[ Bells Ringing ]
[ Man ] Roger Landrier...
you are declared attainted and convicted of crimes against nature...
in that you did have carnal knowledge of the she-ass here present.
And that over the past 10 years,you have similarly confounded yourself...
with a number of bitches of your own household...
and with two ewes...
the property of your neighbor Deschauffeur.
You are delivered to the Master of High Works...
to be stripped and hanged by the neck...
and strangled until you are dead.
As the law requires, your collaborator, the she - ass...
will suffer the same penalty on the gibbet beside you.
The Lord have mercy on us.
[ Man ] Stop! Stop!
Stop!
[ Man ] Father Lucian of the village of Ezies...
brings a petition from the good people of his parish.
''This document testifies to the previous good character...
''of the beast here present, known as Virginie...
''and attests she could never have willingly participated in...
the unnatural act for which she is condemned.''
It is my direction...
that the person of the she-ass was violated without her consent.
She is released without stain to her character.
Proceed.
In nomine Patris, et Fili, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
[ Creaking, Crunching ]
[ Crow Caws ]
Come on, now! Hup! Hup!
Hyah! Come on there!
In the Year of our Lord 1452...
I, Mathieu, lawyer's clerk, left the fine city of Paris...
to accompany my youthful master, the advocate...
in search of the simple country pleasures.
It was my master's fervent hope that in a modest rural practice...
he might escape the politicking and corruption of the big city.
[ Passes Gas ]
For my part, I was doubtful whether amongst the peasantry...
and the wiles of Ponthieu...
we'd find anything approximating to the Garden of Eden.
But then, I'm not the advocate.
[ Dogs Barking, Hoofbeats ]
[ Dogs Barking Viciously ]
[ Horseman ] Hey!
No-o-o!
Ahh!
I was asleep, was I?
- Did I make a noise? - Monsieur was dreaming, perhaps.
I don't dream, madame. Was I snoring? Yes.
They've stopped to let the hunt go by.
[ Men Shouting ]
Which way?
Maitre?
- [ Maitre ] Whose castle is it? - [ Woman ] The seigneur Jehan dAuferre.
- He's the Lord of Abbeville, monsieur. - Maitre.
Monsieur is an advocate of law, so monsieur is a maitre.
- We'll be working in Abbeville. - [ Woman ] They have a lawyer there.
[ Advocate ] Now they've two.
[ Advocate ] Seven hours. We could have had better company.
The woman was entertaining enough.
She said when the seigneur gets tired of hunting deer and wild pig...
- he uses human quarry. - I didn't hear that.
- You were asleep, Maitre. - You'll have to get used to country gossip, Mathieu.
But you'll find them good people, real people.
- Evening! - Ah, shove off!.
[ Chuckles ]
[ Door Opens, Closes ]
- Sanctuary. - [ Woman ] Maitre Courtois?
From Paris? You're very welcome, Maitre.
We have the best rooms for you, and one next to you for your servant.
- Mathieu's my clerk. - [ Woman ] Hurry up, Isabelle.
- Now, you'll have sausage and stew? - Oh, yes.
No! ''Under green leaves beside a noisy brook...
''the peasant Gontier took his meal on fresh cheese, apple and plum...
''chopped shallots on a crust of good bread...
with course salt, the better to drink.''
No sausage.
[ Men, Women Laughing ]
What's the animal doing here?
The seigneurJehan d'Auferre has lost his quarry.
Look at the way she holds herself.
Country girls, Mathieu.
- You can keep your whores in Saint-Denis. - Oh, thanks.
[ Growling ]
- Good God! That dog smiled at me. - 'Course he did, Maitre.
I never saw a dog smile.
[ Laughing ]
I curse your dingle dangle prick, your nasty wrinkled little wick!
God painted my soul black, madame, when he pushed me up...
-your crack! - [ Courtois ] Tell me about the country lawyer.
[ Mathieu ] His name's Pincheon, and he's been state prosecutor 15 years.
