The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals (Illustrated)

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
Sources—Amira’s distinction between retributive and preventive processes—Addosio’s incorrect designation of the latter as civil suits—Inconsistent attitude of the Church in excommunicating animals—Causal relation of crime to demoniacal possession—Squatter sovereignty of devils—Aura corrumpens—Diabolical infestation and lack of ventilation—“Bewitched kine”—Greek furies and Christian demons—Homicidal bees, laying cocks and crowing hens—Theory of the personification of animals—Beasts in Frankish, Welsh, and old German laws—Animal prosecutions and witchcraft—The Mosaic code in Christian courts—Pagan deities as demons—Born malefactors among beasts—The theory of punishment in modern criminology    p. 1
 
CHAPTER I
BUGS AND BEASTS BEFORE THE LAW
Criminal prosecution of rats—Chassenée appointed to defend them—Report of the trial—Chassenée employed as counsel in other cases of this kind—His dissertation on the subject—Nature of his argument—Authorities and precedents—The withering of the fig-tree at Bethany justified and explained by Dr. Trench—Eels and blood-suckers in Lake Leman cursed by the Bishop of Lausanne with the approval of Heidelberg theologians—White [Pg vi]bread turned black, and swallows, fish, and flies destroyed by anathema—St. Pirminius expels reptiles—Vermifugal efficacy of St. Magnus’ crosier—Papal execratories—Animals regarded by the law as lay persons, and not entitled to benefit of clergy—Methods of procedure—Jurisdiction of the courts—Records of judicial proceedings against insects—Important trial of weevils at St. Jean-de-Maurienne extending over more than eight months—Untenableness of Ménebréa’s theory—Summary of the pleadings—Futile attempts at compromise—Final decision doubtful—St. Eldrad and the snakes—Views of Thomas Aquinas—Distinction between excommunication and anathema—“Sweet beasts and stenchy beasts”—Animals as incarnations of devils—Their diabolical character assumed in papal formula for blessing water to kill vermin—Amusing treatise by Père Bougeant on this subject—All animals animated by devils, and all pagans and unbaptized persons possessed with them—Demons the real causes of diseases—Father Lohbauer’s prescription in such cases—Formula of exorcism issued by Leo XIII.—Recent instances of demoniacal possession—Hoppe’s psychological explanation of them—Charcot on faith-cures—Why not the duty of the Catholic Church to inculcate kindness to animals—Zoölatry a form of demonolatry—Gnats especially dangerous devils—Bodelschwingh’s discovery of the bacillus infernalis—Gaspard Bailly’s disquisition with specimens of plaints, pleas, etc.—Ayrault protests against such proceedings—Hemmerlein’s treatise on exorcisms—Criminal prosecution of field-mice—Vermin excommunicated by the Bishop of Lausanne—Protocol of judicial proceedings against caterpillars—Conjurers of cabbage-worms—Swallows proscribed by a Protestant parson—Custom of writing letters of advice to rats—Writs of ejectment served on them—Rhyming rats in Ireland—Ancient usage mentioned by Kassianos Bassos—Capital punishment of larger quadrupeds—Berriat-Saint-Prix’s Reports and Researches—List of culprits—Beasts burned and buried alive and put to the rack—Swine executed for infanticide—Bailly’s bill of expenses—An ox decapitated for its demerits—Punishment of buggery—Cohabitation of a Christian with a Jewess declared to be sodomy—Trial of a sow and six sucklings for murder—Bull sent to the gallows for[Pg vii] killing a lad—A horse condemned to death for homicide—A cock burned at the stake for the unnatural crime of laying an egg—Lapeyronie’s investigation of the subject—Racine’s satire on such prosecutions in Les Plaideurs; Lex talionis—Tit for tat the law of the primitive man and the savage—The application of this iron rule in Hebrew legislation—Flesh of a culprit pig not to be eaten—Athenian laws for punishing inanimate objects