Peine Forte et Dure

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Peine Forte Et Dure is French for strong and hard punishment.  What kind of person would think of punishments?

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, it started in 1406 when other punishments weren't yielding the results that were wanted.  It consists of adding heavy weights on top of a person until they are crushed to death.  Here is a description of the sentence Jane Wiseman received.  She was accused of being Roman Catholic and hiding priests in 1598.  She never admitted to this because if she did the property of the guilty would be transmitted to the crown. Otherwise, if she stayed mute, her property went to her children.  She was silent.

The sentence is that the said Jane Wiseman shall be led to the prison of the Marshalsea of the Queen's Bench, and there naked, except for a linen cloth about the lower part of her body, be laid upon the ground, lying directly on her back: and a hollow shall be made under her head and her head placed in the same; and upon her body in every part let there be placed as much of stones and iron as she can bear and more; and as long as she shall live, she shall have of the worst bread and water of the prison next her; and on the day she eats, she shall not drink, and on the day she drinks she shall not eat, so living until she die. *

This heinous practice was brought to our American colonies and used during the Salem witch trials, 1692. 

 One of the accused, 80-year-old Giles Corey, decided not to stand trial rather than forfeit his family’s goods. He was ordered to undergo peine forte et dure and was pressed to death by interrogators using stone weights. **

 Why am I posting Peine Forte Et Dure?  I am reading The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest by John Gerard, sj, and am absolutely appalled at the excruciating tortures people can create.  Who would think of such things?  What kind of people are they?

* Fortunately, Jane Wiseman was pardoned by King James when it was the custom for a monarch to pardon prisoners upon the celebration of the monarch's coronation.

** Cases such as these later helped to prompt the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

England abolished the peine forte et dure in 1772, when “standing mute” was made equivalent to conviction. By an act of 1827 a plea of “not guilty” was to be entered against any prisoner refusing to plead, a rule that was adopted in many legal systems.

God's Retribution

In talking with one of my "cloistered brothers," the story of his arrest came up.  He believed that his arrest saved his life.  You see, he was a drug addict.  If he had not been arrested, he is sure he would have died from an overdose, committed worse crimes and even killed someone.  He actually believes that his arrest and prison sentence are proof of God's mercy.

His story contrasted with other stories blaming God for their prison woes.  I reflected.

Growing up, my sister and I would quip, "See God is punishing you!" when we fell down, were punished, or hurt ourselves.  We never believed He was.  Even then we knew that an all loving God doesn't do that.

Upon reflection, my "cloistered brother," myself, and others were stopped from hurting ourselves or others, not as God's retribution, but as an act of mercy.  We needed to be stopped.

I pray that everyone will be able to see God's mercy in their lives.