- And he's no country lawyer. - You know him?
If he's the same Pincheon, he's from Paris, Ile de la Cite.
Ever shall they reconcile the cock and cunt that each revile.
- Good God! - The simple country pleasures.
Opposing now and evermore--
- You've seen him work, this Pincheon? - He's good.
Was good, if it's him. He took on the Maitre Delamain.
Chewed him up and spat him out, they say.
See the butcher here below...
his big knife sharpened for the blow.
- Courtroom? - Well, Pincheon could've come up against an easier prosecutor.
Ah, Maitre Courtois from Paris!
Domini.
Albertus of this parish.
You must come and visit me, Maitre.
Anyone who's read a book has been sent by the Almighty. [ Chuckling ]
[ Flute ]
[ Laughing ] He's very good, the priest.
[ Flute Continues ]
[ Flute Stops ]
How extraordinary!
The blackamoors, are they?
- No, they're from Little Egypt. - [ Horse Whinnies ]
Reached Paris already, some of them.
[ Mathieu ] Spreading like rats.
[ Ducks Quacking, Horse Whinnying ]
[ Courtois ] Maitre Pincheon?
Yes.
Ah, Maitre! Richard Courtois. I'm the new advocate.
I'm looking forward to crossing swords with you.
Maitre.
- Good God! - We haven't had a defense advocate since last summer.
Some of these have been waiting for five, six months.
They'll be peasant quarrels, Mathieu:
a meter here or there of a boundary, a grandfather's rights of pasture.
- You'll have to get used to-- - Murder.
- Murder? - A cuckold... smashed the skull of his wife's fancy man.
A rape here. And, ah, witchery!
No. That should be tried by the church.
It's been there, Maitre. They sent it back to the civil court.
Here's a sodomite. Buggered his donkey.
Oh, no. Dispatched, that one.
- Good God, what is this? - Must be the country air.
[ Laughing ]
- [ Woman Screams ] - [ Man ] You slut!
You've been off screwing him again, haven't you?
Who is the bastard?
I'll kill him! I'll cut his balls off!.
Can I help?
- Ah, Maitre Courtois! - Father Albertus.
I, uh-- what a beautiful morning!
Just, uh, walking off a heavy meal.
Are you going to town? Oh, no, no.
Yes. I-- well, I have to. I, uh--
Your future home, Maitre.
The builder's design.
[ Courtois ] Gentlemen, you've heard the Maitre Pincheon accuse my client, Valliere...
this honest and gentle farmer...
of the savage murder of a man he believed to be his wife's lover.
The maitre laments that the law does not permit him...
to call the wife of the accused to give testimony.
Nevertheless, I ask you to observe the evidence she presents to you.
There, gentlemen, is the object of desire.
Now, I don't doubt that the beldame is a dutiful wife.
But I have to ask you, is this a woman for whom the carnal lusts of one man...
and the hot blood of jealousy in another led to a terrible revenge?
Truth, as always, gentlemen, is simple.
The deceased was a drunk... and a thief.
Several witnesses have avowed it.
He came by night to the home of the accused...
was disturbed in the act of theft...
and in the struggle which followed, his drunken skull banged against the hearth...
and he expired.
The accused had nothing to gain...
and everything to lose from the death of a scoundrel.
It is your privilege now, gentlemen, to set him free.
It is in your capable hands.
So avowed on the part of Valliere.
Not as sharp as you thought, the famous Pincheon.
I owe you my life, monseigneur. I won't forget it.
They had a bad case. The maitre did his best with it.
No, they'd have strung me up if you'd not been here...
and all for that bastard!
I should've done him years ago.
Anything you ever want, Maitre, ask for Valliere.
- Mathieu, do you think, uh-- - Yes, Maitre.
That the man really screwed his wife, that little church mouse?
I gather the deceased screwed quite a few wives...
including those of several members of the judiciary.
''Just country gossip.''
- We should see the witch. They could burn her. - They hang them here.
