undergone by accused persons in order to preserve their estates from being
forfeited to the Crown, which would have been the case if they had stood
their trial and been found guilty. The year 1741 is probably the last date
on which the punishment was inflicted. In 1721, two men, Thomas Cross and
Thomas Spigot, were ordered to be pressed to death at the Old Bailey.
Cross gave in on seeing the preparations made for his torture, but Spigot
was made of sterner stuff. In the "Annals of Newgate" is a description of
his sufferings:--"The chaplain found him lying in the vault upon the bare
ground with 350 pounds weight upon his breast, and then prayed by him, and
at several times asked him why he would hazard his soul by such obstinate
kind of self-murder. But all the answer that he made was--'Pray for me,
pray for me!' He sometimes lay silent under the pressure, as if insensible
to pain, and then again would fetch his breath very quick and short.
Several times he complained that they had laid a cruel weight upon his
face, though it was covered with nothing but a thin cloth, which was
afterwards removed and laid more light and hollow; yet he still complained
of the prodigious weight upon his face, which might be caused by the blood
being forced up thither, and pressing the veins as violently as if the
force had been externally upon his face. When he had remained for
half-an-hour under this load, and 50 pounds weight more laid on, being in
all 400 pounds, he told those who attended him he would plead. The weights
were at once taken off, the cords cut asunder; he was raised by two men,
some brandy was put into his mouth to revive him, and he was carried to
take his trial." In 1735, a man, who pretended to be dumb at the Sussex
Assizes, was sent to Horsham Gaol to be pressed to death unless he would
plead. He endured in agony a weight of 350 pounds, and then the
executioner, who weighed over 16 stones, laid himself upon the board upon
which the weights were placed, and killed the wretched man instantly.
Trials of Animals.
BY THOMAS FROST.
One of the most singular features of the jurisprudence of the middle ages,
and one which was retained in the French code down to nearly the middle of
the last century, was the indictment of domestic animals for injuries
inflicted on mankind. The records of the criminal tribunals of France
disclose ninety-two such judicial processes between 1120 and 1741, when
the last of these grotesque trials took place in Poitou. The practice
seems to have been based on the Mosaic law, it being there ordered that,
"if an ox gore a man or a woman that they die, then the ox shall be
stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten." (Exodus, c. xxi., v. 28.) Oxen
and pigs were the animals that most frequently were the subjects of these
strange proceedings, the indictment against the former being for goring
persons, while the latter suffered for killing and sometimes devouring
very young children.
The earliest instance of which any particulars can be gathered occurred
in 1314, when, according to M. Carlier, who relates the story in his
history of the Duchy of Valois, a bull escaped from a farm-yard in the
village of Moisy, and gored a man so severely that death ensued. The Count
of Valois, being informed of the fatility, directed that the bull should
be captured, and formally prosecuted for causing the man's death. This was
done, and evidence was given by persons who had seen the man attacked and
killed. The bull was thereupon sentenced to suffer death, which was
inflicted by strangulation, after which the carcase was suspended from a
tree by the hind legs. But the affair did not end thus, for the sentence
was appealed against, probably by the owner of the bull, on the ground
that the retainers of the Count of Valois had no legal authority to
execute the sentence. This plea was debated at great length, and the
provincial parliament eventually decided that, though the sentence was a
just one, the Count of Valois had no justiciary authority in the district
of Moisy.
