1 00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:04,280 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:14,680 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. 3 00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:18,960 Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Frye. We've done several episodes of 4 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:22,760 Speaker 1: the show about witch trials. Those have not always been 5 00:00:22,760 --> 00:00:24,880 Speaker 1: in October, but they are a lot of the time, 6 00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:29,520 Speaker 1: and there are some parallels between historical witch trials and 7 00:00:29,600 --> 00:00:32,320 Speaker 1: another type of trial that was carried out in some 8 00:00:32,479 --> 00:00:34,919 Speaker 1: of the same parts of the world and in an 9 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:39,839 Speaker 1: overlapping time period, and that is trials of non human 10 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:43,480 Speaker 1: animals with a lot of the same procedures that were 11 00:00:43,600 --> 00:00:48,360 Speaker 1: used when human beings were charged with a crime. The 12 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:52,680 Speaker 1: idea of putting non human animals on trial might make 13 00:00:52,760 --> 00:00:56,160 Speaker 1: it sound like this episode will have wacky high jinks 14 00:00:56,200 --> 00:01:01,040 Speaker 1: in it. I maybe to people. I told an acquaintance 15 00:01:01,080 --> 00:01:05,360 Speaker 1: about this topic over the weekend and they were immediately horrified, 16 00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:09,119 Speaker 1: So maybe some folks are not thinking wacky hijinks. There 17 00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:12,080 Speaker 1: are some moments of what come off to me is 18 00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:16,959 Speaker 1: kind of comical absurdity. But this episode does include a 19 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:22,440 Speaker 1: lot of harm to animals that typically follows harm to people, 20 00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:28,280 Speaker 1: with those people usually being babies and children. So that's 21 00:01:28,319 --> 00:01:31,520 Speaker 1: potentially a lot. Also, there are a couple of references 22 00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:36,399 Speaker 1: to sex crimes involving animals in this episode. Almost all 23 00:01:36,480 --> 00:01:38,480 Speaker 1: of this is in the later part of the episode, 24 00:01:38,600 --> 00:01:40,800 Speaker 1: so if you would rather listen to just the first 25 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:45,880 Speaker 1: two thirds of it, we won't judge. H Also, let's 26 00:01:45,920 --> 00:01:48,320 Speaker 1: just all take it as a given that we all 27 00:01:48,440 --> 00:01:52,720 Speaker 1: understand that humans are also animals, but that trying to 28 00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:56,720 Speaker 1: say non human animals every time we're not talking about 29 00:01:56,960 --> 00:02:01,760 Speaker 1: humans in an audio podcast would become very clunkily repetitive, 30 00:02:02,560 --> 00:02:05,840 Speaker 1: not as fun to listen to in an episode that 31 00:02:05,880 --> 00:02:09,840 Speaker 1: already has some unfunds. So right. The idea of killing 32 00:02:09,960 --> 00:02:12,840 Speaker 1: or otherwise punishing an animal that has harmed a human is, 33 00:02:12,880 --> 00:02:15,680 Speaker 1: of course something that goes back to very early history. 34 00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:18,720 Speaker 1: It is not the least bit unique to anyone part 35 00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:22,080 Speaker 1: of the world. It's also obviously not something that is 36 00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:25,120 Speaker 1: confined to the past. But what we're talking about today 37 00:02:25,240 --> 00:02:29,000 Speaker 1: isn't simply something like hunting down a wild animal that 38 00:02:29,160 --> 00:02:32,399 Speaker 1: is believed to be attacking people, or calling an exterminator 39 00:02:32,680 --> 00:02:35,560 Speaker 1: to deal with some kind of infestation. And it was 40 00:02:35,560 --> 00:02:37,680 Speaker 1: also a bit different from a person being put on 41 00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:42,160 Speaker 1: trial or sued after their pet attacked someone. These were 42 00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:46,160 Speaker 1: formal proceedings that were carried out against an animal or 43 00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:50,320 Speaker 1: a group of animals. There are some descriptions of sort 44 00:02:50,360 --> 00:02:54,519 Speaker 1: of symbolic or ceremonial trials that pre date what we're 45 00:02:54,520 --> 00:02:58,480 Speaker 1: talking about. For example, in the classical period of Athens 46 00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:02,559 Speaker 1: around five hundred BC, there was sort of a protocol 47 00:03:02,720 --> 00:03:06,560 Speaker 1: for dealing with non human animals and even non living 48 00:03:06,720 --> 00:03:11,520 Speaker 1: things that had caused a person's death. There's less documentation 49 00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:14,080 Speaker 1: of how this was applied to animals, but here is 50 00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:18,040 Speaker 1: how Plato described what would happen if something that was 51 00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:22,799 Speaker 1: not alive killed a person, like if a stone fell 52 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:27,520 Speaker 1: onto somebody who was walking below quote if any lifeless 53 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:30,520 Speaker 1: thing deprive a man of life, except in the case 54 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:34,040 Speaker 1: of a thunderbolt or other fatal dart sent from the gods, 55 00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:38,600 Speaker 1: whether a man is killed by lifeless objects falling upon him, 56 00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:43,000 Speaker 1: or his falling upon them, the nearest of kin shall 57 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:46,320 Speaker 1: appoint the nearest neighbor to be a judge, and thereby 58 00:03:46,440 --> 00:03:50,080 Speaker 1: acquit himself and the whole family of guilt. And he 59 00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:54,600 Speaker 1: shall cast forth the guilty thing beyond the border. The 60 00:03:54,680 --> 00:03:57,680 Speaker 1: trials that we're talking about today were often more involved 61 00:03:57,720 --> 00:04:01,160 Speaker 1: than just designating a neighbor to act as a judge 62 00:04:01,160 --> 00:04:04,760 Speaker 1: and throwing an errent stone out beyond the border. These 63 00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:10,080 Speaker 1: fell into two broad categories, ecclesiastical trials and secular trials. 64 00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:13,880 Speaker 1: Both involved judges and lawyers, and some kind of legal 65 00:04:13,920 --> 00:04:20,159 Speaker 1: representation appointed for the animal defendant. An essay called Saint 66 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:24,240 Speaker 1: Anthony and the Pigs Legal Prosecutions of the Lower Animals 67 00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:28,200 Speaker 1: was published in eighteen sixty four in Robert Chambers The 68 00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:32,239 Speaker 1: Book of Days, a miscellny of popular antiquities and connection 69 00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:38,200 Speaker 1: with the calendar, including anecdote, biography and history, curiosities and literature, 70 00:04:38,320 --> 00:04:43,560 Speaker 1: and oddities of human life and character. This essay describes 71 00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:48,880 Speaker 1: this division between ecclesiastical and secular trials this way quote 72 00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:53,159 Speaker 1: on the continent down to a comparatively late period. The 73 00:04:53,320 --> 00:04:57,440 Speaker 1: lower animals were, in all respects considered amenable to the laws. 74 00:04:57,920 --> 00:05:01,520 Speaker 1: Domestic animals were tried in the the common criminal courts, 75 00:05:01,640 --> 00:05:06,560 Speaker 1: and their punishment on conviction was death. Wild animals fell 76 00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:10,760 Speaker 1: under the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts, and their punishment 77 00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:17,000 Speaker 1: was banishment and death by exorcism and excommunication. Nor was 78 00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:20,479 Speaker 1: the latter a light punishment. We all know how Saint 79 00:05:20,520 --> 00:05:25,159 Speaker 1: Patrick exercised the Irish reptiles into the sea, and Saint 80 00:05:25,160 --> 00:05:29,760 Speaker 1: Bernard one day, by peevishly saying be thou excommunicated to 81 00:05:29,880 --> 00:05:33,160 Speaker 1: a blue bottle fly that annoyed him by buzzing about 82 00:05:33,200 --> 00:05:37,039 Speaker 1: his ears, unwittingly destroyed the flies of a whole district. 