinden, the counsel for the defendant, dwelt with emphasis upon this mysterious phase of the case and thus saved his client from the scaffold. The jury, after five hours’ deliberation, rendered a verdict of “Guilty, with extenuating circumstances,” as the result of which the accused was sentenced to twenty years’ hard labour. As a matter of fact, there were no circumstances of an extenuating character except the utter inability of the jurors to discover any motive for the commission of such a succession of cold-blooded atrocities.

After fifteen years’ imprisonment the convict died. During this whole period of incarceration she not only showed great intelligence and strict integrity, but was also remarkably kind and helpful to all with whom she came in contact. She instructed her fellow-convicts in needle-work and fine embroidery, loved to attend them in sickness, and by her general influence raised very perceptibly the tone of morals in the workhouse. If it be true, as asserted by Mynheer Heymanns, one of the latest expounders of Schopenhauer’s ethics, that “a man is responsible for his actions only so far as his character finds expression in them, and is to be judged solely by his character,” what shall be done in cases like the afore-mentioned, in which the criminal conduct is exceptional, and so far from being symptomatic of the general character stands out as an isolated and ugly excrescence and appalling abnormity? According to this theory crime is to be punished only when it is the natural outgrowth and legitimate fruit of the criminal’s individuality and society is to be left unprotected against all maleficence not traceable to such an origin.

There can be hardly any doubt that the Swiss nurse was a toxicomaniac and that she had become infatuated with poisons, partly by watching their effects on her own system, and partly by reading about their properties in medical and botanical works, to the study of which she was passionately devoted. Did not Mithridates, if we may believe the statements of Galen, experiment with poisons on living persons? Why should she not follow such an illustrious example, especially as she never hesitated to take herself the potions she administered to others; the only difference being that habit had made her, like the famous King of Pontus, proof against their venom. She often attempted analyses of these substances, and in one instance was severely burned by the bursting of a crucible, in which she was endeavouring to obtain atropine from atropa belladonna or deadly nightshade. It was this terrible poison, which is endowed with exceedingly energetic qualities and is therefore used by physicians with extreme precaution, that seems to have had an irresistible fascination for her, growing into an insane desire to discover and test its occult virtues. She had read and heard of zealous scientists and illustrious physicians, who had experimented on themselves and on their disciples, and become the benefactors of mankind; why then should she not adopt the same method in the pursuit of truth and use for this purpose the physiological material which her profession placed in her hands?

However preposterous such reasoning on her part may appear to us and however vaguely and subconsciously the mental process may have been carried on, it offers the only theory adequate to explain all the facts and to account for the almost incredible union of contradictory traits in her character. The enthusiasm of the experimenter overbore in her the native sympathy of the woman. She observed the writhings of her poisoned victims with as “much delight” as Professor Mantegazza confesses he felt in studying the physiology of pain in the dumb animals “shrieking and groaning” on his tormentatore. “The physiologist,” says Claude Bernard, “is no ordinary man. He is a savant, seized and possessed by a scientific idea. He does not hear the cries of suffering wrung from racked and lacerated creatures, nor see the blood which flows. He has nothing before his eyes but his idea and the organisms, which are hiding the secrets he means to discover.” Marie Jeanneret was a fanatic of this kind. She, too, was a woman possessed with ideas as witches were once supposed to be possessed with devils. Had she prudently confined her experiments to the torture of helpless animals, she might perhaps have taken rank in the scientific world with Brachet, Magendie and other celebrated vivisectors, and been admitted with honour to the Academy, instead of being thrust ignominiously into a penitentiary.

The assertion as regards any supposed case of madness, that “there’s method in it,” is popularly assumed to be equivalent to a denial of the existence of the madness altogether. But psycho-pathology affords no warrant for such an assumption. An individual, who commits murder under the impulse of morbid jealousy, pecuniary distress, social rancour, political or scientific fanaticism, or any other form of monomania, is not the less the victim of a mind diseased because he shows rational forethought in planning and executing the deed. His mental faculties may be perfectly healthy and normal in their operation up to the point of derangement, from which the fatal act proceeds. No chain is stronger than its weakest link; and this is equally true of physical and psychical concatenations. Under such circumstances the sane powers of the mind are all at the mercy of the one fault and are made to minister to this single infirmity.

According to English law a man is irresponsibly insane, when he has “such defect of reason from disease of the mind as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or, if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong.” This definition is very incomplete and covers only the most obvious forms of insanity; perhaps in the great majority of cases there is no “defect of reason” nor “disease of mind” in the proper sense of these terms, but only a disturbance of the emotions or perversion of the will originating in physical disorder. Besides, it is undeniable that animal intelligence is capable of distinguishing between right and wrong and of comprehending what is punishable and what is not punishable. In general when a dog does wrong, he knows that he is doing wrong; and a monkey often takes delight in doing what is wrong simply because he knows it is wrong. If a monkey gets angry and kills a child, he obeys the same vicious propensity that impels a brutal man to commit murder. There is no greater “defect of reason” in one case than in the other. Why then should the monkey be summarily shot or knocked on the head, and the man arrested, tried, convicted and hanged by the constituted authorities? Simply because such a public prosecution and execution would not exert any influence whatever in preventing infanticide on the part of other monkeys; if it could be shown that a formal trial of the monkey would produce this salutary effect, then it certainly ought not to be omitted. The recent attempt to modify the English law so as to render all “certifiably insane” persons irresponsible for their actions, would result in the abolition of all punishment for crime, since many physicians regard every criminal as insane and would not hesitate to certify their opinion to the proper tribunal.

It is no easy task now-a-days for penal legislation to keep pace with psychiatral investigation and to adjust itself to the wide range and nice distinctions of modern psycho-pathology; nor is it necessary to do so. _Salus socialis suprema lex esto._ Society is bound to protect itself against every criminal assault, no matter what its source or character may be. This is the ultimate object not only of the prison and the scaffold, but also of all reformatories for juvenile offenders and vagabonds, who by judicious correction and instruction may perhaps be brought to amend their ways and thus be prevented from becoming a social danger by swelling the disorderly ranks of the permanently criminal classes. If a person proves to be unamenable to moral or penitential measures and remains an incorrigible transgressor, it is the duty of the community to set him aside by death or by life-long durance. Penal legislation does not aim primarily at the betterment of the individual; laws are enacted not for the purpose of making men good and noble, but solely for the purpose of rendering them safe members of society. This is effected by depriving the irremediably vicious of their liberty and, if necessary, also of their life.

The pardoning power, too, must be exercised with the utmost reserve and circumspection. The state does not look upon public offences as sins but as crimes. The introduction of the theological conception of delinquencies into the province of civil government has always been the vice of hierarchies and has never failed to work immense mischief by leading inevitably to impertinent intermeddling with matters of conscience and private opinion, putting a premium on pretended repentance and like hypocrisies, and converting the witness-box into a confessional and the court of justice into a court of inquisition. This has been uniformly the result wherever a body of priests has become a body of rulers, endowed with sovereignty in the administration of secular affairs.

If it could be conclusively proved or even rendered highly probable, that the capital punishment of an ox, which had gored a man to death, deterred other oxen from pushing with their horns, it would be the unquestionable right and imperative duty of our legislatures and tribunals to re-enact and execute the old Mosaic law on this subject. In like manner, if it can be satisfactorily shown that the hanging of an admittedly insane person, who has committed murder, prevents other insane persons from perpetrating the same crime, or tends to diminish the number of those who go insane in the same direction, it is clearly the duty of society to hang such persons, whatever may be the opinion of the alienist concerning their moral responsibility. Nor is this merely a hypothetical case or purely academical question. It is a well-established fact, that the partially insane, especially those affected with “moral insanity” or so-called “cranks,” have their intelligence intact, and are capable of exercising their reasoning powers freely and fully in laying their plans and in carrying out their designs. Indeed, criminals of this class are sometimes known to have entertained the thought that they would be acquitted on the ground of insanity, and have thereby been emboldened to do the deed; and it is by no means impossible, but highly probable, that a belief in the certainty of punishment would have acted as an effective deterrent. A case of this kind occurred in 1894 in England, where an inmate of a lunatic asylum deliberately murdered a lawyer, who was visiting the institution. The murderer declared that he had no grudge against his victim, but believed himself to be persecuted in general and wished to call attention to his wrongs by assassinating some official or prominent person. His method of redress was that of the ordinary anarchist; and his confession that he would not have dared to commit the act unless he had believed that as a certificated lunatic under confinement he ran no risk of being hanged, illustrates the point in question. There can be no doubt, for example, that the execution of Guiteau for the assassination of Garfield has greatly lessened the dangers of this kind to which the President of the United States is exposed; just as the swift and severe punishment of the Chicago anarchists has dampened the zeal and restrained the activity of the fanatics, who labour under the delusion that, in a free country, dynamite bombs are the fittest means of disseminating reformatory ideas and bringing about the social and political regeneration of the world.

From this point of view it is hardly necessary to remark upon the absurdity of Lombroso’s assertion that the jurists, who formerly condemned and punished animals, were more logical and consistent than those who now pass sentence of death on cretins like Grandi or cranks (_grafomani matteschi_) like Passannante and Guiteau (_Archivio di Psichiatria._ Torino, 1881, Vol. II. Fasc. IV.), since he utterly ignores the preventive character and purpose of judicial punishment and its practical utility in checking the homicidal propensities of such persons, whereas the criminal prosecution and capital punishment of a pig for infanticide will not have the slightest effect in preventing other pigs from mangling and devouring little children.

That animals might be deterred from doing violence to men by putting one of their kind to death and suspending its body as a scarecrow is maintained by a distinguished writer in the first half of the sixteenth century, Hierolymus Rosarius, the nuntius of Pope Clement VII. to the court of Ferdinand I., then King of Hungary, who states that in Africa crucified lions are placed near towns, and that other lions, however hungry they may be, are kept away through fear of the same punishment: _cujus pœnæ metu, licet urgeat fames, desinunt_. He records also that in riding from Cologne towards Düren, he and his companions saw in the vast forest two wolves in brogans hanging on a gallows, just like two thieves, as a warning to the rest of the pack: “Et nos ab Agrippina Colonia Duram versus equitantes in illa vasta silva, vidimus duos caligatos lupos non secus quam duos latrones, furcæ suspensos; _quo similis pœnæ formidine a maleficio reliqui deterreantur_.” In like manner the American farmer sets up a dead hawk as a deterrent for the protection of his hens. We may add that Rosarius entertained a high opinion of the intelligence and moral character of animals and wrote a book to prove their frequent superiority to men in the use of their rational faculties. This very clever and original work entitled: _Quod animalia bruta sæpe ratione utantur melius homine_, was first published by Gabriel Naudé at Paris in 1648; an enlarged edition was issued by Ribow at Helmstedt in 1728, with a dissertation on the soul in animals.

In the class of ill-poised minds, yclept cranks, just mentioned, the spirit of imitation is peculiarly strong and morbidly contagious. The celebrated psychiater, Baron Von Feuchtersleben, in his treatise _On the Diatetics of the Soul_, cites the case of a French soldier, who shot himself in a sentry-box; soon afterwards, several other soldiers took their lives in the same manner and in the same place. Napoleon I. ordered the sentry-box to be burned and thus put an end to the suicides. A similar instance is recorded by Max Simon in his _Hygiène de l’esprit_, in which he states that a workman hanged himself in the embrasure of a gate, and his example was followed directly by a dozen of his fellows, so that it was found necessary to wall up the gate in order to stop this strange epidemic. The same effect is produced by popular romances, in which the hero or heroine or both together dispose of themselves in this way; sometimes whole communities are thus infected by a single work of fiction; perhaps the most notable case of this kind in modern literature is the era of sentimentalism and suicidism which followed the publication of Goethe’s _Werther_. It is well known, too, that another class of sensational novels, the plots of which consist in the development of criminal intrigues, tend to promote crime by rendering it fascinating and indicating an attractive and exciting method of perpetrating it. We have a recent and very striking instance of this kind in the origin and evolution of the notorious Dreyfus affair. In June 1893, a year and a half before the arrest of Dreyfus, a novel entitled _Les Deux Frères_, by Louis Letang, appeared in the Paris _Petit Journal_, the plot of which may be concisely described as follows. A young and capable officer, Captain Philippe Dormelles, who holds a position of confidence in the French department of war, is envied and hated by two colleagues named Aurélien and Daniel. Their enmity and jealousy finally become so intense that they conspire to effect his ruin by accusing him of selling to a foreign power the secrets of the national defence. It is arranged that a compromising letter imitating the handwriting of Dormelles and addressed to a foreign military _attaché_ shall be placed in the secret archives, where it will fall into the hands of the head of the department Lieutenant-Colonel Alleward. Dormelles is arrested and thrown into the prison Cherche-Midi, and at the same time Daniel causes a violent article to be inserted in a newspaper _Le Vigilant_, charging him with high treason, and seeking to excite public opinion against him. This article concludes with the false statement that a search in Dormelles’ department had led to the discovery of important documents referring to the fabrication of smokeless powder, and that thereupon Dormelles had confessed his guilt. He is then sentenced to the galleys, but his betrothed is convinced of his innocence and finally succeeds in detecting and exposing the forgeries. Lieutenant-Colonel Alleward is arrested and commits suicide in prison, not with a razor like Henry, but with a revolver. One scene in the novel describes the appearance of a veiled lady on the very spot near the Champs Elysées, where the mysterious veiled lady is said to have appeared to Esterhazy three years later and for much the same purpose. The French minister of war, Mercier, was forced to proceed against Dreyfus by the _Libre Patrole_, which published lies about his confession, as _Le Vigilant_ did about Dormelles. The only rational explanation of this remarkable concurrence of events, as they are narrated in the fiction and afterwards occurred in fact, is that the method of conducting the conspiracy against Dreyfus and the possibility of accomplishing it were suggested by Letang’s story, although the conspirators doubtless did not anticipate that the logic of events would render the results of their falsehoods and forgeries as fatal to them as they were to their prototypes in the novel. Every scoundrel is firmly convinced that he can pattern after his precursors in villainy, avoid their mistakes and commit the same crime without incurring the same penalty.

That paroxysms of epilepsy, hysterics and various forms of frenzy are contagious and may be easily communicated to nervous persons, who witness them, has been clearly proved. Vicious passions obey the same law of imitation even in a still higher degree than tender emotions and nervous diseases, and more than two centuries ago the illustrious jurisconsult, Samuel Pufendorf, laid down the general principle that he who for the first time commits a crime liable to spread by contagion and to become virulent, should be punished with extreme severity, in order that it may not infect others and create a moral pestilence.

The hemp cure is always a harsh cure, especially where there is any doubt as to the offender’s mental soundness; but in view of the increasing frequency with which atrocious and wilful crime shelters itself under the plea of insanity and becomes an object of misdirected sympathy to maudlin sentimentalists, the adoption of radical and rigorous measures in the infliction of punishment were perhaps an experiment well worth trying. Meanwhile, let the psychiater continue his researches, and after we have passed through the present confused and perilous period of transition from gross and brutal mediæval conceptions of justice to refined and humanitarian modern conceptions of justice, we may, in due time, succeed in establishing our penal code and criminal procedure upon foundations that shall be both philosophically sound and practically safe.

APPENDIX

CONTAINING ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS

A

TESTIMONIALES ET REASSUMPTUM

Anno domini millesimo quingentesimo octuagesimo septimo et die decima tertia mensis aprilis comparuit in bancho actorum judicialium episcopatus Maurianne honestus vir Franciscus Ameneti scindicus et procurator procuratorioque nomine totius communitatis et parrochie Sancti Julliani qui in causa quam pretendunt reassumere prosequi aut de novo intentare coram reverendissimo domino Maurianne episcopo et principe seu reverendo domino generali ejus Vicario et Officiali contra Animalia ad formam muscarum volantia coloris viridis communi voce appellata Verpillions seu Amblevins facit constituit elegit et creavit certum ac legitimum procuratorem totius dicte communitatis et substituit vigore sui scindicatus de quo fidem faciet egregium Petremandum Bertrandi causidicum in curiis civitatis Maurianne presentem et acceptantem ad fines coram eodem reverendissimo Episcopo et ejus Vicario generali comparendi et faciendi quicquid circa negotiis ejusdem cause spectat et pertinet et prout ipse scindicus facere posset si presens et personaliter interesset cum electione domicillii et ceteris clausulis relevationis ratihabitionis et aliis opportunis suo juramento firmatis subque obligatione et hypotheca bonorum suorum et dicte communitatis que conceduntur in bancho die et anno premissis.

ORDINATIO

Anno domini millesimo quinquagesimo octuagesimo septimo et die sabatti decima sexta maii comparuerunt judicialiter coram nobis Vicario generali Maurianne prefato Franciscus Ameneti conscindicus Sancti Julliani cum egregio Petremando Bertrandi ejus procuratore producens testimoniales constitutionis facte eidem egregio Bertrandi die tertia decima aprilis proxime fluxi petit sibi provideri juxta supplicationem nobis porrectam parte scindicorum et communitatis Sancti Julliani exordiente _Divino primitus implorato auxilio_ signatum _Franciscus Faeti_ contra Animalia bruta ad formam muscarum volantia nuncupata Verpillions producens etiam acta et agitata superioribus annis coram predecessoribus nostris maxime de anno 1545 et die vicesima secunda mensis aprilis unacum ordinatione nostra lata octava maii millesimo quingentesimo octuagesimo sexto et ne contra Animalia ipsis inauditis procedi videatur petunt sibi provideri de advocato et procuratore pro defensione si quam habeant aut habere possent dictorum Animalium se offerentes ad solutionem salarii illis per nos assignandi. Inde et nos Vicarius generalis Maurianne ne Animalia contra que agitur indeffensa remaneant deputamus eisdem pro procuratore egregium Anthonium Fillioli licet absentem cui injungimus ut salario moderato attenta oblatione conquerentium qui se offerunt satisfacere teneatur et debeat ipsa Animalia protegere et defendere eorumque jura et ne de consilio alicujus periti sint exempta ipsis providemus de spectabili domino Petro Rembaudi advocatum (_sic_) cui similiter injungimus ut debeat eorum jura defendere salario moderato ut supra. Quamquidem deputationem mandamus eis notifficari et ipsis auditis prout juris fuerit ad ulteriora providebitur. Quo interim visa per nos quadam ordinatione fuit fieri certas processiones et alias devotiones in dicta ordinatione declaratas quas factas fuisse non edocetur ideo ne irritetur Deus propter non adempletionem devotionum in ipsa ordinatione narratarum dicimus ipsas devotiones imprimis esse fiendas per instantes et habitatores loci pro quo partes agunt quibus factis postea ad ulteriora procedemus prout juris fuerit decernentes literas in talibus necessarias per quas comittimus curato seu vicario loci quathenus contenta in dicta ordinatione in prono ecclesie publice declarare habeat populumque monere et exortari ut illas adimpleant infra terminum tam breve quam fieri poterit et de ipsis attestationem nobis transmittere. Datum in civitate Sancti Johannis Maurianne die anno permissis.

MEMORIALE

Anno premisso et die trigesima mensis maii comparuerunt judicialiter coram nobis Vicario generali Maurianne prefato honestus Franciscus Ameneti conscindicus jurat venisse cum egregio Petremando Bertrandi ejus procuratore producit et reproducit supplicationem nobis porrectam retroacta et agitata contra eadem Animalia maxime designata in memoriali coram nobis tento decima sexta maii literas eodem die curato Sancti Julliani directas unacum attestatione signata _Romaneti_ qua constat clerum et incolas dicti loci proposse satisfecisse contentis in eisdem literis ad formam ordinis in ipsis designato petit sibi juxta et in actis antea requisita provideri et alia uberius juxta cause merita et inthimari egregio Fillioli procuratori ex adverso. Hinc egregius Fillioli procurator dictorum Animalium brutorum petit communicationem omnium et singularum productionum ex adverso cum termino deliberandi defendendi et participandi cum domino advocato premisso. Indi et nos Vicarius generalis Maurianne prefatus communicatione superius petita concessa partibus premissis diem assignamus sabatti proximi sexta instantis mensis junii ad ibidem judicialiter coram nobis comparandum et tunc per dictum egregium Fillioli nomine quo supra quid voluerit deliberare et defendere deliberandum et defendendum. Datum in civitate Maurianne die et anno premissis.

R. D. GENERALI VICARIO ET OFFICIALI EPISCOPATUS MAURIANÆ

Divino primitus implorato auxilio humiliter exponunt syndici totius communitatis seu parrochie Sancti Julliani cæterique homines ac sua interesse putantes et infrascriptis adherere cupientes quod cum alias ob forte peccata et cætera commissa tanta multitudo bruti animalis generis convoluntium vulgo tamen vocabulo Amblevini seu Verpillion dicti per vineas et vinetum ipsius parrochie accessisset damna quamplurima ibi perpetrantis folia et pampinos rodendo et vastando ut ex eis nulli saltem pauci fructus percipi poterant qui juri cultorum satisffacere possint et quod magis et gravius erat illa macula ad futura tempora trahendo vestigia nulli palmites fructus afferentes produci poterant illi autem flagitio antecessores amputare viam credentes prout divina prudentia erat credendum porrectis precibus adversus eadem Animalia et in eorum defensoris constituti personam debitis sumptis informationibus ac aliis formalitatibus necessariis prestitis sententia seu ordinatio prolata comperitur cujus et divinæ potentiæ virtute præcibus tamen et officiis divinis mediantibus illud flagitium et inordinatus furor prefatorum brutorum Animalium cessarunt usque ad duos vel circa citra annos quod veluti priscis temporibus rediere in eisdem vineis et vineto et damna inextimabilia et incomprehensibilia afferre ceperunt ita ut pluribus partibus nulli fructus sperantur percipi possetque in dies deterius evenire culpa forte hominum minus orationibus et cultui divino vacantium seu vota et debita non vere et integre reddentium que tamen omnia divinæ cognitioni consistit et remittenda veniunt eo quod Dei arcana cor hominis comprehendere nequit.

Nihilominus cum certum sit gratiarum dona diversis diversimode fore collata hominibus et potissimum ecclesiastico ordini ut in nomine Jesu et virtute ejus sanctissime passionis possit in terris ligare solvere et flectere iterum ad R. V. recurrentes prius agitata reassumendo et quatenus opus fuerit de novo procedendo petunt in primis procuratorem aut defensorem ipsis Animalibus constitui ob defectum præcedentis vita functi quo facto et ut de expositis legitime constet debeatis inquisitiones et visitationes locorum fieri per nos aut alium idoneum commissarium cæterasque formalitates ad hæc opportunas et requisitas exerceri ipso defensore legitime vocato et audito nec non aliter prout magis equum visum et compertum de jure extiterit procedere dignetur ad expulsionem dictorum Animalium via interdicti sive excommunicationis et alia debita censura ecclesiastica et justa ipsius sanctas constitutiones ad quas et divinæ clementiæ et mandatis suorum ministrorum se parituros offerunt et submittunt omni superstitione semota quod si stricta excommunicatione processum fuerit sunt parati dare et prestare locum ad pabulum et escam recipiendos ipsis Animalibus quemquidem locum exnunc relaxant et declarant prout infra et alias jus et justitiam ministrari omni meliori modo implorato benigno officio.