Where is your glory, Babylon?
Where is now Nebuchadnezzar? Where the evil doers of times past?
The death by hanging only this past month of Roger Landrier...
and the miraculous reprieve of his own she-ass by the grace of God.
See how worms devour the fair Absalom.
Her flesh was soft. But alas, her belly...
- gapes with the cruel wounds of death. - [ Man Chanting ]
[ Chanting Continues ]
- What is it? - Oh, the poor little boy. The blood on him!
What happened?
- Must've had a bad fall. He looked terrible. - He looked dead.
Little Jewish boy. Shame, though.
- How do you know he was Jewish? - The mother.
White circle on the breast. They make them wear it.
- How long have we been here, Mathieu? - All of five days, Maitre.
The devil's mark, Maitre.
You see? The third nipple.
- The witch's teat. - I was a wet-nurse, monseigneur.
That was a birth mark before you stuck your damn needles in it.
And you keep her naked, do you, like an animal?
She's pricked twice a day, Maitre.
In cases of witchery, evidence may be obtained by duress...
and the prisoner will be stripped for the ordeal.
Labatier says I've got tits like a milk cow.
Labatier, you're not an officer of the Inquisition. You've no right.
Oh, yes. I'm a licensed pricker.
Loose her... and bring her clothes now.
Yes, I suckled Lucifer.
But since then I've tasted of the blood of Christ from his five wounds.
You don't have to talk to me like that. I want her dressed now!
I'm not with them. Do you understand?
Put down: The body is badly marked...
there are signs of torture in the second and third degree.
Maitre, I flew on beams and kissed the devil's ass...
- and I'll be hanged for it. - No.
Church has made you excommunicate, and passed you over to the civil court.
The court is not concerned with witchery. What you're accused of is maleficium:
that your witchery caused injury to your neighbors.
It's not a civil offense to do magic.
- You understand? - I helped them.
When the women couldn't stop their bleeding...
- or when the children were dying-- - You put a curse on your neighbor...
- Jehan Lours. - He pulled down my fence!
- Caused him to be impotent. - He hadn't had it up for years!
Well, that counts as injury. And you ''procured and suborned rats...
to bite and infectJehan Perrinot so that he died of a fatal miasma.''
It was the falling sickness. Everybody knows that.
Well, that's the charge we have to worry about.
If I can get you clear of the business with the rats, you'll confess to the other counts.
- They're not capital. - I done no harm.
Trust me, it's an arrangement. It's how we do it.
I'm going to tell you what you have to say.
You've another one come in, Maitre: a child killer.
- Murdered a littleJewish boy. - Murder, was it?
The worst, Maitre.
- Let's see him. - Her, Maitre.
I'll take you to her.
- What is this? - Your client, Maitre.
[ Squealing ]
Courtois, are you telling me you're innocent of this whole process...
- the arraignment of beasts? - No, sir.
It's just that in the city, I've never had the occasion to be involved.
Maitre Pincheon, are you with all this?
Do you go along with being the learned prosecutor of a pig?
- Do you have witnesses? - [ Labatier ] Yes.
[ Courtois ] They saw the child killed?
I gather when the body was found, a pig was seen running off.
- A sign of its guilt, do you suppose? - Indeed, Maitre!
You know they keep the animal in the jail with the other prisoners?
It's all according to the book, Maitre:
- same quarters, same food three times a day. - Think on it, Courtois.
The animal has to have counsel, the state pays your fee.
Now, gentlemen--
On the matter of the woman, the one charged with witchery.
If I can satisfy the court on the maleficium, the business with the rats...
- do we have an arrangement? - If you can disprove the rats...
then I think things would go better for her on the other counts.
She would lose her land, of course, and, uh--
What else can I say?
Not a great deal of witchery in the city either, eh, Courtois?
Have you read the text?
The Ponthieu law can be rather confounding.
Oh, I think the city lawyer will adapt, a day at a time, Maitre.
[ Woman ] Maria? Maria!
