History - Medieval justice punished murderous pigs and unruly donkeys
1379 there was an uproar in a French monastery. Two piglets got enraged - in the commotion, the pigs killed a man, Perrinot Muet. After the bloodbath - which couldn't be ignored - the pigs were seized and brought to trial. Not only the three pigs that had committed murder, but all those involved in the disturbance were brought before the court.
The verdict could only be death. With loud cheers, the spectators in the courtroom expressed their satisfaction that the beastly malefactors couldn't escape their rightful punishment. The treatise on "Animals in the Courtroom, The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals", by E.P. Evans, dates from 1906. In it, Evans notes that pigs often had problems with the law. He analyzed: "The frequency with which pigs were brought before the courts and sentenced to death was related to the freedom they were allowed to roam the streets and their immense numbers".
Abbot Humbert de Poutiers feared that the verdict would ruin his monastery. The monks would suffer hunger if all their pigs fell into the hands of the executioner. So he wrote to the powerful Duke of Burgundy and begged him to spare the accomplices and only execute the three murder-pigs. The Duke "listened to the pleas and ordered the sentence to be commuted and the pigs released", reported E. P. Evans. The correspondence prevented the pig trial from being forgotten.
Pigs frequently before the court
Pigs can be quite mischievous. Like humans, they are omnivorous, and therefore do not shy away from meat. In addition, they are intelligent and work cooperatively in groups. Children were often their victims.
In medieval law, contemporary issues such as traumas or a difficult childhood were irrelevant. Mitigating or aggravating factors could be the place and time of the offense. Evans reports of a pig that had eaten a baby - bad enough. However, the deceitful character of the animal was made clear to the contemporaries by another circumstance: The pig ate the child on a Friday, a day of fasting.
In 1386, there was a festival in Falaise. A "huge and colorful" crowd wanted to witness the execution of a murderer. The burghers appeared in their finest clothes. Once again, a pig was to die. Because it "yielded to the evil inclination of eating infants on the street". The trial was conducted as if it were about the life of a human. And so the execution was to take place accordingly. The executioner bought new gloves, which he billed the city for. Before death, the pig had to be mutilated at the head and forelegs. The occasion-appropriate, the pig couldn't appear naked, it was festively dressed. The entire grandiose spectacle was recorded in a fresco. In the 19th century, the citizens apparently found the spectacle embarrassing, and in 1820 they covered up the wall.
Evans lists about 200 such cases, most of which were in France. In Marseille, in 1596, even two dolphins were brought before the court and executed - unfortunately, their crime is unknown.
In reality, trials against animals in the Middle Ages were rather an intriguing anomaly than the everyday occurrence in court. If such a trial took place, the entire judicial apparatus was set in motion - these trials were lengthy, complicated, and extremely expensive. Particularly when, as in the case of animals, there was nothing to be gained from the convicted parties. Evans reports, for instance, of a pig and a donkey, both sentenced to hanging. But their lawyer did not give in to the verdict; he appealed. In the next instance, the sentence was mitigated. The animals escaped with their lives, and they were only struck on the head once.
Even a mistreated donkey had good fortune in 1750. The court recognized that the kind-hearted donkey had been a victim of violence. The monastery to which the donkey belonged also testified that in the past four years, the donkey had always behaved virtuously and obediently at home and abroad. A fortunate turn of events, as one was quickly sent to the stake for sodomy.
In this legal perspective, the animal is a moral being that could make its own decisions for good and evil. It could suffer and thus deserved harsh penalties. A similar pattern can be found in the popular hagiographic tales of the Middle Ages. Many saints understood the language of animals and always encountered rational conversation partners. For instance, Saint Romedius had to discover that a wild boar had eaten his horse. In the wilderness. The saint explained to the boar that he urgently needed to go to Turin. The boar understood its predicament and allowed itself to be saddled without resistance and carried Romedius into the city.
Warnings from Historians
Historian Peter Dietzenbacher warns against underestimating the people of the Middle Ages. In his opinion, these trials mainly occurred during very tense times. Times, "when extreme measures to ensure law and order were deemed necessary."
Viewed in this light, these trials were surprisingly modern. They were spectacles. The nobility employed this means to appear active. They were performances, "which helped the community cope with a threat - not because they really functioned, but because they gave the impression that the authorities were diligent and determined in upholding law and order." In fact, these trials were not phenomena of the Middle Ages. Trials against vermin and pests were unknown in early and high medieval times. They only became popular from the thirteenth century onwards, as jurists were trained at universities. And they remained fashionable until the Enlightenment. More recent cases, such as that of a macedonian bear who was sentenced in 2008 for stealing honey from a beekeeper, had a rather humorous background.
Income Security for Jurists
After the Middle Ages, trials against pests and vermin came into fashion. In truth, the state and church authorities could do nothing against these plagues. However, the impression of helplessness had to be avoided at all costs. So, rats and beetles were brought before the court.
In France, the defendants found themselves facing the vehement lawyers Bartholomew Chassene, who fiercely represented the pests. For the defender of animals, such a trial was a money-making machine. Rats and beetles could not pay, so the city had to cover his necessary costs. In Chassene's writing, one can admire the excessive verbal acrobatics of the ancient justice. The lawsuit against the rats had to be dismissed, he argued. For "due to the length and difficulty of the journey and the heavy dangers the rats posed, as well as the unrelenting vigilance of their enemies, the cats, who observed all their movements with delight and waited for them with deadly intent at every corner and passage," one could not force the rodents to march to their death in court.
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- During the Middle Ages, the frequency of pig trials in France was so high that it became a common anomaly, with even dolphins being brought before the court.
- In the Mord of 1379, three murderous pigs were sentenced to death in France, but Abbot Humbert de Poutiers pleaded with the Duke of Burgundy to spare the accomplices, resulting in the pigs' release.
- Peter Dietzenbacher, a historian, warns against underestimating the people of the Middle Ages, suggesting that the trials mainly occurred during times of extreme tension and lawlessness.
- Trials against animals in the Middle Ages were not everyday occurrences but were rather performed to give the impression that the authorities were diligent and determined in upholding law and order.
- In the article "Animals in the Courtroom, The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals" by E.P. Evans, it is mentioned that pigs often had problems with the law due to their freedom to roam the streets and large numbers.