FRAN. FAETI

Ego subsignatus curatus Sancti Julliani attestor quomodo sacro die Penthecostes decima septima mensis maij anno domini millesimo quingentesimo octuagesimo septimo ego accepi de manibus sindicorum mandatum exortativum sive ordinationem R{di} generalis Vicarii et Officialis curie diocesis Maurianne datum in civitate Sancti Johannis decima sexta mensis may anno quo supra quod cum honore et reverentia juxta tenorem illius die lune Penthecostes decima octava may in offertorio magne misse parochialis populo ad divina audienda congregato publicavi idem populum michi commissum ad contritionem suorum peccaminum et ad devotionem juxta meum posse et serie monui processiones missas obsecrationes et orationes in predicto mandato contentas per tres dies continuos videlicet vicesima vicesima prima vicesima secunda predicti mensis cum ceteris presbiteris feci in quibus processionibus scindici cum parrochianis utriusque sexus per majorem partem circuitus vinearum interfuerunt deprecantes Dei omnipotentis clementia pro extirpatione brutorum Animalium predictas vineas atque alios fructus terre devastantium vulgariter nuncupatas (sic) Verpilions seu Amblavins in predicto mandato mentionata sive nominata in quorum fidem ad requisitionem dictorum scindicorum qui hanc attestationem petierunt quam illis in exonus mei tradidi hac die vicesima quarta may anno quo supra.

ROMANET

Franciscus de Crosa Canonicus et Cantor ecclesie cathedralis Sancti Johannis Maurianne in ... et temporalibus episcopatus Maurianne generalis Vicarius et Officialis dilecto sive vicario Sancti Julliani s ... in domino. Insequendo ordinationem per nos hodie date presentium latam in causa scindicorum Sancti Julliani agentium contra Animalia bruta ad formam muscarum volantia coloris viridis nuncupata Verpillions supplicata per quam inter cetera contenta in eadem dictum et ordinatum extitit devotiones et processiones fieri ordinatas per ordinationem latam ab antecessore nostro die octava maii anni millesimi quingentesimi quadragesimi sexti in eadem causa in primis et ante omnia esse fiendas per instantes et habitatores dicti loci Sancti Julliani. Igitur vobis mandamus et injungimus quathenus die dominico Penthecostes in prono vestra ecclesie parrochialis contenta in dicta ordinatione declarare habeatis populumque monere et extortari ut illa adimpleant infra terminum tam breve quod fieri poterit et de ipsis attestationem nobis transmittere. Tenor vero dicte ordinationis continentis devotiones sequitur et est talis.

Quia licet per testes de nostri mandato et commissarium per nos deputatum examinatos apparet Animalia bruta contra que in hujusmodi causa parte prefatorum supplicantium fuit supplicatum intulisse plura dampna insupportabilia ipsis supplicantibus que tamen dampna potius possunt attribuenda peccatis supplicantium decimis Deo omnipotenti de jure primitivo et ejus ministris non servientium et ipsum summum Deum diversimode eorum peccatis non (_sic_) offendentium quibus causis causantibus dampna fieri supplicantibus predictis non ut fame et egestate moriantur sed magis ut convertantur et eorum peccata deffluant ut tandem abundantiam bonorum temporalium consequantur pro substentatione eorum vite vivere et post hanc vitam humanam salutem eternam habeant. Cum a principio ipse summus Deus qui cuncta creavit fructus terre et anime vegetative produci permiserit tam substentatione vite hominum rationabilium et volatilium super terram viventium quamobrem non sic repente procedendum est contra prefata Animalia sic ut supra damnificantia ad fulminationem censurarum ecclesiasticarum Sancta Sede Apostolica inconsulta sive ab eadem ad id potestatem habentibus superioribus nostris sed potius recurrendum ad misericordiam Dei nostri qui in quacumque hora ingenuerit peccata propitius est ad misericordiam. Ipsi quamobrem causis premissis et alliis a jure resultantibus pronunciamus et declaramus inprimis fore et esse monendos et quos tenore presentium monemus et moneri mandamus ut ad ipsum Dominum nostrum ex toto et puro corde convertantur cum debita contrictione de peccatis commissis et proposito confitendi temporibus et loco opportunis et ab eisdem de futuro abstinendi et de cetero debite persolvendum Deo decimas de jure debitas et ejus ministris quibus de jure sunt persolvende eidem Domino Deo nostro per meritata sue sacratissime passionis et intercessione Beate Marie Virginis et omnium Sanctorum ejus humiliter exposcendo veniam et quibuscumque peccatis delictis et offensis contra ejus majestatem divinam factis ut tandem ab afflictionibus prefatorum Animalium liberare dignetur et ipsa Animalia loca non it ... ipsis supplicantibus ceterisque christianis transferre et al ... secundem ejus voluntatem et aliter exting ......... ..... eisdem supplicantibus uno die dominico in offertorio ......... ut ipso die dominico ...... supplicantibus ...... ......... per circuitum vinearum ejusdem parrochie ...... et per loca cum aspersione aque benedicte pro effugandis prefatis Animalibus tribus diebus immediate sequentibus significationem et notificationem sic ut supra fiendas quibus processionibus durantibus decantari et celebrari mandamus tres missas altas ante sive post quamlibet earum processionum ad devot ... cleri et populi quarum prima primo die decantabitur de Sancto Spiritu cum orationibus de Beata Maria. ... _Deus Deus qui contritorum_ et _A cunctis nos quesumus Domine mentis et corporis_ etc. et una pro defunctis secundo die decantatis de Beata Maria Virgine cum orationibus Sancti Spiritus Beate Marie Virginis illis _Qui contritorum_ et pro deffunctis. In eisdem processionibus supra fiendis jubemus in eadem ecclesia genibus flexis dici et decantari integriter _Veni Creator Spiritus_ quo hymno sic finito et dicto verceleto _Emitte Spiritum tuum et creabuntur_ etc. cum orationibus _Deus qui corda fidelium_ singulis diebus sic prout supra fiat proces ... decantando septem psalmos penitentiales cum letaniis suffragii et orationibus inde sequentibus mandamus moneri supplicantes prout supra ut in eisdem missis processionibus et devotionibus sic ut supra fiendis ad minus d ... de qualibet domo devote intersint dicendo eorum Fidem catholicam et alias devotiones et orationes ...... cum fuerit humiliter et devote preces et effundendo Domino Deo nostro ut per merita sue sanctissime passionis et intercessionem Beatissime Virginis Marie et omnium Sanctorum dignetur expellere ipsa Animalia predicta a prefatis vineis ut de fructus earumdem non corrodant nec ...... et ibidem supplicantes a cunctis alliis adversitatibus liberare ut tandem de eisdem fructibus debite vivere possint et eorum necessitatibus subvenire et semper in omnibusque glorificare laudare eumdem Dominum et Redemptorem nostrum et in eodem fidem et spem nostram totaliter cohibenda a devastatione prefatarum vinearum et nos liberare a cunctis alliis adversitatibus dummodo sic ut supra ejus mandata servaverimus et hoc absque allia fulminatione censurarum ecclesiasticarum quas distulimus fulminare donec premissis debite adimpletis et alliud a prefatis superioribus nostris habuerimus in mandatis literas quatenus expediat in exequutionem omnium et singulorum premissorum decernentes ...... Post ...... insertionem dicte ordinationis dicti scindici Sancti Julliani petierunt sibi concedi literas quas concedimus datas in civitate Sancti Johannis Maurianne die decima sexta mensis maii millesimo quingentesimo octuagesimo septimo.

Franciscus de Crosa Vic.{s} et Off.{s} gen.{lis} Maurianne.

FAURE

Per eumdem R. D. Maurianne generalem Vicarium et Officialem.

(_locus sigilli._)

MEMORIALE

Anno premisso et die quinta mensis junii comparuerunt judicialiter coram nobis Vicario generali Maurianne Franciscus Ameneti consindicus Sancti Julliani asserens venisse a loco sancti Julliani ad fines remittendi in manibus egregii Anthonii Fillioli procuratoris Animalium brutorum cedulam signatam _Rembaud_ producendam pro deffensione dictorum Animalium quiquidem egregius Fillioli produxit realiter eandem cedulam incohantem _Approbando_ etc. signatam _Rembaud_ dicens concludens et fieri requirens pro ut in eadem cedula continetur. Hinc et egregius Petremandus Bertrandi procurator dictorum sindicorum Sancti Julliani agentium petiit copiam dicte cedule. Inde et nos Vicarius generalis Maurianne prefatus partibus premissis diem assignamus veneris proximam duodecimam presentis mensis junii nisi etc. ad ibidem coram nobis comparendum et tunc per dictum egregium Bertrandi nomine quo supra quid voluerit deliberare deliberandum eidem concedendo copiam dicte cedule per eum requisitam. Datum in civitate Sancti Johannis Maurianne die et anno premissis.

COPIA CEDULE

Approbando et in quantum de facta in medium adducendo ea que hoc in processu antea facto fuerunt et potissimum scedulam productam ex parte egregii Baudrici procuratoris Animalium signatam _Claudius Morellus_ egregius Anthonius Fillioli procurator et eo nomine a reverendo domino Vicario constitutus occasione tuendorum ac deffendendorum Animalium de quibus hoc in processo agitur ut in actis ad quæ impugn ...... super relatio habeatur et brevibus agendo ac realiter deffendendo excipit et opponit ac multum miratur de hujusmodi processu tam contra personas agentium quam contra insolitum et inusitatum modum et formam procedendi de eo saltem modo quo hactenus processum fuit maxime cum agitur de excommunicatione Animalium quod fieri non potest quia omnis excommunicatio aut fertur ratione contumaciæ _cap. primo_ et ibi Gr. _De sententiis excommunicationis lib._ 6. at cum certum est dicta animalia in contumacia constitui non posse quia legitime citari non possunt per consequens via excommunicationis Agentes uti non possunt nec debent eo maxime quod Deus ante hominis creationem ipsa Animalia creavit ut habetur Genesi ib. _Producat terra animam viventem in genere suo jumenta et reptilia et bestias terre secondum species suas benedixitque eis dicens crescite et multiplicamini et replete aquas maris avesque multiplicentur super terram_ quod non fecisset nisi sub spe quod dicta Animalia vita fruerentur tum quod ipse Deus optimus maximus creator omnium Animalium tam rationabilium quam irrationabilium cunctis Animalibus suum dedit esse et vesci super terram unicuique secondum suam propriam naturam certum est et potissimum plantas ad hoc creavit ut animalibus deservirent est enim ordo naturalis quod plante sunt in nutrimentum Animalium et ...... quedam in nutrimentum aliorum et omnia in ...... hominis. Genes: 9: ibi _Quasi olera virentia tradidi vobis omnia a Deo_ quod dicta Animalia de quibus Adversantes conqueruntur modum vivendi a legi ordinatum non videtur egredi tum quia bruta sensu et usu rationis carentia que non secondum legem divinam gentium canonicam vel civilem sed secondum legem naturæ primordialis qua Animalia cuncta docuit vivere solo instinctu naturæ vivunt et ut ait Philosophus _actus activorum non operantur in patienti_ ...... tum quia jura naturalia sunt immutabilia § _Sed naturalia Instit.: de jur natur. gent. et civili._ ergo cum dicta Animalia solo instinctu naturæ dicantur per consequens excommunicanda non veniunt. Et quamvis dicta Animalia hominibus subjecta esse dicantur ut habetur Ecclesiast: 17. ibi _Posuit timorem illius super omnem carnem et bestiarum ac volatilium_ non idcirco adversus talia Animalia licet subjecta uti non debent excommunicatione nec ullo modo veniunt petita executioni mandanda saltem modo petito presertim cum ratio et æquitas dicta Animalia non regat. Et licet juribus divino antiquo civili et canonico promulgatum legitur _Qui seminat metet_ ut habetur Esai 37 ibi. _In anno autem tertio seminate et mettete et plantate vineas et commedite fructum earum_ non tamen cequitur (_sic_) quin dicta Animalia plantis non utantur quia sunt irrationabilia et carentia sensu neque ea posse dicernere quæ sunt usui hominum destinata vel non certissimum est quia solo instinctu nature ut supra dictum est vivunt non idcirco necesse habent Agentes adversus dicta Animalia uti excommunicatione sed ...... peccata eorum universus populus presertim quem hujusmodi flagella affligunt et prosequuntur et pœnitentiam agat exemplo Ninivitarum qui ad solam vocem Jone prophete austeriter pœnitentiam egerunt ad mittigandam et placandam iram Dei. Jon. 3. veniat populus et imploret misericordiam Dei optimi et sic maximi ut sua sancta gratia et per merita sanctissimæ passionis excessum dictorum Animalium compessere et refrenare dignetur et hoc modo dicta Animalia e vineis ejicient et non eo modo quo procedunt. Quibus universis consideratis evidentissime patet dicta Animalia e vitibus seu e vineis ejicienda non esse attento quod solo instinctu naturæ vivunt et ita per egregium Anthonium Fillioli eorumdem Brutorum legittimi actoris fieri instatur et ab ipso petitur ipsum monitorium requisitum in quantum concernit dicta Animalia revocari et annullari nec aliquo modo consentiendo quod dictum monitorium eis concedatur nec etiam aliqui visitationi vinearum ut est conclusum per Agentes in eorum supplicatione protestando de omni nullitate et hoc omni meliori modo via jure ac forma salvis aliis quibuscumque juribus ac deffentionibus competentibus aut competituris humiliter implorato benigno officio judicis.

PETRUS REMBAUDUS

MEMORIALE

Anno premisso et die duodecima mensis junii comparuerunt judicialiter coram nobis Vicario generali Maurianne prefato egregius Petremandus Bertrandi procurator dictorum Agentium petens alium terminum. Hinc et egregius Anthonius Fillioli procurator dictorum Animalium petiit viam precludi parti quidquiam ulterius deliberandi et producendi. Inde et nos Vicarius generalis Maurianne prefatus partibus premissis diem assignamus veneris proximam decimam nonam presentis mensis nisi etc. ad ibidem judicialiter coram nobis comparendum et tunc per dictum Bertrandi nomine quo suppra quid voluerit precise deliberare deliberandum. Datum Maurianne die et anno premissis.

MEMORIALE

Anno premisso et die veneris decima nona mensis junii preassignata comparuerunt judicialiter coram nobis Vicarium generalem Maurianne prefato egregius Petremandus Bertrandi procurator Sindicorum Sancti Julliani Agentium producens cedulam incohantem _Etiam si cuncta_ et signatam _Franciscus Fay_ dicens concludens et fieri requirens pro ut et quemadmodum in eadem cedula continetur.

Hinc et egregius Anthonius Fillioli procurator dictorum Animalium conventorum petiit copiam dicte cedulæ cum termino deliberandi et respondendi.

Inde et nos Vicarius generalis Maurianne prefatus copia prepetita concessa partibus premissis diem assignamus veneris proximam vigessimam sextam hujus mensis junii nisi etc. ad ibidem judicialiter coram nobis comparendum et tunc per dictum Fillioli nomine quo supra quid voluerit deliberare deliberandum. Datum Maurianne die et anno premissis.

MEMORIALE

Anno premisso et die sabatti vigesima septima mensis junii subrogata ob diem feriatum intervenientem comparuerunt judicialiter coram nobis Vicario generali prefato Catherinus Ameneti consindicus Sancti Julliani jurat venisse cum egregio Petremando Bertrandi ejus procuratore producens realiter cedulam signatam _Fay_ dicens concludens prout in eadem cedula continetur. Hinc et egregius Fillioli procurator Animalium petens copiam cedule cum termino deliberandi. Inde et nos Vicarius prefatus copia prepetita concessa partibus premissis diem assignamus sabbati proximi quartam instantis mensi jullii nisi etc. ad ibidem judicialiter coram nobis comprehendum est tunc per dictum egregium Fillioli quid voluerit deliberare deliberandum. Datum Maurianne die et anno premissis.

COPIA CEDULÆ

Etiamsi cuncta ante hominem sint creata ex Genesi non sequitur laxas habenas concessas fore immo contra ut ibidem colligitur et apud D... in I. par. q. 26. ar. I. et psal. 8. Corin. 5. hominem fore creatum ac constitutum ut cœteris creaturis dominaretur ac orbem terrarum in æquitate et justitia disponeret. Non enim homo contemplatione aliarum creaturarum habet esse sed contra. Nec reperitur illam dominationem circa bruta animantia ac eorum respectu suscipere limitationem verum in divinis cavetur omne genuflecti in nomine Jesu.

Sed cum circa materiam majores nostri satis scripserint in actis reassumptis et nihil novi adductum ex adverso inveniatur frustra resumerentur. Unde inherendo responsis spectabilis domini Yppolyti de Collo et postquam constat fore satisffactum ordinationi nihil est quod impediri possit fines supplicatos adversus Animalia de quorum conqueritur ad quod concluditur ac justitiam ministrari omni meliori modo implorato benigno officio.

FRANC FAETI

MEMORIALE

Anno premisso et die quarta mensis jullii comparuerunt judicialiter coram nobis Vicario generali Maurianne prefato egregius Anthonius Fillioli procurator dictorum Animalium producens cedulam incohantem _Licet multis_ signatam _Rembaudi_ dicens et concludens prout in eadem cedula continetur hinc et egregius Petremandus Bertrandi procurator dictorum Agentium petit copiam cedule cum termino deliberandi. Inde et nos Vicarius generalis Maurianne prefatus copia prepetita concessa partibus premissis diem assignamus sabbati proximam undecimam presentis mensis jullii nisi etc. ad ibidem judicialiter coram nobis comparendum et tunc per dictum egregium Bertrandi nomine quo supra quid voluerit deliberare deliberandum. Datum Maurianne die et anno premissis.

MEMORIALE

Anno premisso at die quarta jullii comparuerunt coram nobis Vicario prefato egregius Petremandus Bertrandi procurator Agentium petit alium terminum. Hinc et egregius Anthonius Fillioli procurator Conventorum inheret cedulatis suis et fieri petitis super quibus petit justitiam sibi ministrari. Inde et nos Vicarius generalis Maurianne prefatus partibus premissis diem assignamus sabbati proximam decimam octavam presentis mensis jullii nisi etc. ad ibidem judicialiter coram nobis comparendum et tunc per dictum Bertrandi nomine quo supra quid voluerit deliberare deliberandum. Datum Maurianne die et anno premissis.

COPIA CEDULÆ

Licet multis in locis reperiatur hominem creatum fuisse ut cæteris Animalibus et creaturis dominaretur non idcirco opus est ut Agentes adversus dicta Animalia excommunicatione utantur sed via usitata et ordinaria et præsertim ut dictum est quod dicta Animalia jus naturæ sequantur quod quidem jus nusquam immitatum (_sic_) reperitur nam jus divinum et naturale pro eodem sumuntur. Can. I. dist. I. at jus divinum mutari non potest quod est in preceptis moralibus et naturalibus per consequens nec jus naturale mutari potest nam jus naturale manat ab honesto nempe ac ratione immortali et perpetua, at ratio jubet ut dicta Animalia vivant potissimum hiis nempe plantis que ad usum dictorum Animalium videntur creata ut supra dictum est ergo Agentes nulla ratione debent uti via excommunicationis. Igitur ne in causa ulterius progrediatur potissimum cum cedula pro parte Sindicorum totius communitatis Sancti Julliani producta signata _Fran: Faeti._ nullam penitus mereatur responsionem obstante quod nihil novi in dicta cedula propositum comperitur etiam quod contentis cedulæ parte gregii (egregii) Anthonii Fillioli procuratorio nomine dictorum Animalium producte mimime sit responsum idcirco cum omnia que videbantur adducenda ex parte dictorum Animalium adducta et proposita fuerunt ut ample patet in dicta cedula superius producta signata: _P. Rembaudus._ ad quam impugnatus semper relatio habeatur non igitur alia ex parte dictorum Animalium adducenda nec proponenda videntur presertim ut dictum est quod ratio et equitas dicta Animalia non regat quapropter egregius Anthonius Fillioli nemine dictorum Animalium suppra relatorum suœ cedule et fieri recuisitis inhœrendo concludit super eis jus dici et deffiniri et justiciam sibi in hujusmodi causa adversam fieri et promulgari implorans benignum officium omni melliori modo.

P. REMBAUDUS

MEMORIALE

Anno premisso et die decima octava mensis jullii comparuerunt judicialiter coram nobis Vicario prefato egregius Petremandus Bertrandi procurator Agentium petens alium terminum. Hinc et egregius Fillioli procurator dictorum Animalium petit viam precludi parti quidquam ulterius articullandi et deducendi et inherendo suis cedulatis petit sibi justitiam ministrari. Inde et nos vicarius generalis Maurianne prefatus de consensu procuratorum dictarum partium ipsis partibus diem assignamus primam juridicam post messes ad ibidem coram nobis comparendum et tunc per dictum egregium Bertrandi nomine quo suppra quid voluerit precise deliberare deliberandum.

MEMORIALE

Anno premisso et die veneris vigesima quarta mensis juli comparuerunt judicialiter coram nobis Vicario generali Maurianne prefato egregius Petremandus Bertrandi procurator Sindicorum Agentium produxit testimoniales sumptas per communitatem Sancti Julliani congregatam coram visecastellano Maurianne continentes declarationem loci quem offerunt relaxare et assignare eisdem Animalibus pro eorum pabulo quathenus indigent ad formam earumdem testimonialium signatarum _Prunier_ adversus quas petit adverso viam precludi quicquam opponendi et exipiendi et deffendendi quominus dicta Animalia devastantia non debeant arceri ambigi cogi et in virtute sancte Dei obedientiæ vineta loci predicti Sancti Julliani relinquere et in locum assignatum accedere et divertire ne deimpceps (deinceps) officiant eisdem vineis que sunt usui humano pernecessariæ et alias ulterius super cause exigentia provideri benignum officium R. D. V. implorando et ita intimari egregio Fillioli procuratori ex adverso.

Quiquidem egregius Fillioli procurator dictorum Animalium petiit copiam et communicationem dictarum testimonialium cum termino deliberandi et deffendendi.

Inde et nos Vicarius generalis Maurianne prefatus copia et communicatione prepetitis concessis partibus premissis diem assignamus primam juridicam post ferias messium proxime venturam ad ibidem judicialiter coram nobis comparendum et hinc per dictum egregium Fillioli nomine quo suppra quid voluerit deliberare deliberandum. Datum Maurianne die et anno premissis.