83 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:42,800 Speaker 1: Some historians have interpreted the difference between ecclesiastical and secular 84 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:45,479 Speaker 1: trials as being more about the nature of the crime 85 00:05:45,880 --> 00:05:50,160 Speaker 1: than whether the animal was domestic or wild. Church authorities 86 00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:53,599 Speaker 1: often handled cases of damage to property or generally being 87 00:05:53,640 --> 00:05:57,320 Speaker 1: a nuisance, which were more likely to involve rodents, insects, 88 00:05:57,480 --> 00:06:01,000 Speaker 1: or birds, while secular authorities handled cases in which a 89 00:06:01,040 --> 00:06:04,960 Speaker 1: person was seriously injured or killed, which was more likely 90 00:06:05,080 --> 00:06:09,920 Speaker 1: to involve a large mammal. Edward Payson Evans, whose nineteen 91 00:06:09,920 --> 00:06:13,640 Speaker 1: oh six book The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of 92 00:06:13,800 --> 00:06:18,720 Speaker 1: Animals has become a major source of information about these trials, 93 00:06:19,200 --> 00:06:23,640 Speaker 1: and his explanation kind of blends these two ideas. Quote. 94 00:06:23,839 --> 00:06:28,640 Speaker 1: Animals which were in the service of man could be arrested, tried, convicted, 95 00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:32,480 Speaker 1: and executed like any other members of his household. It 96 00:06:32,520 --> 00:06:35,840 Speaker 1: was therefore not necessary to summon them to appear in 97 00:06:35,880 --> 00:06:38,880 Speaker 1: court at a specified time to answer for their conduct 98 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:41,800 Speaker 1: and thus make them, in the strict sense of the term, 99 00:06:41,880 --> 00:06:45,599 Speaker 1: a party to the prosecution, for the sheriff had already 100 00:06:45,640 --> 00:06:49,120 Speaker 1: taken them in charge and consigned them to the custody 101 00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:52,880 Speaker 1: of the jailer. Insects and rodents, on the other hand, 102 00:06:52,920 --> 00:06:55,960 Speaker 1: which were not subject to human control and could not 103 00:06:56,120 --> 00:07:00,560 Speaker 1: be seized and imprisoned by civil authorities, demanded the intervention 104 00:07:00,800 --> 00:07:04,920 Speaker 1: of the Church and the exercise of its supernatural functions 105 00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:08,640 Speaker 1: for the purpose of compelling them to desist from their 106 00:07:08,680 --> 00:07:12,880 Speaker 1: devastations and to retire from all places devoted to the 107 00:07:12,880 --> 00:07:17,680 Speaker 1: production of human sustenance. The only feasible method of staying 108 00:07:17,760 --> 00:07:21,880 Speaker 1: the ravages of these swarms of noxious creatures was to 109 00:07:21,960 --> 00:07:26,360 Speaker 1: resort to metaphysical aid and to expel or exterminate them 110 00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:33,000 Speaker 1: by sacerdotal conjuring and cursing, regardless of whether secular or 111 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:37,480 Speaker 1: ecclesiastical authorities were involved. Biblical passages were part of the 112 00:07:37,560 --> 00:07:42,000 Speaker 1: reasoning behind these trials. One is Exodus, chapter twenty one, 113 00:07:42,120 --> 00:07:45,160 Speaker 1: verse twenty eight quote. If an ox gore a man 114 00:07:45,320 --> 00:07:48,160 Speaker 1: or a woman, that they die, then the ox shall 115 00:07:48,200 --> 00:07:51,240 Speaker 1: be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten, 116 00:07:51,680 --> 00:07:55,280 Speaker 1: but the owner of the ox shall be quit. Chambers 117 00:07:55,320 --> 00:07:58,680 Speaker 1: Book of Days also noted other passages relating to Church 118 00:07:58,720 --> 00:08:02,600 Speaker 1: authority over non ua human life. Quote as God cursed 119 00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:06,080 Speaker 1: the serpent David, the mountains of Gilboa, and our Savior 120 00:08:06,200 --> 00:08:09,560 Speaker 1: the barren fig tree. So in like manner, the Church 121 00:08:09,600 --> 00:08:14,480 Speaker 1: had full power and authority to exercise, anathematize, and excommunicate 122 00:08:14,720 --> 00:08:18,840 Speaker 1: all animate and inanimate things. But as the lower animals, 123 00:08:18,920 --> 00:08:22,600 Speaker 1: being created before man, were the elderborn and first heirs 124 00:08:22,640 --> 00:08:25,320 Speaker 1: of the earth, as God blessed them and gave them 125 00:08:25,480 --> 00:08:28,800 Speaker 1: every green herb for meat, as they were provided for 126 00:08:28,880 --> 00:08:31,960 Speaker 1: in the arc, and entitled to the privileges of the Sabbath, 127 00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:36,000 Speaker 1: they must ever be treated with the greatest clemency consistent 128 00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:40,840 Speaker 1: with justice. So the idea that animals could or should 129 00:08:40,960 --> 00:08:45,000 Speaker 1: be subjected to these kinds of legal proceedings definitely was 130 00:08:45,040 --> 00:08:50,280 Speaker 1: not universal. For example, Italian philosopher and priest Thomas Aquinas 131 00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:53,600 Speaker 1: wrote about animals and animal rights in the thirteenth century. 132 00:08:53,960 --> 00:08:58,719 Speaker 1: Aquinas argued that since animals are not rational beings, they 133 00:08:58,800 --> 00:09:02,400 Speaker 1: could not be blessed or cursed unless that blessing or 134 00:09:02,480 --> 00:09:06,320 Speaker 1: curse came from God, and he argued that animals were 135 00:09:06,320 --> 00:09:12,000 Speaker 1: acting as God's agents in connection to humanity. Walter Woodburn Hyde, 136 00:09:12,040 --> 00:09:15,400 Speaker 1: who was a twentieth century scholar of ancient Greece and Rome, 137 00:09:15,960 --> 00:09:19,720 Speaker 1: summed up a Quinas's condemnation of these kinds of animal 138 00:09:19,760 --> 00:09:23,920 Speaker 1: trials as quote. If then we regard such animals as 139 00:09:23,920 --> 00:09:26,760 Speaker 1: the creatures of God, employed by him to carry out 140 00:09:26,760 --> 00:09:30,640 Speaker 1: his purposes, it would be blasphemy to curse them. If 141 00:09:30,640 --> 00:09:34,080 Speaker 1: we regard them merely as brutes, such cursing would be 142 00:09:34,240 --> 00:09:38,640 Speaker 1: vain and unlawful. The essay in Chambers Book of Days 143 00:09:38,720 --> 00:09:43,679 Speaker 1: commented on these disagreements as well quote. Some learned canonists, however, 144 00:09:43,720 --> 00:09:48,079 Speaker 1: disputed those propositions, alleging that authority to try and punish 145 00:09:48,080 --> 00:09:52,880 Speaker 1: offenses under the law implied a contract quasi contract packed 146 00:09:53,160 --> 00:09:57,080 Speaker 1: or stipulation between the supreme power that made and administered 147 00:09:57,120 --> 00:10:01,200 Speaker 1: the law and those subjected to it. They contended that 148 00:10:01,320 --> 00:10:05,240 Speaker 1: the lower animals, being devoid of intelligence, no such pact 149 00:10:05,360 --> 00:10:09,160 Speaker 1: ever had been or could be made, and that punishments 150 00:10:09,160 --> 00:10:13,040 Speaker 1: for injuries committed unintentionally and in ignorance of the law 151 00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:17,400 Speaker 1: were unjust. They questioned also the authority of the church 152 00:10:17,440 --> 00:10:21,199 Speaker 1: to anathematize those whom she did not undertake to baptize, 153 00:10:21,520 --> 00:10:24,480 Speaker 1: and adduced to the example of the archangel Michael, who, 154 00:10:24,800 --> 00:10:27,880 Speaker 1: when contending with Satan for the body of Moses, did 155 00:10:27,880 --> 00:10:31,360 Speaker 1: not make a railing accusation against the old serpent, but 156 00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:35,200 Speaker 1: left it to the Lord to rebuke him. Such discussions 157 00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:38,760 Speaker 1: appear like the amusing inventions of Rabelais or Swift, but 158 