Next in the order of time comes the trial at Falaise of a sow which had
torn the face and arm of a child, from the effects of which injuries it
died. The sow was condemned to be mutilated in the head and one fore leg,
and afterwards to be strangled, which sentence was executed in the public
square of the town. This was in 1386. Three years later, a horse was
condemned to death at Dijon for having killed a man. In 1403, Simon de
Baudemont, lieutenant of Meulan; Jean, lord of Maintenon; and the bailiff
of Mantes and Meulan, signed an attestation of the expenses incurred in
the prosecution and execution of a sow that had killed and partially eaten
a child. The following is a copy of the document, to which it may be added
that the story of the trial and execution may be found in the "Curiosites
Judiciaires et Historiques du Moyen Age" of M. Aguel:--"Item, for expenses
within the gaol, 6 sols. Item, to the executioner, who came from Paris to
Meulan to put the sentence in execution, by command of our Lord the
Bailiff and of the King's Attorney, 54 sols. Item, for the carriage that
conveyed her to execution, 6 sols. Item, for ropes to tie and haul her up,
2 sols, 8 deniers. Item, for gloves, 12 deniers; amounting in the whole to
69 sols, 8 deniers." In connection with the first item of this curious
document, it may be observed that, in a receipt delivered five years later
by a notary of Pont de l'Arche to the gaoler of the prison of that town,
the same amount is allowed for the daily food of a pig, imprisoned on the
charge of killing a child, as for a man in the same prison. The last item,
the gloves, is supposed by M. Aguel to be a customary allowance to the
executioner.
In 1457, a sow and her six young pigs were tried at Lavegny, on the charge
of having killed and partially eaten a child. The sow was convicted, and
condemned to death; but the little ones were acquitted on the ground of
their tender years or months, the bad example of their mother, and the
absence of direct evidence of their having partaken of the unnatural
feast. In 1494, sentence of death was pronounced on a pig by the Mayor of
Laon for having mutilated and destroyed an infant in its cradle, full
particulars of which case were given in the "Annuaire du Departement de
l'Aisne" for 1812. The act of condemnation, as there given, concludes as
follows:--"We, in detestation and horror of this crime, and in order to
make an example and satisfy justice, have declared, judged, sentenced,
pronounced, and appointed that the said hog, being detained a prisoner,
and confined in the said abbey, shall be, by the executioner, strangled
and hanged on a gibbet, near and adjoining the gallows in the
jurisdiction of the said monks, being near their copyhold of Avin. In
witness of which we have sealed this present with our seal." This document
was sealed with red wax, and endorsed:--"Sentence on a hog, executed by
justice, brought into the copyhold of Clermont, and strangled on a gibbet
at Avin."
Three years later, a sow was condemned to be beaten to death for having
mutilated the face of a child of the village of Charonne. The act of
condemnation in this case directed further that the flesh of the sow
should be given to the dogs of the village, and that the owner of the sow
and his wife should make a pilgrimage to the Church of Our Lady at
Pontoise, and bring on their return a certificate that this injunction had
been duly complied with. In 1499, a bull was strangled for having killed a
boy in the lordship of Cauroy, which belonged to the abbey of Beaufire.
Lionnois gives, in his history of Nancy, a full report of the proceedings
on the delivery of a condemned pig to the executioner of that city in
1572. He mentions, among other details, that the animal, secured by a
cord, was led to a cross near the cemetery; that from the most remote
period the justice of the lord, the abbot of Moyen Moutier, was accustomed
to deliver to the provost, or marshal of St. Diez, near to this cross, all
condemned criminals, that execution might ensue; and that, the said pig
being a brute beast, the mayor and the justice held a conference at that
place, and left the said pig tied with a cord, without prejudice to the
judicial rights of the lord.
Judicial proceedings against the lower animals were not confined to
France, for the list of such cases compiled by M. Berriat St. Prix, and
published in the "Memoires de la Societe des Antiquaires" for 1829,
mentions one tried at Lausanne in 1364, another at the same town in 1451,
a third at Basle in 1474, another at Lausanne in 1479, and a fifth at the
same place in 1554. Concerning the first of these Swiss trials, Ruchat
states, in his history of the Protestant reformation in Switzerland, that
the victim was a pig that had killed a child in the village of Chattens,
situated among the Jorat hills. It was cited to appear in the Bishop's
Court at Lausanne, convicted of murder, and sentenced to death--the
executioner being a pork butcher.