EXTRAICT DU REGESTRE DE LA CURIALLITE DE SAINCT JULLIEN

Du penultiesme jour du moys de juing mil cinq cent huictante sept.

Ont comparu pardevant Nous Jehan Jullien Depupet notaire ducal et Vichastellain pour son Altesse au lieu de Sainct Jullien et Montdenix honnestes Francoys et Catherin Aimenetz conscindicz dudict lieu maistres Jehan Modere Andre Guyons Pierre Depupet notaires ducaulx maistre Reymond Thabuys honnestes Claude Charvin Jehan Prunier Claude Fay Françys Humbert et Vuilland Duc conseilliers dudict lieu avec des manantz et habitantz dudit lieu les deux partyes les troys faisantz le tout tous assembles au son de la cloche au Parloir damon place publicque dudit lieu de Sainct Jullien au conseil general suyvant la publication d’icelluy faicte cejoudhuy mattin a lyssue de la parocchielie dudit lieu et au lieu ce fere accoustume par Guilliaume Morard metral dudict lieu ce a Nous rapportant disantz les susnommez scindicz comme au proces pas eulx au nom de ladicte communaulte intenre et poursuyvy contre les Animaulx brutes vulgairement appelez Amblevins pardevant le Seigneur Reverendissime Evesque et Prince de Maurianne ou son Official est requis et necessayre syvant le conseil a eulx donne par le sieur Fay leur advocat de ballier ausdictz Animaulx place et lieu de souffizante pasture hors les vigniables dudict lieu de Sainct Jullien et de celle qu’il y en puissent vivre pour eviter de manger ny gaster lesdictes vignes. A ceste cause ont tous les susnommes et aultres y assembles delibere leur offrir la place et lieu appelle la Grand Feisse ou elle se treuvera souffizante pour les pasturer et que le sieur advocat et procureur diceulx Animaux se veuillent contempter laquelle place est assize sur les fins dudict Sainct Jullien audessus du village de Claret jouxte la Combe descendant de Roche noyre passant par le Crosset du levant la Combe de Mugnier du couchant ladicte Roche noyre dessus la Roche commencant a la Gieclaz du dessoubz laquelle place sus coufinee centient de quarent a cinquante sesteries ou environ peuplee et garnye de plusieurs espresses de boes plantes et feuillages comme foulx allagniers cyrisiers chesnes planes et aultres arbres et buissons oultre lerbe et pasture qui y est en asses bonne quantité a laquelle les susnommes au nom de ladicte communaulte lon offre ny prendre chose que ce soyt moing permettre a leur sceu y es tre prins et emporte chose que soyt dans lesdictz confins soyt par gens ou bestes saufz toutteffoys que ou le passaige des personnes y seroyt necessayre a quelque lieu ou endroit ou lon ne puisse passer par ledict lieu sans fere aulcung prejudice a la pasture desdicts Animaulx comme aussi dy pouvoir tirer mynes de colleurs et aultres si alcune en y a dequoy lesdictz Animaulx ne se peuvent servir pour vivre et par ce que le lieu est une seure retraicte en temps de guerre ou aultres troubles par ce quelle est garnye des fontaynes qui aussi servira ausdictz Animaulx se reservent sy pouvoir retirer au temps susdict et de necessite et de leur passer contract de ladicte piece aux conditions susdictes tel que sera requis et en bonne forme et vallable a perpetuyte a tel sy que ou le Sieur Advocat et Procureur desdicts Animaulx ne ce contenteroyent de ladite place pour la substentation et vivre diceulx animaux visitation prealablement faicte si elle y exchoict de leur en baillier davantage allieurs. Et de laquelle deliberation les susnommes Scindics conselliers et aultres Nous ont requis acte leur octroyer que leur avons concede audict lieu du Parloir damont place publique dudict Sainct Jullien en presence de Pierre Reymond de Montriond Urban Geymen de Sainct Martin de la Porte et de Janoct Poinct de la paroisse de Montdenix tesmoingtz a ce requis et a ce dessus assistantz les an et jour que dessus.

L. PRUMIER _curial_

MEMORIALE CONTINUATIONIS

Anno premisso et die undecima mensis augusti comparuerunt im banco actorum judicialium episcopatus Maurianne procuratores ambarum partium qui citra prejudicium jurium ipsarum partium prorogaverunt et continuaverunt assignationem datam ipsis partibus usque ad vigesimam presentis mensis augusti. Datum die et anno premissis.

ALIA CONTINUATIO

Anno premisso et die vigesima mensis augusti comparuerunt in eodem bancho egregius Petremandus Bertrandi et Anthonius Fillioli procuratores partium lictigantium quiquidem de consensu eorumdem et citra prejudicium jurium partium et actento transitu armigerorum prorogaverunt assignationem ad hodie cadentem usque ad diem jovis proximam vigesimam septimam hujus mensis Augusti. Datum Maurianne die et anno premissis.

MEMORIALE REASSOMPTIONIS

Anno premisso et die jovis vigesimam septimam augusti comparuerunt judicialiter coram nobis Vicario prefato procuratores ambarum partium quiquidem citra derogationem jurium ipsarum partium prorogaverunt et continuationem ad hodie cadentem usque ad diem jovis proximam tertiam instantis mensis septembris. Datum die et anno premissis.

MEMORIALE AD JUS

Anno premisso et die tertia mensis septembris comparuerunt judicialiter coram nobis Vicario generali Maurianne prefato egregius Anthonius Fillioli procurator Animalium brutorum qui visis testimonialibus productis parte dictorum Agentium continentibus assignationem loci quem obtulerunt relaxare et assignare dictis Animalibus pro eorum pabulo dicit eumdem locum non esse sufficientem nec idoneum pro pabulo dictorum Animalium cum sit locus sterilis et nullius redditus. Et ampliando omnia et quecumque agitata in presenti processu parte dictorum Animalium petit Agentes repelli cum expensis et jus sibi ministrari. Hinc et egregius Petremandus Bertrandi procurator Scindicorum Sancti Julliani Agentium dicit locum destinatum et oblatum esse idoneum plenum virgultis et parvis arboribus prout ex testimonialibus oblationis constat et latius constare quathenus opus sit offert inherens suis conclusionibus petit jus dici et ordinari ac pronunciari. Inde et nos Vicarius generalis Maurianne prefatus mandamus nobis remitti acta ad fines providendi prout juris assignando partes ad ordinandum. Datum in civitate Sancti Johannis Maurianne die et anno premissis.

ORDINATIO IN CAUSA SCINDICORUM SANCTI JULLIANI SUPPLICANTIUM EX UNA

_contra Animalia bruta ad formam muscarum volantia coloris viridis Supplicata_

Visis actis dictorum Agentium signanter primo memoriali tento in eadem causa sub die vigesima secunda mensis aprilis anni 1545 coram spectabili domino Francisco Bonivardi jurium doctori--cedula producta parte egregii Petri Falconis procuratoris dictorum Animalium incipiente _Ut appareat_ etc. signata _Claudius Morellus_--tenore supplicationis porrecte parte dictorum Agentium--tenore monitorii abjecti desuper ipsa supplicatione sub die 25 aprilis anni predicti millesimi quingentesimi quadragesimi quinti signati _Daprilis_--ordinatione lata in eadem causa sub die duodecima mensis junii ejusdem anni--testimonialibus visitationis facte per egregium Matheum Daprili signatis _Daprili_--cedula producta nomine ipsorum Animalium incipiente _Visitatio_ et signata _Claudius Morellus_--allia cedula producta parte dictorum Agentium incipiente _Etsi rationes_ etc. signata _Petrus de Collo_--tenore ordinationis late in eadem causa sub die sabatti octava mensis maii anni 1546 signate Michaelis--memoriali reassumptionis tento sub die tresdecima mensis aprilis anni presentis 1587--ordinatione lata in eadem causa per reverendum dominum Franciscum de Crosa antecessorem nostrum sub die decima sexta mensis maii anni presentis--supplicatione porrecta parte dictorum Agentium signata _Franciscus Faeti_--litteris obtentis virtute dicte ordinationis sub die decima sexta dicti mensis--attestatione signata _Romanet_ sub die 24 ejusdem mensis maii--cedula producta pro parte dictorum Animalium incipiente _Approbando_ etc. signata _Petrus Rembaudus_--allia cedula producta parte Agentium signata _Franciscus Faeti_ incipiente _Etiam si cuncta_ etc.--allia cedula producta pro parte Animalium incipiente _Licet multis_ etc. signata _Petrus Rembaudus_--memoriali tento sub die vicesima quarta mensis jullii proxime fluxi--testimonialibus signatis _Prunier_ sumptis coram Vicecastellano Maurianne sub die penultima mensis junii anni presentis continentibus declarationem loci quem dicti Agentes obtulerunt relaxare pro pabulo dictorum Animalium--memoriale ad jus tento coram eodem domino Vicario antecessore nostro sub die tertia mensis septembris proxime fluxi--ceterisque videndis diligenter consideratis.

Nos Vicarius generalis Maurianne subsignatus antequam ad diffinitivam procedamus dicimus et ordinamus in primis et ante omnia esse inquirendum super statu

loci oblati p.... quem locum.... visitandum.... mensem ut f.... et nobis rem.... fuerit provid.... Mermetus vis.... generalis.... in civitate S.... die decima.... anno domini.... octuagesimo sep.... Petremandi Bertr.... dictorum Scind.... et egregii.... dictorum Animal. ordinationem.... acceptandum.... facit die et....

(pro visitatione III flor)

_locus sigilli._

Solverunt Scindici Sancti Julliani incluso processu Animalium sigillo ordinationum et pro copia que competat in processu dictorum Animalium omnibus inclusis XVI flor.

Item pro sportulis domini Vicarii III flor--20 decembre 1587.

Published by Léon Ménebréa in the appendix to his treatise: _De l’Origine, de la forme et de l’esprit des jugements rendus au Moyen-âge contre les Animaux_, Chambery, 1846. Cf. _Mémoires de la Société Royale Académique de Savoie_, Tome xii. pp. 524-57, where it first appeared.

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According to M. J. Desnoyers (_Recherches sur la coutume d’exorciser et d’excommunier les insectes et autres animaux nuisibles à l’agriculture_, p. 15), it is still the custom, in Provence, Languedoc, le Bordelais, and other provinces of France, for the peasants to ask the country curates for prayers, sprinklings with holy water, consecrated boughs, and extraordinary processions, for the purpose of expelling noxious insects from the vineyards and warding off disease from the grapes and the silkworms. These ceremonies are accompanied with adjurations and maledictions. In Protestant lands official days of fasting and prayer are supposed to produce the same results.

The form of exorcism given by an Antwerp canon, Maximilian d’Eynatten, in his _Manuale Exorcismorum_, is as follows:--“Exorcizo et adjuro vos, pestiferi vermes, per Deum patrem omnipotentem ✠, et per Jesum Christum ✠ filium ejus Dominum nostrum, et Spiritum Sanctum ✠ ab utroque procedentem, ut confestim recedatis ab his campis, pratis, hortis, vineis, aquis, si Dei providentia adhùc vitam vobis indulgeat, nec amplius in eis habitetis, sed ad illa ac talia loca transeatis, ubi nullis Dei servis nocere poteritis. Vobis, si per maleficium diabolicum hic estis, pro parte divinae majestatis, totius curiae coelestis, necnon ecclesiae hic adhùc militantis, impero, ut deficiatis in vobisipsis, ac decrescatis, quatenus reliquiae de vobis nullae reperiantur, nisi ad gloriam Dei et ad usum et salutem humanum conducibiles. Quod praestare dignetur qui venturus est judicare viros et mortuos et saeculum per ignem, Resp.--Amen.” _Thesaurus Exorcismorum, Coloniae_, 1626, p. 1204.

B

II[4]

DE L’EXCELLENCE DES MONITOIRES

PAR GASPARD BAILLY

Il ne favt pas mépriser les Monitoires, veu que c’est vne chose grandement importante, portant auec soy le glaiue, le plus dangereux dont nostre Mere sainte l’Eglise se sert, qui est l’Excommunication, qui taille aussi bien le bois sec que le verd, n’épargnant ny les viuans, ni les morts; et ne frappe pas seulement les Creatures raisonnables, mais s’attache aux irraisonnables, tels que sont les animaux. Les exemples en sont fréquens, pour preuue de cette verité. Car on a veu en plusieurs endroits qu’on a excommunié les bestioles et insectes, qui apportoient du dommage aux fruits de la terre, et obeïssans aux commandemens de l’Eglise se retiroient dans le lieu ordonné par la sentence de l’Euesque qui leur formoit leur procès. Au Siecle passé, il y auoit telle quantité d’Anguilles dans le Lac de Geneue, qu’elles gastoient tout le Lac: De sort que les Habitans de la Ville et enuirons, recoururent à l’Euesque pour les Excommunier, ce qu’ayant esté fait, le Lac fut deliuré de ces animaux.

Du temps de Charles Duc de Bourgogne fils de Philippe le Bon, il y eut telle quantité de Sauterelles en Bresse, en Italie qu’elles mirent presque la famine dans tout le Mantoüan, si on n’y eût apporté du secours par l’Excommunication, et de ce nous parle Altiat dans ses Emblémes, sous l’intitulation _nihil reliqui_.

_Scilicet hoc deerat post tot mala denique nostris, Locustæ vt raperent, quidquid inesset agris. Uidimus innumeras Euro Duce tendere turmas; Qualia non Athilæ, Castrave Cersis erant. Hæ fænum milium farra omnia consumpserunt; Spes in Augusto est, stant nisi vota super._

On raconte en la vie de S. Bernard, qu’il se leua vne si grande quantité de Mouches, d’vne Eglise qu’on auoit basti à Loudun, que par le myen du bruit qu’elles faisoient, elles empéchoient à ceux qui entroient de prier Diev, ce que voyant le S. Personage il les Excommunia, de sorte qu’elles tomberent toutes mortes ayant couuert le paué de l’Eglise.

Nous lisons qu’en l’année 1541, il y eut vne telle quantité de Sauterelles en Lombardie, qui tomberent d’vne nuëé; qu’ayant mangé les fruits de la terre, elles causerent la famine en ces lieux-la. Elles estoient longues d’vne doigt, grosse teste, le ventre remply de vilenie et ordure; lesquelles estant mortes infecterent l’Air de si mauuaises odeurs, que les Courbeaux et autres animaux carnassiers ne les pouuoient supporter.

On dit aussi qu’en Pologne il y eut aussi telle quantité de ces animaux au commencement sans aisles, et apres ils en eurent quatre, qu’ils couuroient deux mille, et d’vne coudée d’auteur, et tellement épaisses qu’en volant elles leuoient la veüe de la clarté du Soleil, ces animaux firent un dégat non-pareil aux biens de la terre, et ne purent estre chassés par autre force ny industrie, que par la malediction Ecclesiastique.

Saint Augustin raconte au Liure de la Cité de Dieu, Chap. dernier, qu’en Afrique il y eut telle quantité de Sauterelles, et si prodigieuses, qu’ayans mangé tous les fruits, feüiles, et écorces des arbres iusques à la racine, elles s’éleuerent comme vne nuëe; et tombées en la Mer, causerent vne peste si forte, qu’en vn seul Royaume il y morut huit cens mille Habitans.

Du temps de Lotaire troisième Empereur apres Charlemagne, il y eut dans la France des Sauterelles en nombre prodigieux, ayans six aisles auec deux dents plus dures que de pierre, qui couurirent toute la terre, comme de la neige, et gasterent tous les fruits, arbres, blé, et foins, et tels animaux ayans esté jettés à la Mer; il s’ensuiuit vne telle corruption en l’Air, que la peste rauageât grande quantité de monde en ce pays là. Voilà quantité d’exemples quo nous font voir le dommage que nous apportent ces bestioles et insectes. Maintenant voyons comme on leur forme leur procés afin de s’en garantir par le moyen de la malédiction que leur donne l’Eglise.

Premièrement, sur la Requeste presentée par les Habitans du lieu qui souffrent le dommage, on fait informer sur le dégat que tels animaux ont fait, et estoient en danger de faire, laquelle information rapportée, le Juge Ecclesiastique donne vn Curateur à ses bestioles pour se présenter en jugement, par Procureur, et là deduire toutes leurs raisons, et se defendre contre les Habitans qui veulent leur faire quitter le lieu, où elles estoient, et les raisons veuës et considerées, d’vne part et d’autre il rend sa Sentence. Ce que vous verrez clairement par le moyen du plaidoyer suiuant.

_Requeste des Habitans_

Svpplie hvmblement N. Exposans comme riere le liieu de N. il y a quantité de Souris, Taupes, Sauterelles et autres animaux insectes, qui mangent les blés, vignes et autres fruits de la terre, et font vn tel dégat aux blés, et raisins qu’ils n’y laissent rien, d’où les pauures supplians souffrent notable prejudice, la prise pendante par racine estant consommée par ces animaux, ce qui causera vne famine insupportable.

Qui les fait recourir à la Bonté, Clemence et Misericorde de Dieu, à ce qu’il vous plaise faire en sorte que ces animaux ne gastent, et mangent les fruits de la terre qu’il a pleu à Dieu d’enuoyer pour l’entretient des hommes, afin que les supplians puissent vacquer, auec plus de deuotions au seruice Diuin, et sur ce il vous plaira pouruoir.

_Plaidoyer des Habitans_

Messievrs, ces pauures Habitans qui sont à genouy les larmes à l’œil, recourent à votre Iustice, comme firent autre-fois ceux des Isles Maiorque et Minorque, qui enuoyerent vers Aug. Cesar pour demander des Soldats, afin de les defendre, et exempter du rauage que les Lapins leur faisoient: vous aués des armes plus fortes que les Soldats de cette Empereur pour garantir les pauures supplians de la faim et necessité de laquelle ils sont menacés, par le rauage que font ces bestioles, qui n’épargnent ny blé, ny vignes; rauage semblable à celuy que faisoit vn Sanglier, qui gasta toutes les Terres, Vignes, et Oliuiers du Royaume de Calidon, dont parle Homere dans le premier Liure de son Hiliade, ou de ce Renard qui fut enuoyé par Themis à Thebes, qui n’épargnoit ny les fruits de la terre, ny le bestail attaquant les Paysans mesmes. Vous sçauez assez les maux que raporte la faim, vous aués trop de douceur, et de Iustice pour les laisser engager dans cette misere qui contraint à s’abandonner à des choses illicites, et cruelles, _nec enim rationem patitur, nec vlla æequitate mitigatur: nec prece vlla flectitur esuriens populus_: Témoins les Meres dont il est parlé au quatrième des Roys, qui pendant la famine de Samarie, mangerent les enfans, l’une de l’autre. _Da filium tuum, vt comedamus hodie, et filium meum comedimus cras: Coximus ergo filium meum, et comedimus. Quid turpe non cogit fames, sed nihil turpe, nihilve, vetitum esuriens credit, sola enim cura est, vt qualicumque sorte iuuetur._ La mort qui vient par la famine est la plus cruelle entant qu’elle est pleine de langueurs, débilités et foiblesses de cœur, qui sont autant de nouuelles, et diuerses especes de mort.

_Dura quidem miseris, mors est, mortalibus omnis, At perijsse fame, Res vna miserrima longè est._

Et Auian Marcellin dit, _Mortis grauissimum genus, et vltimum malorum fame perire_. Ie crois que vous aurés compassion, de ce pauuve Peuple, si on vous le represente, par aduance en l’estat qu’il serait reduit si la faim l’accabloit.

_Hirtus erat crinis, cana lumina, pallor in ore, Labia incana siti, scabri rubigine dentes. Dura cutis, per quam spectari viscera possunt. Ossa sub incuruis extabant arida lumbis; Ventus erat, pro ventre locus._

Les Gabaonistes, reuestus d’habits dechirés, et des visages affamés, auec de contenances toutes tristes, firent pitié et compassion au grand Capitaine Iousë, et en cét estar obtiendrent grace et misericorde.

Les Informations et visites qui ont esté faites par vos commandements, vous instruisent suffisamment du dégat que ces animaux ont fait. Ensuite dequoy on a fait les formalités requises et necessaires, ne restant plus maintenant que d’adjuger les fins et conclusions prises par la Requeste des demandeurs, qui sont ciuiles et raisonnables, sur lesquelles il vois plaira de fairé reflection, et à cét effet leur enioindre de quitter le lieu et se retirer dans la place qui leur sera ordonnées en faisant les execrations requises et necessaires, ordonnées par nostre Mere Sainte l’Eglise, à quoy les pauures demandeurs concluent.

_Plaidoyer pour les Insectes_

Messievrs, dépuis que vous m’aués choisi pour la defense ces pauures bestioles, il vois plaira que je remontre leur droit, et fasse voir que les formalités, qu’on a faites contre elles, sont nulles: m’étonnant fort de la façon qu’on en vse, on donne des plaintes contre elles, comme si elles auoient commis quelque crime, on fait informer du dégat qu’on pretend qu’elles ayent fait, on les fait assigner par-deuant le Juge pour respondre, et comme on sçait qu’elles sont muettes, le Juge voulant suppleer à ce defaut, leur donne vn Aduocat, pour representer en Justice les raisons qu’elles ne peuuent deduire; et parceq; Messieurs, il vous a pleu de me donner la liberté de parler pour les pauures animaux, je diray pour leur defence en premier lieu.

Qve l’adiovrnement laxé contr’elles est nul comme laxé contre des bestes, qui ne peuuent, ny doiuent se presenter en jugement; la raison est, que celuy qu’on appelle, doit estre capable de raison, et doit agir librement, pour pouuoir connoitre vn delict. Or est-il que les animaux estans priués de cette lumiere qui a esté donnée au seul homme, il faut conclurre par necessaire consequence, que telle procedure est nulle; cecy est tiré de la Loi premieree, _ff. si quadrupes, pauper feciss. dicat_; et voyci les mots. _Nec enim potest animal, iniuriam fecisse, quod sensu caret._

La seconde raison est, que l’on ne peut appeller personne en jugement sans cause; car autrement celuy qui fait adjourner quelqu’vn sans raison, il doit subir la peine portée sous le tiltre des instituts _de pœn. tem. litig._ Mais ces animaux ne sont obligés par aucune cause, ny en aucune façon, _non tenentur enim ex contractu_, estans incapables de contracter, _neque ex quasi contractu, neque ex stipulatione, neque ex pacto_, moins _ex delicto, seu quasi_; parce que comme il a esté dit cy-deuant, pour commettre vn crime, il faut estre capable de raison, qui ne se rencontre pas aux animaux, qui sont priués de son vsage.

