We in the 21st century aren’t exactly unused to stupid, time-wasting lawsuits. But at least our judges have a tendency to slap them down with enough regularity to stop us losing all faith in the system. The same can’t be said for their medieval counterparts. In 1474, a Swiss rooster was discovered to have laid an egg—something roosters typically lack the, uh, equipment to do. Rather than dismiss it as an obvious case of mistaken identity, the townsfolk had the rooster arrested and put on trial for demonic possession.
Yeah: a real trial, in a real court, with real judges. People at the time believed a possessed rooster could give birth to a Basilisk—a monster so evil it got a whole Harry Potter book devoted to it. Faced with this imminent danger, the judges sentenced the rooster to be burnt at the stake—a feat so uniquely stupid they felt compelled to repeat it 300 years later. --
http://listverse.com/Linkback:
https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=71866.0