The Basle case was a very singular one. A farm-yard cock was tried on the
absurd charge of having laid an egg. It was contended in support of the
prosecution that eggs laid by cocks were of inestimable value for use in
certain magical preparations; that a sorcerer would rather possess a
cock's egg than the philosopher's stone; and that Satan employed witches
to hatch such eggs, from which proceeded winged serpents most dangerous to
mankind. On behalf of the gallinaceous prisoner, the facts of the case
were admitted, but his advocate submitted that no evil animus had been
proved against his client, and that no injury to man or beast had
resulted. Besides, the laying of the egg was an involuntary act, and as
such not punishable by law. If it was intended to impute the crime of
sorcery to his client, he was entitled to an acquittal; for there was no
instance on record of Satan having made a compact with one of the brute
creation. In reply, the public prosecutor stated that, though the Evil One
did not make compacts with brutes, he sometimes entered into them; and
though the swine possessed by devils, as related by the Evangelists, were
involuntary agents, yet they, nevertheless, were punished by being caused
to run down a steep decline into the Lake of Galilee, where they were
drowned. The poor cock was convicted, and condemned to death, not as a
cock, however, but as a sorcerer, or perhaps a devil, in the form of a
cock, on which finding it was, with the egg attributed to it, burned at a
stake, with all the form and solemnity of a judicial execution.
As the lower animals were amenable to the law in Switzerland in those dark
ages, so, in certain circumstances, they could be put into the witness
box. If a house was broken into between sunset and sunrise, and the
occupier killed the intruder, the act was regarded as justifiable
homicide. But it was thought right to provide by law against the case of a
man, living alone, who might invite a person whom he wished to kill to
spend the evening with him, and having slain him, might assert that he
committed the act in self-defence, or to protect his property, the dead
man having been a burglar. Therefore, when a man was killed in such
circumstances, the occupier of the house was required to produce some
domestic animal that was an inmate of the house, and had witnessed the
tragedy, and to declare his innocence on oath in the presence of such
animal. If the brute witness did not contradict him, he was acquitted; the
law taking it for granted that God, rather than allow a murderer to go
unpunished, would intervene by causing a miraculous manifestation by the
mouth of a dumb witness.
Even more strange than the trials of oxen, pigs, etc., for offences
against mankind, were the legal proceedings often taken in the middle ages
against noxious insects and the smaller quadrupeds, such as rats. The
"Memoires de la Societe Royale Academique de Savoie" contain a very
curious account of the proceedings instituted in 1445 and 1487 against
certain beetles that had committed great ravages in the vineyards of St.
Julien. Advocates were named on behalf of the vine-growers and the beetles
respectively; but, by a singular coincidence, the insects disappeared when
cited to answer for the mischief they had done, and the proceedings were
in consequence abandoned. That was in 1445. In 1487, however, they
re-appeared, and a complaint was thereupon addressed to the vicar-general
of the Bishop of Maurienne, who named a judge, and also an advocate to
represent the beetles. Counsel having been heard on both sides, the judge
suggested that the vine-growers should cede to the defendants certain
land, where they could live without encroaching on the vineyards. The
plaintiffs agreed to this compromise, with the proviso that, in default
of the defendants accepting the terms offered them, the judge would order
that the vineyards should be respected by the beetles under certain
penalties. The advocate for the beetles demanded time for consideration,
and on the resumption of the proceedings stated that he could not accept,
on behalf of his clients, the suggestion of the court, as the land
proposed to be given up to them was barren, and afforded nothing upon
which they could subsist. The court then appointed assessors to survey the
land in question, and on their report that it was well wooded and provided
with herbage, the conveyance was ordered to be engrossed in due form and
executed. The matter was then regarded by the plaintiffs as settled; but
the beetles discovered, or their advocate discovered for them, that a
quarry of an ochreous earth, used as a pigment, had formerly been worked
on the land conveyed to the insects, and though it had long since been
worked out, some person possessed an ancient right of way to it, the
exercise of which would be extremely prejudicial to them. Consequently,
the agreement was held to be vitiated, and the legal proceedings had to be
recommenced _de novo_. How they eventually terminated cannot be told,
owing to the mutilation of the documents relating to the proceedings
subsequent to 1487.
