Crimes and Punishments Commentary

• The author expresses great satisfaction with a book on crimes and punishments, deeming it a remedy for societal ills.
• The catalyst for the commentary was the hanging of an eighteen-year-old girl for conceiving and abandoning her infant.
• The author argues the girl's seducer should have been compelled to make amends for the injury.
• Hiding the pregnancy could have saved her life and declaring it would have ruined her reputation.
• The difficulty of caring for the child was an additional burden.
• While abandoning the child was wrong, the author questions the necessity of executing the mother.
• The law against her was, unjust as it equates abandonment with murder.
• The law against her was inhuman as it punishes the desire to conceal weakness with death.
• The law against her was harmful as it deprives the state of a potential, new inhabitant.
• Nations should focus on crime prevention, especially for unintended crimes such as abandoning a baby.
• Jurisprudence should focus on preventing crimes rather than condemning.
• A nation's criminal code revealed that punishments often exceed the crimes and states are hurt as a result.
• Ingenious punishments are based on tyranny rather than justice by making death horrible.
• The punishment of the wheel originated in Germany during times of anarchy to terrorize those who would question royal power.
• In England, high treason was punished by disembowelment and burning of the heart.
• The punishments were given for faithfulness to a deposed king or speaking out against a conqueror's claim to the throne.
• Capital punishment for differing religious views was a hallmark of tyranny.
• Before Emperor Maximus, no Christian emperor had punished people for holding different opinions.
• Spanish bishops had the Priscillianists killed under Maximus to gratify the reigning power, who saw both cruelty and fairness as equal.
• Emperor Theodosius garnered church support through cruelty.
• Maximus aimed to win over Spanish bishops to his cause.
• Emperors were often created and overthrown by military force, frequently chosen from barbaric backgrounds.
• Theodosius countered Maximus by enlisting barbarians from Scythia, filling his army with Goths and surprising Alaric, the conqueror of Rome.
• Maximus orchestrated Emperor Gratian's assassination in Lyons.
• Maximus contemplated destroying juvenile Valentinian II, Gratian's heir.
• Spanish Bishops Idacio and Ithacus sought Priscilian's execution for his belief that souls emanate from God.
• Priscilians thought that the Trinity did not contain three hypostases, and they fasted on Sundays.
• Maximus, being partly pagan and partly Christian, found such actions to be severe offences.
• Bishops Idacio and Itacius obtained authorization to torture Priscilian and his supporters before their executions.
• The bishops returned praising God and recognized Maximus as a saint.
• Maximus was defeated by Theodosius and murdered without being canonized.
• Saint Martin of Tours sought Priscilian's pardon but retreated to Tours fearing accusations of heresy.
• Priscilian was honored as a martyr by his followers after his execution.
• The church followed his example: Priscilians faced execution by sword, halter, or stoning.
• A qualified young woman got stoned to death at Bourdeaux for fasting on a Sunday.
• It became argued that heretics should be roasted as God punishes them in the same way.
• Every prince or their representatives is the image of God in the sublunary world.
• Accordingly, Europe burned witches and sorcerers, along with unorthodox Christians, deemed more wicked.
• The specific crime of priests burned at Orleans in 1022 is not known due to limited literacy among clergy.
• King Robert and his wife Constantia viewed the executions.
• One victim had formerly been Her Majesty’s confessor.
• Over 700 years, the church followed the practice of burning people accused of heresy or error in opinion.

The Extirpation of Heresy

• It is important to differentiate between heresy as a matter of opinion versus heresy as faction.
• The early Christians of Alexandria and Antioch differed in views, but this diversity has existed since Christianity's beginning.
• Jesus did not unite all the faithful into one sentiment.
• Instead, he permitted churches to agree yet acknowledge him as their master.
• As long as emperors tolerated or ignored these groups, they were subject to Roman magistrates.
• They invoked the privilege of nature, demanding to worship their God in peace.
• The sects argued to be treated like Jews, to be allowed to pray to God according to their conscience.
• The sects stated that opinions would not injure the state more than Judaism and wished to be tolerated instead of harmed.
• A persecuted sect always descends into faction, uniting and motivating the oppressed.
• Persecuted groups become more industrious in both strengthening their party and being exterminated.
• The Christians joined Chlorus and battled for his son, Constantine after being suppressed in 304 by Galerius in Dioclesian's last two years.
• Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the Jews from Spain, who, if armed, could have teamed up with the Arabs to start a revolution.
• Despair inspires sects to change governments; Mohammed succeeded because he was exiled from Mecca.
• To stop a group from overthrowing the government, it is important to follow the example of England, Germany and Holland which have used toleration.
• New sects should be destroyed by killing of the chief and all believers or to tolerate them when they are large in numbers.
• The first option is monstrous, the second wise.
• By appealing to their self-interest, people are chained to the government.

