Witchfinders
Nov. 16th, 2019 12:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kengrI'm watching something that has a witchfinder doing the typical trial by ordeal. In this case, a dunking stool.
they actual got it right in that the witchfinder proclaimed that if they died, they were innocent, but if they survived, they were guilty and would be hung. (far too many shows have the guilty being burned. That wasn't they way it was done in England and the colonies, nor in many other places).
But a thought occurred to me...
"Excuse me, but if an innocent person is put to death, isn't that *murder under the law? And wouldn't that make her accusers guilty of at the very least perjury, if not something worse?"
"Seems to me even if the trial by ordeal is legal, those folks need to be punished for their false accusations..."
they actual got it right in that the witchfinder proclaimed that if they died, they were innocent, but if they survived, they were guilty and would be hung. (far too many shows have the guilty being burned. That wasn't they way it was done in England and the colonies, nor in many other places).
But a thought occurred to me...
"Excuse me, but if an innocent person is put to death, isn't that *murder under the law? And wouldn't that make her accusers guilty of at the very least perjury, if not something worse?"
"Seems to me even if the trial by ordeal is legal, those folks need to be punished for their false accusations..."