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:42,680 Speaker 1: they were no jesting matter to the simple agriculturists who 159 00:10:42,760 --> 00:10:47,920 Speaker 1: engaged in those litigations. So while there were disagreements, both 160 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:52,880 Speaker 1: ecclesiastical and secular, trials were documented in eastern France and 161 00:10:52,920 --> 00:10:56,560 Speaker 1: the neighboring parts of Germany, Switzerland and Italy, and then 162 00:10:56,600 --> 00:10:59,720 Speaker 1: there were also more scattered reports of similar trials than 163 00:10:59,760 --> 00:11:02,920 Speaker 1: other parts of the world, including at least one or 164 00:11:02,920 --> 00:11:07,000 Speaker 1: two trials in a lot of the rest of Europe, Ethiopia, Turkia, 165 00:11:07,160 --> 00:11:10,960 Speaker 1: and the Americas. These trials were reported from the ninth 166 00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:14,680 Speaker 1: through the twentieth centuries. To be clear, only just a 167 00:11:14,760 --> 00:11:17,840 Speaker 1: couple in the twentieth century, but they were by far 168 00:11:17,960 --> 00:11:21,320 Speaker 1: the most frequent and the most widespread. From the fifteenth 169 00:11:21,360 --> 00:11:25,480 Speaker 1: through the seventeenth centuries. It would be impossible to talk 170 00:11:25,520 --> 00:11:28,600 Speaker 1: about all of the animal trials that were reported during 171 00:11:28,640 --> 00:11:32,440 Speaker 1: this period. That nineteen oh six book includes an appendix 172 00:11:32,480 --> 00:11:35,040 Speaker 1: that lists one hundred and ninety one of them, And 173 00:11:35,080 --> 00:11:38,080 Speaker 1: while some of those may be apocryphal, there were likely 174 00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:41,720 Speaker 1: others that aren't included in the list, Plus some of 175 00:11:41,760 --> 00:11:46,360 Speaker 1: them were truly gruesome. But we'll talk about some illustrative examples, 176 00:11:46,400 --> 00:11:49,880 Speaker 1: starting with cases that did not involve loss of human life. 177 00:11:50,240 --> 00:12:02,440 Speaker 1: After we pause for a sponsor break, we are going 178 00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:07,079 Speaker 1: to start by talking about the trials of vermin, which 179 00:12:07,200 --> 00:12:10,240 Speaker 1: did not typically involve the loss of human life and 180 00:12:10,280 --> 00:12:13,400 Speaker 1: sometimes did not involve the deaths of any animals either. 181 00:12:14,240 --> 00:12:17,560 Speaker 1: Chambers Book of Days describes them this way quote. The 182 00:12:17,640 --> 00:12:21,839 Speaker 1: general course of a process was as follows. The inhabitants 183 00:12:21,880 --> 00:12:25,680 Speaker 1: of the district being annoyed by certain animals. The court 184 00:12:25,720 --> 00:12:29,760 Speaker 1: appointed experts to survey and report upon the damage committed. 185 00:12:30,360 --> 00:12:34,240 Speaker 1: An advocate was then appointed to defend the animals and 186 00:12:34,360 --> 00:12:37,719 Speaker 1: show cause why they should not be summoned. They were 187 00:12:37,760 --> 00:12:42,720 Speaker 1: then cited three several times, and not appearing, judgment was 188 00:12:42,760 --> 00:12:46,240 Speaker 1: given against them by default. The court next issued a 189 00:12:46,400 --> 00:12:49,840 Speaker 1: monitor warning the animals to leave the district within a 190 00:12:49,880 --> 00:12:54,200 Speaker 1: certain time. Under penalty of adjuration, and if they did 191 00:12:54,240 --> 00:12:58,599 Speaker 1: not disappear on or before the period appointed, the exorcism 192 00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:03,040 Speaker 1: was with all sole pronounced. I really love the idea 193 00:13:03,040 --> 00:13:05,880 Speaker 1: of going, hey, you guys, we gave you a citation. 194 00:13:06,440 --> 00:13:08,520 Speaker 1: I know you're a rat and you can't read, but 195 00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:12,199 Speaker 1: I really feel strongly about this issue in this context 196 00:13:12,240 --> 00:13:15,040 Speaker 1: that Tracy just talked about. In case it isn't clear, 197 00:13:15,440 --> 00:13:19,400 Speaker 1: a monitor or monitor was basically a letter covering the charge, 198 00:13:19,880 --> 00:13:23,520 Speaker 1: again presuming that these animals could read. Chambers goes on 199 00:13:23,600 --> 00:13:27,319 Speaker 1: to say that this process wasn't necessarily efficient. Quote this 200 00:13:27,400 --> 00:13:31,000 Speaker 1: looks straightforward enough, but the delays and uncertainties of the law, 201 00:13:31,320 --> 00:13:36,480 Speaker 1: ecclesiastical law especially, have long been proverbial. The courts, by 202 00:13:36,559 --> 00:13:40,240 Speaker 1: every available means of delay, evaded the last extremity of 203 00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:44,400 Speaker 1: pronouncing the exorcism, probably lest the animals should neglect to 204 00:13:44,400 --> 00:13:48,280 Speaker 1: pay attention to it. Indeed, it is actually recorded that 205 00:13:48,360 --> 00:13:51,800 Speaker 1: in some instances the noxious animals, instead of withering off 206 00:13:51,800 --> 00:13:55,280 Speaker 1: the face of the earth after being anathematized, became more 207 00:13:55,320 --> 00:13:59,760 Speaker 1: abundant and destructive than before this. The doctors learned in 208 00:13:59,800 --> 00:14:02,520 Speaker 1: the la law attributed neither to the injustice of the 209 00:14:02,559 --> 00:14:05,679 Speaker 1: sentence nor want of power of the court, but to 210 00:14:05,720 --> 00:14:09,800 Speaker 1: the malevolent antagonism of Satan, who, as in the case 211 00:14:09,840 --> 00:14:13,000 Speaker 1: of job, is at certain times permitted to tempt an 212 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:19,160 Speaker 1: annoy mankind. So to be anathematized was comparable to being excommunicated, 213 00:14:19,240 --> 00:14:24,400 Speaker 1: and this sentence is also described as malediction. Some researchers 214 00:14:24,440 --> 00:14:28,520 Speaker 1: compare this to being formally cursed, and in the medieval 215 00:14:28,560 --> 00:14:31,520 Speaker 1: and early modern era, it was believed that the people 216 00:14:31,560 --> 00:14:35,920 Speaker 1: whose lives were being affected by these pests, they had 217 00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:38,800 Speaker 1: to participate in the process in order for it to work. 218 00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:42,480 Speaker 1: In the words of the Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment 219 00:14:42,520 --> 00:14:45,960 Speaker 1: of Animals by E. P. Evans quote, the judicial process 220 00:14:46,120 --> 00:14:50,040 Speaker 1: was preliminary to the utterance of the malediction and essential 221 00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:55,840 Speaker 1: to its efficacy. Before fulminating an excommunication, the whole machinery 222 00:14:55,880 --> 00:14:59,040 Speaker 1: of justice was put in motion in order to establish 223 00:14:59,040 --> 00:15:02,280 Speaker 1: the guilt of the acut used, who were then warned, admonished, 224 00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:06,520 Speaker 1: and threatened, and, in cases of obduracy, smitten with the 225 00:15:06,560 --> 00:15:13,480 Speaker 1: anathema Maranatha, and devoted to utter destruction. As with all bands, charms, exorcisms, incantations, 226 00:15:13,520 --> 00:15:17,800 Speaker 1: and other magical hocus pocus, the omission of any formality 227 00:15:18,080 --> 00:15:21,360 Speaker 1: would vidiate the whole procedure, and by breaking the spell 228 00:15:21,480 --> 00:15:27,680 Speaker 1: deprived the implication or interdiction of its occult virtue. Ecclesiastical 229 00:15:27,720 --> 00:15:31,160 Speaker 1: thunder would thus be robbed of its fatal bolt and 230 00:15:31,320 --> 00:15:35,880 Speaker 1: reduced to mere empty noise, the harmless explosion of a 231 00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:39,520 Speaker 1: blank cartridge. So how did this play out in an 232 00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:43,320 Speaker 1: actual case. One of the most famous examples was the 233 00:15:43,360 --> 00:15:46,520 Speaker 1: trial of rats in the French diocese of Autune in 234 00:15:46,560 --> 00:15:50,880 Speaker 1: fifteen twenty two. The rats had eaten and otherwise destroyed 235 00:15:50,920 --> 00:15:53,080 Speaker 1: the barley crop, and the matter was taken up with 236 00:15:53,160 --> 00:15:56,800 Speaker 1: the vicar. The rats were summoned to appear in court, 237 00:15:57,320 --> 00:16:02,120 Speaker 1: but on their assigned day they did not arive. Bartholomew 238 00:16:02,200 --> 00:16:06,640 Speaker 1: Chazenet had been appointed to represent the rats. He argued 239 00:16:06,640 --> 00:16:09,640 Speaker 1: that they had failed to appear because their summons had 240 00:16:09,680 --> 00:16:12,600 Speaker 1: been posted in only one place, and the rats lived 241 00:16:12,680 --> 00:16:15,720 Speaker 1: all over the diocese and they were always moving around. 