Nicholas Humphrey. Chapter 18 in “The Mind Made Flesh”, pp. 235-254, OUP,
2002 BUGS AND BEASTS BEFORE THE LAW1
On 5 March 1986 some villagers near Malacca in Malaysia beat to death a dog, which they
believed was one of a gang of thieves who transform themselves into animals to carry out
their crimes.. The story was reported on the front page of the London Financial Times.
"When a dog bites a man," it is said, "that's not news; but when a man bites a dog, that is
news".
Such stories, however, are apparently not news for very long. Indeed the most
extraordinary examples of people taking retribution against animals seem to have been
almost totally forgotten. A few years ago I lighted on a book, first published in 1906, with
the surprising title "The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals" by
E.P.Evans, author of "Animal Symbolism in Ecclesiastical Architecture," "Bugs and Beasts
before the Law," etc., etc.2 The frontispiece showed an engraving of a pig, dressed up in a
jacket and breeches, being strung up on a gallows in the market square of a town in
Normandy in 1386; the pig had been formally tried and convicted of murder by the local
court. When I borrowed the book from the Cambridge University Library, I showed this
picture of the pig to the librarian. "Is it a joke?", she asked.
No, it was not a joke.3 All over Europe, throughout the middle-ages and right on into
the 19th century, animals were, as it turns out, tried for human crimes. Dogs, pigs, cows, rats
and even flies and caterpillars were arraigned in court on charges ranging from murder to
obscenity. The trials were conducted with full ceremony: evidence was heard on both sides,
witnesses were called, and in many cases the accused animal was granted a form of legal aid
-- a lawyer being appointed at the tax-payer's expense to conduct the animal’s defence.
In 1494, for example, near Clermont in France a young pig was arrested for having
"strangled and defaced a child in its cradle". Several witnesses were examined, who testified
that "on the morning of Easter Day, the infant being left alone in its cradle, the said pig
entered during the said time the said house and disfigured and ate the face and neck of the
said child .. which in consequence departed this life." Having weighed up the evidence and
found no extenuating circumstances, the judge gave sentence:
We, in detestation and horror of the said crime, and to the end that an
example may be made and justice maintained, have said, judged, sentenced,
pronounced and appointed that the said porker, now detained as a prisoner
and confined in the said abbey, shall be by the master of high works hanged
and strangled on a gibbet of wood.4
1
, Evans's book details more than two hundred such cases: sparrows being prosecuted
for chattering in Church, a pig executed for stealing a communion wafer, a cock burnt at the
stake for laying an egg. As I read my eyes grew wider and wider. Why did no one tell us this
at school? We all know how King Canute attempted to stay the tide at Lambeth. But who has
heard of the solemn threats made against the tides of locusts which threatened to engulf the
countryside of France and Italy:
In the name and by virtue of God, the omnipotent, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
and of Mary, the most blessed Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the
authority of the holy apostles Peter and Paul . . we admonish by these presents
the aforesaid locusts . . under pain of malediction and anathema to depart from
the vineyards and fields of this district within six days from the publication of
this sentence and to do no further damage there or elsewhere.5
The Pied Piper, who charmed the rats from Hamelin is a part of legend. But who has
heard of Bartholomew Chassenée, a French jurist of the sixteenth century, who made his
reputation at the bar as the defence counsel for some rats? The rats had been put on trial in
the ecclesiastical court on the charge of having "feloniously eaten up and wantonly
destroyed" the local barley. When the culprits did not in fact turn up in court on the appointed
day, Chassenée made use of all his legal cunning to excuse them. They had, he urged in the
first place, probably not received the summons since they moved from village to village; but
even if they had received it they were probably too frightened to obey, since as everyone
knew they were in danger of being set on by their mortal enemies the cats. On this point
Chassenée addressed the court at some length, in order to show that if a person be cited to
appear at a place to which he cannot come in safety, he may legally refuse. The judge,
recognising the justice of this claim, but being unable to persuade the villagers to keep their
cats indoors, was obliged to let the matter drop.
