How Did a Pig End Up on Trial in the Middle Ages?

As far-fetched as it might seem, animals frequently went on trial during the Middle Ages. From farm animals and domestic pets to swarms of insects or other pests, animals that inflicted harm on people were held accountable, and excommunicated, or even condemned to death. In this article, we examine the curious case when an unsuspecting pig went on trial, and was found guilty.

During the Middle Ages, there were two different types of trials that involved animals. Traditional secular court cases were more about singular animals, including farm animals, who either killed or inflicted grievous harm on a person. The other type of trial was based more on religion. These usually involved large scale disasters that affected entire villages and threatened sickness or starvation—such as swarms of locusts decimating crops needed over the winter or rat infestations that brought disease. 

These trials used religion in a way not necessarily in line with the church, performing a series of rituals that combined spirituality, magic and church doctrine to excommunicate these animals, to cleanse the town, and to give people hope that the problem would be solved. At the time the Catholic Church did not consider animals to have true souls, so the ability for them to be excommunicated for behavior seems an unusual choice. It wasn’t something that the church condoned, but often they looked the other way if it kept the patrons happy.

While this wasn’t happening on a regular basis, there are multiple records of these trials for historians and archivists to study—about 200 of them. Many of these records were recorded in Evans’ The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals. The earliest of these records occurred in the mid-1200s at Fontenay-aux-Roses, which ended in the execution of a humble pig.

What Animals Did They Put on Trial?

Many of the civic court cases of individual animals were domestic, such as bulls, horses, cows, and pigs. Pigs were the most common animal to have recorded trials. These were the animals that had been on trial for maiming or killing civilians of the town. Often these offenders were a part of the trial, or at least on display. 

Other creatures were groups of animals including the previously mentioned locusts and rats. The trial was more of a show. While the animals who maimed or killed people were often found guilty and put to death, there was no actual resolution for the swarms of pests outside of the ecclesiastical implications. These animals were still given a lawyer to defend them and help with the proper process of the trial. 

Esther Cohen is one of the leading authorities on animal trials, and author of the article, Law, Folklore, and Animal Lore. In it she states one case where, “…in 1587 the syndics of the commune of Saint-Julien-de-Maurienne sued the flies that were destroying their vineyards…[and] appointed a lawyer at a modest salary, ‘lest the animals whom the action lies should remain defenceless.’” While today animals are held accountable for actions they take against people, for example if a dog bites someone, they are often put down, there is no longer a traditional trial that takes place in a court of law.

There are several well-known examples of pigs who went on trial. Just one example is a trial took place in Savigny, France. It was a cold December in France, in the year 1457. The pig in question was a sow with six baby piglets who went on a violent rampage. In the end an infant died.

The owner of the pig was also caught up in the trial. However, he was accused of neglect, while the mother pig received a harsh sentence. The piglets were not accused of the crime since there was no evidence they participated in the murder. The pig was sentenced to death and hung by its legs. This was not uncommon, nor the worst way a pig was executed for a crime. Human murderers at the time were often condemned to various modes of execution including burning at the stake or beheading, and these pigs were often subject to trials and executions that were similar to their human counterparts.

What Did Pigs Symbolize in the Middle Ages?

Pigs were common as both wild and domesticated animals in the Middle Ages. At a time when meat was expensive, hunting animals such as deer was reserved for the elite, while pigs were a common source of meat. Wild boar in the Middle Ages in Western Europe were free for anyone to hunt. They were also used to forage in the forests for items, a practice still used today, to find the expensive truffle mushrooms prized in high-end restaurants. However, even domestic pigs in that time were not truly domestic by today’s standards, which is how accidents and deaths could still occur. 

Outside of food, pigs were integrated into society. Pigs in early Medieval Europe were used to create medicines that treated a variety of conditions including skin disease, stomach issues, and pains such as arthritis. They were also seen as symbols of prosperity, hence the creation of home banks eventually becoming piggy banks.

Since there are a couple hundred records of animal trials taking place, scholars have written numerous articles and books about the phenomenon. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the subject has also graced the screen. The Hour of the Pig (or The Advocate in United States) was a movie that centered around the trial of a pig and the real lawyer tasked to defend him, called Bartholomew Chassenee, who had also defended rats that were put on trial for the destruction of crops in France.