Nearly a century later, legal proceedings were commenced by the
inhabitants of a village in the diocese of Autun against the rats by which
their houses and barns were infested; the trial being famous in the annals
of French jurisprudence as that in which Chassanee, the celebrated
jurisconsult, first achieved distinction. The rats not appearing on the
first citation, Chassanee, who was retained for the defence, argued that
the summons was of too local a character, and that, as all the rats in the
diocese of Autun were interested in the case, they should be summoned
throughout the diocese. This plea being admitted, the cure of every parish
in the diocese was instructed to summon all the rats within its limits to
attend on a day named in the summons. The day having arrived, and the rats
failing to appear, Chassanee said that, as all his clients were summoned,
including old and young, sick and healthy, great preparations had to be
made, and certain necessary arrangements effected, and he had to ask,
therefore, for an extension of time. This also being granted, another day
was appointed, but again not a single rat put in an appearance. Chassanee
then made an objection to the legality of the summons. A summons from that
court, he said, implied full protection to the parties summoned, both on
their way to it and on their return to their homes; and his clients, the
rats, though most anxious to appear in obedience to the court, did not
dare to leave their homes to come to Autun, on account of the number of
evil-disposed cats kept by the plaintiffs. If the latter would enter into
bonds, under heavy pecuniary penalties, that their cats should not molest
his clients, the summons would be immediately obeyed. The court
acknowledged the validity of this plea, but the plaintiffs declined to be
bound for the good behaviour of their cats. The further hearing of the
case was, therefore, adjourned _sine die_, and thus Chassanee gained his
cause. Full particulars of the proceedings are given in a Latin work,
written by him, and published in 1588.
Devices of the Sixteenth Century Debtors.
BY JAMES C. MACDONALD, F.S.A., SCOT.
In the year 1531, a certain John Scott, residenter in the good town of
Edinburgh, was financially in a condition of chronic decrepitude. His
household goods were rapidly going to the hammer, and one creditor, bolder
than his fellows, decided to attack the impecunious personality of the
common debtor. Writs from court and messengers of the law were severally
set in motion; and on the earliest possible day one of those myrmidons
served upon the debtor personally, a writ bearing the terrible title of
"Letters of IV Forms." The "coinless" John was therein warned that if he
failed forthwith to pay or satisfy the lawful debt, for which decreet has
gone out, he would (unless he went to prison in a peaceful way) be
declared a rebel against the King's Majesty.
Now John reasoned with himself that payment he could not make; outlawry he
rather feared; and _squalor carceris_ he could not endure. What was to be
done? He had heard of the horns of the Hebrew altars: how that personal
safety resulted from any manual attachment thereto. Was there some such
boon in bonny Scotland? There was Holyrood, with its sanctified abbey. It
was near; any port in such a storm. Down the Canongate, and straight to
the sanctuary he ran--all to the manifest loss, injury, and damage of his
creditors who followed, having got wind of this unique _hegira_ from the
red-nosed city guard. In vain the creditors pleaded; equally in vain were
their threats. The canny Scot was warranted safe and skaithless against
"all mortal."
Annoyed at his debtor's immunity from arrest, chagrined that any money
John possessed had now been further dissipated in the Abbey admission dues
to its protection giving portals--each creditor turned sadly to his "buiks
of Compts" and superscribed over against John Scott's name the expressive
legend "bad debt." And this John Scott became the forerunner, _de facto_,
of a long line of "distressed" persons. Nay more, he secured an
immortality as lasting as that of the sovereign whose solemnly sounding
"Letters of IV Forms," he spurned and left unanswered.
A generation later, and another _new_ way of paying old debts is placed on
record. To balance international honours it is of Anglican origin.
Scoggan, the jester of the Elizabethan court, falls into financial
distress. He borrows L500 from the Queen--_mirabile dictu_. Only a fool
would have tried such a thing. It was put down as a "short loan," but it
soon became clear to the royal lender that its longevity would outlast her
reign. To all demands the clownish borrower smilingly cried "long live the
queen," until at last his existence as court fool was in danger of being
ended. But he would rather die than be evicted; and die he did. He became,
theatrically speaking, defunct.
