Read Ebook: The Old Yellow Book: Source of Robert Browning's The Ring and the Book by Hodell Charles W Charles Wesley Editor

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restitution of what was taken away, with the abovesaid reservation; and that the third Accused be not prosecuted further and be liberated from prison. But the Criminal Court was of opinion that the first Accused should be condemned to the galleys during the pleasure of His Serene Highness, with the said reservation. As to the second Accused, who was imprisoned here in Rome, in a sacred place, it suspended the execution. And for the third, who had done no voluntary evil, it gave up further inquiry.

Again proposed in the said business before His Serene and Blessed Highness with the signature of December 24, 1697.

The opinion of the Court stands approved.

In sign of which,

ROMANA HOMICIDIORUM

Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Governor:

When these pseudo-parents had returned home, they declared that Francesca was not born of themselves, but had been conceived of an unknown father by a vile strumpet. They then entered suit before Judge Tomati for the nullification of the dowry contract.

Day by day the love of Pompilia for her husband kept decreasing, while her affection for a certain priest was on the increase. This affair went so far that on an appointed night, while her husband was oppressed with sleep , she began her flight from her husband's house toward Rome, nor was this flight without theft of money and the company of her lover. Her most wretched husband pursued them, and she was imprisoned not far from the City. Then, when after a short time they were brought to trial, the lover was banished to Civita Vecchia for adultery, and she herself was placed in safe keeping. But owing to her pregnancy she returned to the home of Pietro and Violante, where she gave birth to a child . This increased the shame and indignation of the husband, and the wrath, which had long been stirred, grew strong, because his honour among upright men was lost and he was pointed out with the finger of scorn, especially in his own country, where a good reputation is much cherished by men who are well-born. Therefore his anger so impelled the luckless man to fury, and his indignation so drove him to desperation, that he preferred to die rather than to live ignominiously among honourable men. With gloomy mind, he rushed headlong to the City, accompanied by four companions. On the second night of the current month of January, under the show of giving a letter from the banished lover, he pretended to approach the home of the Comparini. When at the name of Caponsacchi the door was opened, he cut the throats of Violante and Pietro, and stabbed Francesca with so many wounds that she died after a few days.

While this desperation continued, his dull and unforeseeing mind suggested no way to find a place of safety. But accompanied by the same men, he set out for his own country along the public highway by the shortest route. Then, while he was resting upon a pallet in a certain tavern, he was arrested, together with his companions, by the pursuing officers.

Great indeed is this crime, but very greatly to be pitied also, and most worthy of excuse. Even the most severe laws give indulgence and are very mild towards husbands who wipe out the stain of their infamy with the blood of their adulterous wives.

This indeed was sanctioned in the laws of the Athenians and of Solon , and what is more, even in the rude age of Romulus, law 15, where we read:

"A man and his relatives may kill as they wish a wife convicted of adultery."

I hold, to begin with, that there can be no doubt of the adultery of the wife . , her flight together with her lover during a long-continued journey.

, the love letters sent by each party; these cannot be read in the prosecution for flight without nausea.

, the clandestine entry of the lover into her home at a suspicious time.

, the kisses given during the flight according to the following sentiment: "Sight, conversation, touch, afterwards kisses, and then the deed ."

, their sleeping in the same room at the inn.

, the sentence of the judge, who condemned the lover for his criminal knowledge of her, which made this adultery notorious.

Furthermore, we are not here arguing to prove adultery for the purpose of demanding punishment , but to excuse her slayer, and for his defence; in this case, even lighter proofs would be abundant, as Matthaeus advises.

These matters being held as proved, the opinion of certain authorities who assert that a husband is not excusable from the ordinary penalty, who kills his adulterous wife after an interval, does not stand in our way. For the aforesaid laws speak of the wife who had been found in her guilt and has been killed incontinently. Hence such indulgence ought not to be extended to wife-murder committed after an interval, because the reins should not be relaxed for men to sin and to declare the law for themselves.

Furthermore, Farinacci does not affirm this conclusion, but shows that he is very much in doubt, where he says: "The matter is very doubtful with me, because injured honour and just anger--both of which always oppress the heart--are very strong grounds for the mitigation of the penalty." Matthaeus well weighs these words on our very point. And both Farinacci and Rainaldi conclude that the penalty can be moderated at the judgment of the Prince.

I humbly pray that this be noted. The aforesaid laws, which seem to require discovery in the very act of sin, as some have thought, do not decide in that way merely for the purpose of excusing a husband moved to slaughter by a sudden impulse of wrath and by unadvised heat. But they so decide lest on any suspicion of adultery whatsoever, oftentimes entirely without foundation, men should rush upon and kill their wives, who are frequently innocent. Hence the "discovery in the very act of crime," which is required by law, is not to be interpreted, nor to be understood, as discovery in the very act of licence, but is to be referred to the proof of the adultery, lest on trifling suspicion a wife should be given over to death. But when the adultery is not at all doubtful, there is no distinction between one killing immediately and killing after an interval, so far as the matter of escaping extreme punishment is concerned.

