Living in a Zoopolis
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Why did medieval bishops put rats on trial in 1522 Burgundy?
It's
Burgundy, France, in a city named Atun, early Renaissance. Even then, Burgundy was famous for its wine. But Atun sits on soil that's only good for growing barley and wheat. Well, in 1522, rats got into the barley crop, ate through much of it, and that could very well destroy the livelihood of the peasants who grew it, maybe even lead to starvation for the people who rely on the grain for food. This is a big problem for the people in charge, which back then were the clerics.
The local bishop kind of huddles it up. with the other heads of the church in the area.
That's Gabriel Rosenberg, historian at Duke University.
And they decide that they're going to put the rats on trial. And if they can convict the rats of larceny and theft and such things, they'll be able to anathematize them, which is essentially the ability to ban them from Christian society.
What possessed the bishops to put the rats up for trial as a solution to this particular problem? Was there precedence for this?
In early modern and medieval Europe, it was possible to try animals for a variety of crimes. It's arguably the case that this represented a different sort of perspective on animal agency
Whatever their reasons, the decision was made to take the rats to court. But luckily for them, the French were big fans of due process. Even rats deserved the best lawyer they could get. And because they couldn't afford one, they had to have one appointed to them. In this case, a young one.
Bartholome de Chosinou was kind of an expert in Roman law and widely respected probably in his community as being highly learned.
Getting assigned a Chazenu was a little bit like getting assigned a young Ruth Bader Ginsburg, someone who would eventually become a legend in jurisprudence. So the Chazenu had the perfect strategy. If you're going to treat the rats as being legally responsible, you've got to give the rats the same kind of legal rights you'd grant a person.
So the day of the trial comes, and no rats have appeared. Chazenu makes a motion. He says... that they have not posted adequate notice around Burgundy to let the rats know that they all need to get there. And Chesineau notes that some of the rats are very young and they can move quickly, but some of the rats are very old and it might take them a long time. So they can't be tried in absentia and found guilty. They need to delay the trial. The court apparently finds this persuasive. They post notice in every church in the land announcing that the rats are to make an appearance. So fast forward, we have the next meeting of the court. Once again, the rats do not appear. And Chesanou once again comes up with an objection.
If you're going to make someone come to court where they have to travel across lands that are controlled by their enemies, it is a well-established precedent that you need to give them a guard. And of course, you know that the enemies of the rats are the cats, and there are many cats in the countryside of Burgundy. So then Chesineau proposes that they ought to tax all of the cat owners and all of Burgundy to pay for guards so that they can protect the rats in their journey to the court.
From Slate, this is Hi-Fi Nation, philosophy in story form. Recording from Princeton University, here's Barry Lamb.
That argument won the day. Nobody, it turned out, wanted to pay the taxes needed to help the rats defend themselves in court. It wasn't clear in the historical record whether the rats were formally acquitted or if the court just decided to let it go. But that wasn't the last time De Chazeneau was going to break ground in defending animals in court. He wrote the book on it, Concilium Primum. a treatise on how to rightfully try animals in courts of law. Underneath the set of legal principles and appeals to Roman law was an assumption that De Chazenu held. Animals had legal rights and entitlements. On today's show, we're bringing you stories of animals in court, past and present, to see what it might be like to live in a future where animals have legal rights.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why did medieval bishops put rats on trial in 1522 Burgundy?
0:00–5:18
2
How did Bartholome de Chazenu defend the rats' legal rights?
5:18–10:49
3
What were the outcomes of historic animal trials like the pig of Falaise?
10:49–16:13
4
How are modern lawyers using habeas corpus to represent animals?
16:13–20:24
5
What legal arguments were made for the elephant Happy and captive chimpanzees?
20:24–26:49
6
How does the Zoopolis model differentiate rights for wild, denizen, and companion animals?
26:49–33:32
7
What ethical challenges arise when granting political rights to animals in a Zoopolis?
33:32–37:58
8
What might a future society look like where animals have full political and legal personhood?
37:58–43:56