De plus dans la Iustice, on ne doit rien faire qui ne porte coup, la Iustice en cela imitant la Nature; laquelle, comme dit le Philosophe, ne fait rien mal à propos, _Deus enim, et Natura nihil operantur frustra_. Je laisse à penser quest-ce qu’on pretend de faire ayant adjourné ces bestioles, elles ne viendront pas respondre; car elles sont muettes, elles ne constitueront pas des Procureurs, pour defendre leur cause, moins leur donneront des memoires, pour deduire en jugement, leur raison: Car elles sont priuées de raisonnement, en sorte que tel adjournement ne pouuant auoir aucun effect, est nul. Si donc l’adjournement qui est la base de tous les actes judiciels est nul, le reste comme en dependant, ne pourra subsister _cum enim principalis causa non consistat, neque ea quæ consequuntur locum habent_.

On dira peut-estre que si bien tels animaux, ne peuuent constituer vn Procureur, pour la defense de leur droict, et instruction de leur cause que le Juge de son office le peut faire, et partant que le fait du Juge, est le fait de la partie. A cela on respond qu’il est vray lors qu’il le fait selon la disposition du droict, _In administratione suæ iurisdictionis_, mais non pas en ce cas, où la partie n’en pouuait constituer, le Juge aussi, ne le peut faire, cecy est décidé par la glose de la Loy 2 _ff. de administrat. res ad Civit. pertinent_, et pour preuue de cette proposition faite à propos L’axiaume qui dit _quod directè fieri prohibetur, per indirectum concedi non debet, cap. tuae de procuratoribus, gloss. c. 1. de consanguinibus, et affinibus_. Mais ce que je treuue plus estrange, on pretend faire prononcer contre ces pauures animaux vne Sentence d’Excommunication, d’Anathema et malediction, et à quel sujet vser contre des bestioles qui sont sans defense, du plus rigoureux glaiue que l’Eglise aye en sa main, qui ne punit et ne châtie que les Criminels; ces animaux estans incapables de faire faute, ni peché, parce que pour pecher il faut auoir la lumiere de la raison laquelle dicernant le bien d’auec le mal, nous monstre ce qu’il faut suiure, et ce qu’il faut fuir, et de plus il faut auoir la liberté de prendre l’vn et laisser l’autre.

On vovdra peut-estre dire qu’elles ont manqué en ce qu’elles ne se sont presentées ayant esté adjurnées, et partant que la Contumace et defaut estant vn crime, on peut faire rendre contre elles Sentence Contumaciale, à cause de leur desobeïssance: Mais à cela on respond qu’il ny a point de Contumace, ou il n’y a point d’adjournement, ou du moins qui soit valable _quia paria sunt non esse citatum, vel non esse legitimè citatum, ita dd. communiter Bartol., in l. ea quae C. quomodo_, etc.

De plus, si on prend garde à la définition de l’Excommunication, on verra qu’on ne peut prononcer telle Sentence contre ces animaux: car l’Excommunication est dite _extra Ecclesiam positio, vel è qualibet communione, vel è quolibet legitimo actu separatio_. Tellement que tels animaux ne peuuent estre dechassés de l’Eglise, n’y ayans jamais esté, d’autant qu’elle est pour les hommes qui ont l’ame raisonnable, non pas pour les brutes, qui ne sont doüées d’aucune raison, et l’Apostre S. Paul _ad Corinth._ 5 dit _quòd de iis quae foris sunt nihil ad nos quoad Excommunicationem, quia Excommunicare non possumus_, l’Excommunication _afficit animam non corpus, nisi per quandam consequentiam, cuius Medicina est_, cap. 1, _de sentent. Excomm. in_ 6. C’est pourquoy l’ame de ces animaux, n’estant immortelle, elle ne peut estre touchée par telle Sentence, _quae vergit in dispendium aeternae salutis_.

L’autre raison est, _quòd facienti actum permissum non imputatur, id quod sequitur ex illo, licét consecutiuum sit repugnans statui_ suo cap. _de occidendis_ 23 q. 5 cap. _sicut dignum extra de homicid_. Ces animaux font vn acte permis mesme par le droit Diuin. Car il est dit dans la Genese _fecit Deus bestias terrae iuxta species suas, iumenta, et omne reptile terrae in genere suo dixitque Deus, ecce dedi vobis, omnem herbam afferentem semen super terram, et vniuersa ligna, quae habent in semetipsis sementem generis sui, vt sint vobis in escam; et cunctis animalibus terrae, omnique volucri coeli, vniversis quae mouentur in terris, et in quibus est anima viuens; vt habeat ad vescendum_. Que si les fruits de la terre ont esté faits pour les animaux et pour les hommes, il leur est permis d’en manger et prendre leur nourriture, aussi Cicéron dit au premier des Offices _principio generi omnium animantium est à natura attributum, vt se vitam, corpusque tueantur, quaeque ad vescendum necessaria sunt inquirant_. Par ces raison on voit qu’ils n’ont commis aucun delict, ayant fait ce qui leur est permis par le droit Diuin et de Nature, et par ainsi ils ne peuuent estre punis, ny maudis, _cum etiam creaturae intellettuali, et rationali delinquenti seu damnum afferenti, eo quòd secundum solitum facit; non est Angelo licitum maledicere, multo minùs erit licitum homini_, veu qu’on lit dans l’Epistre de S. Iude, _cum altercaretur Michaël cum Diabolo de corpore Moysis non fuit ausus maledicere_ Cap. _Si igitur Michaël_, 23. _q._ 3. S. Thomas 2. 2. _q._ 76. dit que de donner des maledictions aux choses irraisonnables, estans Creatures de Dieu s’est peché de blasphemer et de les maudire, les considérans en eux mesmes, _est otiosum, et vanum, et per consequens illicitum_.

Que si toutes ces raisons ne vous touchent, peut-estre cette-cy vous féra donner les mains, et persuadera à vostre Esprit, qu’on ne peut donner aucune sentence d’Excommunication contre elles ny jetter aucun Anatheme. Car prononçant telle Sentence s’est s’en pendre à Dieu, qui par sa justice le enuoye pour punir les hommes et chastier leurs péchés, _immitamque in vos bestias agri quae consumant vos, et pecora vestra, et ad paucitatem cuncta redigant_, pouuant dire maintenant ce que Dieu a dit auant le Deluge _omnis Caro corrupit viam suam_. Et Ouide en ses Metamorphoses voyant que le vice auoit pris le haut bout, Triomphant, et faisant des conquestes par tout, au contraire la vertu estoit abaissée, exilée, et reduite en tel estat qu’elle ne treuuoit aucune demeure parmy les Hommes.

_Protinus irrupit venæ prioris in æuum, Omne nefas, fugere pudor, verùmque fidésque, In quorum subiere locum, fraudésque, dolùsque. Insidiæque, et ars, et amor sceleratus habendi, Uiuitur ex rapto, non hospes ab hospite tutus, Non socer à genero, fratrum quoquè gratia rara est, Imminet exitio vir, conjugis, illa mariti Liuida terribiles miscent aconitæ nouercæ Filius ante diem, patrios inquirit in annos, Uita iacet pietas, et virgo cæde madentes. Ultima Cilestum, Terras Astrea reliquit._

Par les quelles raisons on voit, que ces animaux sont en nous absolutoires, et doiuent estre mis hors de Cour et de Procès, à quoy on conclud.

_Replique des Habitans_

Le principal motif qu’on a rapporté pour la deffense de ces animaux, est qu’estans priués de l’vsage de la raison, ils ne sont sommis à aucunes Loix, ainsi que dit le Chapitre _cum mulier_ 1. 5. q. l. la _l. congruit in fin_. et la Loix suiuante. _ff. de off. Praesid. sensu enim carens non subjicitur rigori Iuris Ciuilis._ Toutesfois, on fera voir que telles Loys ne peuuet militer au fait qui se présente maintenant à juger, car on ne dispute pas de la punition d’vn delict commis; Mais on tasche d’empescher qu’ils n’en commettent par cy-après, et partant ce qui ne seroit loisible à vn crime commis, et permis afin d’empescher _ne crimen committatur_. Cecy ce preuue par la Loy _congruit_ sus cité, où il est dit qu’on ne peut pas punir vn furieux et insensé du crime qu’il a commis pendant sa fureur, parce qu’il ne scait ce qu’il fait, toutesfois on le pourra renfermer et mettre dans des prisons, afin qu’il n’offence personne et pour faire voir combien cét Axiome est vray, ie me sers de l’authorité du Chapitre _omnis vtriusque sexus de poenitent. et remiss._ ou il est dit qu’on peut deceller ce qu’on a pris si on ne la pas executé, afin d’y rapporter du remede, cette proposition est confirmée par la glose _in cap. tua nos ext. de sponsal._ qui dit qui si quelqu’vn s’accuse d’auoir Fiancé une fille, par parolles de présent; on pourra deceller ce qui a esté dit, afin que le Mariage se consume. La raison est, qu’ayant espousé telle fille, si on nie de l’auoir fait, et on refuse d’accomplir le Mariage, _Videtur esse delictum successiuum, et durare vsque illam acceperit, vt ergo tali delicto obuietur_. Il este loisible de publier ce qu’on a pris secretement Estant vray par les raisons deduites qu’on a peu adjourner, tels animaux, et que l’adjournement est valable, d’autant qu’il est fait afin qu’ils ne rapportent du dommage d’ores en auant, non pas pour les chastier de celuy qu’ils ont fait. Il reste maintenant de respondre à ce qu’on a aduancé à sçauoir que tels animaux ne peuuent estre Excommuniés, Anathematisés, maudis ny execrés; à cela il semble que se serait doubter de la puissance que Dieu a donné à l’Eglise, l’ayant fait Maitresse de tout l’Vnivers, comme sa chere Espouse, de qui on peut dire, auec le Psalmiste, _omnia subiecisti sub pedibus ejus, oues, et boues et omnia quæ mouentur in aquis_, et estant conduite par le S. Esprit, ne fait rien que sagement, et s’il y a chose où elle doiue monstrer son pouuoir, c’est à la Conservation du plus parfait ouurage de son Espoux; à sçauoir de l’Homme, qu’il a fait à son Image et semblance, _faciamus hominem, ad imaginem, et similitudinem nostram_ et luy a donné le Gouuernement de toutes les choses crées _crescite et multiplicamini et dominamini piscibus maris, volatilibus cœli, et omnibus animantibus Cœli_; Aussi Pline en son Liure premier de l’Histoire naturelle dit _quod causâ hominis, videtur cuncta alia genuisse natura_. Les Jurisconsultes sont d’accord, _quod hominis gratia, omnes fructus à natura comparati sunt, l. pecudum. ff. de vsur. et §. partus ancillarum. instit. de rer. diuis._ et Ouide descriuant l’excellence de l’Homme parle de la sorte,

_Pronaque, cum spectent animalia cæetera terras Os homini sublime dedit, cælumque tueri Iussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus._

et vn autre Poëte,

_Nonne vides hominem, vt Celsos ad sidera vultus Sustulerit Deus, ac sublimia finxerit ora. Cum pecudes, volucrumque genus, formasque ferarum, Segnem, atque obscænam, passuri strauisset in aluum._

Picus Mirandulanus, en vne de ses Oraison parlant de la grandeur de l’Homme dit _hominem tantœ excellentiae, ac sublimitatis esse, vt in se omnia continere dicatur, vti Deus, sed diuersimodè, Deus enim omnia in se continet, vti omnium medium principium, homo verò, in se omnia continet, vti omnium medium, quo fit, vt in Deo sint omnia meliore nota, quàm in seipsis, in homine inferiora nobiliori sint conditione, superiora autem degenerent sicut aër, ignis, aqua et terra per verissimam proprietatem naturœ suœ, in crasso hoc, et terreno, hominis corpore, quo nos videmus, hinc etenim nulla creata substantia seruire dedignatur, hinc Terra, et Elementa, huic bruta præesto sunt, famulantur, hinc militat cælum, hinc salutem bonumque procurant Angelicœ mentes_.

Et se seroit vne chose, si j’ose dire hors de raison, que celuy pour qui la terre produit tous ces fruits, en fut priué, et que de chétifs animaux, prissent leur norriture, à l’exclusion de l’Homme pour qui ils sont destinés de Dieu. C’est sur ce sujet qu’il dit _Increpabo pro te locustas dummodò posueris de fructibus tuis in horrea mea_.

Et pour responce à ce qu’escrit S. Thomas qu’il n’est loisible de maudire tels animaux, si on les considere en eux mesmes, on dit qu’en l’espece qu’on traitte, on ne les considere pas, comme animaux simplement: mais comme apportans du mal aux Hommes, mangeans et détruisans les fruits qui seruent à son soutient, et nourriture.

Mais à quoy, nous arrestons-nous depuis qu’on voit par des exemples infinis que quantité de saints Personnages, ont Excommunié des animaux apportans du dommage aux Hommes. Il suffira d’en rapporter vn pour tout, qui nous est cogneu, et familier, que nous voyons continuellement, à sçauoir dans la ville d’Aix, où S. Hugon Euesque de Grenoble Excommuniat les serpens, qui y estaient en quantité à cause des bains chauds de souffre, et d’Alun, qui faisaient vn grand dommage aux Habitans de ce lieu par leur piqueures. De sorte que maintenant si bien les Serpens piquent, quelqu’vn dans le lieu, et confins: Telle piqueure ne fait aucun mal, le venin de ces bestes estant arresté, par le moyen de telle Excommunication, que si quelqu’vn est piqué hors de ce lieu par les mesmes Serpens, la piqueure sera venimeuse et mortelle ainsi qu’on a veu par plusieurs fois. Ie laisse à part quantité de passages de l’Escripture par lesquels on voit que Dieu a donné des maledictions aux choses inanimées, et Creatures sans raison, ainsi qu’on pourra voir au _Leuitic. Ch. 26. et Deutheronome 27. Genes. 2._ il maudit le Serpent _Maledictus es, inter omnia animantia, et bestias Terræ_.

De dire, qu’excommuniant, Anathematisant tels animaux, s’est s’en prendre à Dieu, qui les a enuoye pour le chastiment des hommes. A cela on respond que ce n’est pas s’ens prendre à Dieu que de recourir à l’Eglise, et la prier de diuertir, et chasser le mal, qu’il a pleu à sa Diuine Majesté de nous enuoyer, à cause de nos fautes et pechés; au contraire c’est vn acte de Religion que de recourir à elle, lors q’on voit que Dieu leue sa main pour nous frapper.

_Conclusion du Procureur Episcopal_

Les defenses rapportées par l’Aduocat de ces animaux, contre les Conclusions prises par les Habitans sont considerables qui meritent qu’on les examine meurement; car il ne faut pas ietter le carreau d’Excommunication à la volée, et sans sujet, estant vn foudre qui est si agissant, que s’il ne frappe celuy contre lequel on le jette, il embrase celuy qui le lance. Le discours de cét Aduocat est appuyé sur la règle de Droict, qui dit, _qui iussu iudicis aliquid facit, pœnam non meretur_, et vrayement c’est le Iuge des Iuges, qui ne laisse rien d’impuny, et qui distribue les peines à l’égal des offences, sans auoir égard à personne, de qui les jugemens nous sont incognus, _quàm abscondita iudicia Dei, inuestigabiles viæ ejus_. C’est vne Mer profonde d’ont on ne peut découurir le fonds. De dire pourquoy il a enuoyé ces animaux, qui mangent les fruits de la terre: Ce nous sont lettres closes; peut estre veut-il punir ce Peuple, pour auoir fait la sourde oreille aux pauures qui demandoient à leurs portes, estant vn Arrest infaillible, que qui fait aux pauures la sourde oreille, attende de Dieu la pareille.

Ceux qui donnent l’aumosne sont toûjours sous la protection Diuine, aussi S. Gierosme dit _non memini me legisse mala morte mortuum, qui libenter opera charitatis exercuit, habet enim multos intercessores, et impossibile est, multorum preces non exaudiri_, et S. Ambrojse parlant de ceux qui donnent l’aumône aux pauures, _si non pauisti necasti, pascendò seruare poteras_, de mesmes la Loy _de lib. agnoscend._ repute pour homicide celuy qui denie, et refuse les alimens à ceux qui en ont besoin, et le Prophete Ezechiel, c. 18. parlant de la recompense, que Dieu a destinée à ceux qui font du bien aux pauures, _qui panem suum esurienti dederit et nudum operuerit vestimento, justus est, et vità viuet_; Lesquelles paroles Eusèbe expliche de la sorte, _fregisti esurienti panem tuum, in Coelo vitae pane qui Christus est satiaberis, hic peregrinis domus tua patuit, in domo Angelorum, Ciuis efficieris tu hic trementia membra destijsti, illic liberaberis ab illo frigore, in quo erit fletus, et stridor dentium_.

C’est vn acte de Charité, que d’assister le pauures, _frange esurienti panem tuum et egenos, vagosque indue in domum tuam, cum videris nudum, operi eum, et carnem tuam ne despexeri_, dit Iosuë c. 38. aussi la récompense est asseurée, ainsi qu’escrit S. Mathieu cap. 25. _venite Benedicti patris mei, possidete paratum vobis regnum à constitutione mundi; esuriui enim, et dedistis mihi manducare; sitiui, et dedistis mihi bibere; hospes eram et Collegistis me; nudus eram, et operuistis me, amen dico vobis quod vni fecistis ex fratribus meis minimis, mihi fecistis_. C’est vne œuure de Misericorde d’auuoir compassion de son prochain, ainsi que dit S. Ambroise _lib. 2. off. cap. 28. hoc maximum Misericordiæ, vt compatiamur alienis calamitatibus necessitates aliorum, quantum possumus iuvemus, et plus interdum quàm possumus_ l’Hospitalité est recommandée par S. Paul _hospitalitatem nolite obliuisci, per hanc enim placuerunt quidam, Angelis hospitio receptis_, et S. Augustin _disce Christiane sine discretione exhibere hospitalitatem, ne fortè cui domum clauseris, cui humanitatem negaueris ipse sit Christus_. L’ordinaire recompence qui suit l’aumosne est le centuple, _honora Dominum de tua substantia, et de primitiis omnium fructuorum tuorum de pauperibus, et implebuntur horrea tua saturitate et vino torcularia tua redundabunt_. Les abismes de la Diuinité ne s’épuisent jamais, pour donner, et le sage Salomon, _fæneratur Domino qui miseretur pauperi, et vicissitudinem suam reddet_. S. Paul aux Corinthièns Chap. 2. parle de la sorte, _qui administrat semen seminanti, et panem ad manducandum præstabit, et multiplicabit semen suum_.

Seroit-ce point à cause des irreuerences qu’on commet aux Eglises pendant le service Diuin, ou sans aucun égard à la presence de Dieu, _conduntur stupra, tractantur lenocinia, adulteria meditantur, frequentiùs deniquè; in ædituorum cellulis quòd in ipsis lupanaribus flagrans libido defungitur_, pour parler auec Tertullien; car c’est là bien souuent où se donne le mot, où se prennent les assignations, où se lancent les meschantes œilliades, _Impudicus oculus, impudici cordis est nuncius_, dit S. Augustin. Sur tous les arbres et plantes, qui estaient en Ægypte, le péché était consacré à Harpocrates qui prenait soin du langage qu’on deuait tenir aux Dieux, parce que le fruit du peché ressemble au cœur, et la feuille à la langue, inférant de là que ceux qui allaient aux Temples, deuoient penser saintement honestement, et sombrement parler.

Numa Pompilius ne volut pas qu’on assistât au culte Diuin par maniere d’aquit: Mais qu’en quittant toutes choses, on y employat entièrement sa pensée, comme au principal acte de la Religion, et d’actions enuers les Dieux, ne voulant pas mesme pendant le Seruice, qu’on entendit parmy les Ruës aucun bruit, et lors que les Prestres faisoient le Sacrifices et ceremonies, il y auoit des Sergens qui crioent au Peuple que l’on se tue, laissant toute autre œuvre pour estre attentif au Culte.

Que si les Payens ont esté si exats en leur fausse Religion au Culte de leurs Idoles, et imaginaires Diuinités, nous qui sommes Chrestiens, et auons la conoissance du vray Dieu; quel respect ne luy deuons-nous pas porter dans les Eglises, pendant le S. Sacrifice de la Messe et autres Offices Diuins.

Mais si bien Dieu est Iuste iusticier, qui ne laisse rien impuni toutesfois la Iustice ne tient pas si fort le haut bout, que la misericorde, n’y treuue place. Il est autant Misericordieux que Iuste, et s’il enuoit quelques aduersités aux pecheurs et les visite par quelque coup de fouët: C’est pour les aduertir de faire penitence, par le moyen de laquelle ils puissent détourner son courroux, et iuste vengeance, et par ce moyen, ils se puissent reconcilier auec luy, et obtenir ses graces, et pardon de leurs fautes et pechés.

Nous voyons ces habitans la larme à l’œil, qui demandent pardon d’vn cœur contrit de leurs fautes, ayans horreur des crimes commis par le passé, et employent l’assistance de l’Eglise pour les soulager en leurs nécessités, et détourner le Carreau qui leur pend sur la teste, estans menacés d’vne famine insuportable si vous ne prenés leur droit, et cause en protection, et faire déloger ces animaux, qui les menaçent d’vne ruine totale, à quoy nous n’empeschons.

Concluans à cét effect, qu’il plaise de rendre vostre Sentence d’execution contre ces animaux, afin que d’ores en auant ils n’apportent du dommage aux fruits de la terre enjoignans aux Habitans, les Penitences, et Oraisons, à ce conuenables et accoustumées.

_La Sentence du Iuge d’Eglise_

In nomine Domini amen, visa supplicatione pro parte habitantium loci, nobis officiali in iudicio facta, aduersus Bronchos, seu Erucas, vel alia non dissimilia animalia fructus vinearum eiusdem loci à certis annis, et adhuc hoc praesenti anno, vt fide dignorum Testimonio, et quasi publico Rumore asseritur, cum maximo incolarum loci, et vicinorum locorum incommodo depopulantia, vt praedicta animalia per nos moneantur, et remediis Ecclesiasticis mediantibus compellantur, à territorio dicti loci abire, visisque diligenter, inspectis causis praedictae supplicationis, necnon pro parte, dictarum Erucarum, seu animalium, per certos Conciliarios eosdem, per nos deputatos, propositis et allegatis, audito etiam super praemissis promotore, ac visâ certâ informatione, et ordinatione nostra, per certum dictae Curiae, Notarium, de damno in vineis, iam dicti loci, per animalia illato. Quoniam, nisi eiusmodi damno, nisi diuina ope succurri posse existimatur attenta praedictorum habitantium, humili, ac frequenti, et importuna requisitione praesertim magnae pristinae vitae errata emendandi per eosdem habitantes, edicto spectaculo, solemniter supplicationum nuper ex nostra ordinatione, factarum prompta exhibitione, et sicut Misericordia Dei, peccatores ad se cum humilitate reuertentes non respuit, ita ipsius Ecclesia eisdem recurrentibus, auxilium seu etiam solatium qualecunque denegare non debet.