Every case was argued with the utmost ingenuity. Precedents were bandied back
and forth, and appeals made to classical and biblical authority. There was no question that
God Himself -- when He created animals -- was moving in a most mysterious way, and the
court had to rule on what His deeper motives were. In 1478, for example, proceedings were
begun near Berne in Switzerland against a species of insect called the Inger, which had
been damaging the crops. The animals, as was only fair, were first warned by a
proclamation from the pulpit:
2
, Thou irrational and imperfect creature, the Inger, called imperfect because
there was none of thy species in Noah's ark at the time of the great bane and
ruin of the deluge, thou art now come in numerous bands and hast done
immense damage in the ground and above the ground to the perceptible
diminution of food for men and animals; . . therefore . . I do command and
admonish you, each and all, to depart within the next six days from all
places where you have secretly or openly done or might still do damage.6
Experience had shown however that the defendants were unlikely to respond:
In case, however, you do not heed this admonition or obey this command, and
think you have some reason for not complying with them, I admonish, notify
and summon you in virtue of and obedience to the Holy Church, you by the
power of and obedience to the Holy Church to appear on the sixth day after
this execution at precisely one o’clock after midday at Wifflisburg, there to
justify yourselves or answer for your conduct through your advocate before
his Grace the Bishop of Lausanne or his vicar and deputy. Thereupon my
Lord of Lausanne will proceed against you according to the rules of justice
with curses and other exorcisms, as is proper in such cases in accordance with
legal form and established practice.7
The appointed six days having elapsed, the mayor and common council of Berne
appointed "after mature deliberation . . the excellent Thüring Fricker, doctor of the liberal arts
and of laws, our now chancellor, to be our legal delegate . . [to] plead, demur, reply, prove by
witnesses, hear judgment, appoint other defenders, and in general and specially do each and
every thing which the importance of the cause may demand."8 The defender of the insects was
to be a certain Jean Perrodet of Freiburg. Perrodet put in the usual plea that since God had
created the inger He must have meant them to survive, indeed to multiply. Was it not stated
explicitly in Genesis that on the sixth day of creation God had given "to every fowl of the air
and to everything that creepeth upon the earth . . the green herbs for meat"?
But the defence in this case was outmatched. The inger, it was claimed in the
indictment, were a mistake: they had not been taken on board Noah's ark. Hence when God
had sent the great flood he must have meant to wipe them out. To have survived at all, the
inger must have been illegal stowaways -- and as such they clearly had no rights, indeed it
was doubtful wheter they were animals at all. The sentence of the court was as follows:
3
2002 BUGS AND BEASTS BEFORE THE LAW1
On 5 March 1986 some villagers near Malacca in Malaysia beat to death a dog, which they
believed was one of a gang of thieves who transform themselves into animals to carry out
their crimes.. The story was reported on the front page of the London Financial Times.
"When a dog bites a man," it is said, "that's not news; but when a man bites a dog, that is
news".
Such stories, however, are apparently not news for very long. Indeed the most
extraordinary examples of people taking retribution against animals seem to have been
almost totally forgotten. A few years ago I lighted on a book, first published in 1906, with
the surprising title "The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals" by
E.P.Evans, author of "Animal Symbolism in Ecclesiastical Architecture," "Bugs and Beasts
before the Law," etc., etc.2 The frontispiece showed an engraving of a pig, dressed up in a
jacket and breeches, being strung up on a gallows in the market square of a town in
Normandy in 1386; the pig had been formally tried and convicted of murder by the local
court. When I borrowed the book from the Cambridge University Library, I showed this
picture of the pig to the librarian. "Is it a joke?", she asked.
No, it was not a joke.3 All over Europe, throughout the middle-ages and right on into
the 19th century, animals were, as it turns out, tried for human crimes. Dogs, pigs, cows, rats
and even flies and caterpillars were arraigned in court on charges ranging from murder to
obscenity. The trials were conducted with full ceremony: evidence was heard on both sides,
witnesses were called, and in many cases the accused animal was granted a form of legal aid
-- a lawyer being appointed at the tax-payer's expense to conduct the animal’s defence.
