The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1884-09-24
Old Time Justice BnIIa and,
Horses Executed as Murder
ers,

IL Nh VIZ ANtu VI dtnuhFlt 1uOlt ~
SOW was eonyiciedof murder; com.
mitted on tte person Of an infant
named Jehan Martin Of sayiuEy,
and sentenced 10 be hanged. tist
six sucklings we're also included
in the indictment as accomplices;
\ sin default Of any positive proof
that they had assisted in manslins
Che deceased, they we're restored %
their owner on condition chat he
should give bail for theif appear.
ance should further evidence be
forthcoming to prove their COM.
plicity in their mothers crime.a
About a month later ION the Fri.
day after the feast Of the purifca.
tion Of the virgin, = the sucklings
'lwere again brought before thg
Icourt; and their owner, Jehan Bail.
lily, declined to be answerable for
their future good conduct, they
lwere declared forfeited 10 the no.
Ible damsel Katherine de Barnauit,
ladyof fsavingy. Sometimes a fine
was imposed upon the owner Of an
offending beast, as was the case
with Jehan Delalande and his wife,
condemned on the 18th Of April,
1499, by the abbey Of Josaphat,
near Charles to pay eighteen
francs ION account Of the murder
Of a child named Gillon, aged Eve
years and a hall, or thereabouts,
committed by a porker, aged three
months or thereabouts." The
pOrker was changed and executed
by justice"
The records Of the iuediuyal clos.
|iters are full Of examples. That
such cases usually come under the
jurisdiction Of monasteries will
not seem strange when we remem.
ber that these religious establish.
ments were great landholders, and
at one time owned nearly ons.third
of all the real estate in France.
The frequency with which pigs
were adjudged to death was owing
in great measure to the freedom
with which they were permitted
to run about the houses as we'll az
to their immense number. They
became a serious nuisance, not on.
ly as endangering the life Of chill
dren; but as generating and dis.
seminating diseases, so that many
cities like Genoble in the sixteenth
century authorized the carnifex to
teize and slay them whenever
found at large.
But although pigs appear to be
the principal culprits, other quad.
rupeds were frequently called to
answer for their crimes. The ju.
dietary Of the Cistercian abbey
Beaupre, in 1899, sent a bull to Che
gallOws for having "killed with
furiosity a lad Of fourteen or fifteen
years of age;" and in 1880 the Car.
thusians atDijon caused a horse to
be condemned to death for HON.
icide. The magistrates Of Bate, in.
1474, sentenced a cock to obe burned
at the stake for the heinous and
unnatural crime Of laying an egg,
The euf Of coquatri was supposed
to be the product Of a very old cock
and to furnish the most active and
effective ingredient Of witch oint.
ment. When hatched by a serpent
or the sun, IL brought forth a cock.
atrice, which would hide in the
roof Of a house, and with It's bane.
ful. breath and "death.darting.eye,"
destroy all the inmates. Natural
lists believed in this fable as late as
the eighteenth century; and in
l710 the French sayant Lupeyronie
read paper before the Academic
des Sciences to prove that eggs at
tributed to cocks owe their peculiar
form to a disease of the hen.
Animals also bore their full part
otthe persecution during the witch.
craft delusion. Pigs suffered most
in this respect, and were assumed
to be peculiarly attractive to dia.
bolical possession, as is evident
from the legion that went out Of
the tomb.haunting man and we're
permitted, at their own request,
to enter into the Gardarsne herd Of
swine. Indeed, the greatest theo.
logical authority Of the middle
ages, Thomas Aquinas, maintained
that beasts are but embodiments Of
evil spirits. ohassenee quotes his
opinion, and adds that in excom.
indicating animals the anathema
lis aimed inferentiall at thede
who uses irrational creatures TO our
detriment." Still more recently
a French Jesuit. Pere Bonpeant