Non praedictus, in re quamquam noua, tam fortiter tamen efflagitata Maiorum vestigiis inhaerendo, pro tribunali, sedentes, ac Deum prae oculis habentes, in eius Misericordiâ, ac pietate confidentes, de peritorum consilio, nostram sententiam modo quae sequitur, in his scriptis ferimus.

In nomine, et virtute Dei, Omnipotentis, Patris, et Filij, et Spiritus sancti, Beatissimae Domini nostri Jesu Christi Genetricis Mariae, Authoritateque Beatorum Apostolorum, Petri et Pauli, necnon ea qua fungimur in hac parte, praedictos Bronchos, et Erucas, et animalia praedicta quocunque nomine censeantur, monemus in his scriptis, sub pœnis Maledictionis, ac Anathematisationis, vt infrà sex dies, à Monitione in vim sententiae huius, à vineis, et territoriis huius loci discedant, nullum vlterius ibidem, nec alibi documentum, praestitura, quod si infrà praedictos dies, iam dicta animalia, huic nostrae admonitioni non paruerint, cum effectu. Ipsis sex diebus elapsis, virtute et auctoritate praefatis, illa in his scriptis Anathematizamus, et maledicimus, Ordinantes tamen, et districtè praecipientes, praedictis habitantibus, cuiuscumque gradûs, ordinis, aut conditionis existant, vt faciliùs ab Omnipotente Deo, omnium bonorum largitore, et malorum depulsore, tanti incommodi liberationem, valeant promereri, quatenùs bonis operibus, ac deuotis supplicationibus, iugiter attendentes, de caetero suas decimas, sine fraude secundum loci approbatam consuetudinem persoluant, blasphemiis, et aliis peccatis, praesertim publicis sedulò abstineant.

C

Allegation, replication, and judgment in the process against field-mice at Stelvio in 1519.

KLAG

Schwarz Mining hat sein Klag gesetzt wider die Lutmäuse in der Gestalt, dass diese schädliche Tiere ihnen grossen merklichen Schaden tun, so wurde auch erfolgen, wenn diese schädliche Tiere nit weggeschaft werden, dass sie ire Jarszinse der Grundherrschaft nit nur geben könnten und verursacht wurden hinweg zu ziehen, weil sie solcher Gestalten sich nit wüssten zu ernehren.

ANTWORT

Darauf Grienebner eingedingt, und diese Antwort geben und sein Procurey ins Recht gelegt: er hab diese wider die Tierlein verstanden; es sey aber männiglich bewusst, dass sie allda in gewisser Gewöhr und Nutzen sitzen, darum aufzulegen sei----: Derentwegen er in Hoffnung stehe, man werde ihnen auf heutigen Tage die Nutz und Gewöhr mit keinem Urtel nehmen oder aberkennen. Im Fall aber ein Urtel erging, dass sie darum weichen müssten, so sey er doch in Hoffnung, dass ihnen ein anders Ort und Statt geben soll werden, uf dass sie sich erhalten mögen: es soll ihnen auch bei solchem Abzug ein frei sicher Geleit vor iren Feinden erteilt, es seyn Hund Katzen oder andre ihre Feind: er sey auch in Hoffnung, wenn aine schwanger wäre, dass derselben Ziel und Tag geben werde, dass ir Frucht fürbringen und alsdann auch damit abziehen möge.

URTEL

Auf Klag und Antwort, Red und Widerred, und uf eingelegte Kundschaften und Alles was für Recht kommen, ist mit Urtel und Recht erkennt, dass die schädlichen Tierlein, so man nennt die Lutmäuse, denen von Stilfs in Acker und Wiesmäder nach Laut der Klag in vierzehn Tagen raumen sollen, da hinweg ziehen und zu ewigen Zeiten dahin nimmer mehr kommen sollen; wo aber ains oder mehr der Tierlein schwanger wär, oder jugendhalber nit hinkommen möchte, dieselben sollen der Zeit von jedermann ain frey sicheres Geleit haben 14 Tage lang; aber die so ziehen mögen, sollen in 14 Tagen wandern.

_Vide_ Hormayr’s _Taschenbuch für die vaterländische Geschichte_. Berlin, 1845, pp. 239-40.

D

Admonition, denunciation, and citation of the inger by the priest Bernhard Schmid in the name and by the authority of the Bishop of Lausanne in 1478.

Du vnvernünfftige/ vnvollkommne Creatur/ mit nammen Inger/ vnd nenne dich darumb vnvollkommen/ dann deines geschlechts ist nit geseyn in der Arch Noe/ in der Zeit der vergifftung vnd plag des Wassergusses. Nun hast du mit deinem anhang grossen schaden gethan im Erdtrich vnd auff dem Erdtrich ein mercklichen abbruch zeitlicher nahrung der Menschen vnd vnvernüfftigen thiere. Vnd von des nun/ sömlicher und dergleichen/ durch euch vnd euweren anhang nit mehr beshäch/ so hat mir mein gnädiger Herr vnd Bischoff zu Losann gebotten in seinem nammen/ euch zeermannen/ zeweichen vnd abzestahn. Vnd also von seiner Gnaden gebotts wegen vnd auch in seinem nammen als obstaht/ vnd bey krafft der heiligen hochgelobten Dreyfaltigkeit/ vnd durch krafft vnd verdienen des Menschen-geschlechts Erlösers/ vnsers behalters Jesu Christi/ vnd bey krafft vnd gehorsamkeit der heiligen Kirchen gebieten vnd ermannen ich euch in 6. nächsten tagen zeweichen/ all vnd jegliche besonders/ auss allen Matten/ Ackeren/ Gärten/ Feldern/ Weiden/ Bäumen/ Krüteren/ vnd von allen örteren/ an denen wachsend vnd entspringend nahrungen der Menschen vnd der Thieren/vndan dieort vnd stätteuch fügend/ dass ihr mit ewerem anhang nimmer kein schaden vollbringen mögen an den früchten vnd nahrungen der Menschen vnd Thieren/ heimlich noch offentlich. Were aber sach/ dass ihr dieser ermannungen vnd gebott nit nachgiengend/ oder nachfolgeten/ vnd meinten vrsach haben/ das nit zeerfüllen/ so ermannen ich euch alsvor/ vnd laden vnd citieren euch bey krafft vnd gehorsamkeit der heiligen Kirchen am 6. tag nach diser execution/ so es eins schlecht/ nach mitten tag/ gen Wifflispurg/ euch zu verantworten/ oder durch eweren Fürsprechen antwort zu geben/ vor meinem gnädigen Herren von Losann/ oder seinem Vicario vnd statthaltern/ vnd wird drauff mein gnädiger Herr von Losann oder sein statthalter fürer/ nach ordnungen des rechten/ wider euch/ mit verflüchen vnd beschweerungen/ handeln/ alss sich dann in solchem gebürt/ nach form vnd gestalt des rechten. Lieben Kind/ ich begären von ewerem jeglichen zu bätten mit andacht auff ewerem knyen 3 Paternoster vnd Ave Maria, der hochen heiligen Dreyfaltigkeit zu lob vnd ehr anzerüffen vnd zebitten ihr gnad vnd hilff zesenden/ damit die Inger vertriben werdind.

Job. Heinrich Hottinger: _Historia ecclesiastica novi testamenti_ iv. pp. 317-321, on the authority of Schilling’s _Chronica_, the manuscript of which is in the Zurich library.

E

Decree of Augustus, Duke of Saxony and Elector, commending the action of Parson Greysser in putting the sparrows under ban, issued at Dresden in 1559.

Von Gottes Gnaden Augustus, Herzog zu Sachsen und Kurfürst.--Lieber Getsener, welchergestalt und aus was Ursachen und christlichem Eifer, der würdige, Unser lieber andächtiger Hr. Daniel Greysser, Pfarrherr allhier in seiner nächst getanen Predigt, über die Sperlinge etwas heftig bewegt gewesen und dieselbe wegen ihres unaufhörlichen verdriesslichen grossen Geschreis und ärgerlichen Unkeuschheit, so sie unter der Predigt, zu Verhinterung Gottes Worts und christlicher Andact, zu tun und behegen pflegen, in den Bann getan, und männiglich preis gegeben, dessen wirst du dich als der damals ohne Zweifel aus Anregung des heiligen Geistes im Tempel zur Predigt gewesen, guter massen zu erinnern wissen.

Wiewohl Wir uns nun vorsehen, du werdest, auf gedachten Herrn Daniels Vermahnen und Bitten, so er an alle Zuhörer insgemein getan, ohne das allbereit auf Wege gedacht haben; sintemal Wir diesen Bericht erlangt, dass du dem kleinen Gevögel vor andern durch mancherlei visirliche und listige Wege und Griffe nachzustellen, auch deine Nahrung unter andern damit zu suchen und dasselbe zu fahen pflegest,--dass ihnen ihrem Verdienst nach gelohnt werden möge nach weiland des Herrn Martini seligen Urtheil--ist demnach unser gnädiges Begehren--zu eröffnen, wie und welchergestalt auch durch was Behändigkeit und Wege, du für gut ansehest, dass die Sperlinge eher dann, wann sie jungen, und sich durch ihre tägliche und unaufhörliche Unkeuschheit unzählich vermehren, ohne sonderliche Kosten aus der Kirche zum heiligen Kreuz gebracht, und solche ärgerliche Vöglerei und hinterlicher Getzschirpe und Geschrei im Hause Gottes, verkümmert werden möge.... Das gereicht zur Beförderung guter Kirchenzucht und geschieht daran unsere gnädige Meinung. Datum Dresden, den. 18. Februar 1559.--Unserm Secretario und lieben getreuen Thomas Nebeln.

_Vide_ Hormayr’s _Taschenbuch, etc._, 1845, pp. 227-8.

F

Chronological List of Excommunications and Prosecutions of Animals from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century.[5]

---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sources of Information | Dates | Animals | Places ----------------------------+-------+-------------+------------------- Annales Ecclesiastici | 824 |Moles |Valley of Aosta Francorum | | | | | | Muratori: Rer. Ital. | 886 |Locusts |Roman Campagna Scriptores, iii | | | | | | Gaspard Bailly: | 9th |Serpents |Aix-les-Bains Traité des Monitoires | cent. | | | | | Sainte-Foix: Oeuvres, iv, | 1120 |Field-mice |Laon p. 97, Mémoires de la | |and | Société Royale des | |Caterpillars | Antiquaires de France, | | | viii, p. 427 | | | | | | Théophile Raynaud: De | 1121 |Flies |Foigny near Laon Monitoriis in Opusc. | | | missc. ejus, xiv, p. 482. | | | Mémoires, cit., viii, p. | | | 415. Note, Vita S. | | | Bernhardi, i, No. 58. | 1121 |Horseflies |Mayence Acta., SS. Aug. iv, p. 272| | | | | | Malleolus: De Exorcismis | 1225 |Eels |Lausanne | | | L’Abbé Leboeuf: Hist. de | 1266 |Pig |Fontenay-aux-Roses Paris, ix, p. 400. | | | near Paris Mémoires, cit., viii, | | | p. 427 | | | | | | Sainte-Foix: Oeuvres | 1314 |Bull |Moiey-le-Temple Thémis, viii | | | | | | " " " | 1320 |Cockchafers |Avignon | | | Carpentier to Du Cange, | 1322 | |Not Specified _vide_ Homicida | | | | | | " " " | 1323 | |Abbeville Both cited by Von Amira, | | | p. 552 | | | | | | Zeitschrift für deutsche | 1338 | |Kaltern Kulturgeschichte, ii, p. | | | 544; also Germania, iv, | | | p. 383. Von Amira, p. 561 | | | | | | Delisle: Etudes sur la | 1356 |Pig |Caen condition de la classe | | | agricole, p. 107. Von | | | Amira, p. 552 | | | | | | Carpentier to Du Cange. | 1378 | |Abbeville _Vide_ homicida. Von | | | Amira, p. 552 | | | | | | Garnier: Revue des Sociétés | 1379 |Three sows |Saint-Marcel Savantes, Dec. 1866, pp. | |and a pig. | les-Jussey 476, _sqq._ From the | |Rest of the | archives of Côte-d’Or | |two herds | | | pardoned | | | | Charange: Dict. des Titres | 1386 |Sow |Falaise Originaux, ii, p. 72. | | | _Also_ statistique de | | | Falaise, i, p. 63. | | | Mémoires, cit., viii, | | | p. 427 | | | | | | Auranton: Annuaire de la | 1389 |Horse |Dijon Côte-d’Or | | | | | | Berriat-Saint-Prix in | 1394 |Pig |Mortaing Mémoires, cit., viii, p. | | | 427. From MSS. in la | | | Bibliothèque du Roi | | | | | | Malleolus: De Exorcismis, | 14th |Spanish flies|Mayence Tract. ii, Mémoires, | cent. | | cit., viii, p. 411 | | | | | | MS. of Judge Hérisson, | 1403 |Sow |Meulan published by Lejeune in | | | Mémoires, cit., viii, p. | | | 433; _also_ Loriol: | | | La France Eure et Loire, | | | p. 108 | | | | | | Auranton: Annuaire de la | 1404 |Pig |Rouvre Côte-d’Or | | | | | | MS. Bibliothèque du Roi | 1405 |Ox |Gisors Mémoires, cit., viii, | | | p. 427 | | | | | | MS. Bibliothèque du Roi | 1408 |Pig |Pont-de-l’Arche Mémoires, cit., viii, | | | p. 428 | | | | | | Louandre: Histoire | 1414 | " |Abbeville d’Abbeville | | | | | | " " " | 1418 | " | " | | | Auranton: Annuaire de la | 1419 | " |Labergement-le-Duc Côte-d’Or | | | | | | " " " | 1420 | " |Brochon | | | " " " | 1435 | " |Trochères | | | Malleolus: De Exorcismis, | 1451 |Rats and |Berne Mémoires, cit., viii, | | Bloodsuckers| p. 423 | | | | | | Garnier: Revue des Sociétés | 1452 |Sixteen cows |Rouvre Savantes, iv, p. 476 | | and one goat| _sqq._ Dec. 1866 | | | | | | Gui-Pape: Decisiones | 1456 |Pig |Bourgogne Thémis, i, p. 196 | | | | | | Mémoires, cit., viii, pp. | 1457 |Sow |Savigny-sur-Etang, 441-445. From Archives of | | | Bourgogne Monjeu and Dependencies | | | | | | Desnoyers: Recherches etc. | 1460-1|Weevils |Dijon | | | A. Duboys: Justice et | 1463 |Two pigs |Amiens Bourreau à Amiens | | | | | | Sauval: Histoire de Paris, | 1466 |Sow |Corbeil iii, p. 387. Mémoires, | | | cit., viii, p. 428 | | | | | | A. Duboys: Histoire de Paris| 1470 |Mare |Amiens | | | Promenades pittoresques dans| 1474 |Cock |Bâle l’Evêché de Bâle. Journal | | | du Départment du Nord, | | | Nov. 1, 1813. Mémoires, | | | cit., viii, p. 428. Johann| | | Gross: Kleine Baseler | | | Chronik. | | | | | | Schilling: Chronica (Zurich | 1478 |Inger (sort |Berne MS.), Hottinger: Hist. | | of weevil) | Eccles. Pars iv, pp. | | | 317-321 | | | | | | Ruchat: Hist. Eccles. du |1479[6]|Inger | " Pays de Vaud | | | | | | Hist. de Nismes. Mémoires, | 1479 |Rats and |Nîmes cit., viii, p. 428. | | Moles | | | | Louandre: Hist. d’Abbeville | 1479 |Pig |Abbeville | | | Chasseneus: Consilia von | 1481 |Caterpillars |Macon Amira, p. 561 | | | | | | Victor Hugo: Nôtre Dame de | 1482 |Goat |Paris Paris | | | | | | Chasseneus: Consilia. | 1487 |Snails |Macon Mémoires, cit., viii, | | | p. 416 | | | | | | " " " | 1488 | " |Autun | | | " " " | 1488 |Weevils |Beaujeu | | | Louandre: Hist. d’Abbeville | 1490 |Pig |Abbeville | | | Annuaire de l’Aisne 1812, | 1494 |Pig |Clermont-les-Moncornet p. 88. Mémoires, cit., | | | near Laon viii, p. 428, 446 | | | | | | Saint-Edme: Dict. de la | 1497 |Sow |Charonne Penalité, sub verb. | | | Animaux | | | | | | Voyage Littéraire de deux | 1499 |Bull |Beauvais Bénédictins (Durand et | | | Martenne), 1717, ii, | | | p. 166-7 | | | | | | Archives de l’Abbaye de | 1499 |Pig |Sèves near Chartres Josaphat. Mémoires, cit., | | | viii, p. 434-5 | | | | | | Mémoires, cit., viii, p. | 15th |Sow |Dunois 434 | cent. | | | | | Malleolus: De Exorcismis | " |Caterpillars |Coire | | | " " " | " |Worms |Constance | | | " " " | " |Beetles |Coire | | | Louandre: L’Épopée des | 1500 |Flies |Mayence Animaux | | | | | | Chasseneus: Consilia | 1500 |Snails |Lyon | | | Chasseneus: Consilia | 1500- |Vermin |Autun | 1530 | (Rats, etc.)| | | | Mémoires et Documents, publ.| 1509 |Vermin |Lausanne par la Soc. de la Suisse | | | Romande, vii, No. 97, pp. | | | 675-677 | | | | | | Annuaire de la Côte-d’Or | 1510 |Pig |Dijon | | | Annuaire de la Côte-d’Or. | 1512 | " |Arcenaux Mémoires, cit., viii, | | | p. 447 | | | | | | Mathieu: Hist. des Évêques |1512-13|Rats and |Langres de Langres, p. 188 | | Insects | | | | Groslée: Ephémérides, 1811, | 1516 |Weevils |Troyes in Champagne ii, p. 153, 168. _Cf._ |(1506 | | Théophile Raynaud: Opusc, | according | 1665, p. 482. Mémoires, | to some | cit., viii, p. 413, 418, | authorities) | 424 | | | | | | Habasque: Not. hist. sur le | 1516 |Locusts |Tréguier Litoral des Côtes-du-Nord,| | | p. 89 | | | | | | Scheible: Das Kloster, xii, | 1519 |Field-mice |Glurns (Stelvio) pp. 946-48 | | | | | | Saint-Edme: Dict. de la |1522[7]|Rats |Autun Penalité. _Cf._ Chasseneus| | | | | | Vernet in Thémis ou | 1525 |Dog |Parliament of Bibliothèque des | | | Toulouse Jurisconsulte, viii | | | | | | Papon and Boesius: | 1528 |Not specified|Parliament of Decisiones. _Cf._ Thémis, | | | Bordeaux viii | | | | | | " " " | 1528 | " | " " | | | Ménebréa: Jugements rendus | 1536 |Weevils |Lutry (on Lake contre les Animaux, p. | | | Leman) 505. From Grenier: | | | Documents relatifs à | | | l’hist. du pays de Vaud. | | | | | | Lerouge: Registre secret | 1540 |Bitch |Meaux manuscrit | | | | | | Annuaire de la Côte-d’Or | 1540 |Pig |Dijon | | | Lerouge: Registre secret | 1541 |She-Ass |Loudun manuscrit | | | | | | Bailly: Traité des | 1541 |Grasshoppers |Lombardy Monitoires, ii | | | | | | Malleolus: De Exorcismis | 1541 |Vermin |Lausanne | |(worms, rats,| | |bloodsuckers)| | | | Berriat-Saint-Prix in | 1543 |Snails and |Grenoble Thémis, i, p. 196 | | Locusts | | | | Ménebréa: Jugements rendus | 1545 |Weevils |St. Jean de contre les Animaux, pp. | and | | Maurienne 544, 545, 556. De Actis | 1546 | | Scindicorum com. St. | | | Jul., etc. | | | | | | Dulaure: Hist. de Paris, | 1546 |Cow |Parliament of iii, p. 28, Registres | | | Paris manuscrits de la | | | Tournelle. _Cf._ Mémoires,| | | cit., viii, p. 429 | | | | | | Lerouge: Registre secret | 1550 | " | " " manuscrit | | | | | | " " " | 1551 |Goat |Ile de Rhé | | | " " " | 1554 |Sheep (ewe) |Beaugé | | | Aldrovande: De Insectis, | 1554 |Bloodsuckers |Lausanne 1602, lib. vii, 724. | | | Mémoires, cit. viii, | | | p. 429 | | | | | | Desnoyer, cited in Revue des| 1554 |Insects |Langres questions historiques, v, | | | p. 278. Von Armira, p. 567| | | | | | Lerouge: Registre secret | 1556 |She-Ass |Sens manuscrit | | | | | | Lecoq: Hist. de la Ville de | 1557 |Pig |Saint-Quintin Saint-Quintin, p. 143. | | | Sorel: Procès contre des | | | animaux, etc., p. 9 | | | | | | Lerouge: Registre secret | 1560 |She-Ass |Loigny near manuscrit | | | Châteaudun | | | " " " | 1561 |Cow |Augoudessus in | | | Picardy | | | Lessona: I Nemici del | 1562 |Weevils |Argenteuil Vino. Regist. Epir. Par. | | | for May 8 | | | | | | Ranchin on Gui. Pape | 1565 |Mule |Montpellier Quaest., 74. Thémis, i, | | | p. 196. Mémoires, cit., | | | viii, p. 429 | | | | | | Papon: Decisiones. Thémis, | 1565 |Not specified|Parliament of viii | | | Toulouse | | | Louandre: L’Epopée des | 1566 |She-Ass |Parliament of Animaux | | | Paris | | | MSS. of Bibliothèque | 1567 |Sow |Senlis Nationale of Paris | | | | | | Lionnois: Hist. de Nancy, | 1572 |Pig |Moyen-Montier, 1811, ii, p. 374 | | | near Nancy | | | Lersner: Chronica, 1706, | 1574 | " |Frankfort-on-the-Main p. 552 | | | | | | Brillon: Decisiones Thémis, | 1575 |She-Ass |Parliament of viii | | | Paris | | | Haus-Chronik von | 1576 |Pig |Schweinfurt Schweinfurt, in | | | Zeitschrift für deutsche | | | Kulturgeschichte, i, 156 | | | | | | Cannaert: Bydragen tot de | 1578 |Pig(?) |Ghent Kennis van het oude | | | strafrecht in Vlandern, | | | 1835, p. vii | | | | | | Derheims: Hist. de | 1585 |Pig |Saint-Omer Saint-Omer, p. 327 | | | | | | Chorier: Hist. du Dauphiné. | " |Locusts |Valence _Cf._ Thémis, i, p. 196 | | | | | | Ménebréa: Jugements rendus | 1587 |Weevils |St. Jean-de-Maurienne contre les animaux, etc., | | | pp. 546, 549 | | | | | | Fornery and Laincel | 1596 |Dolphins |Marseilles | | | Théophile Raynaud: De | 16th |Weevils and |Cotentin Monitoriis, p. 482. | cent. | Grasshoppers| Mémoires, cit., viii, |(first | | p. 429 | half) | | | | | Chasseneus: Consilia. | " |Snails |Lyons Mémoires, cit., viii, | | | p. 415 | | | | | | " " " | " |Weevils |Mâcon | | | " " " | " |Pig |Dijon | | | Louandre: L’Épopée des | " |Dog |Scotland Animaux | | | | | | Duboys: Hist. du Droit | 16th |Weevils |Angers Crim. de la France | cent. | | | second| | | half | | | | | Azpilcueta Martinus Doctor | " |Rats |Spain Navarrus: Consilia seu | | | Responsa, 1602, ii, p. | | | 812. Mémoires, cit., viii,| | | p. 419. Théoph. Raynaud, | | | cit., p. 482 | | | | | | Francesco Vivio: Decisiones,| 16th |Divers |Aquila in Italy No. 68. Cited by | cent. | animals | D’Addosio: Bestie Delinq.,| second| | p. 125 | half | | | | | Archives of Obwalden | " |Gadflies |Aargau | | | Leonardo Vairo: De Fascino. | " |Locusts |Naples _Cf._ D’Addosio, cit., | | | p. 115. | | | | | | Sardagna: L’uomo e le | " |Horse |Portugal Bestie. Cited by D’Addosio| | | | | | Mornacius to Du Cange, | 1600 | |Beauvais _s.v._ Homicida | | | | | | Lerouge: Registre secret | " |Cow |Thouars manuscrit | | | | | | " " " | " | " |Abbeville | | | Lessona: I Nemici del Vino, | " |Weevils |Vercelli 1890, p. 141 | | | | | | Papon: Decisiones. Thémis, | 1601 |Dog |Brie viii. Lerouge: Reg. | | | secret manuscrit | | | | | | Lerouge: Registre secret | " |Mare |Provins manuscrit | | | | | | Papon: Recueil d’Arrets | 1601 |Not |Parliament of | | specified | Paris | | | Charma: Leçons de | 1604 |Ass |Parliament of Philosophie | | | Paris | | | Guerra: Diurnali | " | " |Naples | | | Lerouge: Registre secret | " |Mare |Joinville manuscrit | | | | | | " " " | 1606 |Sheep |Riom | | | " " " | " |Cow |Châteaurenaud | | | | | | " " " | " |Mare |Coiffy near Langres | | | | | | Lejeune: Mémoires, cit., | " |Bitch |Chartres viii, p. 418 | | | | | | Lerouge: Registre secret | 1607 |Mare |Boursant near manuscrit | | | d’Epernay | | | " " " | 1609 | " |Montmorency | | | " " " | " | " |Niederrad | | | Voltaire: Siècle de Louis | " |Cow |Parliament of XIV, ch. i. Louandre: | | | Paris Rev. des deux Mondes, | | | 1854, i, p. 334 | | | | | | Lerouge: Registre secret | 1610 |Horse |Paris manuscrit | | | | | | " " " | 1611 |Goat |Laval | | | " " " | " |Cow |St. Fergeux | | | near Rethel | | | " " " | 1613 |Sow |Montoiron near | | | Chatelleraut | | | " " " | 1614 |She-Ass |Le Mans | | | Desnoyers: Recherches, etc.,| 1616 |Rats and |Langres p. 13 | | insects | | | | Anzeige für Kunde der | 1621 |Cow |Machern near deutschen Vorzeit, 1880, | | | Leipsic col. 102 | | | | | | Lerouge: Registre secret | 1621 |Mare |La Rochelle manuscrit | | | | | | " " " | 1622 | " |Montpensier | | | " " " | 1623 |She-Ass |Bessay near Moulins | | | " " " | 1624 |Mule |Chefboutonne (Poitou) | | | Döpler: Theat. pen., ii, | 1631 |Mares and |Greifenberg p. 574 | | Cows | | | | Marchisio Michele: Gatte | 1633 |Weevils |Strambino ed. insetti nocivi, 1834, | | | (Ivrea) p. 63 _sqq._ | | | | | | Lerouge: Registre secret | " |Mare |Bellac manuscrit | | | | | | Carpentier to Du Cange, | 1641 |Pig |Viroflay _s.v._ Homicida | | | | | | Lerouge: Registre secret | 1647 |Mare |Parliament of manuscrit | | | Paris | | | " " " | 1650 | " |Fresnay near Chartres | | | Crollolanza: Storia del | 1659 |Caterpillars |Chiavenna Contado di Chiavenna, | | | p. 455 _sqq._ | | | | | | Perrero: Gazzetta | 1661 |Weevils |Turin Litteraria di Torino, | | | Feb. 24, 1883 | | | | | | Cotton Mather: Magnalia | 1662 |Cow, two |New Haven, Conn. Christi Americana, Book | | Heifers, | vi. London, 1702 | | three Sheep,| | | and two Sows| | | | Lerouge: Registre secret | 1666 |Mare |Tours manuscrit | | | | | | " " " | " | " |St. P. Lemontiers | | | Lerouge: Registre secret | 1667 |She-Ass |Vaudes near manuscrit | | | Bar-sur-Seine | | | " " " | 1668 |Mare |Angers | | | Annales scientifiques de | 1670 |Locusts |Clermont l’Auvergne, Vol. vii, | | | p. 391 | | | | | | Döpler: Theatrum pen., ii, | 1676 |Mare and Cow |Silesia p. 5 | | | | | | Lerouge: Registre secret | 1678 | " |Beaugé manuscrit | | | | | | Perrero: Gaz. Litter. di | " |Weevils |Turin Torius, Feb. 24, 1883 | | | | | | Brillon: Decisiones, i, | 1679 |Mare |Parliament p. 914. Mémoires, cit., | | | d’Aix viii, p. 431. Boniface: | | | Traité des matières | | | criminelles, 1785, p. 31 | | | | | | Chorier: Hist du Dauphiné. | Before|Worms |Constance Thémis, viii | 1680 | | and Coire | | | Lerouge: Registre secret | 1680 |Mare |Fourches near manuscrit | | | Provins | | | Heinrich Roch: Schlesische | 1681 |Mare |Wünschelburg Chronik, p. 342. Döpler: | | | in Silesia Theat. pen., ii, p. 573 | | | _sqq._ | | | | | | " " " | 1684 |Mare |Ottendorf | | | " " " | 1685 | " |Striga | | | Dulaure: Description des | 1690 |Locusts |Pont-de-Château principaux lieux de la | | | in Auvergne France, 1789, v, p. 493 | | | _sqq._ Mémoires, cit., | | | viii, p. 412 | | | | | | Lerouge: Registre secret | 1692 |Mare |Moulins manuscrit | | | | | | La Hontan: Voyages, Let. xi,| End of|Turtledoves |Canada p. 79. Mémoires, cit., | 17th | | viii, p. 431 | cent. | | | | | Meiners: Vergleichung des | " |He-Goat |Russia ältern u, neuern | | banished | Russlands, p. 291. | | to Siberia | _Cf._ Amira, p. 573 | | | | | | Registres de la Paroise de | 1710 |Rats |Grignon Grignon | | | | | | Sorel: Procès contre des | 1710 |Vermin |Autun animaux, etc., p. 23 | | | | | | Rinds Herreds Krönike and | 1711 | " |Als in Jutland other sources given by | | | Amira, p. 565 | | | | | | Agnel: Curiosités | 1713 |Termites |Piedade no Maranhão judiciaires et | | | in Brazil historiques du moyen-âge, | | | p. 46. _Cf._ Manoel | | | Bernardes: Nova Floresta | | | ou Sylva de varios | | | apophthegmas, etc. 5 tom. | | | Lisboá, 1706-47 | | | | | | MSS. of Bibliothèque | 1726 |Not specified|Paris Nationale of Paris, | | | No. 10,970. D’Addosio: | | | Best. Del., p. 107 | | | | | | Ménebréa: Jugements contre | 1731 |Insects |Thonon les animaux, p. 508 | | | | | | La Tradition, 1888, p. 363 | 1733 |Vermin |Buranton _sqq._ Amira, p. 564 | | | | | | Rousseaud de Lacombe: | 1741 |Cow |Poitou Traité des matières crim. | | | D’Addosio: Best. Del., | | | p. 107 | | | | | | Ant. de Saint-Gervais: | 1750 |She-Ass |Vanvres Hist. des Animaux | | | | | | A Report of the Case of | 1771 |Dog |Chichester, England Farmer Carter’s Dog. | | | Amira, p. 559 | | | | | | Comparon: Hist. du | 1793 | " |Paris Tribunal Révolutionnaire | | | de Paris. _Cf._ Sorel, | | | op. cit., p. 16 | | | | | | Filangieri: Scienza della | 18th |Dogs |Italy Legislazione | cent. | | | | | Det. Kong. Danske | | | Landhusholdnings-Selskabs | 1805-6|Vermin |Lyö in Denmark Skrifter. Ny Saml. ii, 1, | | | 22. Amira, p. 565 | | | | | | Desnoyers: Recherches, | 1826 |Locusts |Clermont-Ferrand etc., p. 15 | | | | | | Gazette des Tribunaux, | 1845 |Dog |Paris Jan. 23, 1845 | | | | | | " " " | 1864 |Pig |Pleternica in | | | Slavonia | | | Krauss, quoted by Amira, | 1866 |Locusts |Pozega in p. 573 | | | Slavonia | | | " " " | " |Grasshoppers |Vidovici in | | | Slavonia | | | Desnoyer: Recherches, | 19th |Locusts |Catalonia etc., p. 15 | cent. | | | | | Allg. deutsche | | | Strafrechts-zeitung, | " |Cock |Leeds in England 1861, No. 2. Also Pertile:| | | Gli animali in giudizio | | | | | | Cretella: Gli Animali | " |Wolf |Calabria sotto processo in Fanfulla| | | 1891, No. 65. _Cf._ Amira,| | | p. 569 | | | | | | New York Herald and Echo | 1906 |Dog |Délémont in de Paris, May 4, 1906[8] | | | Switzerland ----------------------------------------------------------------------