[ Man ] Excuse us, Maitre.
It's our pig. They took our pig.
I, I thought you couldn't, um--
I thought your religion didn't allow it.
The maitre should not think we eat only children.
We lost our religion many years ago, and 1,000 miles away.
I am Mahmoud. My sister is Samira.
- I can't help you. - But we go to the court--
- I am not in their employ, and I don't defend pigs. - Maitre, this could work if we--
- God preserve us! They can't stay here. - All right, Mathieu.
Our pig does not run free. She is tied up all the time.
- Then they come to take her away. - A black sow, prick ears...
marked on the nether part of the eye and the mouth.
- Three witnesses saw your pig by the church. - They are lying to you!
- [ Whispering In Arabic ] - My sister says if it's money...
- she can get some little money. - I'll bet she can.
Mathieu! You've lost your pig, that's all.
Leave the town, go away, buy another one.
I did not go through all this to become an advocate for pigs.
Do you want to talk about the rats now, Maitre?
[ Albertus ] As long as I live, I'll not believe a woman...
can fly through the air like a blackbird or a hawk.
And when the poor creature lies down in her bed to sleep...
the enemy who never sleeps comes to her side to call up illusions before her.
He does it so subtlety that she thinks she does...
what she only dreams she does.
She might dream she goes for a ride on a broom or a beam...
but there's neither broom nor beam can hold her.
Father Ignatius proved there was not a single case of witchcraft...
in 50 years in Arras based on any real evidence.
They burnt him too, of course.
Would you say all that in court?
Richard, I like it here. It's a very nice living.
Having my balls burnt off in public might take some of the pleasure out of it.
Aah!
It's a great leveler, you see?
Peasants, fine ladies, thieves, gentlefolk.
- Priests? - Yes... medicinal reasons.
I get this rash at least once a week.
I thought nakedness was an abomination unto the Lord.
Only that of thy brother... and sister.
Morning, sister.
God, I think about them all the time.
- Do you ever get over it? - No.
In his wisdom, he's sent them for our temptation.
And by heavens, he knew what he was doing.
- A pig. - They want me to defend a pig.
It's madness. What do I do?
My son, don't ask me. I'm a country priest.
I studied theology at Rheims, liberal arts at Oxford, natural philosophy in Paris...
and look what I do with it!
Domini, is it a mortal sin to screw my sister-in-law?
No, my son. It's what we define as a shameful act.
Father, does the soul consist of bread or wind?
Well, today it's bread: tomorrow it'll be wind.
Is it a heresy to hold a candle to the mouth of a dying man?
Well, who cares! If he's dying, you might as well stick it up his ass.
Do the souls of the wicked penetrate the bodies of young women?
Well, who wouldn't given half a chance?
Is intercourse less of a sin with a wife than a mistress?
Since, my child, in the end everything is forbidden, then everything is allowed.
Well, that's Catharism.
- They could really burn you for that. - Is it?
Or sophistry? All I'm saying is--
- What has this to do with a pig? - All I'm saying is...
that in a world where nothing is reasonable...
in the end, nothing can be truly mad.
[ Boniface ] Let me understand this, Courtois. In order to disprove the count...
that the woman suborned the rats to cause her neighbor's death...
it is your wish that we call those rats as witnesses?
And how would the maitre have us execute a warrant?
Do we send armed sheriffs to arrest them?
No, Maitre. They must testify of their own free will.
Roman law, State of Ponthieu...
1 43 2, in the case of summonses to be served on witnesses of no fixed abode:
''Exhibitiat in arenam publicum sub - poenas. ''
I ask that notices be fixed to barn doors and to every tree...
everywhere the rats are known to congregate, summoning them to appear in court.
- [ Whispering ] It can't work. - It might.
Delay and confuse.
[ Boniface ] Bailiff, put up the notices.
We will reconvene tomorrow.
If the rats do not appear, the count will be taken as proven.
Your witnesses, Maitre.
They have not attended.