242 00:16:16,640 --> 00:16:19,560 Speaker 1: So all the curates in the diocese were ordered to 243 00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:22,920 Speaker 1: deliver this summons to the rats in all of their 244 00:16:23,040 --> 00:16:28,360 Speaker 1: individual parishes. After this had been done on the designated day, 245 00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:31,080 Speaker 1: the rats again did not appear for their court date, 246 00:16:31,480 --> 00:16:35,120 Speaker 1: and Chazenet made a new argument that the defendants had 247 00:16:35,160 --> 00:16:38,560 Speaker 1: the right to enough time to make arrangements and undertake 248 00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:42,200 Speaker 1: such a journey. A new date was set for the trial, 249 00:16:42,360 --> 00:16:45,400 Speaker 1: this time with a longer delay, so that the rats 250 00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:49,160 Speaker 1: would have plenty of time to travel. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the 251 00:16:49,280 --> 00:16:53,280 Speaker 1: rats still did not show up this time. Chazzenet argued 252 00:16:53,440 --> 00:16:57,040 Speaker 1: that being summons to appear in court came with an 253 00:16:57,080 --> 00:17:01,240 Speaker 1: implied promise that the defendant would arrive at court safely. 254 00:17:01,880 --> 00:17:05,199 Speaker 1: He claimed that his clients were ready to appear, but 255 00:17:05,320 --> 00:17:07,640 Speaker 1: were also very sure that if they tried to make 256 00:17:07,680 --> 00:17:10,440 Speaker 1: their way to court, they would be set upon by 257 00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:13,639 Speaker 1: cats on the way. In addition to the fact that 258 00:17:13,880 --> 00:17:17,320 Speaker 1: rats are the natural prey of cats, these cats would 259 00:17:17,320 --> 00:17:20,920 Speaker 1: be ones that belonged to the plaintiffs, and that gave 260 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:25,080 Speaker 1: the defendant rats even more cause to fear them. At 261 00:17:25,119 --> 00:17:29,480 Speaker 1: that point, Cheesiney assured the ecclesiastical Court that his clients 262 00:17:29,520 --> 00:17:33,240 Speaker 1: would appear if the plaintiffs were bonded under penalty to 263 00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:37,320 Speaker 1: keep their cats from disturbing the traveling rats. Although the 264 00:17:37,359 --> 00:17:40,080 Speaker 1: court seems to have been willing to order this at 265 00:17:40,080 --> 00:17:43,320 Speaker 1: that point, the plaintiffs demurred, and the trial was adjourned 266 00:17:43,400 --> 00:17:47,240 Speaker 1: with no plan to reconvene, meaning that the rats won 267 00:17:47,440 --> 00:17:54,159 Speaker 1: by default. This probably seems absurd or at least silly. 268 00:17:54,880 --> 00:17:58,240 Speaker 1: At least one paper used in the research for this episode, 269 00:17:58,520 --> 00:18:02,440 Speaker 1: in my opinion, Credul puts forth that Chazzanet really did 270 00:18:02,600 --> 00:18:05,560 Speaker 1: believe that his clients were going to appear in court 271 00:18:05,800 --> 00:18:11,120 Speaker 1: only if these various stipulations were met. I am not 272 00:18:11,160 --> 00:18:14,439 Speaker 1: sure whether there is some writing somewhere by Chazenet to 273 00:18:14,520 --> 00:18:18,360 Speaker 1: suggest that that is true, but E. P. Evans has 274 00:18:18,440 --> 00:18:22,520 Speaker 1: what I think is a more believable explanation quote. In 275 00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:26,639 Speaker 1: view of the bad repute and notorious guilt of his clients, 276 00:18:26,840 --> 00:18:30,560 Speaker 1: Shassinet was forced to employ all sorts of legal shifts 277 00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:36,399 Speaker 1: and chicane dilatory please and other technical objections, hoping thereby 278 00:18:36,600 --> 00:18:39,440 Speaker 1: to find some loophole in the meshes of the law 279 00:18:39,520 --> 00:18:42,600 Speaker 1: through which the accused might escape, or at least to 280 00:18:42,720 --> 00:18:47,760 Speaker 1: defer and mitigate the sentence of the judge. It's basically lawyering. 281 00:18:48,800 --> 00:18:51,879 Speaker 1: Over the course of his career after this, Chasinet became 282 00:18:52,040 --> 00:18:55,400 Speaker 1: a celebrated jurist in France, and from fifteen thirty one 283 00:18:55,440 --> 00:18:58,560 Speaker 1: to fifteen forty one he served as the first president 284 00:18:58,640 --> 00:19:02,440 Speaker 1: of the Parliament de Provence. That year, he also published 285 00:19:02,440 --> 00:19:05,440 Speaker 1: a collection of consultations on law, and one of them 286 00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:10,240 Speaker 1: was called the ex Communicacion and Emilium in Sectorum, which 287 00:19:10,280 --> 00:19:14,840 Speaker 1: was a treatise on vermin trials. He also reportedly used 288 00:19:14,920 --> 00:19:17,240 Speaker 1: some of the same strategies from the case with the 289 00:19:17,359 --> 00:19:22,320 Speaker 1: rats in his cases involving human defendants. A fictionalized movie 290 00:19:22,440 --> 00:19:25,640 Speaker 1: about his legal career was released in nineteen ninety three. 291 00:19:26,200 --> 00:19:28,239 Speaker 1: It was titled The Hour of the Pig in the 292 00:19:28,359 --> 00:19:31,240 Speaker 1: UK and The Advocate in the US, and it starred 293 00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:34,960 Speaker 1: Colin Firth as Richard Courtois, which is the character who 294 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:39,040 Speaker 1: is based on Chasinet. I think when I realized this, 295 00:19:39,240 --> 00:19:43,600 Speaker 1: I just said Colin Firth in all capital letters inside 296 00:19:43,640 --> 00:19:48,600 Speaker 1: my head. Although the accounts that were part of this 297 00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:53,080 Speaker 1: research don't mention any rats being physically brought into the 298 00:19:53,160 --> 00:19:56,080 Speaker 1: court for this particular trial, some of the trials did 299 00:19:56,119 --> 00:20:01,000 Speaker 1: involve a representative few of these animals being physically brought in, 300 00:20:01,600 --> 00:20:04,520 Speaker 1: sometimes to hear the charges read and sometimes to be 301 00:20:04,640 --> 00:20:07,640 Speaker 1: killed as the rest of their number were being anathematized. 302 00:20:08,440 --> 00:20:12,040 Speaker 1: As one example, some leeches were brought to trial in 303 00:20:12,160 --> 00:20:15,280 Speaker 1: Lausanne in fourteen fifty one they were there to hear 304 00:20:15,320 --> 00:20:18,720 Speaker 1: the monitor read against them. When all the leeches in 305 00:20:18,840 --> 00:20:23,640 Speaker 1: Las Aenne didn't leave is ordered, they were all anathematized. Similarly, 306 00:20:23,880 --> 00:20:27,960 Speaker 1: some grasshoppers were indicted before the Tribunal de la Ficialite 307 00:20:27,960 --> 00:20:30,760 Speaker 1: in the town of Arles in Provence in fifteen sixty 308 00:20:30,840 --> 00:20:36,400 Speaker 1: five after eating the local crops. Their appointed representative, Matremurin, 309 00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:39,800 Speaker 1: argued that they, like the people whose crops they were eating, 310 00:20:40,080 --> 00:20:42,879 Speaker 1: had been created by God, and so they had the 311 00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:45,320 Speaker 1: same right to food as the rest of God's creatures. 312 00:20:46,080 --> 00:20:48,800 Speaker 1: In the words of Walter Woodburn Hyde in a nineteen 313 00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:52,800 Speaker 1: sixteen paper titled the Prosecution and Punishment of Animals and 314 00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:56,600 Speaker 1: Lifeless Things in the Middle Ages and Modern Times quote 315 00:20:56,960 --> 00:20:59,840 Speaker 1: but the opposing council cited the serpent in the Garden 316 00:20:59,840 --> 00:21:03,280 Speaker 1: of Eden and sundry other animals of Holy writ which 317 00:21:03,359 --> 00:21:07,960 Speaker 1: had incurred severe penalties. The grasshoppers were condemned and told 318 00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:11,800 Speaker 1: to quit the region on pain of dire anathematization from 319 00:21:11,840 --> 00:21:15,159 Speaker 1: the altar, which the church threatened to repeat until the 320 00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:18,240 Speaker 1: last of the culprits had obeyed. The sentence of the court. 