Extract
[...] Why fire and not hanging? For the sake of purification, and definitive oblivion (because one burns the man, the animal, and the trial documents, because one wants no trace of the crime). Section Sexual Violence: Rape and Abduction The MA's confusion on terminology > At the MA, one confuses abduction, whether it be ravishment, or the forcing of the woman. These two expressions cover rape and abduction. It's quite absurd; rape and abduction do not constitute individualized crimes. Some authors distinguish between them, while others do not, so we end up confusing the two in practice. [...]
[...] Beaumanoir added to this the violation. > There was only in Normandy where one did not foresee a difference in the application of the sanction, whether it was a homicide or a murder. In both cases, the guilty person suffered the death penalty, which was hanging. In the MA, the death penalty was mainly execution by hanging. > In some customs, particularly in the southwest, the condemned person would be imprisoned alive under the victim's corpse, then hanged. Sometimes, the body would be left hanging so that it could serve as an example. [...]
[...] The judge then proceeds to hear the witnesses. > On resorts to a legal fiction to ensure the progression of the procedure. To do this, we will appoint a curator to the corpse. He will take the place of the corpse in all the acts of the procedure. This appointment of the curator occurs after the hearing of the witnesses, that is to say, at the time of the imprisonment of the corpse. This makes the deceased an accused person. [...]
[...] A house fire can be an attack on property or life, which is feared by the inhabitants, but the fire of the harvest can also lead to famine. > The royal jurisdiction is quite laconic: the ordinance of the zoo and forest of 1669 and the royal declaration of 1774, which also provides for the death penalty. Even in a state of war, the fire is not justified, according to Beaumanoir. > There are 4 types of intentional fires: - House fire in a city (burned down the entire neighborhood) = led to the penalty of fire, the individual was burned on the public square - House fire in a isolated house, countryside, farm = death penalty and burn individual in a spectacular way - Vineyard fire and harvest = punished less severely, perpetual banishment, galley duty - Voluntary forest fire = death penalty since ordinance of 1774 The big problem of the fire is that of proof. [...]
[...] Abortion > The accusation of abortion is poorly individualized, particularly in the customary law of MA. This crime of abortion is considered particularly odious to medieval society, so it results in the death of the child but the subtraction of the child from the sacrament of baptism. Abortion is above all considered a sin, and we are referring here to canonical doctrine. > According to St. Augustine, "any woman who makes sure she cannot bear as many children as she could is guilty of as many homicides, just as the woman who seeks to abort after creation."?" A homicide is to kill a living being: first difficulty: canonical doctrine makes a distinction between whether the child was viable or not. [...]