The _late_ Scoggan was accordingly borne, to solemn music, past the royal
garden; and the queen, seeing the mournful show--and knowing nought of its
hollowness--asked whose it was. "Scoggan, Your Majesty," was the reply.
"Poor fellow," she exclaimed, "the L500 he owed me I now freely forgive."
Whereupon the "defunct" sat up and declared that the royal generosity had
given him a new lease of life. "Thou rogue," said the queen, "thou art
more rogue than fool. Thou hast improved upon the plan of that John Scott,
who, in the reign of my late cousin of Scotland, as Sir James Melvil tells
me, got rid of the oldest debt and the longest loan."
Laws Relating to the Gipsies.
BY WILLIAM E. A. AXON, F.R.S.L.
Early in the fifteenth century the gipsies made their appearance in
Europe, and as strangers were not favourably regarded in those days the
advent of these dark-skinned people, speaking a language of their own,
dressing in a picturesque, but uncommon costume, and having their own
rulers, and their own code of morals, and owning no allegiance to the laws
of the land in which they sojourned, naturally attracted attention. At
first some credence was given to their high-sounding pretensions, and the
dukes, counts, and lords of Lesser Egypt received safe conducts and
protection under the idea that they were engaged in religious pilgrimages.
But the seal of the Emperor Sigismund would not protect them when the term
of their pretended pilgrimage had expired, nor would the manners and
customs of the gipsies substantiate any special claim to sanctity or
religious fervour. Even the ages when the divorce was most marked between
religion and morals would be staggered by the thefts, and worse outrages
that were laid to their charge. Sigismund's safe conducts are said to have
been given not as Emperor, but as King of Hungary, and some of the gipsies
were early employed as ironworkers in the realm of St. Stephen. In 1496
King Ladislaus gave a charter of protection to Thomas Polgar and his
twenty five tents of gipsies because they had made musket bullets and
other military stores for Bishop Sigismund at Fuenfkirchen, but whatever
consideration may have been shewn to them in the beginning, they speedily
became objects of suspicion and dislike. There is not a country in Europe
which has not legislated against them or endeavoured to exile them by
administrative acts. Their expulsion from Spain was decreed in 1492, from
France in 1562, and from various Italian states about the same time.
Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands have also pronounced against them.
The Diet of Augsburg in 1500, ordered their expulsion from Germany on the
ground that they were spies of Turkey seeking to betray the Christians.
This edict, though several times repeated, was non-effective.
In Hungary and Transylvania the authorities, hopeless of getting rid of
the troublesome immigrants, took strong measures to bring them into line
with the rest of the population. They were prohibited from using the
Romany tongue, from retaining their gipsy surnames, from wandering about
the country, from eating carrion, and from dealing in horses. Those fit
for military service were to be taken into the army, and the rest were to
live and dress and deport themselves in the same manner as the peasantry
of the country. These regulations were not wholly effective, but the
result of the efforts put forward by Maria Theresa, and her successors may
be seen in the sedentary gipsies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. At times
they have been subjected to fierce persecution. In 1782, a dreadful
accusation was brought against the Hungarian Romanis, when more than a
hundred of them were accused of murder and cannibalism. The gang were said
to have lived by highway robbery and murder, and to have cooked and eaten
the bodies of their victims. At Frauenmark four women were beheaded, six
men were hanged, two were broken on the wheel, and one was quartered
alive. Altogether forty-five were executed and many more were imprisoned.
How much of this was suspicion substantiated by torture?
The gipsies came frequently in contact with the myrmidons of the law. "As
soon as the officer seizes or forces away the culprit," says Grellmann,
"he is surrounded by a swarm of his comrades who take unspeakable pains to
procure the release of the prisoner.... When it comes to the infliction of
punishment, and the malefactor receives a good number of lashes well laid
on, in the public market place, a universal lamentation commences among
the vile crew; each stretches his throat to cry over the agony his dear
associate is constrained to suffer. This is oftener the fate of the women
than of the men; for as the maintenance of the family depends most upon
them, they more frequently go out for plunder." It is a noteworthy fact
that Grellmann writing in 1783, has not a word of condemnation of the
barbarous practice of flogging women.