Read Online Locust by Jeffrey A. Lockwood - Free Book Online Page B

horrors of hunger with loads of classic citations, historical allusions, irrelevant digressions, and literary discourses. The meandering series of accusations was followed by the defense’s allegation or plea for the insects. As the locusts could not speak for themselves, they were given legal counsel, who was no less officious in his rejoinder.

    These phases were followed by the presentation of substantive arguments for and against the locusts. The defense invoked the entomological equivalent of the modern insanity plea to contend that the locusts lacked reason and volition and were thus immune from condemnation. After all, the insects were simply exercising their innate and God-given rights to swarm and feed. The prosecution rebutted this claim by acknowledging that the law cannot punish the irrational or insane for crimes already committed but pointed out that it can intervene to prevent further harm. So, the anathema should not be seen as punishing the locusts but as a means of driving them away before they did more damage. Then, the prosecutor played theological hardball, noting that Jesus cursed the fig tree, an entirely irrational organism—and was it the defense counsel’s intention to question the Son of God’s judgment?
    As things started looking bad for the locusts, their counsel resorted to the ecclesiastical version of the “race card” in the O. J. Simpson trial. He proposed that his clients were actually agents sent by the Almighty to punish the farmers for their sinful ways—and to curse these messengers would be to fight against God himself. But the prosecution was unshakable. With righteous indignation he asserted that the pious and near-saintly villagers were God’s people and the insects were surely diabolical. Indeed, for the besieged people to appeal to the Church for assistance was an act of authentic religiosity and abiding faith, not resistance to God.
    The resolution of the trial was up to the bishop’s proctor, with a sentence pronounced solemnly in Latin by the ecclesiastical judge. In the Kaltern court, the proctor began by expressing his serious reservations that a misfired curse would become a boomerang, “being a weapon of such peculiar energy and activity that, if it fails to strike the object against which it is hurled, it returns to smite him, who hurled it.” Then, perhaps to provide himself with an alibi if the Almighty cross-examined him on Judgment Day, he claimed to be muddled by the complexity of the case, saying, “We cannot tell why God has sent these animals to devour the fruits of the earth; this is for us a sealed book.” The official next pontificated on what sins might have induced such a plague, which seemed to suggest that the judgment
would be in favor of the insects. However, in the end he set aside these arguments and ordered the swarm to vacate the countryside within six days or else suffer anathematization. The proctor’s declaration included one final recommendation aimed at the petitioners.
    The court strongly suggested that the farmers avail themselves of prayers and penances. The former were left to the congregants’ discretion, but the latter were clearly specified. As was customary, the plaintiffs were instructed to manifest their penance in the form of tithes to the Church. It was widely known—although it bore repeating by the proctor—that abstinence from sin and payment of tithes, particularly the latter, enhanced the efficacy of anathema. In fact, the province had the option of shortcutting the legal system entirely and purchasing an anathema directly from the pope. But an end run of the ecclesiastical courts via the Vatican was not cheap. Although Kaltern was an affluent market town, famous for its wines, and lying just ten miles south of the locust infestation, the Botzen villagers were rather less wealthy, and so they settled on simply putting the locusts on trial. The procedural delay was problematical, what with the locusts busily chomping