- How curious! - [ Laughter ]
And the notices were clearly inscribed in the French language?
Then I think you are lost on that count.
- Shall we move to the next? - [ Courtois ] Uh, no. With respect.
''If a person be cited to appear as witness at a place to which he cannot come with safety...
he may refuse the said summons or writ.''
I draw the court's attention to the unwearied vigilance...
of the mortal enemies of these rats:
that is, every cat and dog who lie in wait for them, with fell intent...
in every corner and passageway.
I submit that the witnesses, in fear of their lives...
have exercised their right to refuse the summons.
[ Laughing ]
There are further measures, which will, I regret, take up more of the court's time.
[ Clears Throat ] Strike that count off the record:
suborning the rats. The rest of her confession stands?
Jeannine Martin...
in the matter of causing maleficium to your neighbors...
you will be ducked and exhibited...
in a hanging cage for a day and a night.
The learned procurators have leave to go...
while I consider the second judgment.
Uh, there are no more counts, monseigneur.
But I have to enact the verdict of the Holy Fathers. I have to do that, don't I?
Not your concern, Maitre. Don't worry.
You've done with the temporal charges. You can't act for the church.
There's no court in France--
You're not in the fine kingdom of France now.
We have the Ponthieu law here: our law.
You should study it further, perhaps.
In your deposition to the Holy Fathers...
you confessed that at the age of 34...
you made a compact with the devil...
and took a spoon ofblood from your body to seal this compact.
Wait. I must ask leave to examine this.
Did she not confess this? Did you?
- Yes. - She confesses she confessed.
But they sentenced her. She's excommunicate.
You will keep your silence, or you will leave this court.
Jeannine Martin...
you'll be taken outside the walls of this town...
where you will be hanged by the neck...
and strangled until you are dead.
- Your body will be burned. - But the maitre told me--
Wait! This is unlawful! Wait! You promised her her life.
Now that would have been unlawful, would it not? Take her away.
[ Cane Pounding ]
I did ask you if you'd read the text.
- That is nowhere in the Roman law. - Custom and practice, Maitre.
Why didn't I know that?
Why didn't you? [ Sighs ]
There is darkness all about you.
You can bring the light.
Look to the boy, Maitre!
Look to the boy!
[ Coughing ]
[ Courtois ] You!
- What are you doing there? - We're baptizing them.
Sending them on their way, all good Christian souls.
- They were going to stop here. Can you believe that? - [ Courtois ] Sheriff!.
There is no statute to prevent these people from making their camp here.
Yes there is-- mine.
No, sir. They are outside the walls of the town. And I'm an advocate at law.
- You cannot prevent them. Now what is this? - Water and lime.
They've come up from the south. They could be carrying the black death.
I do have the right.
Yes. Well, after that you can leave them be to stop here or go on. You understand?
And you and your men will not lay a finger on them.
[ Men Groaning ]
[ Whinnying ]
[ Maria ] What was that, Maitre?
You know you talk in your sleep?
- Was it a nice dream? - What?
No. No, it wasn't, um--
Oh, now. I think it must've been.
It's all right, Maitre. I've got brothers.
Well, I don't know.
Past first light already, and I do believe the cock's all set to crow again.
Waste not, want not.
Ugh!
[ Gasps ]
[ Panting, Moaning ]
[ Gasping ]
- [ Mathieu ] Maitre, are you all right? - Yes!
[ Maria Groaning ]
Ooh!
- [ Crowing ] - Ooh!
Hmm.
''Jehan d'Auferre, Seigneur of Abbeville...
''asks the Maitre Courtois to attend him tomorrow...
before noon, if he will. ''
[ Girl Chortling ]
[ Man ] Hello.
Come andjoin me, Maitre.
I wish you long life, monseigneur, and...
[ Clears Throat ] honored to be a guest in your home.
These are beautifully--
My wife chooses the decorations. I'm a merchant turned farmer...
one of the, what they call, the new lords.
I made my money in Joinville. I bought the land here...