321 00:21:19,240 --> 00:21:22,480 Speaker 1: The argument that the defendants are God's creatures, with a 322 00:21:22,600 --> 00:21:25,520 Speaker 1: right to live was also put into play in a 323 00:21:25,560 --> 00:21:29,960 Speaker 1: case involving termites at a Franciscan monastery in Brazil in 324 00:21:30,040 --> 00:21:33,440 Speaker 1: seventeen thirteen. This is one of only a few cases 325 00:21:33,480 --> 00:21:36,800 Speaker 1: in the Americas that appear in E. P. Evans's book 326 00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:41,480 Speaker 1: The Monasteries. Monks, being highly annoyed by all the termites, 327 00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:45,040 Speaker 1: went to the bishop. The bishops summoned the termites to 328 00:21:45,119 --> 00:21:49,520 Speaker 1: an ecclesiastical tribunal. The lawyer who was appointed to defend 329 00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:53,080 Speaker 1: the termites argued that they were God's creatures and praised 330 00:21:53,119 --> 00:21:56,480 Speaker 1: them as being more industrious than the friars who were 331 00:21:56,480 --> 00:21:59,359 Speaker 1: taking them to court. He also pointed out that the 332 00:21:59,440 --> 00:22:02,800 Speaker 1: termites were justified in what they were doing, since they 333 00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:07,760 Speaker 1: had been on the land before the friars arrived. In E. P. 334 00:22:07,920 --> 00:22:11,639 Speaker 1: Evans's own words quote, the trial lasted for some time 335 00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:16,359 Speaker 1: and called forth remarkable displays of legal learning and forensic eloquence, 336 00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:20,920 Speaker 1: with numerous citations of sacred and profane authorities on both sides, 337 00:22:21,359 --> 00:22:24,360 Speaker 1: and ended in a compromise by the terms of which 338 00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:28,200 Speaker 1: the plaintiffs were obliged to provide a suitable reservation for 339 00:22:28,240 --> 00:22:31,479 Speaker 1: the defendants, who were commanded to go thither and to 340 00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:35,679 Speaker 1: remain henceforth within the prescribed limits. In the Chronicles of 341 00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:38,400 Speaker 1: the Cloister, it is recorded under the date of January 342 00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:41,840 Speaker 1: seventeen thirteen that no sooner was the order of the 343 00:22:41,840 --> 00:22:45,760 Speaker 1: prolatic judge promulgated by being read officially before the hills 344 00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:48,800 Speaker 1: of the termites, than they all came out and marched 345 00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:53,240 Speaker 1: in columns to the place assigned. The Monkish analyst regards 346 00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:57,920 Speaker 1: this prompt obedience as conclusive proof that the Almighty endorsed 347 00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:02,600 Speaker 1: the decision of the court. Sometimes these trials also led 348 00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:07,560 Speaker 1: to charges being filed against human beings. An ecclesiastical trial 349 00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:11,199 Speaker 1: could be really time consuming and expensive, so sometimes people 350 00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:15,439 Speaker 1: tried various charms or spells in the hope of getting 351 00:23:15,560 --> 00:23:19,160 Speaker 1: rid of the offending pests themselves. But if they were 352 00:23:19,160 --> 00:23:22,919 Speaker 1: caught doing this, they could be tried on charges of sorcery, 353 00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:26,880 Speaker 1: and so could anybody who had sold them those unlicensed 354 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:31,200 Speaker 1: charms or exorcisms. Some of the writing on these trials 355 00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:33,120 Speaker 1: over the last one hundred and fifty years or so 356 00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:36,400 Speaker 1: has this tone of what exactly was going on here? 357 00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:40,880 Speaker 1: Did people really think that grasshoppers or rats or leeches 358 00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:43,800 Speaker 1: or termites or whatever we're going to respond to a 359 00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:47,640 Speaker 1: summons to appear in court, and there's no clear consensus 360 00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:50,879 Speaker 1: on the answer to this. Various people have argued that 361 00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:54,280 Speaker 1: maybe people conceived of animals and their intellect and moral 362 00:23:54,320 --> 00:23:58,640 Speaker 1: capacity just differently than we typically do today, or maybe 363 00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:01,320 Speaker 1: this was a way for the church to reinforce tithing 364 00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:06,800 Speaker 1: and belief among congregations. The process of anathematizing these animals 365 00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:10,600 Speaker 1: was often accompanied by calls for the congregation to tithe 366 00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:14,879 Speaker 1: and to participate in regular prayers. If the vermin left 367 00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:17,159 Speaker 1: after all this, then the church could say that this 368 00:24:17,280 --> 00:24:20,080 Speaker 1: had worked. But if they didn't leave, then it could 369 00:24:20,119 --> 00:24:22,800 Speaker 1: be explained away as a lack of faith and prayer 370 00:24:22,840 --> 00:24:26,359 Speaker 1: and tithing on the part of the people of the parish, or, 371 00:24:26,560 --> 00:24:29,720 Speaker 1: as Chambers noted earlier, it could be because it was 372 00:24:29,760 --> 00:24:33,400 Speaker 1: the work of Satan. This is one of the parallels 373 00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:37,280 Speaker 1: to the witch trials of the early modern era. Often, 374 00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:40,000 Speaker 1: the people who were targeted in witch trials really were 375 00:24:40,040 --> 00:24:44,719 Speaker 1: not doing anything that might be construed as witchcraft. Instead, 376 00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:47,440 Speaker 1: these trials often had a lot of other factors going on, 377 00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:52,240 Speaker 1: including social unrest and hardship, and disasters like disease outbreaks 378 00:24:52,280 --> 00:24:55,880 Speaker 1: or famines, and in some cases. The witch trials were 379 00:24:55,960 --> 00:25:00,000 Speaker 1: at least in part, an effort to basically reinforce religion 380 00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:04,040 Speaker 1: just authority. We're going to move on to animal trials 381 00:25:04,040 --> 00:25:08,360 Speaker 1: that ended in execution rather than excommunication. After we paused 382 00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:20,600 Speaker 1: for another sponsor break. We're going to finish off today's 383 00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:23,560 Speaker 1: episode by talking about some of the cases that involved 384 00:25:23,680 --> 00:25:27,280 Speaker 1: animals being sentenced to death. As we said at the 385 00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:30,240 Speaker 1: top of the show, most of the time this was 386 00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:34,440 Speaker 1: because the animal had been convicted of seriously injuring or 387 00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:39,840 Speaker 1: killing somebody, but that was not always the case. In Basil, Switzerland, 388 00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:44,520 Speaker 1: in fourteen seventy four, a rooster was tried and sentenced 389 00:25:44,560 --> 00:25:49,119 Speaker 1: to death for having laid an egg. The concern was 390 00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:51,800 Speaker 1: not just whether it was natural for a rooster to 391 00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:55,200 Speaker 1: lay an egg. In the words of Chambers Book of Days, 392 00:25:55,359 --> 00:25:59,359 Speaker 1: eggs legged by roosters were quote of inestimable value for 393 00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:04,520 Speaker 1: mixing in certain magical preparations. Also, according to Chambers, a 394 00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:09,480 Speaker 1: sorcerer would rather have a rooster's egg than a philosopher's stone. 