Profanation

• Louis IX of France, later canonized, mandated tongue piercing with hot iron for blasphemers.
• This was a matching punishment, which had difficulties determining what was truly blasphemy.
• Expletives from passion, joy, or conversation can be vague, such as sela or vab.
• Oaths and blasphemy are vague terms that can be interpreted differently.
• The law punishing oaths is based on the Jewish commandment to not take the Lord's name in vain; best interpreted as prohibiting perjury.
• Swearing by the life of God was common for Jews.
• Philip Augustus fined nobles for saying Tetebleu, Ventrebleu, Corbleu, Sangbleu and drowned commoners in 1181.
• The nobility got a fine in the law in 1181 but the commoners got drowned.
• Saint Lewis zealously ordered tongue boring or upper lip cutting for indecent language.
• Only after a citizen complained was Pope Innocent IV able to say to the king that this punishment was cruel, which didn't affect him.
• Louis XIV's ordinance imposed fines, stocks, pillory, and lip/tongue removal for blasphemy or swearing by holy names with up to seven offences.
• This seems just because a cruel punishment is issued after seven offences.
• Criminal ordinances on sacrilege address church robbery, not impiety, leaving it to judicial discretion while it should not be disrectionary.
• Judges should consider the offender's age, offense, and need for public example.
• Those on trial should be punished more lightly for offences Pro qualitate personæ, quoque rei conditione et temporis et ætatis et sexus, vel clementius statuendum.
• Judges should order only the least severe sentence if law is silent for the sake of humanity.
• Sacrilegious profanations are committed by young debauchees, it is argued.
• It has been argued that youth are not allowed to handle their wealth but are then punished as badly as older people.
• A youth who profanes an image should not be punished as severely as someone like Brinvilliers, who poisoned their entire family.
• No laws against impious youth are made and harsh ones are chosen.
• Those who say that impious youths offended God should imitate God.
• If youths are penitent, God forgives, and penalties are issued, then pardoned, it has been argued.
• Montesquieu said, "It is our duty to honour the Deity, and not to revenge him." It's absurd for a town official to avenge the Supreme Being.

Roman Indulgence in Religion

• The disparity between Roman laws and subsequent barbaric practices sparked discussion.
• The Roman senate revered the supreme God and their deities like humans do for saints.
• Ab Jove principium describes the common formula.
• Roman citizens would always respect their gods and invite an invasion like Cicero and Livy have said. That meant they did not descend with punishments for idle language.
• The senate allowed the Troad chorus to sing that there is nothing after death and did not affect the state's government.
• Roman police was known to be perfect.
• Romans thought that offenses against gods should be only left to gods themselves Deorum offensæ, Diis curæ.
• The senate had no worries that priests should force them to avenge the clergy under the guise of attacking Heaven.
• Instead of avenging Heaven, the priests are impious because religion is more holy than the ones of Rome.

Preaching and Anthony

• In some areas, a Calvinist preacher faces death if found.. Those that give them bed and board are sent to the oars for life.
• The same thing is done for the Jesuits.
• The killing of Jesuits and Calvinists may have been inspired by the bible, which says to treat those who ignore the church as heathen.
• Neither the Calvinist nor the Jesuit say to follow strange gods.
• Counselor Dubourg, monk Jehan Chouvin aka Calvin, Spanish doctor Servetus, and Calabrian Gentilis all praise the same god.
• Minard got Dubourg burned and then got killed: Calvin roasted Servetus.
• Anthony's story is one of the most singular madness in the recorded annals of madness.
• Anthony grew up with Catholic parents and got taught by Jesuits at Pont a Mousson.
• Feri would bring him into the Protestant faith later on.
• He went to Nancy where he was brought to justice as a heretic before fleeing to Sedan where he almost got whacked like a Papist.
• It seemed that he was in danger when around any religion.
• Anthony would go to Venice and become a Jew, truly thinking that Judaism was the only religion.
• He finally became a minister.
• Anthony then confessed that Moses was his true God instead of Calvin, the minister who had to pretend to.
• The minority felt that he should be pitied while the majority decided that he should be torched.
• That was in 1632 and those actions can't be fixed in 100 years.

