The record-union., 1899-06-25
Furnishing BEASTS.
A Curious and Grotesque Medieval
Custom.

Custom.
! Beasts were often condemned to be-
burned alive, and, strangely enough.
| it was in the latter half Of the sew
| enteenth century, an age of compare
| tive enlightenment, that this cruel pen
atty was most frequently inflicted. Oc-
easionally merciful Judge adhered to
| the letter of the law by sentencing the
culprit to be slightly singed, and then
to be strangled before being burned.
Sometimes they were condemned to be
| Buried alive. Such was the fate suf-
fered by two pigs in 1856, ION the vigil
of the Holy Virgin at C1penheim-on-
| the-Rhine, for killing child. Animals
were even put to the rack in order to
extort confession. It is not to be sup
posed that the Judge had the slightest
expectation that any confession would
be made; he wished simply to observe
all forms prescribed by the law, ana
to set in motion the whole machinery
| of justice before pronouncing judgment.
The question:" which in such cases
| would seem to be only a wanton and
| superfiuous element in determining the
| final decision, since the death sentence
could be commuted into Punishment
|
under torture The use of the rack was
| therefore meaEs of escaping the gai-
| lows Appeals were sometimes made
| to higher tribunals, and the judgments
! of the lower courts annulled or mod1-
| fed. In one instance a SOW and She
ass were condemned to be hanged; on
appeal and after new trial they were
sentenced to be simply knocked on the
head. In another instance an appeal
led to the acquittal of the accused.
| In 1866, at Fontenay-aux-Rcses near
Paris, a pig convicted of having eaten
a child was publicly burned by order
of the monks of Sainte-Genevieve. In
| 1886 the tribunal of Falaise sentenced
a SOW to be mangled and manned in the
head and leg, and then to be hanged,
for having torn the face and arm of
child and caused it's death. Here We
have strict application OF the lex
talionis. The SOW was dressed in mans
clothes and executed in the public
square, near the City Hall, at the ex-
pense to the State of ten sous and ten
deniers besides pair of gloves to the
hangman.
The executioner was provided with
new gloves in order that he might come
from the discharge of his duty with
clean hands, thus indicating that as a
minister of justice he incurred no guilt
in shedding hood. He was not COM
| mon butcher of swine, but a public
functionary, master Of high works"
(maitre des hautes oeuvres), as he was
officially styled. In 1894. pig was
found guilty of having killed and MUIR
dered a child in the parish OF Rou-
n.aygne, in the county of Mortaing, for
which deed the said pig was condemned
to be drawn and hanged by Jehan Pet
tit, Lieutenant of the Bailiff.
There is also extant an order issued
by the magistracy of Gisors in 14Oo.
commanding payment to be made to
the carpenter who had erected the scat
fold on which an OK had been executed
for its demerits." Brute and human
criminals were confined in the same
prison and subjected to the same treat
ment. Thus .Toustain Pincheon, keep
er of the prisons of our lord the King
in the town Of Pont de Larche," ac-
knowledges the receipt of nineteen
sous six deniers tournois for having
found the Kings bread for the oSis-
oners detained, by reason of crime, in
the said prison" The jailer gives the
names of the persons in custody, and
concludes the list with the item of
"one pig. kept from the 24th Of June.