For whenever a wife is convicted of adultery, or is a manifest adulteress, she is always said to be "taken in crime."

And in very truth the reasons adduced by those holding the contrary opinion are entirely too weak. For murder committed for honour's sake is always said to be done immediately, whensoever it may be committed. Because injury to the honour always remains fixed before one's eyes, and by goading one with busy and incessant stings it urges and impels him to its reparation.

Such relaxation of the reins to husbands, for taking into their own hands the law, would indeed be too great if the law of divorce were still valid. For in that case husbands would not be permitted to make such reparation of their honour. For another way would be satisfactorily provided for them, namely, in their right to dismiss and repudiate the polluted wife. In this way they could put far from themselves the cause of their disgrace, yes, and the very ignominy itself. But when by the divine favour our Gentile blindness was removed, and matrimony was acknowledged to be perpetual and indissoluble, those were indeed most worthy of pity who, when all other way of recovering their honour was closed to them, washed away their stains in the blood of their adulterous wives. Petrus Erodus , after he has discussed a matter of this kind according to the usual practice of Roman Law, adds in the end: "For as all hope of a second marriage is gone so long as the adulteress still lives, we judge that such very just anger is allayed with more difficulty, unless it be by the flight of time;" and therefore such a case, when not terminated by divorce, is usually terminated by murder. For as Augustine says, "what is not permitted, becomes as if it were permitted; that is, let the adulteress be killed, that the husband may be released."

I acknowledge that it is laudable to restrain the audacity of husbands, lest they declare the law for themselves in their own cause; since they may be mistaken. But it would be more laudable indeed to restrain the lust of wives; for if they would act modestly and would live honourably they would not force their husbands to this kind of crime, which I may almost call necessary. Nor can we deny that by the ignominy brought upon them by the adultery they are exasperated and are driven insane, and a most just sense of anger is excited in their hearts. For this grievance surpasses all others beyond comparison, and hence is worthy of the greater pity, according to the words of the satirist : "This wrath exacts more than any law concedes to wrath."

Papinianus also well acknowledges this , where we read: "Since it is very difficult to restrain just anger." For these reasons, authorities hold that a just grievance should render the penalty more lenient even in premediated crimes; because the sense of "just grievance does not easily quiet down, or lose its strength with the flight of time, but the heart is continually pierced by infamy, and the longer the insult endures, the longer endures the infamy, yea, and it is increased."

Likewise it was so ordained in the Holy Scriptures; for adulterous wives were stoned to death, Gen. 38; Lev. 20, 10; Deut. 23, 22; Ez. 16.

The solace drawn from the public vengeance quieted the anger and destroyed the infamy. Then the husband, who was restored to his original freedom, could take a new and honest wife and raise his sons in honour. But now, in our evil days, there is a deplorable frequency of crime everywhere, as the rigour of the Sacred Law has become obsolete. And since wives who live basely are dealt with very mildly, the husband's condition would indeed be most unfortunate if either he must live perpetually in infamy, or must expiate her destruction, when she is slain, by the death penalty, as Matthaeus well considers.

Therefore, when it is claimed that the husband shall escape entirely unpunished, it is necessary that the wife be killed in the very act of discovered sin. But when the question is as to whether or not a husband may be punished more mildly than usual when driven to wife-murder for honour's sake, it makes no difference whether he kill her immediately or after an interval.

Nor does this opinion lack foundation in the very Civil Law of the Romans, for Martian asserts that a father who had killed his son while out hunting, because he had polluted his stepmother with adultery, was exiled. Nor had the father found him in the very act of crime, but slew him while out hunting, that is with a pretence of friendliness and by dissimulating his injury. Accordingly he was punished, but not with the usual penalty; for he had killed his son, not in his right as a father, but in the manner of a robber. Hence we can infer that not the killing, but the method of killing was punishable, as we may deduce from Bartolo.

Still further, it is well worthy of consideration that one may kill an adversary with impunity, for the sake of his personal safety, but he must do so immediately and in the very act of aggression, and not after an interval. For the life of one slain may not be recovered by the slaying of the murderer. Accordingly, whatever violence may follow upon the first murder becomes vengeance, which is hateful and odious to the law; for the jurisdiction of the judge is insulted by depriving him of the power of publicly avenging murder. But if by the death of the slayer the one slain could be called back to life, I think there is no doubt that any one could kill the said slayer; for then such an act would not be revenge, but due defence, leading toward the recovery of the life that had been lost. But even when we are dealing with an offence and injury which does not affect the person of the one injured, it is likewise permitted that one who has been robbed may, even after an interval, kill the thief for the recovery of the stolen goods, provided every other way to recover them is precluded. Likewise, one offended in his reputation should be permitted at all times to kill the one injuring him; for such an act may be termed, not the avenging of an injury, but the re-establishing of wounded honour, which could be healed in no other way.