395 00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:13,520 Speaker 1: Other sources pointed out beliefs that an egg laid by 396 00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:17,360 Speaker 1: a rooster could hatch into a cockatrice or a bathilisk. 397 00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:20,199 Speaker 1: If it was incubated by a snake or a toad. 398 00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:25,400 Speaker 1: The defense in this case argued that egg laying was involuntary, 399 00:26:25,560 --> 00:26:29,320 Speaker 1: so it was not punishable by law. The defense also 400 00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:32,160 Speaker 1: argued that if sorcery was involved in this, that would 401 00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:36,240 Speaker 1: be the work of the sorcerer and not the rooster. Also, 402 00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:39,560 Speaker 1: animals were thought of as brutes, and Satan did not 403 00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:43,640 Speaker 1: make compacts with brutes, but Satan could possess them, as 404 00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:48,200 Speaker 1: happened in biblical accounts of pigs possessed by demons. Eventually, 405 00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:51,960 Speaker 1: the rooster was convicted not as an animal, but as 406 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:55,399 Speaker 1: a sorcerer or a heretic in the form of a rooster. 407 00:26:56,119 --> 00:26:58,600 Speaker 1: The rooster was sentenced to one of the same forms 408 00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:01,920 Speaker 1: of execution as Hugh and heretics were, which was being 409 00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:06,600 Speaker 1: burned at the stake along with that egg. Even when 410 00:27:06,680 --> 00:27:09,760 Speaker 1: these cases were carried out through secular courts, they often 411 00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:13,720 Speaker 1: had a religious underpinning in the laws and the reasoning involved. 412 00:27:14,280 --> 00:27:16,520 Speaker 1: We mentioned earlier that a passage from the Book of 413 00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:21,480 Speaker 1: Exodus was sometimes seen as justification for sentencing animals to death. 414 00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:25,320 Speaker 1: Other passages in the books of Genesis and Leviticus were 415 00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:31,080 Speaker 1: also seen as justifying death sentences for specific crimes purportedly 416 00:27:31,119 --> 00:27:35,880 Speaker 1: committed by animals. This included sentencing animals to death after 417 00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:39,480 Speaker 1: they had been used for the purpose of sorcery or witchcraft, 418 00:27:39,600 --> 00:27:43,359 Speaker 1: so that defense's argument about sorcery in the case of 419 00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:46,080 Speaker 1: the rooster seems like it might have been kind of risky. 420 00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:50,000 Speaker 1: This idea that animals used in witchcraft were to be 421 00:27:50,119 --> 00:27:54,119 Speaker 1: sentenced to death also contributed to animals being killed during 422 00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:58,000 Speaker 1: witch trials across Europe and the Americas, under the belief 423 00:27:58,040 --> 00:28:01,760 Speaker 1: that these animals were the witches. Familiar in those cases, 424 00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:04,399 Speaker 1: though it was typically the person who was being placed 425 00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:08,119 Speaker 1: on trial, not the animal. The Book of Leviticus also 426 00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:11,840 Speaker 1: included a mandate to kill both the human perpetrator and 427 00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:16,639 Speaker 1: the animal victim in cases of bestiality. E. P. Evans's 428 00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:19,320 Speaker 1: book mentions a series of cases in which both the 429 00:28:19,400 --> 00:28:23,040 Speaker 1: human assailant and the animal victim were killed, as well 430 00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:26,679 Speaker 1: as one case in Vanvas, France in seventeen fifty in 431 00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:29,640 Speaker 1: which a man was sentenced to death but a donkey 432 00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:32,399 Speaker 1: was acquitted on the ground that she was the victim 433 00:28:32,440 --> 00:28:35,360 Speaker 1: of the violence and not a participant of her own 434 00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:38,920 Speaker 1: free will. The parish priest and several people from the 435 00:28:38,960 --> 00:28:41,760 Speaker 1: town signed a statement that they had known the donkey 436 00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:44,800 Speaker 1: for years end quote, that she had always shown herself 437 00:28:44,800 --> 00:28:48,360 Speaker 1: to be virtuous and well behaved, both at home and abroad, 438 00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:52,080 Speaker 1: and had never given occasion of scandal to anyone, and 439 00:28:52,120 --> 00:28:54,760 Speaker 1: that therefore they were willing to bear witness that she is, 440 00:28:54,920 --> 00:28:57,760 Speaker 1: in word and deed, and in all her habits of life, 441 00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:03,440 Speaker 1: a most honest creature. Some of the secular animal trials 442 00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:09,240 Speaker 1: involved horses, oxen, cows, or other large animals that kicked 443 00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:13,600 Speaker 1: or trampled or otherwise hurt somebody, but most of the 444 00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:18,400 Speaker 1: defendants were pigs. Although some of today's pig breeds are small, 445 00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:21,440 Speaker 1: in general, pigs are very large, and they are known 446 00:29:21,480 --> 00:29:25,800 Speaker 1: for basically eating anything they can find. Domestic pigs in 447 00:29:25,880 --> 00:29:28,920 Speaker 1: medieval and early modern Europe could also be very big, 448 00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:33,760 Speaker 1: and their behavior could be even more unpredictable because sometimes 449 00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:37,960 Speaker 1: they enter bred with wild boares, and in a lot 450 00:29:37,960 --> 00:29:41,480 Speaker 1: of places pigs were free ranging without any kind of enclosure. 451 00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:47,200 Speaker 1: They're natural foragers and opportunistic eaters, so they'd basically wander 452 00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:52,400 Speaker 1: around eating whatever they happened to find. Sadly, this could 453 00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:57,560 Speaker 1: include unattended babies and children. In most of these cases, 454 00:29:57,600 --> 00:30:01,960 Speaker 1: the pigs involved were charged with implying that they had 455 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:07,480 Speaker 1: the intellect and moral capacity to intentionally decide to kill someone. 