Simon Morin's History

• Simon Morin's case in burnt Paris is worse than Anthony's.
• Morin believed that God sent and united him with Jesus Christ.
• The Parliament locked him in a madhouse but another madman in the facility claimed that he was God.
• Simon Moron recovered his mind before letting his liberty be known.
• Desmarets grew annoyed of Morin before becoming a cruel prosecutor.
• Desmarets mocked Homer and Virgil before assaulting Port-Royal and announcing that the key to treasure would come from God, from his own hand.
• Just like Morin, Desmarets would have been locked in a room but won over Jesuit Annat: Annat claimed that he was worse than the Jansenists and made to arrest him in the process.
• It has been proclaimed that Simon Morin was torched alive after he repented in his stockings and begged for forgiveness.
• Countries can't witness shocks like those while brothers can beat each other.

Of Witches

• In 1748, an older woman got burned for withcraft in the bishopric of Wurtsburg.
• How could the people's reason be at perfection when they were trampling superstition under their feet?
• They believed in witchcraft at Wurtsburg.
• In 1652 in Geneva, Michelle Chaudron met the devil. She got a kiss with a kiss of the Devil that caused a mark that the demon civillians recognized.
• She sent two girls after the Devil's commandment, so the parents would complain about devils being in them.
• The girls reported prickling sensations of being possessed.
• Doctors called for the seal of the devil.
• They sought her during the pain torture known as the Satanical mark, where she reported that she was feeling it.
• Michele revealed that she was a witch after more torture.
• The mark was then plunged in with a neddle before she passed out because of the pain.
• Europe resounded the same sentiments while they were universally torturing heresy witchcraft with fire.
• The lack of sorcerers could suggest that their faith was wrong.
• A friend to the faith had said that the church has killed those who were innocent.
• Christian panels killed above one hundred thousand women and did massacres of heretics.

The Punishment of Death

• It has long since been thought that the people that get hung are helpful to everyone.
• Public works got the life sentence to benefit society because hanging only serves as a benefit to the executioner.
• Thieves in England almost never get put to death without transport to some colonies.
• Not one person got killed during the rule of Russia's Elizabeth.
• Crime does not stem from the killings due to humanity and people become honest over some time: the same thing happened in English colonies.
• The condemned will face much labor to make a living because good options are scarce leading to marriage and multiplying.
• Labor makes men honest instead of being atrocious without crimes.
• Romans never issued death for someone who is against the safety of the state while we shed blood without impunity.
• Henry VII ruled that judges should not enforce death when the law has no set.
• Some cases escape laws with judges' discretion.
• There are thousands of places where one case gets punished where so many more can't save those condemned to suffer.
• People need to be saved so many more and those who unjustly got the death penalty, it has been argued.
• Heads in France and England were often for torture and needed the position.

Death Warrants

• It's a lesson from the laws of China showing to use human blood frugally?
• The empire exists for years.
• Their meanest citizens weren't killed without first going to the emperor. The emperor looked over the appeals three times, signing a death warrant at the end.
• England always requires the king to sign the death warrant or Germany.
• French and polished governments are this way with judgements dictated by ignorance.
• Supreme member positions are always enlightened before making the decision.
• Appeals take over what was judged in harsh conditions, it has been said.

Of Torture

• All humans are open to acts of crime.
• All want accomplices and offenders.
• There is pity in the human heart that causes men to detest torture: that isn't what the law is for though.
• People on torture suffer those feelings while guilt is still getting confirmed.
• Augustine did not support cruelty.
• Quintilian did not think it was proper for humans to inflict such damage on slaves.
• The nation with enlightenment and abolition as an example made one sufficient for the rest of the globe.
• England does all this and is a torture nation: they still like this and pride on their polite humanity.
• Custom gets held even if it's inhumane.
• The text reserves compassion and is made as a bad example because of this.
• Torture has been said in crimes and punishments so you know who is a friend at heart.