G

Receipt dated Jan. 9, 1386, in which the hangman of Falaise acknowledges to have been paid by the Viscount of Falaise ten sous and ten deniers tournois for the execution of an infanticidal sow, and also ten sous tournois for a new glove.

Quittance originale du 9, janvier 1386, passée devant Guiot de Montfort, tabellion à Falaise, et donnée par le bourreau de cette ville de la somme de _dix sols et dix deniers tournois_ pour sa peine et salaire d’avoir trainé, puis pendu à la justice de Falaise une truie de l’age de 3 ans ou environ, qui avoit mangé le visage de l’enfant de Jonnet le Maux, qui était au bers et avoit trois mois et environ, tellement que ledit enfant en mourut, et de _dix sols tournois pour un gant neuf_ quand le bourreau fit la dite execution; cette quittance est donné á Regnaud Rigault, vicomte de Falaise; le bourreau y declare qu’il se tient pour bien content des dites sommes, et qu’il en tient quitte le roy et ledit vicomte.

Charange: _Dictionnaire des Titres Originaux_. Paris, 1764. Tome II. p. 72. Also _Statistique de Falaise_, 1827. Tome I. p. 63.

H

Receipt, dated Sept. 24, 1394, in which Jehan Micton, hangman, acknowledges that he received the sum of fifty sous tournois from Thomas de Juvigney, viscount of Mortaing, for having hanged a pig which had killed and murdered a child in the parish of Roumaygne.

A tous ceulx qui ces lettres verront ou orront, Jehan Lours, garde du scel des obligacions de la vicomté de Mortaing, salut, Sachent tous que par devant Bynet de l’Espiney, clerc tabellion juré ou siege dudit lieu de Mortaing, fut present mestre Jehan Micton, pendart,[9] en la viconté d’Avrenches, qui recognut et confessa avoir eu et repceu de homme sage et pourveu Thomas de Juvigney, viconte dudit lieu de Mortaing, c’est assavoir la somme de cinquante souls tournois pour sa paine et salaire d’estre venue d’Avrenches jusques à Mortaing, pour faire acomplir et pendre à la justice dudit lieu de Mortaing, un porc, lequel avait tué et meurdis un enfant en la paroisse de Roumaygne, en ladite viconté de Mortaing. Pour lequel fait ycelui porc fut condanney à estre trayné et pendu, par Jehan Pettit, lieutenant du bailli de _Co ... rin_, es assises dudit lieu de Mortaing, de laquelle somme dessus dicte le dit pendart se tint pour bien paié, et en quita le roy nostre sire, ledit viconte et tous aultres. En tesmoing de ce, nous avons sellé ces lettres dudit scel, sauf tout autre droit. C’en fut fait l’an de grace mil trois cens quatre-vings et quatorze, le XXIIII{e} jour de septembre. Signé J. LOURS. (Countersigned) BINET.

[Extract from the manuscripts of the _Bibliothèque du Roi_. _Vide_ Mémoires, _ibid._ pp. 439-40.]

I

Attestation of Symon de Baudemont, lieutenant of the bailiff of Mantes and Meullant, made by order of the said bailiff and the King’s proctor, on March 15, 1403, and certifying to the expenses incurred in executing a sow that had devoured a small child.

A tous ceuls qui ces lettres verront: Symon de Baudemont, lieutenant à Meullant, de noble homme Mons. Jehan, seigneur de Maintenon, chevalier chambellan du Roy, notre sire, et son bailli de Mante et dudit lieu de Meullant: Salut. Savoir faisons, que pour faire et accomplir la justice d’une truye qui avait devoré un petit enffant, a convenu faire necessairement les frais, commissions et dépens ci-après déclarés, c’est à savoir: Pour dépense faite pour elle dedans le geole, six sols parisis.

Item, au maître des hautes-oeuvres, qui vint de Paris à Meullant faire ladite exécution par le commandement et ordonnance de nostre dit maistre le bailli et du procureur du roi, cinquante-quatre sols parisis.

Item, pour la voiture qui la mena à la justice, six sols parisis.

Item, pour cordes à la lier et hâler, deux sols huit deniers parisis.

Item, pour gans, deux deniers parisis.

Lesquelles parties font en somme toute soixante neuf sols huit deniers parisis; et tout ce que dessus est dit nous certifions être vray par ces présentes scellées de notre scel, et à greigneur confirmation et approbation de ce y avons fait mettre le scel de la châtellenie dudit lieu de Meullant, le XV{e} de mars l’an 1403. Signé de Baudemont, avec paraffe, et au dessous est le sceau de la châtellenie de Meullant.

[Extract from the manuscripts of M. Hérisson, judge of the civil court of Chartres, communicated by M. Lejeune to the _Mémoires de la Société Royale des Antiquaires de France_. Tome viii, pp. 433-4.]

J

Receipt, dated Oct. 16, 1408, and signed by Toustain Pincheon, jailer of the royal prisons in the town of Pont de Larche, acknowledging the payment of nineteen sous and six deniers tournois for food furnished to sundry men and to one pig kept in the said prisons on charge of crime.

Pardevant Jean Gaulvant, tabellion juré pour le roy nostre sire en la viconté du Pont de Larche, fut présent Toustain Pincheon, geolier des prisons du roy notre sire en la ville du Pont de Larche, lequel cognut avoir eu et recue du roy nostre dit sire, par la main de honnorable homme et saige Jehan Monnet, viconte dudit lieu du Pont de Larche, la somme de 19 sous six deniers tournois qui deus lui estoient, c’est assavoir 9 sous six deniers tournois pour avoir trouvé (livré) le pain du roi aux prisonniers debtenus, en cas de crime, es dites prisons. (Here the names of these prisoners are given.) _Item_ à ung porc admené es dictes prisons, le 21{e} jour de juing 1408 inclus, jusques au 17{e} jour de juillet après en suivant exclut que icellui porc fu pendu par les gares à un des posts de la justice du Vaudereuil, à quoy il avoit esté condempné pour ledit cas par monsieur le bailly de Rouen et les conseuls, es assises du Pont de Larche, par lui tenues le 13{e} jour dudict mois de juillet, pource que icellui porc avoit muldry et tué ung pettit enfant, auquel temps il a xxiiii jours, valent audit pris de 2 deniers tournois par jour, 4 sols 2 deniers, et pour avoir trouvé et baillé la corde qu’il esconvint à lier icelui porc qu’il reschapast de ladite prison où il avait esté mis, x deniers tournois. Du 16 Octobre 1408.

[Derived from manuscripts of the _Bibliothèque du Roi_. _Vide_ Mémoires, cit., pp. 428 and 440-1.]

K

Letters patent, by which Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, on Sept. 12, 1379, granted the petition of the friar Humbert de Poutiers, prior of the town of Saint-Marcel-lez-Jussey, and pardoned two herds of swine which had been condemned to suffer the extreme penalty of the law as accomplices in an infanticide committed by three sows.

Phelippe, filz du Roi de France, duc de Bourgoingue, au bailli de noz terres au conté de Bourgoingue, salut.

Oye la supplication de frère Humbert de Poutiers, prieur de la prieurté de la ville de Saint-Marcel-lez-Jussey, contenant que comme le V{e} jour de ce présent mois de septembre, Perrinot, fils Jehan Muet, dit _le Hochebet_, pourchier commun de ladite ville, gardant les pors des habitans d’icelle ville ou finaige d’icelle, et au cry de l’un d’iceulx pors, trois truyes estans entre lesdits pors ayent couru sus audit Perrenot, l’ayent abattu et mis par terre entre eulx, ainsi comme par Jehan Benoit de Norry qu’il gardoit les pourceaulx dudit suppliant, et par le père dudit Perrenot a esté trouvé blessier à mort par lesdites truyes, et si comme icelle Perrenot la confessè en la présence de son dit père e dudit Jehan Benoit, et assez tost après il soit eu mort. Et pour ce que ledit suppliant auquel appartient la justice de ladite ville ne fust repris de negligeance son maire arresta tous lesdits porcs pour en faire raison et justice en la manière qu’il appartient, et encore les détient prissonniers tant ceux de ladite ville comme partie de ceulx dudit suppliant, pour ce que dit ledit Jehan Benoit ils furent trouvez ensemble avec lesdites truyes, quand ledit Perrenot fut ainsi blessié. Et ledit prieur nous ait supplié que il nous plaise consentir que en faisant justice de trois ou quatres desdits porcs le demeurant soit delivré. Nous inclinans à sa requeste, avons de gràce especiale ouctroyé et consenty, et par ces présentes ouctroyons et consentons que en faisant justice et execution desdites trois truyes et de l’ung des pourceaulx dudit prieur, que le demeurant desdits pourceaulx soit mis à delivre, nonobstant qu’ils aient esté à la mort dudit pourchier. Si vous mandons que de notre presente grâce vous faictes et laissiez joyr et user ledit prieur et autres qu’il appartiendra, sans les empescher au grâce.

Donné à Montbar, le XII{e} jour de septembre de l’an de grâce mil CCC LXX IX. Ainsi signé. Par monseigneur le duc: _J. Potier_.

[Published by M. Garnier in the _Revue des Sociétés Savantes_, Dec. 1866, pp. 476 _sqq._, from the archives of Côte-d’Or and reprinted by D’Addosio in _Bestie Delinquenti_, pp. 277-8.]

L

Sentence pronounced by the Mayor of Loens de Chartres on the twelfth of September, 1606, condemning Guillaume Guyart to be hanged and burned together with a bitch. Extract from the records of the clerk’s office of Loing under the date of Sept. 12, 1606.

Entre le procureur de messieurs[10] demandeur et accusateur au principal et requérant le proffit et adjudication de troys deffaulx et du quart d’abondant, d’une part, et Guillaume Guyard, accusé, deffendeur et défaillant, d’autre part.

Veu le procès criminel, charges et informations, décret de prise de corps, adjournement à troys briefs jours, les dicts trois deffaulx, le dict quart d’habondant, le recollement des dicts témoings et _recognaissance faicte par les dicts témoings de la chienne dont est question_, les conclusions dudict procureur, tout veu et eu sur ce conseil, nous disant que lesdicts troys deffaulx et quart d’habondant ont esté bien donnés pris et obtenus contre ledict Guyard accusé, attainct et convaincu .........

Pour réparation et punition duquel crime condempnons ledict Guyard estre pendu et estranglé à une potence qui, pour cest effet, sera dressée aux lices du Marché aux Chevaux de ceste ville de Chartres, au lieu et endroict où les dict sieurs ont tout droit de justice. Et auparavant ladicte exécution de mort, que ladicte chienne sera assommée par l’exécuteur de la haute justice audict lieu, et seront les corps morts, tant dudict Guyard que de la dicte chienne brûlés et mis en cendres, si le dict Guyard peut estre pris et apprehendé en sa personne, sy non pour le regard du dict Guyard, sera la sentence exécuté par effigie en un tableau qui sera mis et attaché à ladicte potence, et déclarons tous et chascuns ses biens acquis et confisqués à qui il appartiendra, sur cieux préalablement pris la somme de cent cinquante livres d’amende que nous avons adjugées auxdicts sieurs, sur laquelle somme seront pris les fraicts de justice. Prononcé et exécuté par effigie, pour le regard du dict Guyard les jour et an cy dessus. Signé _Guyot_.

[A true copy of the original extract extant in the office of M. Hérisson, judge of the civil court of Chartres, made by M. Lejeune and communicated to the Société Royale des Antiquaires de France. _Vide_ Mémoires of this Society, cit., pp. 436-7.]

M

Sentence pronounced by the judge of Savigny on Jan. 1457, condemning to death an infanticidal sow. Also the sentence of confiscation pronounced nearly a month later on the six pigs of the said sow for complicity in her crime.

Jours tenus au lieu de Savigny, près des foussés du Chastelet de dit Savigny, par noble homme Nicolas Quarroillon, ecuier, juge dudit lieu de Savigny, et ce le 10{e} jour du moys de janvier 1457, présens maistre Philebert Quarret, Nicolas Grant-Guillaume, Pierre Bome, Pierre Chailloux, Germain des Muliers, André Gaudriot, Jehan Bricard, Guillaume Gabrin, Philebert Hogier, et plusieurs autres tesmoins à ce appellés et requis, l’an et jour dessus dit.