- and the title came with it. - So, how long have you--
So, since I am a humble merchant...
I'll say what I have to say, and then we can talk.
You've, uh...
made a good reputation in the town.
They say you know the common law, and you're clear and just in your dealings.
They're not used to that here.
And Pincheon has done well enough for me in the past.
But, well, he's one of the old school.
He's cold mackerel. Don't you think?
Yes.
Monseigneur, I'm honored by your confidence, believe me.
Only the seigneur will understand that I left Paris for a purpose.
- I wanted to serve the people, not the-- - What, the peasants?
Well yes, them too, b-but mainly--
Four hundred livre a year.
- Excuse me? - That's double what I pay Pincheon.
Four times what you'll make doing your good deeds.
[ Door Closes ]
Well, think about it.
Seigneur, I ask leave to petition you for the Little Egyptians.
They've been subject daily to insults, two of their men were badly beaten.
They'll be left in peace.
Are you defending their pig?
No. There's no reason to.
The reason is order: order and rule.
Trying a pig brings order?
You know, Maitre, there are things that a country lawyer just has to do.
So why don't you say your peace, pick up the money...
and let them hang the beast?
It's only a pig.
[ Bells Ringing ]
[ Creaking ]
How was she?
Oh, she spoke.
Somebody shouted out, ''What about the witch's curse?''
Everybody shushed him up.
And then she just stared out at the crowd...
- and she said, no, she wouldn't put a curse on the town. - I will not curse this town.
- She left it a blessing. - I will leave it with a blessing.
- [ Maria ] She said-- - These are bad times...
and there'll be more before your day of deliverance.
Then I see there will come a fine knight...
in armor that shines like the sun.
And he will carry the weapons of strength and righteousness.
And he'll deliver you from your lying and your evil...
and make this a fit place for all of you.
[ Maria ] The bells stopped for a time.
When the hangman let her down, nobody moved, shouted, nothing.
Don't see many fine knights these days.
Maybe she meant you.
Madness.
- Will you get me some silk? - What?
From Paris. I've never had silk.
Will you?
Madness.
[ Howling ]
[ Squeaking ]
Oh, no!
Shh.
You can't stay here, please.
[ Gasps ]
No.
I want you to go.
- Until you say yes. - [ Mathieu Knocking ] Maitre?
Yes? No! I thought you couldn't speak, um--
- Maitre, I can't find them. - Wh-What?
The Lamartin papers. Maitre?
Leave them 'til the morning.
''Leave them 'til the morning.''
I don't want you to do this.
- I think you do. - [ Sighs ]
You'd sell yourself for a pig?
The pig is everything we have--
All our money, and in winter our food 'til the spring.
- If they kill the pig, we have nothing. - You can work to buy another one.
Half a year.
No.
You make me feel bad, Maitre.
It's my fault, I think.
But still, you make me feel bad.
Now he gets warm.
What is he?
I'll think about the, uh... pig.
Uh--
- My God! Why didn't you? - I--
Don't they say the devil's in black people?
Well, yes... and in cats and rats...
and the owl that sits on the roof, and the black dog that crosses your path.
But that's for the peasants, my son.
- How does a priest get women? - Fear of eternal damnation.
Some priests sell absolution for money...
but when it's one of these sweet, young goodwives come to confession--
You don't!
- You threaten them to get them into bed? - They know it's all a game.
And the threat absolves them from guilt.
- There must be priests in hell. - Can't live for 'em.
I think the time might be better for it, you know:
the pig, getting it done with.
Albertus, is there something I should know?
This is my lady, Catherine d'Auferre.
Gerard, my son, and my daughter Rosaline...
known to the very few who love her as Filette.
I do hope Maitre the Advocate will not capture me...
- and put me in a close prison. - Mademoiselle...
it would be better to fall captive into your hands...
and I think your prison would not be so hard.
[ Chortling ]
Respond to the maitre's pretty speech.