Sanguinary Tribunals

• A ruling chamber has killed Saxons for eating breakfast during Lent.
• That was made law in Franche-Comte too way back.
• Saint Claude is kept as a remembrance of a gentlemen who had to get beheaded because he got caught eating some horse in 1629, making himself guilty as sacrilege at the time.
• The sentence read that seeing papers from doctors, he got caught for that.
• Topinambous and the Hottentots had the same practices as the people who had committed the actions.
• Delegates with their secret findings got spread across the county while accused never seen the findings.
• The position got the axe over and over.
• Exemption from Caesar made people okay with committing a terrible crime with the Venetians as the court of justice.

Political versus Natural Law

• Natural laws come from nature which gives people fairness including ingratitude, violence, theft, conspiracies, and homicide. All are universally looked down upon.
• Political laws form to meet necessity.
• These come only to prevent something.
• Death occurs when a crime or sect is thought to be against a ruler: you denounce their actions instead of allowing freedom for all.
• People get their power by violence with two sovereign's fighting each other.
• History gets riddled with justice from these sorts of things.
• Reprisals are okay with most nations.
• Brave leaders who defend castless suffer.
• You can kill people, but this means someone is wrong for another's bad actions.
• Truth has never been with these laws which is only the necessity that people kill each other when famine comes.

High Treason

• High treason can disrupt the well being of others because of violence inflicted on others.
• It isn't against theft or breaking the law.
• The more people know the more it breaks filial connections like those parents do.
• Laws in common crimes in England seem to favor the accused while high treason cases hurt.
• Even though the lawyer swore that it was true and swore that he hasn't seen someone, that still wasn't enough.
• Some witnesses stated Charles II and the Pope got caught plotting to remove people's hearts.
• You can imagine that 50 people didn't cut out the hearts, but no, something like that happened to man for that long, it has been said.
• Those who did not inform on conspiracy are not guilty.
• It's more important and useful to have lawyers on hand.

Religious Confession

• All those murderers would speak before having crimes committed. People would also be brought in, in that case.
• Jaurigny non ante facinus aggredi sustinuit quam expiatam necis animam apud Dominicanum sacerdotem cœlesti pane firmaverit talks about Jaurigny getting cleansed with wine.
• Ravaillac met with d’Aubigny and told him that had seen apparitions. He stated that the heart means to cause the king to fight the Huguenots, possibly saving the assassination if that happened.
• A Servin needed 4 articles where the Jesuits would be to say their part and Rome did not.
• The four articles were meant to have all the Jesuits do four things and Rome failed.
• They'd never state that an oath should get taken over one person's life or they'd make sure that they find something.
• There was this snare with priests and penitents that gave way for corruption as a result and was abolished for that.

False Money

• In monetary crimes money is a part of it when people fall to temptation.
• When people break laws it creates issues like temptation.
• Crimes of money can get a punishment.

Domestic Theft

• Is domestic breach or theft dangerous because those actions give way for society to become that.
• Neighbors got a bad result of masters of crimes when they would fall for a result.

Suicide

• St. Cyran wrote on suicide in 1608 while thinking about his own life.
• When men say they want to kill each other it does harm the families who dishonor their families when they can't pay.
• The world must follow customs and laws that the men give because customs will not let Christian's bury anyone.

Mutilations

• Adrian, by the physician's that they met said to follow what they will until Jesus states not to do that.
• Asians grew because of Rome with popes that needed to be killed for their holiness who acted the the most ideal.

Confiscation

• Is it okay to steal and put aside a good person because what should be their right if they do.
• If you see God doing all this you might make it your intention.

Criminal Procedures

• More should work on the actions being thought about to find the facts for life.
• Judges have not favored some, although kindness happens in war.
• Things happened and no one said to do in secret.
• Customs got confirmed over time while people had to act wrong to stand up for something.
• In such a part it's just an impression but there is a lie in it.
• Honest men are in danger when they don't know right from wrong.
• If judges or lawyers could be in the right then honesty becomes apparent to be just.
• They find out how truthful men are in Toulouse.
• Something can happen before anyone is present.

IDEA OF REFORMATION

• Everyone's sincere over there since all the lawyers have given bad customs.
• What if areas should be correct or wrong?
• Towns have laws.
• Something is off if you can't tell good from bad.
• If they can give their fortune back to others, it's a bad thing.
• People were thinking of things out of the world when everything was uncertain.
• Commerce and property weren't thought about, hurting others.
• You must follow the rights that you are told.