Furthermore, as I have said, when one is discussing the subject of self-defence, he is dealing with an instantaneous act; hence the anger conceived therefrom ought to quiet down after a while, according to the warning of St. Paul, Eph. 4: "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath." But when we are dealing with an offence that injures the honour, this is not merely a momentary matter, but is protracted, and indeed with the lapse of time becomes the greater, as the injured one is vilified the more. Therefore, whensoever the murder follows it is always said to have been committed immediately.

Relying upon these and other reasons, most authorities affirm that a husband killing his adulterous wife after an interval, but not found in licentiousness, is to be punished indeed, but more mildly and with a penalty out of the ordinary.

Caball testifies that this has been the practice in many of the world's tribunals. Calvinus gives other cases so decided. And Cyriacus, who speaks in worse circumstances, adduces numerous other cases, and the authorities recently cited offer many more.

This lenient opinion is the more readily to be accepted because, as I claim, the deed about which we are arguing does not also carry with it attendant circumstances demanding such a rigorous penalty.

the taking of helpers to be present at the murders ; because he could lawfully use the help of companions to provide more safely for his own honour by the death of his wife.

the crime is not raised to a higher class because he led with him helpers at a price agreed upon; for what is more, and is far more to be wondered at, a husband can lawfully demand of others the murder of an adulterous wife, even by means of money, as the following indisputably affirm.

Guido saw to her capture, and insisted that she be punished, lest she continue her adultery and viciousness, being powerless to do anything else, because his confusion of mind, his helpless fury, and his sense of shame led him unwisely into not taking the law into his own hands and recovering his lost honour. He indeed lodged complaint, but it was because he could not kill her. Nor would his ignominy have been wiped out nor his infamy have been destroyed by her imprisonment and punishment. But when, indeed, after her imprisonment he was still more shut out from noble company, his injury ever became the more acute, and it stimulated him the more strongly to regain his own reputation. But his bitterness of mind was increased especially at hearing that she had gone back to the home of Pietro and Violante, who had declared that she was not their daughter, but the child of a dishonest woman; hence his injury was increased by her staying in a home which he suspected, as is said a little further on. Accordingly the same cause kept urging him after her departure from the monastery, as had done so before her imprisonment and the appeals made by Count Guido.

It makes very little difference that Francesca was staying in the home of Violante, which had been assigned to her as a safe prison with the consent of Guido's brother. For what would it amount to even if with the consent of Guido himself she had been taken from the monastery . For Guido could make that pretence to gain the opportunity of killing her for the restoration of his honour. Nor would such dissimulation increase the crime, especially to the degree of the ordinary penalty, since it is certain that the husband may kill a wife stained with adultery without incurring such penalty. Yet a heavier or lighter penalty is inflicted, just as more or less treachery accompanies the murder, as Matthaeus testifies it was practised in the Senate of Matrinumsis.

Nor is the attendant circumstance of the place assigned as a prison worthy of consideration, as if the custody of the Prince had been insulted; for one is not said to be in custody when he is merely detained in a place under security that he will not leave it. Furthermore, this objection falls utterly to the ground, because the circumstance of such a place does not increase the crime, whenever it is committed by one having provocation or for the repelling of an injury. And hold thus in the more serious case of a crime committed in prison.

Furthermore we do not believe, from what is said above, that the penalty can be increased because of the murder of Pietro and Violante, since the same injured honour, which impelled Count Guido to kill his wife, forced him to kill the said parents. And now may the ashes of the dead spare me if what I have urged above, and what I am about to say, may seem to disturb their peace! Neither the flame of hatred nor the impulse of anger have suggested these charges; but the demands of the defence, which I have assumed without a penny of compensation, compel me to employ every means leading to the desired end.

I have said, and I think not without due reason, that the Accused sprang forward to the death of both of them, moved simply by an immediate injury to his own reputation. For a few months after the marriage contracted with Francesca, whom they had professed to be their daughter, they had not blushed to declare that she was not such. Hence there is an inevitable dilemma. Either she was in deed and truth their daughter, and then we must acknowledge that in afterward denying her parentage they had inflicted the greatest injury upon the honour and reputation of the Accused; for they had conceived strong hatred and malice against him. Hence they did not hesitate to disgrace their own daughter, in order that they might bring upon him the infamy of having married the daughter of a vile and dishonest woman. This is indeed a fact, that whoever knows Count Guido supposes he has married a girl, not merely of rank unequal to his own, but even of the basest condition, and this greatly injures the reputation of his entire household.

