Not every criminal looks like a villain - and if the history of law is anything to go by, they needn't even be human! Let's take a look at some strange "criminals" from history, including...
- The egg-laying devil-rooster of Basel
- The rebel bell of Uglich
- The killer statue
- The papal corpse
- The rats of Autun
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| The rats of Autun actually got legal representation! (sipa) |
The Egg-Laying Devil-Rooster of Basel
In 1474 the city of Basel in Switzerland held a solemn trial, dealing with an agent of the devil that walked the mortal world. The accused: a rooster, the crime: laying an egg.
Now, you might be wondering how a rooster lays an egg. It turns out that a hen with an infected or damaged ovary may appear to be a rooster, even acting aggressively and developing rooster plumage. Should the hen return to full health they return to laying eggs, despite their appearance.
Of course, the folk of that time didn't understand the biology behind egg-laying "roosters" and blamed the devil instead. Since folklore claims that a cockerel egg incubated by a serpent can produce a deadly "cockatrice" the courts elected to burn the rooster as they would any other heretic!
The Rebel Bell of Uglich
In 1592 the bell of Uglich was "tortured" and exiled. As for the crime? It had been used to signal an uprising against Boris Godunov, a highly placed individual and power behind the Russian throne.
In 1592 the ruler of Russia was Tsar Feodor and Boyar Boris Godunov was his trusted advisor. While Godunov found the situation to his liking, the Tsar was heirless and had a younger brother who could take the throne after him. Unfortunately Tsarevich Dmitri took after his father, Ivan the Terrible... and would likely not be easy to control.
Dmitri and his household were kept hidden away by the ambitious Boyar in the town of Uglich. When Dmitri was found stabbed, his mother understandably blamed Godunov. She rallied a mob, using the bell to summon supporters who went on a rampage and lynched 15 people.
Godunov responded with an iron fist, suppressing details of the death and allegedly executing around 200 people thought to have been involved. The bell was thrown from the church tower, flogged in the town square and "mutilated" by removing the clapper (like cutting out the tongue of a human.) It was then exiled from the town.
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| Folklore claimed that an egg laid by a rooster could cause all kinds of trouble... (lushtk0) |
The Killer Statue
Theagenes of Thasos was said to have been an athletic prodigy. Supposedly at the age of nine he picked up a bronze statue of a god from the marketplace and carried it home with him... only to carry it back when told to return it. Though the act was disrespectful, the people of Greece were impressed with his physical prowess.
He would go on to have an athletic career full of victories - but marred with claims of poor sportsmanship. In fact, he was once fined for entering a competition purely to spite rival boxer Euthymos.
After his death a bronze statue of Theagenes was placed in Thasos, but this drew the ire of one angry rival. The bitter ex-opponent would flog the statue every night... but in another humiliating defeat, the statue came loose and crushed the attacker!
Greek law at the time allowed anyone or anything to be punished for murder. The surviving sons of the rival prosecuted the statue, with the courts deciding to drop it in the sea. Legend has it that the statue was eventually recovered when an oracle told the town to welcome back all exiles, in an attempt to end a famine.
The Papal Corpse
Between 872 and 965 the Catholic church went through around two dozen different popes, some of them only managing a year or so in office. One such pope was Formosus, a man with a checkered history.
He'd been a bishop and managed to gather a fair amount of prestige with the Bulgarian court (Boris I even requested that Formosus be made archbishop) and made inroads with the Carolingian court.
He'd also been excommunicated by Pope John VIII, having allegedly conspired against the papacy and other bishops. When Pope John VIII died, he returned to Italy and the church, being nominated and elevated to papacy in a matter of years.
Seven months (and the second successor) after the death of Formosus, Pope Stephen VI ordered his body exhumed to stand trial for controlling more than one diocese, perjury and illegally holding the office of bishop as a layman. Supposedly Formosus had sworn (perhaps under duress) an oath to remain a layman and not take religious office as part of his reconciliation with the church. In reality, Formosus had been a divisive figure and painting him in a poor light may have been politically useful.
The corpse of Formosus was propped up in a throne with a deacon speaking for him. Unsurprisingly, the ex-pope was found guilty - and his body was ritually desecrated. He was stripped of papal vestments and fingers were removed from his right hand. All his decrees and ordinations were invalidated and the body was buried in a common grave - it would later be weighted and thrown in a river.
This treatment didn't do much to improve the public perception of the church, leading to the downfall (and death by strangulation) of Pope Stephen VI. Pope Theodore II and Pope John IX both condemned the "Cadaver Synod" and the body of Formosus was recovered and re-ensconced in Saint Peter’s Basilica... only for Pope Sergius III to reaffirm the convictions!
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| Would you really feel good about condemning that face? (Kapa65) |
The Rats of Autun
In 1508 the village of Autun in France had a rodent problem - rats were gnawing their way through the barley crop, putting the humans at risk of famine. In desperation, the locals summoned the rodents to an Episcopal court via set of proclamations issued at the surrounding crossroads.
The ratty defendants didn't attend the court, and the prosecutor moved that they be sentenced in absentia to excommunication. The presiding bishop was loath to impose such a penalty without a defense, so he appointed Bartholomew Chassenée to act on behalf of the rats.
Chassenée took his role seriously. He argued that a) all the rats in the area were accused meaning each of them had the right to attend and defend themselves and b) the proclamations could not have reached every local rat, since they were only made at the crossroads. The bishop declared that the summons had to be preached from every pulpit in Autun, adjourning the hearing until that was accomplished.
The next hearing also saw no rats, whereupon Chassenée argued that no defendant should have to risk their life to attend court - and that the presence of cats and dogs had forced the rats to stay in hiding. The court adjourned the case again - the record ends there, but it seems likely that the townsfolk gave up in the face of determined legal chicanery and dropped the matter!
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