Animal trials and executions were debated even in the Middle Ages so what were the arguments behind their long public acceptance?

Dec 6, 2009 - Ananda Braxton-Smith

Medieval law tried bug swarms and entire classes of animals in serious church courts they failed to attend, before sentencing them to biblical curses that failed to work.

Nov 5, 2009 - Ananda Braxton-Smith

In a desire to order all things according to God's universal laws medieval communities dragged into its courts all manner of things, even corpses pulled from their tombs.

Dec 29, 2009 - Ananda Braxton-Smith

The seemingly now-separate categories of person and animal have never been stable, but medieval people lived in a shifty world of monsters, manifestations and muscaliets.

Jan 3, 2010 - Ananda Braxton-Smith

Medieval Church lawyers used ingenious arguments defending animals in court, and unexpectedly laid the foundations for the animal executions of later secular courts.

Dec 10, 2009 - Ananda Braxton-Smith

From the end of the middle ages to the beginning of the Renaissance, women (and men) were persecuted and executed on suspicion of witchcraft.

Nov 21, 2010 - Fleur Hupston

Medieval witches were more unusual than many may think. But once the witchcrazes took hold, they swept through Europe with a vengeance.

Oct 28, 2006 - Paula Stiles

During the 1600s, there were 18 trials when 31 people were accused of being werewolves in Livonia, now part of Estonia, in Baltic Europe.

Mar 15, 2012 - Jill Stefko

The Scope's Trial was a 1925 court case that argued for and against the teaching of human evolutionary theory in public schools.

Dec 22, 2009 - Trish Popovitch

The dungeon was the most feared area of a medieval castle, from which some prisoners never emerged alive.

Jul 27, 2009 - Rachel Bellerby

Witnessing a sheep dog competition can be an exciting and thrilling experience, even more so if you understand the course and know the rules.

Jan 17, 2012 - Helen McGranahan

The spooky black cat may be the most common example of a witch's familiar. But neo-Pagans say their familiars offer emotional support and physical healing.

Sep 13, 2010 - Joy Richardson

Medieval medicine was a mixture of philosophy, astrology and guesswork. Whether you were killed or cured depended on luck more than skill.

Nov 21, 2010 - Vivien Young

A review of Ian Mortimer's latest book, a lively and fascinating guide to fourteenth century England.

Sep 29, 2008 - Rachel Bellerby

English books designed with children in mind survive from the Middle Ages. Learn about these manuscripts, who was reading them, and why.

Oct 14, 2010 - Linda Olson

Are current animated movies more interested in appealing to adults rather than kids? I take you behind the controversy.

Apr 29, 2008 - Dominic von Riedemann

The horrors of medieval prejudice & fanaticism are alive in Triora, a crows' nest of a village clasped to a rocky peak high above the Italian coastline some 40 km away.

Sep 4, 2009 - Hari Navarro

Historical Court Records Report Countless Accounts of Animals being Tried and Convicted for Being Demonically Controlled

Jun 1, 2010 - Kenneth Dillinger

Despite warnings about reading today's motives into people of the past, it's impossible not to notice that people often, and in large numbers, still behave like them.

Jan 10, 2010 - Ananda Braxton-Smith

In medieval times, witches, real or imagined, were greatly feared and blamed for many of society's problems.

Jun 15, 2009 - Rachel Bellerby