456 00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:10,400 Speaker 1: The first such trial of a pig is often cited 457 00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:14,120 Speaker 1: as having taken place in Fontinet au Jrouse, France, which 458 00:30:14,160 --> 00:30:17,080 Speaker 1: is today a suburb of Paris, and that happened in 459 00:30:17,120 --> 00:30:20,760 Speaker 1: either twelve sixty six or twelve sixty eight. There's an 460 00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:23,719 Speaker 1: eighteenth century record of this that refers back to an 461 00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:28,080 Speaker 1: unnamed thirteenth century work, but it doesn't actually specify that 462 00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:31,440 Speaker 1: there was a trial involved. It does say that a 463 00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:34,680 Speaker 1: pig had been apprehended after killing a child and that 464 00:30:34,720 --> 00:30:37,600 Speaker 1: it was publicly burned at the stake, with the child's 465 00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:42,400 Speaker 1: parents included among the spectators. French accounts use the word 466 00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:46,320 Speaker 1: cor or court, which ep evans work interprets as being 467 00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:49,080 Speaker 1: a court of law, but it could have also just 468 00:30:49,160 --> 00:30:53,880 Speaker 1: meant a courtyard or even the town square. Evans also 469 00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:56,760 Speaker 1: may have taken some liberties in some of the details 470 00:30:56,760 --> 00:30:59,840 Speaker 1: that he included in another trial, and that was one 471 00:30:59,840 --> 00:31:03,120 Speaker 1: that took place in thirteen eighty six in Falaise, France, 472 00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:07,440 Speaker 1: again involving a pig that had killed a child. This 473 00:31:07,600 --> 00:31:10,440 Speaker 1: pig was hanged, which was one of the methods that 474 00:31:10,560 --> 00:31:14,920 Speaker 1: was used of execution for animals pretty often. But Evans's 475 00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:18,920 Speaker 1: account also says that this pig was first injured in 476 00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:22,080 Speaker 1: the same way that it had injured the child, and 477 00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:24,600 Speaker 1: that it was dressed in a suit of clothes like 478 00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:28,840 Speaker 1: a person for the trial, But primary sources don't mention that. 479 00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:32,680 Speaker 1: They only talk about the cost of the execution, which 480 00:31:32,680 --> 00:31:35,800 Speaker 1: included buying a new pair of gloves for the executioner. 481 00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:39,720 Speaker 1: It was customary to present executioners with a new pair 482 00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:43,560 Speaker 1: of gloves, regardless of whether they were executing a person 483 00:31:43,840 --> 00:31:46,520 Speaker 1: or a non human animal. This was sort of a 484 00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:51,880 Speaker 1: metaphorical representation of the executioner's hands being clean after carrying 485 00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:56,240 Speaker 1: out this task. In fourteen fifty seven, a sow and 486 00:31:56,360 --> 00:31:59,720 Speaker 1: her six piglets were also tried for murder in seven 487 00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:04,040 Speaker 1: years Etangue in Bourgogne, France. In this case, the sow 488 00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:07,160 Speaker 1: was sentenced to death by hanging, but the piglets were 489 00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:10,400 Speaker 1: spared because the court found no clear evidence that they 490 00:32:10,440 --> 00:32:13,440 Speaker 1: had been involved in the baby's death and that their 491 00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:16,840 Speaker 1: mother had set a bad example. To be clear, there 492 00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:20,240 Speaker 1: are some limitations on what we know about all these trials. 493 00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:23,800 Speaker 1: They attracted the interest of a number of historians and 494 00:32:23,840 --> 00:32:28,200 Speaker 1: commentators in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. One 495 00:32:28,240 --> 00:32:32,280 Speaker 1: was Edward Payson Evans, whose book we've quoted from several times. 496 00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:35,640 Speaker 1: This book was expanded out from two essays that he 497 00:32:35,680 --> 00:32:39,480 Speaker 1: had published in the Atlantic in eighteen eighty four. We've 498 00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:42,120 Speaker 1: already mentioned a couple of places where he might have 499 00:32:42,360 --> 00:32:47,800 Speaker 1: misinterpreted something or embellished some details. Beyond that, he was 500 00:32:47,880 --> 00:32:52,320 Speaker 1: primarily focused on cases in which animals were convicted, and 501 00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:56,280 Speaker 1: it's not totally clear whether that's because animals were usually 502 00:32:56,360 --> 00:33:00,080 Speaker 1: convicted or because people just didn't feel the need to 503 00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:04,520 Speaker 1: keep as much documentation about acquittals. There also hasn't been 504 00:33:04,520 --> 00:33:07,400 Speaker 1: a lot of research to determine if these trials were 505 00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:12,560 Speaker 1: really concentrated primarily in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, or 506 00:33:12,600 --> 00:33:15,280 Speaker 1: if that's just where Evans spent most of his time. 507 00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:19,640 Speaker 1: His text doesn't always have enough information to actually track 508 00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:22,800 Speaker 1: down his primary sources, so some of the trials that 509 00:33:22,840 --> 00:33:27,120 Speaker 1: he mentions and some of the details cannot really be substantiated. 510 00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:31,520 Speaker 1: Evans was an early animal rights activist, and this work 511 00:33:31,600 --> 00:33:36,120 Speaker 1: is definitely influenced by his personal opinions about these animals 512 00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:39,280 Speaker 1: and the people who carried the whole thing out, namely 513 00:33:39,440 --> 00:33:42,160 Speaker 1: that they were cruel and barbarous, and that people in 514 00:33:42,280 --> 00:33:46,240 Speaker 1: his era were a lot more rational. Some aspects of 515 00:33:46,280 --> 00:33:49,480 Speaker 1: this also just seem hard to believe, even with a 516 00:33:49,520 --> 00:33:53,640 Speaker 1: bunch of caveats about changing ideas around law and ethics 517 00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:58,120 Speaker 1: and religion and animal consciousness. And there are four sure 518 00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:02,680 Speaker 1: multiple works of fiction and satire that either are based 519 00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:07,080 Speaker 1: on or referencing these kinds of trials. Like William Hohane, 520 00:34:07,160 --> 00:34:11,520 Speaker 1: who also printed actual trial transcripts, published a couple of 521 00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:14,719 Speaker 1: satirical works about a dog being put on trial for 522 00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:19,200 Speaker 1: biting his lord. There's also Edward Long's seventeen seventy one, 523 00:34:19,480 --> 00:34:22,960 Speaker 1: The Trial of Farmer Carter's Dog Porter for Murder, taken 524 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:26,480 Speaker 1: down verbatim at litterum when shorthand and now published by 525 00:34:26,520 --> 00:34:31,920 Speaker 1: authority from the corrected manuscript of councilor Clearpoint. This satirical 526 00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:36,280 Speaker 1: work was also meant as a commentary on game laws. 527 00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:39,840 Speaker 1: That's one about the termite trial sounds almost like it 528 00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:44,480 Speaker 1: could be a metaphor for colonialism. It is at least 529 00:34:44,680 --> 00:34:49,359 Speaker 1: possible that some of the trials in Evans's compilation were 530 00:34:49,400 --> 00:34:52,920 Speaker 1: meant to be satire or jokes or metaphors or something else. 531 00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:56,440 Speaker 1: It all leads to the obvious question of was this 532 00:34:56,520 --> 00:35:01,239 Speaker 1: for real? And the answer is probably, at least to 533 00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:05,560 Speaker 1: some extent. Various historians who have studied these trials have 534 00:35:05,719 --> 00:35:10,000 Speaker 1: concluded that it's possible that some accounts are apocryphal or fabricated, 535 00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:13,680 Speaker 1: or that satire may have been misunderstood as facts somewhere 536 00:35:13,680 --> 00:35:17,200 Speaker 1: along the line, or that some details have been embellished. 