- Do not be too sure, Maitre Comtois... Courtois. - Courtois.
For indeed, I have recently seen one I could wish to make a prisoner.
Would you make a cold cell to keep him?
Not at all. The cell I would put him in is warm indeed...
- and he could wish never to come out again. - [ Mother Whispering ] Filette.
You are too forward, young woman.
For God's sake! The more speed, the better at her age.
- Ask him. - Hmm?
Oh, my son likes to hunt. Wants to know if you'd join him.
Uh, no.
Excuse me. I, I don't.
Seigneur, we wish you long life, and your lady too.
Yes, yes. Sit down, Poiccard.
That's my wife's astrologer.
She's my sister-in-law, you know.
- Uh? - My wife. My sister-in-law.
Dispensation from the pope. Cost me an estate.
Um, her first husband, your brother, died?
Yes... sadly.
Do you have a woman, aside from servant girls and the odd black whore, of course?
- Does our little Filette please you? - [ Chortling ]
- Sorry, I wouldn't presume-- - Presume all you like.
You're an educated man. She's past 20 years old.
She's no title with her, and I'm losing hope... fast.
I know she brays like a she-ass...
but she's that good, sweaty flesh on her.
See the pearls top of the dugs? Always found that most charming in women.
And that particular sly look some of them have in the eyes.
Means they're permanently moist between the hams.
Ah, one of my more youthful seneschals. He's the bursar of my brotherhood.
- Brotherhood? - Yes.
It's a kind of guild. Oh!
And she comes with 500 hectares of land...
in addition to the, um, territory on view.
There's enough there for two pigs. Take it.
We'll have our pig.
Please just take it and go.
Run away?
- You are the first man who said no to me. - I'm sure.
So why are you so generous now, Maitre, for no return?
- I want to help. - No, you want rid of us, and you pay for it.
Do you have plans that our pig will spoil?
I don't know.
I thought you were the man of conviction.
I don't belong here.
I thought it would be simple and peaceful...
but it's full of fear, this place.
Where do your people come from?
Chaldea, Izmir...
Guzrate from the land of the Indus, and the Nile.
My grandfather was from Tatta.
- I was born on the road. - Where?
Just outside Perpignan.
[ Whinnying ]
- The visiting magistrate, the Maitre Boniface. - [ Cane Pounding ]
In the matter of the State vs. The pig, first disputation.
Does the animal have counsel? Good. Pincheon?
Only to say, monseigneur, that the offense is compounded...
in that having murdered the child...
the pig ate a portion of its body... although it was Friday.
- What? - The consumption of flesh...
on this day being contrary...
to Christian ordinance of jejunum sextae.
[ Laughs ]
Uh, first book of the pandects:
No animal that lacks intelligence, reasoning, quod sensu caret...
can be said to have willfully caused injury.
Monseigneur, justice is like nature...
which, the philosophers affirm, can do nothing in vain--
Nihil operantur frustra.
Now I ask you, can anything be more futile than to summons...
a brute beast into this solemn assembly to sit in judgment upon it?
The criminal charge may only be brought against one capable of entering into a covenant.
You cannot summons a six-year-old child, nor a lunatic!
- How can one, then, possibly arraign a dumb animal? - [ Boniface ] Pincheon?
Gentlemen...
murder is murder, whether it be committed...
by a half-witted man or a pig of prodigious learning.
The maitre knows there are precedents for the trial ofbrute beasts:
that some animals are born with evil within them.
Born criminal.
We say an eye for an eye...
a tooth for a tooth, stripe for a stripe.
There is a case to answer.
Dico quod sic.
[ Boniface ] The charge will be prosecuted...
eight days from today.
We're waiting leave to bury the boy, Maitre.
Being a heathen, he has to go outside the walls.
You really think a pig killed a child this big, nine, ten years old?
It has happened, Maitre. Pigs, dogs, bulls.
- It does happen. - [ Footsteps ]
[ Courtois ] You're the apothecary surgeon?
Now look.