Huguemin Martin, procureur de noble damoiselle Katherine de Barnault, dame dudit Savigny, demandeur à l’encontre de Jehan Bailly, alias Valot dudit Savigny, et promoteur des causes d’office dudit lieu de Savigny, demandeur à l’encontre de Jehan Bailly, alias Valot dudit Savigny _deffendeur_, à l’encontre duquel par la voix et organ de honorable homme et saige M{r}. Benoit Milot d’Ostun, licencié en loys et bachelier en décret, conseïllier de monseigneur le duc de Bourgoingne, a été dit et proposé que le mardi avant Noel dernier passé, _une truye_, et six coichons ses suignens, que sont présentement prisonniers de ladite dame, comme ce qu’ils été prins en flagrant délit, ont commis et perpetré mesmement ladicte truye murtre et homicide en la personne de Jehan Martin en aige de cinq ans, fils de Jehan Martin dudit Savigny, pour la faulte et culpe dudit Jehan Bailly, alias Valot, requerant ledit procureur et promoteur desdites causes d’office de ladite justice de madite dame, que ledit défendeur répondit es chouses dessus dites, desquelles apparaissoit à souffisance, et lequel par nous a esté sommé et requis ce il vouloit avoher ladite truhie et ses suignens, sur le cas avant dit, et sur ledit cas luy a esté faicte sommacion par nous juge avant dit, pour la première, deuxiéme et tierce fois, que s’il vouloit rien dire pourquoi justice ne s’en deust faire l’on estoit tout prest de les oïr en tout ce qu’il vouldrait dire touchant la pugnycion et exécution de justice que se doit faire de ladite truhie; veu ledit cas, lequel deffendeur a dit et respondu qui’l ne vouloit rien dire pour le present et pour ce ait esté procédé en la manière qui s’ensuit; c’est assavoir que pour la partie dudit demandeur, avons esté requis instamment de dire droit en ceste cause, en la présence dudit défendeur présent et non contredisant, pourquoy nous juge, avant dit, savoir faisons à tous que nous avons procédé et donné nostre sentence deffinitive en la manière que s’ensuit; c’est assavoir que veu le cas lequel est tel comme a esté proposé pour la partie dudit demandeur, et duquel appert à souffisance tant par tesmoing que autrement dehuëment hue. _Aussi conseil avec saiges et practiciens_, et aussi considéré en ce cas l’usance et coustume du païs de Bourgoingne, aïant Dieu devant nos yeulx, nous disons et pronunçons par notre dite sentence, déclairons la tryue de Jehan Martin, de Savigny, estre confisquée à la justice de Madame de Savigny, pour estre mise à justice et au dernier supplice, et estre pendus par les pieds derriers à ung arbre esproné en la justice de Madame de Savigny, considéré que la justice de madite dame n’est mie présentement elevée, et icelle truye prendre mort audit arbre esproné, et ansi le disons et prononçons par notre dicte sentence et à droit et au regard des coichons de ladite truye pour ce qui n’appert aucunement que iceuls coichons ayent mangiés dudit Jehan Martin, combien que aient estés trovés ensanglantés, l’on remet _la cause d’iceulx coichons_ aux tres jours, et avec ce l’on est content de les rendre et bailler audit _Jehan Bailly_, en baillant caucion de les rendre s’il est trové qu’il aient mangiers dudit Jehan Martin, en païant les poutures, et fait l’on savoir à tous, sous peine de l’amende et de 100 sols tournois qu’ils le dieut et déclairent dedans les autres jours, de laquelle nostre dicte sentence, après la prononciation d’icelle, ledit procureur de ladite dame de Savigny et promoteur des causes d’office par la voix dudit maistre Benoist Milot, advocat de ladite dame; et aussi ledit procureur a requis et demandé acte de nostre dicte court à lui estre faicte, laquelle luy avons ouctroyé, et avec ce instrument, je, Huguenin de Montgachot, clerc, notaire publicque de la court de monseigneur le duc de Bourguoigne, en la présence des tesmoings ci-dessus nommés, je lui ai ouctroyé, ce fait l’an et jour dessus dit et présens les dessus tesmoings. _Ita est._ Ainsi signe, Mongachot, avec paraphe, et de suite est écrit:

_Item_, en oultre, nous juge dessus nommé, savoir faisons que incontinent après nostre dicte sentence ainsi donnée par nous les an et jour, et en la présence des temoings que dessus, avons sommé et requis ledit Jehan Bailli, se il vouloit avoher lesdits coichons, et se il vouloit bailler caucion pour avoir recréance d’iceulx; lequel a dit et répondu qui ne les avohait aucunement, et qui ni demandait rien en iceulx coichons; et qui s’en rapportoit à ce que en ferions; pourquoy sont demeurez à la dicte justice et seignorie dudit Savigny, de laquelle chouse ledit Huguenin Martin, procureur et promoteur des causes d’offices, nous en a demandé acte de court, lequel lui nous avons ouctroyé et ouctroyons par ces présentes, et avec ce ledict procureur de ladicte dame, à moy notaire subescript, m’en demanda instrument, lequel je luy ait ouctroyé en la presénce desdits tesmoings cy-dessus nommés.

_Item_, en après, nous Nicolas Quaroillon, juge avant dit, savoir faisons à tous que incontinent après les chouses dessus dictes, avons faict delivrer réalement et de fait ladicte truye à maistre Etienne Poinceau, maistre de la haute justice, demeurant à Châlons-sur-Saône, pour icelle mettre à exécucion selon la forme et teneur de nostre dicte sentence, laquelle délivrance d’icelle trühie faicte par nous comme dit est, incontinent ledit maistre Estienne a mené sur une chairette ladicte truye à ung chaigne esproné, estant en la justice de ladite dame Savigny, et en icelluy chaigne esproné, icelluy maistre Estienne a pendu ladite truye par les piez derriers; en mectant à exécution deue nostre dicte sentence, selon la forme et teneur de laquelle délivrance et exécution d’icelle truye, ledit Huguenin Martin, procureur de ladicte dame de Savigny nous a demandé acte de nostre dicte court à lui estre faicte et donnée, laquelle luy avons ouctroyée, et avec ce à moi, notaire subscript, m’a demandé instrument ledit procureur à luy estre donnée, je luy ai ouctroyé en la présence des temoings cy-dessus nommez, ce fait les au et jour dessus ditz. Ainsi signé Mongachot, avec paraphe.

Nearly a month later, on “the Friday after the Feast of the Purification of Our Lady the Virgin” (which occurred on Feb. 2.), “the six little porklets or sucklings” were brought to trial. The following is the _procès verbal_.

Jours tenus au lieu de Savigny, sur la chaussée de l’Estang dudit Savigny, par noble homme Nicolas Quarroillon, escuier, juge dudit lieu de Savigny, pour noble damoiselle Katherine de Barnault, dame dudit Savigny, et ce le vendredy après la feste de la Purification Notre Dame Vierge, présens Guillaume Martin, Guiot de Layer, Jehan Martin, Pierre Tiroux et Jehan Bailly, tesmoings, etc.

Veue les sommacions et réquisitions faicte par nous juge de noble damoiselle Katherine de Barnault, dame de Savigny, à Jehan Bailly alias Valot de advohé on repudié les coichons de la truye nouvellement mise à exécution par justice à raison du murtre commis et perpetré par la dicte truye en la personne de Jehan Martin, lequel Jehan Bailli a esté remis de advoher lesdites coichons et de baillier caucion d’iceulx coichons rendre, s’il estoit trouvé qu’ils feussions culpables du délict avant dict commis par ladicte truye et de payer les poutures, comme appert par acte de nostre dicte court, et autres instrumens souffisans; pourquoi le tout veu en conseil avec saiges, déclairons et pronuncons par nostre sentence deffinitive, et à droit: iceulx coichons compéter et appartenir comme biens vaccans à ladite dame de Savigny et les luy adjugeons comme raison, l’usence et la coustume de païs le vueilt. De laquelle nostre dicte sentence, ledit procureur de ladite dame en a demandé acte, de nostre dicte court a luy estre donnée et ouctroyée. Avec ce en a demandé instrument à moy notaire subscript, lequel il luy a ouctroyé en la présence des dessus nommés. Signé Mongachot avec paraphe.

[Extract from the archives of Monjeu and Dependencies, belonging to M. Lepelletier de Saint-Fargeau. (Savigny-sur-Etang, boëte 25{e}, liasse 1, 2, & 3, etc.) _Vide_ Mémoires, cit., pp. 441-5.]

N

Sentence pronounced April 18, 1499, in a criminal prosecution instituted before the Bailiff of the Abbey of Josaphat, in the Commune of Sèves, near Chartres, against a pig condemned to be hanged for having killed an infant. In this case the owners of the pig were fined eighteen francs for negligence, because the child was their fosterling.

_Le lundi 18 avril 1499._

Veu le procès criminel faict par-devant nous à la requeste du procureur de messieurs le religieux, abbé et convent de Iosaphat, à l’encontre de Iehan Delalande et sa femme, prisonniers èsprisons de céans, pour raison de la mort advenue à la personne d’une jeune enfant, nommée Gilon, âgée de un an et demi ou environ; laquelle enfant avoit eté baillée à nourrice par sa mère: ledict meurtre advenu et commis par un pourceau de l’aage de trois mois ou environ, aulxdits Delalande et sa femme appartenant; les confessions desdicts Delalande et sa femme; les informations par nous et le greffier de ladite jurisdiction faictes à la requête dudict procureur; le tout veu et en sur ce conseil aulx saiges, _ledit Jehan Delalande et sa femme, avons condampnés et condampnons en l’amende envers de justice de dix-huit franz_, qu’il a convenus pour ce faire, tel que de raison, et à tenir prison jusqu’à plein payement et satisfaction d’iceulx à tout le moins qu’ils avoient baillé bonne et seure caution d’iceulx.

_Et en tant que touche le dict pourceau_, pour les causes contenues et établies audict procès, _nous les avons condampné et condampnons à être pendu et executé par justice_, en la jurisdiction des mes dicts seigneurs, par notre sentence définitive, _et à droit_.

Donnè sous la contre scel aux causes dudict baillage, les an et jour que susdicts. _Signé_ C. Briseg avec paraphe.

[The complete record of this trial contains the minutest details of the proceedings, ending with the execution of the pig, and was taken from the archives of the Abbey Josaphat at the time of the Revolution by M. B., Secretary-general of the department. Since then it has disappeared; but this copy of the original, made at that time, is declared by M. Lejeune to be perfectly exact. _Vide_ Mémoires, cit., pp. 434-5.]

O

Sentence pronounced June 14, 1494, by the grand mayor of the church and monastery of St. Martin de Laon, condemning a pig to be hanged and strangled for infanticide committed on the fee-farm of Clermont-lez-Montcornet.

A tous ceulx qui ces présentes lettres verront ou orront, Jehan Lavoisier licentie ez loix, et grand mayeur de l’église et monastère de monsieur St. Martin de Laon, ordre de Prémontré, et les echevins de ce même lieu; comme il nous eust été apporté et affirmé par le procureur-fiscal ou syndic des religieux, abbé et convent de Saint-Martin de Laon, qu’en la cense de Clermont-lez-Montcornet, appartenant en toute justice haulte, moyenne et basse auxdits relligieux, ung jeune pourceaulx eust éstranglé et _défacié_ ung jeune enfant estant au berceau, fils de Jehan Lenfant, vachier de ladite cense de Clermont, et de Gillon sa femme, nous advertissant et nous requérant à cette cause, que sur ledit cas voulussions procéder, comme justice at raison le désiroit et requerroit; et que depuis, afin de savoir et cognoitre la vérité dudit cas, eussion ouï et examiné par serment, Gillon, femme dudit Lenfant, Jehan Benjamin, et Jehan Daudancourt, censiers de ladite cense, lesquels nous eussent dit et affirmé par leur serment et conscience, que le lendemain de Pasques dernier passé ledict Lenfant estant en la garde de ses bestes, ladicte Gillon sa femme desjettoit de ladicte cense, pour aller au village de Dizy ..., ayant délaissé en sa maison ledict petit enfant.... Elle le renchargea à une sienne fille, âgée de neuf ans ... pendant et durant lequel temps ladite fille s’en alla jouer autour de ladite cense, et laissé ledit enfant couché en son berceau; et ledit temps durant, ledit pourceaulz entra dedans ladite maison ... et défigura et mangea le visage et gorge dudit enfant.... Tôt après ledit enfant, au moyen des morsures et dévisagement que lui fit ledit pourceaulz, de ce siecle trépassa: savoir faisons.... Nous, en detestation et horreur dudit cas, et afin d’exemplaire et gardé justice, avons dit, jugé, sentencié, prenoncé et appointé, que ledit pourceaulz _estant detenu prisonnier_ et enferme en ladite abbaye, sera par le maistre des hautes-oeuvres, pendu et estranglé, en une fourche de bois, auprès et joignant des fourchee patibulaires et haultes justices desdits relligieux, estant auprès de leur cense d’Avin.... En temoing de ce nous avons scellé ces presentes de notre scel.

Ce fut fait le quatorzième jour de juing, l’an 1494, et scellé en cire rouge; et sur le dos est écrit:

Sentence pour ung pourceaulz executé par justice, admené en la cense de Clermont, et étranglé en une fourche les gibez d’Avin.

[M. Boileau de Maulaville, in _L’Annuaire de l’Aisne 1812_, p. 88. _Vide_ Mémoires, cit., pp. 428 and 446-7.]

P

Sentence pronounced, March 27, 1567, by the royal notary and proctor of the bailiwick and bench of the court of judicatory of Senlis, condemning a sow with a black snout to be hanged for her cruelty and ferocity in murdering a girl of four months, and forbidding the inhabitants of the said seignioralty to let such beasts run at large on penalty of an arbitrary fine.

A tous ceulx qui ces présentes lettres verront, Jehan Lobry, notaire royal et procureur au bailliage et siège présidial de Senlis, bailly et garde et seigneurie de Saint-Nicolas d’Acy, les le dit Senlis, pour M. M. les religieux, prieur et coivent du diet lieu, salut; savoir faisons:

Veu le procès extraordinairement fait à la requête du Procureur de la seigneurie du dict Saint-Nicolas, pour raison de la mort advenue à une jeune fille âgée de quatre mois ou environ, enfant de Lyénor Darmeige et Magdeleine Mahieu sa femme, demeurant au dict Saint-Nicolas, trouvée avoir esté mangée et devorée en la tete, main senestre et au dessus de la mamelle dextre par une truye ayant le museau noire, appartenant à Louis Mahieu, frère de la dite femme et son proche voisin;

Le procès verbal de la visitation du dict enfant en la presence de son parrain et de sa marraine qui l’ont recogneu;

Les informations faites pour raison du dit cas, interrogatoires des dits Louis Mahieu et sa femme, avec la visitation faicte de la dicte truye à l’instant du dit cas advenu et tout consideré en conseil, il a été conclu et advisé par justice que POUR LA CRUAUTÉ ET FEROCITÉ COMMISE PAR LA DITE TRUYE, elle sera exterminée par mort et pour ce faire sera pendue par l’executeur de la haulte justice en ung arbre estant dedans les fins et mottes de la dicte justice sur le grande chemin rendant de Saint-Firman au dit Senlis, en faisant deffenses à tous habitans et sujet des terres et seigneurie du dit Saint-Nicolas de ne plus laisser échapper telle et semblables bestes sans bonne et seure garde, sous peine d’amende arbitraire et de pugnition corporelle s’ily échoit, sauf et sans préjudice à faire droit sur les conclusions prinses par le dit Procureur à l’encontre des dits Mahieu et sa femme ainsi que de raison, au témoin de quoy nous avon scellé les présentes du scel de la dicte justice.

Ce fu faist le jeudi 27{e} jour de Mars 1557 et exécuté ledit jour par l’executeur de la haulte justice du dit Senlis.

[Dom. Grenier, _Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris_, tome xx. p. 87. Quoted by D’Addosio, who, however, confounds the prosecution of 1567 with that of 1499.]

Q

Sentence of death upon a bull, May 16, 1499, by the bailiff of the Abbey of Beaupré, for furiously killing Lucas Dupont, a young man of fourteen or fifteen years of age.

A tous ceux qui ces presentes lettres verront, Jean Sondar, Lieutenant du Bailly du temporel de l’église & abbaye nôtre Dame de Beauprés de l’ordre de Cisteaux, pour venerables & discretes personnes & mes tres-honorez seigneurs, messeigneurs les religieux abbé & convent de ladite abbaye, salut. Comme à la requeste du procureur de mesdits seigneurs, & par leur justice temporelle qu’ils ont en leur terre & seigneurie du Caurroy eût été nagaires prins & mis en la main d’icelle leur justice ung thorreau de poil rouge, appartenant à Jean Boullet censier & fermier de mesdits seigneurs, demeurant en leur maison & cense dudit Caurroy, lequel thorreau étant aux champs & sur le territoiiere d’icelle église, auroit par furiosité occis & mis à mort un joine fils, nommé Lucas Dupont, de l’âge de quatorze à quinze ans, ou environ, serviteur dudit censier, lequel il avoit mis à la garde de ces bestes à corne, entre lesquelles estoit ledit thorreau. Duquel thorreau ledit procureur de mesdits seigneurs requeroit la justice estre faite, & qu’il fut executé jusqu’à mort inclusivement par la justice de mesdits seigneurs pour occasion de icelui crimme de omicide & de la detestation d’iceluy. Sur quoy enqueste & information eussent été faites de la forme & maniere iceluy homicide, par laquelle ledit procureur nous eust requis sur ce luy estre fait droit. Savoir faisons que veu laditte enqueste & information & sur tout en conseil & advis, nous par nostre sentence & jugement, avons dies & jugié, que pour raison de l’omicide, dont dessus est touchié, fait par ledit thorreau en la personne d’iceluy Lucas, & pour la detestation du crime d’iceluy homicide, ledit thorreau nommé confisqué à mesdits seigneurs sera executé jusques à mort inclusivement par leurdite justice, & pendu à une fourche ou potence es mettes de leurdite terre & seigneurie dudit Caurroy, aupres du lieu ou solloit estre assise la justice. Et ad ce le avons condamné & condamnons. En tesmoing de ce avons mis nostre scel à ces lettres qui furent faites & pronunchiés audit lieu du Caurroy en la presence de Guillaume Gave du Mottin, Jehan Custien l’aisné, Jehan Henry, Jehan Boullet, hommes & subjets de mesdits seigneurs, Jehan Charles, & Clement le Carpentier, & plusieurs autres les seizieme jour de May l’an mil quatre cens quatre-vingt-dix-neuf. Ainsi signé, Ileugles, ad ce commis.

[The original records of this trial for homicide are in the archives of the Abbey of Beaupré. Vide _Voyage Littéraire de deux Religieux Benedictins de la Congregation de St. Maur_. Seconde Partie, pp. 166-7. Paris, 1717. The Benedictins were Dom. Edmond Martene and Dom. Ursin Durand.]

R

Scene from Racine’s comedy _Les Plaideurs_, in which a dog is tried and condemned to the galleys for stealing a capon.

After the accused had been found guilty, his counsel brings in the puppies and thus appeals to the compassion of the court:

“Venez, famille desolée; Venez, pauvres enfants qu’on veut rendre orphelins; Venez faire parler vos esprits enfantins. Oui, messieurs, vous voyez ici notre misère; Nous sommes orphelins, rendez-nous notre père, Notre père par qui nous fûmes engendrés, Notre père qui nous....

DAUDIN.

Tirez, tirez, tirez.

L’INTIME.

Notre père, messieurs....

DAUDIN.

Tirez donc, Quels vacarmes! Ils ont pissé partout.

L’INTIME.

Monsieur, voyez nos larmes.

DAUDIN.

Ouf! je me sens dejà pris de compassion. Ce que c’est qu’ à propos toucher la passion! Je suis bien empêché. La vérité me presse; Le crime est avéré, lui-même il le confesse. Mais, s’il est condamné, l’embarras est égal; Voilà bien des enfants réduits à l’hôpital.” _Les Plaideurs_, Act III, sc. 3.

S

Record of the decision of the Law Faculty of the University of Leipsic condemning a cow to death for having killed a woman at Machern near Leipsic, July 20, 1621.

Ao 1621 den 20 July ist Hanss Fritzchen weib Catharina alhier zu Machern wohnende von Ihrer eigen Mietkuhe,[11] da sie gleich hochleibss schwanger gang, auff Ihren Eigenen hofe zu Tode gestossen worden. Vber welch vnerhörten Fall der Juncker Friederich von Lindenau, als Erbsass diesess ortes, in der Jurisstischen Facultet zu Leipzig sich darüber dess Rechtes belernet: Welche am Ende dess Vrtelss diese wort also aussgesprochen: So wird die Kuhe, als abschewlich thier, an Einen abgelegenen öden ort billig geführet, daselbst Erschlagen oder Erschossen, vnnd vnabgedecht begraben. Christoph Hain domalss zu Selstad wohnend hat sie hinder der Schäfferey Erschlagen vnd begraben, welchess geschehen den 5. Augusti auff den Abend, nach Eintreibung dess Hirtenss zwischen 8 vnd 9 vhren.

[Extract from the parish-register of Machern, near Leipsic, printed in _Anzeiger für Kunde der deutschen Vorzeit_. No. 4, April 1880, col. 102.]

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INDEX

Abbott, Rev. Lyman, regards bad impulses as suggestions of evil spirits, 76

Achan, his severe punishment by Joshua, 180

Addosio, Carlo d’, his _Bestie Delinquenti_ cited, 1, 4; his list of animal prosecutions, 135; on pigs as a public nuisance in Italy, 159

Æschines, cited, 172

Æschylus, his _Choephoroi_ cited, 174

Ahuramazda, 57, 61, 82, 176

Alard, Jean, burned alive as a Sodomite for coition with a Jewess, 153

Altiat, his poem quoted, 93

Amira, Prof. Karl von, his _Thierstrafen und Thierprocesse_ cited, 1-3, 137

Anathemas, only effective when formally complete, as with all incantations and excommunications, 4, 36; citations from the Bible in proof of their power, 25; render an orchard barren and expel eels and blood-suckers from Lake Leman, 27; turn white bread black to punish heresy, 28; fatal to swallows and flies, which disturb religious services, 28, 29; sold by the Pope, 30; hurled against noxious vermin, 37; made more effective by the prompt payment of tithes, 37; differ from excommunications, 51-54; superseded in Protestantism by prayer and fasting and in science by Paris green, 53

Animals, prosecuted by civil and ecclesiastical courts, 2; office of the Church in repressing articulate and rodent, 3, 5; as satellites of Satan or agents of God, 5, 6, 52-57, 67; personification of, 10, 11; their competency as witnesses, 11; origin of their judicial prosecution, 12; as born criminals, 14; tendency of modern penology to efface the distinction between men and, 14, 193; instances of their criminal prosecution, 16, 18, 21, 37-50, 93-124, 134-157, 160-163; methods of procedure against, 31; whether legally laity or clergy, 32; punitive and preventive prosecution of, 33; their consciousness of right and wrong, 35, 247; false conception of the purpose of their prosecution, 40; can be anathematized, but not excommunicated, 51; items of expense in prosecuting, 49, 138, 140-143; not mere machines, 66; in folk-lore, 84; worship of, 85; imperfect lists of prosecuted, 135-137; burned and buried alive, 138; put to the rack to extort confession, 139; confiscation of valuable, 164, 189; unclean flesh of executed, 169; imputed criminality of, 177; criminals as ferocious, 212; mental and moral qualities of men and, 234; six categories of their criminal offences, 235; the safety of society the supreme law in the judicial punishment of men and, 247-252

Anatolus, his “Geoponics,” 133

Angel, Emile, cited, 124

Anglo-Saxon law, its retributive character, 168; its cruel doctrine of accessories, 178; on tainted swords, 187

Angrô-mainyush, 57, 59, 61, 82

Anthony, St., patron of pigs, 158

Anthropologists, criminal researches of 211, 215

Aquinas. _See_ Thomas

Arcadius, his atrocious edict, 179

Ashes, modern and mediæval use of vermifugal, 53

Augustine, St., cited, 94, 106

_Aura corrumpens_ in houses and stalls, 8

Aurelian, Father, on diabolical possession, 75

Avesta, on exorcisms, 36; on good and evil creations, 57; on mad dogs, 176

Ayrault, Pierre, his protest against animal prosecutions, 109

Azpilcueta, Martin. _See_ Dr. Navarre.

