Imagine: you have planted potatoes (turnip, carrot, cabbage). They fought for the harvest to bloody calluses, tore their backs, burned their fifth point in the sun, weeding and hilling the beds. And one fine day, having arrived at the hacienda, they found that the Colorado potato beetle had eaten the potatoes, the bear was capitalized on the carrots, and the caterpillar finished off the cabbage. The gardener's terrible dream came true. What will a modern latifundist do? Shake his head, get burned, and even go with his misfortune to complain to the neighbors. They will sit until late at night, and by morning it will feel better for him.
And in this case, a medieval feudal lord would not be at a loss and would quickly go to court in order to legally punish a beetle, a bear and a caterpillar for the damage caused.
Of course, there is nothing to recover from locusts, for example. But to discourage others, it is necessary to execute. Catch one individual, read out the verdict, and - the job is ready. It would be possible to punish a whole swarm of pests, for no one should attack the bins of a respected feudal lord without consequences. Do you think I'm kidding? But no!
In the Middle Ages, and at the very beginning of the so-called. In modern times, trials of field pests were widespread in Europe: rodents or insects that destroyed crops. Yes, in all seriousness. A real court - with the prosecutor, lawyers, plaintiffs and defendants.
Villagers and townspeople scribbled appeals against locusts, beetles, caterpillars, birds, and even eels!
Most often, such cases were considered in church courts. The judges proceeded from the fact that all of the above-named beings are divine creatures. In their opinion, creating different creatures, the Lord gave them food. According to the court, they had the right to eat, but not to destroy what the man sowed. How the holy fathers imagined this process of land delimitation, I have little idea: there were no electromagnetic scarers of mice and worms in those distant times. Naturally, rats, mice, moles and other flying and crawling animals had no idea that they had their own property. And the court had every right to excommunicate the dumb "defendants" from the church …
I suppose the worm doesn't really care whether he's in church or out. But for people of that time, it was an important clarification. Even my rich imagination can hardly compete with the sophisticated mind of the inquisitors. They, apparently, had an excellent idea of what a mouse excommunicated from the holy church looks like.
And now the most interesting thing: the damned locust flew safely to a new place, caterpillars pupated and turned into butterflies. Voila! It worked, said the holy fathers, and the peasants and townspeople nodded gratefully in response. And if it didn't work? The curse did not work, this also happened. Locust, she is - until she eats everything, she does not calm down and does not spit on your arguments. In this case, the most just and humane court in the world - the Holy Inquisition - blamed the plaintiffs on everything. They themselves are to blame: they pray poorly, they bring gifts to church sparingly. Here is the result - God turned his back on them.
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Honestly, I'm not surprised by the trials of cockroaches and mosquitoes. I am amazed by something else: just imagine how broadly legal proceedings were set in the Middle Ages! The common people, dark and illiterate, who could not read and write, sincerely believed that domestic animals or wild insects could be pacified with the help of court or physical punishment.
And now the question is - did the holy fathers of the Inquisition think so? Or they chuckled softly at the hapless landowners and happily stuffed their pockets with gold. After all, the courts at all times have been costly. At the very least, clerks, secretaries, lawyers and other comrades had to be paid their salaries. And it's not a fact that you will win this court, against a bear, for example. She will return, and the money, consider it gone into the void, but you will also be accused, they say, he is guilty himself.
In the Middle Ages, it is customary to frighten the enlightened people, describe their horrors and compare them with the modern system. And for me - so there is nothing to scare. Nothing much has changed. As the people were naive, they remained so. As the system was cunning and resourceful, it still exists today.
But back to our rams. Yes, yes, in the truest sense of the word. They also did not stand on ceremony with animals. The show courts in those not very blessed times worked in full force. And goats, and rams, and pigs could stand trial. Some were accused of destroying crops, others of personal hostility to the owner, and still others, God knows what mortal sins! Up to debauchery and adultery! I'm not joking, it was precisely in such grievous human passions as gluttony or greed that the nosy inquisitors of our smaller brothers were accused. In order not to shock the gentle reader with the details of the courts and sophisticated mockery of the dumb creatures, I will not paint this topic in colors.
I am confused by something else: do animals have a soul, according to the Inquisition, or not? That is, it is possible to judge them as people, but they were denied the existence of the Spirit for a long time. Correct me if you are not right, but this is just some kind of double standards.
Well, okay, at least goats and rams were tried. And dogs, cats and roosters were shot without trial or investigation for being connected with an unclean person. Well, they didn't shoot, of course, they hung there, drowned them, burned them at the stake, the essence of this doesn't change much. And if a dog or a cat managed to be born black, he had no chance of living to old age at all. Cats in the Middle Ages were ranked among the dark forces solely by their "birthright". If the dogs and birds could still be given a chance of excuse or correction, the cats had nothing to "catch".
Sometimes I think, because not much time has passed since then. We are only a few hundred years away from the dark and gloomy "cheerful" Middle Ages. On a Cosmic scale, this is a funny figure. Seconds, right word. The world has changed, but the ashes of the "cleansing" fires are still warm. Humanity still has a lot to learn, understand and discover in order to finally get rid of stupid superstitions and delusions. The main one is blind faith in the superiority of some people over others and in the inviolability of doubtful truths.