Or else Francesca was indeed conceived of an unknown father and born of a dishonest harlot. And it cannot be denied, that in that case he suffered even greater injury, which branded him with a mark of infamy; both because of her birth and from the fact that daughters are usually not unlike their mothers. Cephalus , where we read: "From such mingling with harlots it is to be supposed that the people become degenerate, ignoble, and burning with lust." And would that experience had not taught us this fact!

The unfortunate man believed he was marrying the daughter of Pietro and Violante, born legitimately, and yet by the contrivance and trickery of this couple he married a girl of basest stock, conceived illegitimately by a dishonourable mother. From this fact alone the quality of those parents can be inferred, who, for the sake of deceiving those lawfully entitled to the trust-moneys, had made most vile pretence of the birth of a child, entirely unmindful that they laid themselves liable to capital punishment.

It will not, therefore, be difficult to believe what Francesca reveals in her letter to her brother-in-law, that the abovesaid couple, in spite of the fact that she was well treated, kept instigating her daily to poison her husband, her brother-in-law, and her mother-in-law, and to burn the home. And though these crimes are very base, they gave her still worse counsel, even by her obligation to obey them; namely, that after their departure from Arezzo, she should allure a lover, and leaving her husband's home in his company, should return to the City. In her obedience to their commands, this daughter seemed indeed all too prompt. Who then will deny that such reckless daring, wherefrom a notorious disgrace was inflicted upon the entire household of the Accused, ought to be attributed to the base persuasion of the said couple? Nor was it difficult to persuade that girl to do what she was prone to by inborn instinct and by the example of her mother.

It is not my duty to divine why that couple so anxiously desired the return of Francesca to their home. But I cannot persuade myself that they were moved by mere charity, namely, that she might escape ill-treatment. For Francesca, in the said letter, acknowledges that she is leading a quiet life, and that her husband and the servants are treating her very well, and that what she had laid before the Bishop had been the falsehood of the said couple.

I know furthermore that if a husband have knowledge of the adultery of his wife and keep her in his home, he cannot escape the mark and penalty of a pimp. If, therefore, as the said couple declare, Francesca was not their daughter, why did they receive her so tenderly into their home after her adultery was plainly manifest? Why did they, as I may say, cherish her in their breasts, not merely up till the birth of her child, but even till death? And I wish I could say that her love affairs with the banished were not continued there! For at his mere name, after the knocking at the door, as soon as they heard that some one was about to give them a letter from the one in banishment, immediately the door was opened and Guido was given an entry for recovering his honour. If, indeed, the said couple had been displeased with the adultery of Francesca, they would, without doubt, have shuddered at the name of the adulterer, and would have cut off every way for mutual correspondence. Therefore it is most clearly evident that the cause of wounded honour in the Accused had continued, and indeed new causes of the same kind had arisen, all of which tended toward blackening his reputation.

Nor does it make any difference that the Accused may have had in mind several causes of hatred toward both Francesca and the Comparini. For if these are well weighed, they all coincide with, and are reduced to, the original cause, namely, that of wounded honour. However that may be, when causes are compatible with one another, the act that follows should always be attributed to the stronger and more urgent and more acute. And on the point that when several causes concur, murder is to be referred and attributed to injured honour, and not to the others:

Therefore I think that any wise man ought to acknowledge that Guido had most just cause for killing the said couple, and that very just anger had been excited against them. This was increased day by day by the perfectly human consideration that he would not have married her unless he had been deceived by that very tricky couple. And to what is said above we may add that either the child born was conceived in adultery, as the Accused could well believe, since he was ignorant of the fact that his wife was pregnant during her flight; and then we cannot deny that new offence was given to his honour, or the old one was renewed, by the said birth; or the child was born of his legitimate father; and who will deny that by the hiding of the child, Guido ought to be angered anew over the loss of his son? And the great indignation conceived from either cause is so deserving of excuse that very many atrocious crimes committed upon the impulse of just anger have gone entirely unpunished. The following text agrees with this, "Nevertheless, because night and just anger ameliorate his deed, he can be sent into exile."

And not infrequently, in the contingency of such a deed, men have escaped entirely unpunished, who, when moved by just anger, have laid hands even upon the innocent. For a certain Smyrnean woman had killed her husband and her son conceived of him, because her husband had slain her own son by her first marriage. When she was accused before Dolabella, as Proconsul, he was unwilling either to liberate one who was stained with two murders, or to condemn her, as she had been moved by just anger. He therefore sent her to the Areopagus, that assembly of very wise judges. There, when the cause had been made known, response was given that she and her accuser should come back after a hundred years. And so the defendant in a double murder, although she had also killed one who was innocent, escaped entirely unpunished.

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