537 00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:20,800 Speaker 1: But there are also just too many accounts of these trials, 538 00:35:20,840 --> 00:35:23,399 Speaker 1: spread out over too long a time and too large 539 00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:26,879 Speaker 1: a geographic area for them all to have been made up. 540 00:35:27,480 --> 00:35:30,560 Speaker 1: There's also enough variation in the specifics that it's probably 541 00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:33,600 Speaker 1: not just the early modern version of an urban legend, 542 00:35:34,120 --> 00:35:36,840 Speaker 1: and some of these trials do have supporting documents, like 543 00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:40,479 Speaker 1: court records or receipts for paying the executioner, and those 544 00:35:40,520 --> 00:35:44,120 Speaker 1: records generally don't suggest that anything out of the ordinary 545 00:35:44,239 --> 00:35:50,040 Speaker 1: was going on animal trials. Do you have listener mail 546 00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:52,160 Speaker 1: that may or may not be odd? I do have 547 00:35:52,239 --> 00:35:56,320 Speaker 1: some listener mail. I don't think it's odd at all. 548 00:35:56,760 --> 00:35:59,759 Speaker 1: This email is from Anika. I'm sorry if I have 549 00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:04,720 Speaker 1: said your name incorrectly and the email reads Hi, Tracy 550 00:36:04,719 --> 00:36:08,920 Speaker 1: and Holly, one of my ancestors is credited with quote 551 00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:13,360 Speaker 1: discovering Mammoth Cave. Of course, there are questions about exactly 552 00:36:13,520 --> 00:36:17,480 Speaker 1: which John Howchins was the quote discoverer, and as we know, 553 00:36:17,719 --> 00:36:20,959 Speaker 1: the actual discoverers were the First Nation's peoples who lived 554 00:36:20,960 --> 00:36:24,440 Speaker 1: in the area for thousands of years. And then what 555 00:36:24,520 --> 00:36:27,960 Speaker 1: follows is a story on John Houchins and the bear quote. 556 00:36:28,640 --> 00:36:31,440 Speaker 1: Although the credit of the cave's discovery belongs to the 557 00:36:31,440 --> 00:36:34,560 Speaker 1: prehistoric Native Americans, the question remains as to how the 558 00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:37,600 Speaker 1: cave came to the attention of European settlers in the area. 559 00:36:38,040 --> 00:36:41,319 Speaker 1: According to legend, in the late seventeen nineties, a young 560 00:36:41,360 --> 00:36:44,000 Speaker 1: boy named John Howchins was out hunting for game for 561 00:36:44,040 --> 00:36:47,200 Speaker 1: his family. He spotted a black bear roaming through the 562 00:36:47,239 --> 00:36:49,839 Speaker 1: forest near the entrance of the cave. He took aim 563 00:36:49,920 --> 00:36:53,120 Speaker 1: and fired. His shot failed to be fatal to the bear, 564 00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:56,200 Speaker 1: only wounding the animal. The injured bear ran down the 565 00:36:56,280 --> 00:36:59,439 Speaker 1: hill and took shelter in the cave, leading Houchens into 566 00:36:59,440 --> 00:37:02,960 Speaker 1: the cave. The legend tapers off at this point, leaving 567 00:37:03,040 --> 00:37:06,080 Speaker 1: unanswered the question of whether Houchin's ever got his bear, 568 00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:09,359 Speaker 1: but whether or not Howchin's gained the credit of the 569 00:37:09,440 --> 00:37:12,880 Speaker 1: modern discovery of the Great Cave. There's a section of 570 00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:15,880 Speaker 1: the cave called Houchin's Narrows, name for him. There's Houchin's 571 00:37:15,920 --> 00:37:18,640 Speaker 1: Ferry or the Green River in the Mammoth Cave National 572 00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:23,000 Speaker 1: Park next to Houchen's campground, and there's the Howchins family Cemetery. 573 00:37:23,120 --> 00:37:25,919 Speaker 1: Some of my ancestors are buried there. I've always wanted 574 00:37:25,920 --> 00:37:28,440 Speaker 1: to travel down to the area, particularly the river. I 575 00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:31,280 Speaker 1: steer clear of caves after my one and only foray 576 00:37:31,320 --> 00:37:33,520 Speaker 1: into a cave in northern New York in the nineteen 577 00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:36,560 Speaker 1: seventies where I was nearly trapped in a tube formation 578 00:37:37,040 --> 00:37:39,440 Speaker 1: called the gun barrel, which was a very tight squeeze. 579 00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:42,640 Speaker 1: I became stuck, and it was only when I realized 580 00:37:42,640 --> 00:37:44,719 Speaker 1: that I had gotten in just fine that I just 581 00:37:44,800 --> 00:37:47,600 Speaker 1: needed to relax to pull myself out. I'm here to 582 00:37:47,680 --> 00:37:49,680 Speaker 1: tell the tale of it. So there you are. Proof 583 00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:51,960 Speaker 1: is attached. That's me on the right, just heading into 584 00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:54,800 Speaker 1: the gun barrel. They have since cemented up the gun 585 00:37:54,800 --> 00:37:57,359 Speaker 1: barrel and made an opening that you can walk through 586 00:37:58,080 --> 00:38:00,520 Speaker 1: because someone died in it by the way that cave 587 00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:05,759 Speaker 1: is called Skull Cave Anika, and then it says you'll 588 00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:07,799 Speaker 1: be happy to know I stopped doing stupid things at 589 00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:11,759 Speaker 1: about age sixty four, which made me laugh. So yes, 590 00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:17,080 Speaker 1: this story of someone named John Howchin's being the discover 591 00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:20,880 Speaker 1: of Mammoth Cave is one of the stories about who 592 00:38:20,920 --> 00:38:25,000 Speaker 1: the first non indigenous person was. And I did not 593 00:38:25,080 --> 00:38:27,520 Speaker 1: get into that in our episode about Mammoth Cave because 594 00:38:27,560 --> 00:38:33,400 Speaker 1: there are kind of multiple competing stories and competing descriptions 595 00:38:33,440 --> 00:38:38,839 Speaker 1: of exactly which person this was, because there are you know, 596 00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:43,240 Speaker 1: there are quite a lot of people named John in 597 00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:49,080 Speaker 1: the United States, and various spellings for Houchin's which can 598 00:38:49,120 --> 00:38:52,120 Speaker 1: also sometimes show up in records as Hutchins and other things. 599 00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:56,200 Speaker 1: We have a picture and this is an incredibly narrow 600 00:38:56,280 --> 00:39:00,000 Speaker 1: space in the cave that needed to be crawled through. 601 00:39:00,120 --> 00:39:04,080 Speaker 1: So thank you so much for this email, a chance 602 00:39:04,200 --> 00:39:07,399 Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about those stories about who 603 00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:12,600 Speaker 1: discovered Bammoth Cave. And one last animal injury. If for 604 00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:16,919 Speaker 1: the episode in the story of being out hunting a bear, 605 00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:19,640 Speaker 1: it I don't love the idea of following a bear 606 00:39:19,719 --> 00:39:26,040 Speaker 1: into a cave, but that's the story there. If you'd 607 00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:28,399 Speaker 1: like to send us a note about this or any 608 00:39:28,440 --> 00:39:32,760 Speaker 1: other podcast where a history podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. 609 00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:36,160 Speaker 1: That is the email address that you should use if 610 00:39:36,200 --> 00:39:40,200 Speaker 1: you would like to reach us. Sometimes people have recently 611 00:39:40,239 --> 00:39:43,239 Speaker 1: been trying to make things difficult for themselves and like 612 00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:48,680 Speaker 1: tracking down personal social media accounts. I'm just gonna tell you, 613 00:39:48,760 --> 00:39:53,560 Speaker 1: if you send me a message on like Instagram, I'm 614 00:39:53,600 --> 00:39:56,279 Speaker 1: not gonna see that in a timely manner. But I 615 00:39:56,320 --> 00:40:01,680 Speaker 1: do look at history podcasts at iHeartRadio dot com. You 616 00:40:01,719 --> 00:40:04,759 Speaker 1: can subscribe to our show on the iHeartRadio app and 617 00:40:04,920 --> 00:40:13,200 Speaker 1: wherever else you'd like to get your podcasts. Stuff you 618 00:40:13,239 --> 00:40:16,319 Speaker 1: missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For 619 00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:20,879 Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 620 00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:23,000 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.