Chapter XV: Appendix: Containing Original Documents (4)

[3] These animals are spoken of as _unvernünftige Thierlein genannt Lutmäuse_. _Lut_ might be derived from the Old German _lût_ (_Laut_, Schrei), in which case _Lutmaus_ would mean shrew-mouse; but it is more probably from _lutum_ (loam, mould), and signifies mole or field-mouse. Field-mice are exceedingly prolific rodents, and in modern as well as in mediæval times have often done grievous harm to husbandry and arboriculture by consuming roots and fruits and gnawing the bark of young trees. The recklessness of hunters in exterminating foxes, hedgehogs, polecats, weasels, buzzards, crows, kites, owls and similar beasts and birds, which are destructive of field-mice, has frequently caused the latter to multiply so as to become a terrible plague. This was the case in England in 1813-14, and in Germany in 1822, and again in 1856.

[4] The first part of this treatise, consisting of seventeen chapters, discusses the different kinds of “monitoires” and their applications. Only the second part, describing the legal procedure, is here printed.

[5] A few early instances of excommunication and malediction, our knowledge of which is derived chiefly from hagiologies and other legendary sources, are not included in the present list, such, for example, as the cursing and burning of storks at Avignon by St. Agricola in 666, and the expulsion of venomous reptiles from the island Reichenau in 728 by Saint Perminius.

[6] This case is probably identical with and an adjournment of that of 1478.

[7] Identical with the sentences covering the period of 1500-1530.

[8] In this latest record of such prosecutions a man named Marger was killed and robbed by Scherrer and his son, with the fierce and effective co-operation of their dog. The three murderers were tried and the two men sentenced to lifelong imprisonment, but the dog, as the chief culprit, without whose complicity the crime could not have been committed, was condemned to death.

[9] In modern French _pendard_ means hang-dog. M. Lejeune states that he can recall no other instance of its use as synonymous with bourreau or hangman. Perhaps a facetious clerk may have deemed it applicable to a person whose office was in the present case that of a hang-pig.

[10] Under this term are included the dean, canons, and chapter of the Cathedral of Chartres.

[11] _Mietkuhe_, a cow pastured or wintered for pay.

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.

Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}.