Baal-zebub (Beelzebub), fly-god, 84; his preference for black beasts, 165

Bailly, Gaspard, his _Traité des Monitoires_ cited, 52, 92-108

“Basilisk-egg,” 10

Basilius, St., his insect-expelling girdle, 136

Basilovitch, Ivan, his conception of retributive justice, 183

Bassos, Kassianos, prefers rat-bane to adjuration, 132

Beasts, sweet and stenchy, 55

Bees, tainted honey of homicidal, 9

Bell, banished to Siberia by the Russian Government, 175

Benedikt Prof., on the brain-formation of criminals, 212

Bernard, Claude, his idea of the physiologist, 245

Bernard, St., kills flies by cursing them, 28

Bernardes, Manoel, his _Nova Floresta_, 124

Berriat-Saint-Prix, his valuable researches, 2, 17, 20; list of prosecuted animals, 135-137

Bichat, his defective cranium, 217

Bischofberger, Dr. Theobald, his curious theory of the effects of unexpiated crime on persons and property, 6-8; his recent brochure in defence of exorcisms, 73

Bischoff, Prof., his hobby refuted by the weight of his own brain, 218

Blackstone, on deodands, 186, 189, 192

Blood-letting, as a panacea in law and medicine, 194

“Blue Laws,” an advance in penal legislation, 209

Bodelschwingh, his _bacillus infernalis_, 91

Boehme, Jacob, his definition of magic, 127

Boër, Nicolaus, on cohabitation with a Jewess as sodomy, 153

Bogos, homicidal beasts executed by the, 155

Bonnivard, François, presides as judge in a trial of vermin, 38

Borromeo, Carlo, his cruelty in punishing heresy, 208

Bougeant, Père, his _Amusement Philosophique_ cited, 66-69; 80-86, 88-90, 92

Bracton, 167; on deodands, 186

Brain, its size not always a measure of mental capacity, 217-219

Browne, Dr. William Hand, cited, 187

Buggery, instances of this “nameless crime,” 147-153; she-ass acquitted and man condemned to death for, 150; in the Carolina punished with death by fire, 151; in the Mosaic law, 152; sexual intercourse with a Jewess regarded as, 153

Bull, executed for murder, 161

Calvin, his conception of God, 59

Canute, King, 178

Carolina, the, its severe penalties, 182

Carpzov, Benedict, on sodomy, 151

Cattle, bewitched by bad air, 8

Cervantes, 167

Character, factors in the formation of, 219; responsibility for, 239, 243

Charcot, Dr., on the curative power of faith, 80, 225

Chassenée, Bartholomew, his _Consilia_, 2, 21-23; distinguished as a defender of prosecuted rats, 18; equal rights of rats and Waldenses recognized by, 20; his erudition, 24; his absurd deductions, 26; regards animals as laity in the eye of the law, 32

Chinese, recent beheading of idols for murder, 174

Church, the, its treatment of noxious insects as incarnations of Satan and as agents of God, 3-6; capital punishment never inflicted by, 31; its power to stay the ravages of vermin unquestioned, 50

Cicero, cited, 22, 101; his approval of atrocious penalties, 178

Cock, burned at the stake for laying eggs, 10, 11, 162; nature and origin of its supposed eggs, 163-5

Cockatrice, 12, 163

Coleridge, his definition of madman, 228

Corpses, prosecuted and executed, 110, 198, 199; cannot inherit, 110

“Corruption of blood,” in theology and law, 181

Courcelle-Seneuil, his view of prisons, 212

Cows, executed for homicide, 169

Cranks, execution of, 249-251

Cretella, 17

Cretins, their brains not always abnormal, 219; sentenced to death, 251

Criminality, examples of imputed, 177-185; ancient and mediæval conceptions of, 200; punished for the safety of society, 211, 248; compared to vitriol, 212; supposed physical indices of, 213-217; casual and constitutional, 214-223; ativism the source of, 212, 215; the result of hypnotism, 223-225; due to many uncontrollable conditions, 230; motives underlying animal, 235; animals conscious of, 247; contagiousness of, 252, 256

Crollanza, his record of the prosecution of caterpillars, 122

Crosiers, vermifugal efficacy of, 30

Cybele, invoked against vermin, 133

Damhouder, Jacobus, picture of animal crimes in his _Rerum Criminalium Praxis_, 16; citations from this work, 109, 146; regards sexual intercourse with Jews, Turks, and Saracens as sodomy, 153

Dasturs, Parsi, Zarathushtra’s teachings degraded by the, 59

Demosthenes, cited, 172

Deodands, nature of, 186-190, 192; abolished in England under Queen Victoria, 192

Devils, their damage to landed property, 7; multiplied by the spread of Christianity, 13, 80; destined to eternal torments after the Last Judgment, 68-70; incarnate in every babe, 70; maladies produced by, 72; modern inventions the devices of, 229

Didymos, his “Geoponics,” 133

Dimitri, Prince, bell banished to Siberia for rejoicing over his assassination, 175

Dogs, trial and execution of mad, 176; crucified in Rome for imputed crime, 177

Döpler, Jacob, on sodomy, 152; on _Lex talionis_, 182; on vampires, 197

Dove, symbol of the Holy Ghost, 57

Draco (Drakôn), his law punishing weapons, 172

Dreyfus, his prosecution instigated by a sensational novel, 253-255

Ducol, Pierre, prosecutor of weevils, 38

Dumas, his _Count of Monte Christo_ cited, 240

Duret, Jean, his _Treatise on Pains and Penalties_, 108

Ecclesiastical tribunal, an, rejects the Mosaic law and discusses crime from a psychiatrical point of view, 170

Eldrad, St., expels serpents, 50

Electricity, execution by, 210

Elk, as demon, 90

Erechtheus, punishment of deadly weapons, 172

Erinnys, appeasing the, 174

Escheat, in Scotch law, 189

Eusebius, describes hell as very cold, 105

Eustace, St., 56

Evolution, dogma of original sin supplanted by the doctrine of, 232

Excommunications, pronounced against insects by the Church, 3; sold at Rome, 30; properly speaking, animals not subject to, 51, 100; comical survivals of, 128. _See_ Anathemas

Exorcisms, their efficiency recognized by Heidelberg professors, 27; applied as plasters, 72; superseded by conjurations among Protestants, 125; by Mohammedans, 137

Falcon, Pierre, defender of weevils, 38

_Felo de se_, a sort of treason, 190. _See_ Suicide

Feuchtersleben, Baron Von, records cases of morbid imitation, 253

Field-mice, conjuration of, 133

Flesh of executed animals tainted, 169

Flies as demons, 28, 86

Florian, St., the protector of houses from fire, 136

Fly-flaps, papal, 29

Formosus, Pope, his corpse tried and condemned for usurpation, 198

Foscolo, Ugo, his cranium that of an idiot, 218

Fox, diabolical nature of the, 56

Frederic the Great, his penal reforms, 207

Fricker, Thüring, doctor of laws, chancellor and prosecutor of inger, 116

Gadflies, episcopal rescript against, 124

Galton, on heredity, 239

Gambetta, his small and abnormal brain, 217

Geese, sacred, rewarded at Rome for the vigilance of their foremothers, 177

Genius, to madness close allied, 228

Görres, recent case of conjuration recorded by, 125

Gratiolet, on the brain of the “Hottentot Venus,” 218

Greeks, ancient, ascribed pestilence to the miasma of unexpiated murder, 9, 174

Gregory of Tours, on bronze dormice and serpents as talismans, 132

Greysser, Daniel, the efficiency of bans not supernatural, 128

Gross, his mis-statement concerning the cock of Bâle, 162

Guiteau, deterrent effect of his execution, 250

Harpokration, Valerius, cited, 172

Harrison, Miss, cited, 187

Hart, symbolism of the, 56

Hawks, dead, as protectors of hens, 252

Hemmerlein, Felix. _See_ Malleolus

Hens, crowing, 10

Heredity, its predetermining influence as viewed by theologians and scientists, 232

Heymanns, Mynheer, on responsibility for character, 243

Hierarchies, their failure in civil government, 249

Honorius, his atrocious edict, 179

Horses, condemned to death for homicide, 162

Hubert, St., 56

Hugon, St., expels venom from serpents by excommunication, 103

Hunters among savages, their superstitious fear of killing wild animals, 174

Hypnotism, its causal relation to crime, 223-226; as the basis of the witchcraft delusion, 225

Idols, decapitation of, 174

Inger, prosecuted and put under ban, 113-115; not in Noah’s Ark, 120

Insanity, degrees of, 200-203; in Italian and German law, 204-206; difficulty of defining, 226-228; in English law, 246; moral, 250; as a shelter for crime, 256

Insects, prosecution of, 37, 41-49; incarnations of demons, 86

Italy, palliation of crime in, 203, 204

Jeanneret, Marie, her toxicomania, 240-246

Jews, in Christian legislation on a par with beasts, 152, 165

John the Lamb, his curse fatal to fish, 28

Jonson, Ben, cited, 130

Jordan, Father, casts out devils with Lourdes water in 1887, 74

Jörgensen, cited, 17

Joshua, his penal cruelty, 180

King Mode, his discourse with Queen Reason, 55

Kirchenheim, Prof. Von, urges reform of our penal codes, 219

Koran, the, on the punishment of beasts, 171

Kukis, destroy homicidal trees, 171

Laas, his definition of judicial punishment, 238

Lacassagne, his six categories of crime, 235

Langevin, Pierre Gilles, fresco of the execution of a sow described by, 141

Lapeyronie, his dissertation proving that cocks never lay eggs, 163

Le Bon, on hereditary criminality, 223

Leipsic, decision of the Law Faculty concerning a homicidal cow, 169

Leo XIII., his exorcism of Satan and apostate angels, 73

Letang, Louis, causal relation of his novel to the Dreyfus affair, 254

Lex talionis, striking applications of this oldest form of penal justice, 167; inflicts horrible mutilations, 182

Lilienberg, Mathias Abele Von, his record of a dog sentenced to prison, 175

Liszt, Prof. Von, on retributive and preventive penalties, 237

Locusts, expelled by exorcisms and aspergeoires, 3, 64; dispersed and destroyed by excommunication, 22, 93, 94; prosecution of, 95-108, 136

Lohbauer, Pater Franz Xaver, ascribes nervous disease to diabolical possession, 71

Lombroso, on animals as born criminals, 14; opposed to trial by jury, 185; regards tattooing, dark thick hair and thin beards, as signs of criminality, 213; on ativism as the source of crime, 215; innate criminality not eradicated by education, 223; compares the capital punishment of cretins and cranks to that of animals, 251

Lucifer, writhes under the water of Lourdes, 74

Lycia, punished by imputation, 180

Majolus, cited, 86

Maledictions. _See_ Anathemas

Malleolus, Felix, his theory of exorcisms endorsed by Heidelberg professors, 27; records a prosecution of Spanish flies, 110; his formula for banning serpents, 121

Mangin, Arthur, cited, 16, 139

Manicheans, their doctrine of good and evil, 60

Manouvrier, Dr., likens Gambetta’s skull to that of a savage, 217

Mantegazza, Prof., his “tormentatore,” 245

Manu, Institutes of, 168

Marro, on metaphors as facts, 216

Mather, Cotton, records the execution of a pious Sodomite and eight beasts, 148

Ménebréa, M. L., 2, 17; his theory untenable, 40

Mephistopheles, the lord of rodents and vermin, 85

Mithridates, experiments with poisons, 244

Moles, prosecution of, 111-113

Monks, as landed proprietors in France, 158

Monomania, frequency of, 227

Morel, Claude, defender of weevils, 38

Mornacius, his record of mad dogs sentenced to death, 176

Morselli, Prof., on the causes of suicide, 229

Mosaic law, the, rejected by an ecclesiastical court, 170; barbarity of, 167, 180

Murder, miasma of, 9, 174; weapons tainted by, 187-190

Mutilations, in accordance with the Lex talionis, 176, 182

Mythology, monstrosities and metamorphoses of classical, 64; in modern life, 228

Naquet, regards criminals as no more culpable than poisons, 212

Narrenkötterlein, dog sentenced to a, 175

Nature, imperfection of, 61

Navarre, Dr., regards fish as cacodemons, 90

Nebuchadnezzar, a satanic metamorphosis, 63

Nikôn, his statue punished for manslaughter committed in self-defence, 172

Noah, God’s covenant with him required the capital punishment of beasts, 168

Novels, morbific influence of sensational, 253

Numa Pompilius, quoted, 106; his law for protecting boundary stones, 183

Origen, believed in the ultimate redemption of Satan, 68

Osenbrüggen, Eduard, his theory of the personification of animals, 10, 17

Ovid, quoted, 101, 103

Oxen, executed, 168; punished although innocent, 183

Pachacutez, barbarous code of this Peruvian Justinian, 179

Papal See, trial and punishment of corpses by the, 198

Pape, Guy, cited, 108

Paracelsus, on the magnetic power of the will, 126

Pardoning power, exercise of the, 248

Parsis, their Dasturs, 59; co-workers of Ahuramazda, 61, 82; no doctrine of atonement, 63

Pasteur, exterminates noxious microbes, 62

Patriotism as a perverter of justice, 185

Pausanias cited, 172

Penology, man and beast in modern, 14, 193; mediæval and modern, 15, 200, 206-210; in Italy and Germany, 203-206; brutality of mediæval, 206-209; moral and penal responsibility, 210; still inchoate, 15, 219-223, 257; deterrent aims of, 211, 248, 249; law of the survival of the fittest in, 221-223; punitive and preventive, 237; its relation to psycho-pathology, 248

Pereira Gomez, forerunner of Descartes, 66

Perjury, retaliative punishment of, 182

Perrodet, Jean, defender of inger, 118

Phlebotomy. _See_ Blood-letting

Pico di Mirandola, quoted, 103

Piety, market value of, 7

Pigs. _See_ Swine

Pirminius, St., his anathema of venomous reptiles, 29

Plato, his theory of creation, 59; on homicidal animals, 173; on retributive and preventive punishment, 237

Pliny, quoted, 103

Pollux, Julius, quoted, 172

Potter, a pious Sodomite executed, 148

Predestination in theology and science, 232-234

Prussia, barbarous punishments, 180; opposed to reform, 205

Prytaneion (Prytaneum), condemned inanimate objects for crime, 172; but not corpses, 199

Pufendorf, Samuel, on contagiousness in crime, 256

Puritans, their penal enactments, 209

Pythagoras, his doctrine of transmigration, 87

Queen Reason, her discourse on animals in reply to King Mode, 56-58

Racine, his caricature of beast trials in _Les Plaideurs_, 166, 361

Ram, banished to Siberia, 175

Randolph, his allusion to rhyming rats, 130

Rats, prosecution of, 18-21, 136; friendly letters of advice to, 129; Irish custom of rhyming, 130

Raven, an imp of Satan, 57

Renaud d’Alleins, on equal rights of Waldenses and rats, 20

Responsibility, moral and penal, 210

Reusch, Prof. Dr. Fr. Heinrich, denounces bishops as promoters of superstition, 14

Ro-ro-ro-ro, an anti-semitic devil cast out in 1842, 73

Rosarius, Hierolymus, describes the exposure of crucified lions and gibbeted wolves as a warning to their kind, 251; regards animals as often more rational than men, 252

Satan, his earthly sovereignty, 60, 70; the doctrine of his final redemption, 68

Schilling, on the prosecution of inger, 113, 120

Schläger, cited, 176

Schleswig, its punishment of homicidal timber, 187

Schmid, Bernard, his sermon on the devastations by inger, 113-115

Scholasticism, quiddities of, 33

Schopenhauer, his theory of the will, 127; man’s responsibility for character alone, 239, 243

Schwabenspiegel, barbarity of this old German code, 178

Schwarz Mining, prosecutor of moles, 112

Schweinfurter Sauhenker, origin of the term, 147

Serpents, destroyed by St. Eldrad, 51; freed from poison by St. Hugon, 103

Shakespeare, alludes to “be-rhymed” rats, 130; and a wolf on the gallows, 157

Silius Italicus, quoted, 103

Simon, Max, on the morbid spirit of imitation, 253

Sociology, its influence on criminal jurisprudence, 238

Socrates, on self-perfection, 234

Sodomy. _See_ Buggery

Soldan, cited, 17

Sparrows, put under ban by a Protestant parson, 128

Stephen VI., Pope, adjures locusts, 65; prosecutes the corpse of his predecessor, 198; strangled in prison, 199

Suicide, punishment of the wife and children of a, 190; condemned as a crime and also recognized as a right, 191, 192; due to manifold influences, 229

Superstition, fostered by bishops and Jesuits, 14

Swallows, anathematized for chattering in church, 28

Swine, execution of, 16, 140-145, 149, 153-157, 161, 169; as stenchy beasts peculiarly attractive to devils, 56, 165; Gadarene, 69, 91, 165

Swords, tainted, 187

Taine, his definition of man, 214

Tarde, defines the mob as a mad beast, 236

Tatian, his fellow-citizen punished for his offences, 180

Tattooing, not peculiar to criminals, 213

Termites, prosecuted by Franciscans in Brazil and praised by their defender as more industrious than the friars, 123

Tertullian, quoted, 106

Theognis, his bust punished for murder, 172

Thomas à Becket, his bones burned by Henry VIII., 198

Thomas Aquinas, regarded animals only as diabolical incarnations, 53-55, 88, 101, 103

Thurneysser, his bottled scorpions and elk feared as demons, 90

Tithes, importance of the prompt payment of, 37, 94, 107

Tobler, G., on animal prosecutions in Switzerland, 1, 170

Treason, barbarously punished by Roman, Prussian, and Judaic law, 179-181

Trench, Richard Chevenix, his justification of the cursing of the fig-tree, 25

Treufels, Richard, his belief in the exorcism at Wemding in 1891, 75

Tribunals, proper office of criminal, 211, 232, 248

Tritheim, on Satan’s invisible apparition, 166

Tschech, executed, and his innocent daughter exiled for his crime, 179

Türler, records the rejection of the Mosaic law by the ecclesiastical court of Berne, 170

Vampires, superstitions concerning, 195-198

Vendetta, in semi-civilized communities, 178

Venidad, quoted, 63

Ventilation, “bewitched kine” the result of bad, 8

Vermin. _See_ Insects

Virgil, quoted, 26

Weevils, prosecuted for damage to vineyards, 38-49

Wemding, recent case of diabolical possession in, 75

Were-wolves, incarnate ghosts, 195; decree for their extermination, 198

_Werther_, Goethe’s, sentimentalism and suicidism produced by, 253

Winterstetter, Georg, his rescript concerning gadflies, 125

Witches in Judaic and mediæval law, on a par with animals, 145; rendered harmless by burning, 196

Worms, Council of, its decree concerning tainted honey, 9

Zarathushtra (Zoroaster), his ethics and its workings, 57-59

Zoöpsychology, in its relation to anthropopyschology and criminology, 237

Zupetta, on partial vitiation of mind, 201

_Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London and Bungay._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The name is also spelled Chassanée and Chasseneux. In the Middle Ages, and even as late as the end of the eighteenth century, the orthography of proper names was very uncertain.

[2] “Item: a été délibéré que la ville se joindra aux paroisses de cette province qui voudront obtenir de Rome une excommunication contre les insects et que l’on contribuera aux frais au pro rata.”

[3] These animals are spoken of as _unvernünftige Thierlein genannt Lutmäuse_. _Lut_ might be derived from the Old German _lût_ (_Laut_, Schrei), in which case _Lutmaus_ would mean shrew-mouse; but it is more probably from _lutum_ (loam, mould), and signifies mole or field-mouse. Field-mice are exceedingly prolific rodents, and in modern as well as in mediæval times have often done grievous harm to husbandry and arboriculture by consuming roots and fruits and gnawing the bark of young trees. The recklessness of hunters in exterminating foxes, hedgehogs, polecats, weasels, buzzards, crows, kites, owls and similar beasts and birds, which are destructive of field-mice, has frequently caused the latter to multiply so as to become a terrible plague. This was the case in England in 1813-14, and in Germany in 1822, and again in 1856.

[4] The first part of this treatise, consisting of seventeen chapters, discusses the different kinds of “monitoires” and their applications. Only the second part, describing the legal procedure, is here printed.

[5] A few early instances of excommunication and malediction, our knowledge of which is derived chiefly from hagiologies and other legendary sources, are not included in the present list, such, for example, as the cursing and burning of storks at Avignon by St. Agricola in 666, and the expulsion of venomous reptiles from the island Reichenau in 728 by Saint Perminius.

[6] This case is probably identical with and an adjournment of that of 1478.

[7] Identical with the sentences covering the period of 1500-1530.

[8] In this latest record of such prosecutions a man named Marger was killed and robbed by Scherrer and his son, with the fierce and effective co-operation of their dog. The three murderers were tried and the two men sentenced to lifelong imprisonment, but the dog, as the chief culprit, without whose complicity the crime could not have been committed, was condemned to death.

[9] In modern French _pendard_ means hang-dog. M. Lejeune states that he can recall no other instance of its use as synonymous with bourreau or hangman. Perhaps a facetious clerk may have deemed it applicable to a person whose office was in the present case that of a hang-pig.

[10] Under this term are included the dean, canons, and chapter of the Cathedral of Chartres.

[11] _Mietkuhe_, a cow pastured or wintered for pay.

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.

Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}.