In 1494, for example, near Clermont in France a young pig was arrested for having
"strangled and defaced a child in its cradle". Several witnesses were examined, who testified
that "on the morning of Easter Day, the infant being left alone in its cradle, the said pig
entered during the said time the said house and disfigured and ate the face and neck of the
said child .. which in consequence departed this life." Having weighed up the evidence and
found no extenuating circumstances, the judge gave sentence:
We, in detestation and horror of the said crime, and to the end that an
example may be made and justice maintained, have said, judged, sentenced,
pronounced and appointed that the said porker, now detained as a prisoner
and confined in the said abbey, shall be by the master of high works hanged
and strangled on a gibbet of wood.4
1
, Evans's book details more than two hundred such cases: sparrows being prosecuted
for chattering in Church, a pig executed for stealing a communion wafer, a cock burnt at the
stake for laying an egg. As I read my eyes grew wider and wider. Why did no one tell us this
at school? We all know how King Canute attempted to stay the tide at Lambeth. But who has
heard of the solemn threats made against the tides of locusts which threatened to engulf the
countryside of France and Italy:
In the name and by virtue of God, the omnipotent, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
and of Mary, the most blessed Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the
authority of the holy apostles Peter and Paul . . we admonish by these presents
the aforesaid locusts . . under pain of malediction and anathema to depart from
the vineyards and fields of this district within six days from the publication of
this sentence and to do no further damage there or elsewhere.5
The Pied Piper, who charmed the rats from Hamelin is a part of legend. But who has
heard of Bartholomew Chassenée, a French jurist of the sixteenth century, who made his
reputation at the bar as the defence counsel for some rats? The rats had been put on trial in
the ecclesiastical court on the charge of having "feloniously eaten up and wantonly
destroyed" the local barley. When the culprits did not in fact turn up in court on the appointed
day, Chassenée made use of all his legal cunning to excuse them. They had, he urged in the
first place, probably not received the summons since they moved from village to village; but
even if they had received it they were probably too frightened to obey, since as everyone
knew they were in danger of being set on by their mortal enemies the cats. On this point
Chassenée addressed the court at some length, in order to show that if a person be cited to
appear at a place to which he cannot come in safety, he may legally refuse. The judge,
recognising the justice of this claim, but being unable to persuade the villagers to keep their
cats indoors, was obliged to let the matter drop.
Every case was argued with the utmost ingenuity. Precedents were bandied back
and forth, and appeals made to classical and biblical authority. There was no question that
God Himself -- when He created animals -- was moving in a most mysterious way, and the
court had to rule on what His deeper motives were. In 1478, for example, proceedings were
begun near Berne in Switzerland against a species of insect called the Inger, which had
been damaging the crops. The animals, as was only fair, were first warned by a
proclamation from the pulpit:
2
, Thou irrational and imperfect creature, the Inger, called imperfect because
there was none of thy species in Noah's ark at the time of the great bane and
ruin of the deluge, thou art now come in numerous bands and hast done
immense damage in the ground and above the ground to the perceptible
diminution of food for men and animals; . . therefore . . I do command and
admonish you, each and all, to depart within the next six days from all
places where you have secretly or openly done or might still do damage.6
Experience had shown however that the defendants were unlikely to respond:
In case, however, you do not heed this admonition or obey this command, and
think you have some reason for not complying with them, I admonish, notify
and summon you in virtue of and obedience to the Holy Church, you by the
power of and obedience to the Holy Church to appear on the sixth day after
this execution at precisely one o’clock after midday at Wifflisburg, there to
justify yourselves or answer for your conduct through your advocate before
his Grace the Bishop of Lausanne or his vicar and deputy. Thereupon my
Lord of Lausanne will proceed against you according to the rules of justice
with curses and other exorcisms, as is proper in such cases in accordance with
legal form and established practice.7
The appointed six days having elapsed, the mayor and common council of Berne
appointed "after mature deliberation . . the excellent Thüring Fricker, doctor of the liberal arts
and of laws, our now chancellor, to be our legal delegate . . [to] plead, demur, reply, prove by
witnesses, hear judgment, appoint other defenders, and in general and specially do each and
every thing which the importance of the cause may demand."8 The defender of the insects was
to be a certain Jean Perrodet of Freiburg. Perrodet put in the usual plea that since God had
created the inger He must have meant them to survive, indeed to multiply. Was it not stated
explicitly in Genesis that on the sixth day of creation God had given "to every fowl of the air
and to everything that creepeth upon the earth . . the green herbs for meat"?
But the defence in this case was outmatched. The inger, it was claimed in the
indictment, were a mistake: they had not been taken on board Noah's ark. Hence when God
had sent the great flood he must have meant to wipe them out. To have survived at all, the
inger must have been illegal stowaways -- and as such they clearly had no rights, indeed it
was doubtful wheter they were animals at all. The sentence of the court was as follows:
3