The flesh is cut here and here.
Did you ever see wounds like this caused by an animal?
Wouldn't you say, there's... not enough tearing.
I-It's too, um--
It is possible, Maitre. A beast with sharp teeth.
But then the blood was black.
- When? - When I first saw the corpse.
- You saw him after he was killed? - Oh, yes.
He had been dead for many hours.
- So he could have been killed in another place entirely? - That is possible.
Or the death occurred-- I couldn't say for sure, no.
- I want to call you as a witness. - That will not be possible.
Like the unfortunate child here, I was born a Jew.
My testimony cannot be heard in a Christian court.
[ Seigneur ] They tell me you're being diligent on the part of the pig.
Should I not be, Seigneur?
I think you are not yet quite at ease with us. The country gossip is it?
[ Filette ] No!
[ Seigneur ] I know the peasants like to talk of dark deeds in high places.
But it's not always as it seems.
Now, on the matter of the pig.
It seems of no consequence, but the boy's death was unnatural.
And a kind of fear spreads here... easily.
Best if it's done with quickly.
And if the animal's innocent?
I know you've been tumbling the black woman. Everybody knows.
So, for God's sake,just let's pay her off quietly and let it go.
I tried that. She asked me what plans of mine the pig would spoil?
But the matter will be decided before a judge and jurors, not between us.
I have one other...
ancient right.
Jehan d'Auferre...
seigneur of Abbeville and Toquin...
will himself preside in the matter of the State vs. The porker.
[ Pounding ]
Gentlemen.
Monseigneur...
the plaint here before these honorable and learned gentlemen...
is that on the third Friday of April--
[ Continues Remarks]
It fled like a guilty thing.
So,you have a close acquaintance with porkers?
Tell me, how does a pig look when she has the air of a guilty thing?
Well, she ran fast!
How fast, this impressively well-fattened porker?
Did she trot, canter, gallop, monsieur?
She moved quickly.
- For a pig, that is. - [ Chuckling ]
[ Courtois ] And the face is familiar to you...
out of the hundreds of pigs running loose in this province?
There's not many black hogs. I've never seen one marked like her.
- And you saw her within the precincts of the chapel? - No, outside.
Outside? How far outside?
She was wandering around the little square behind the--
So, having broken off from its gallop or trot...
she began to wander, this guilty pig.
Gentlemen, this is insane! I ask for a deposition from the apothecary surgeon--
Denied, Maitre.
You realize that if you lie here under oath...
you will pay the price with your immortal soul.
Perhaps his costs on that have already been met.
- That should be stricken. - Have you been suborned, you and the others?
Strike that from the record.
Big pig, black hog...
and she was marked on the nether part of the eye, and she was running--
- Like a guilty thing. - Like a guilty thing.
They're word perfect, these witnesses. Speak their lines like born actors.
I don't see what this tells us, Courtois. That they've been schooled?
- It is possible. - It doesn't seem much of a point to me. Go on.
[ Courtois ] Marked on the nether part of the eye.
Turn away, will you? Face over there.
Which side? No, don't turn back.
Left or right? Which side?
Left.
Looking at the pig, the patch was on the left?
- Yes. - Thank you.
Just a minute. Turn to face me.
Now, I noticed when you took the oath--
No, better. Face your good neighbors.
Now raise your left hand.
Thank you.
Now then, since Courtois' examination has taken the best part of the day...
we'll reconvene after the Sabbath.
Jesus Maria.
Well, Maitre, rising up like a cathedral.
You said I'd have a roof by today! There isn't a wall to put it on.
It's the timber. It's hard to get the timber.
And with the price of the clay going up daily--
[ Workman ] Hey! Over here.
[ Builder ] Must have been nine or ten.
Have children gone missing here in the last year?
The Levy boy last summer.
AJewish boy? That age?
Reckon a wolf took him. Nothing left of him now.
Maitre, a matter of two hundred sous.
- What? - For the clay. Maitre!
This has nothing to do with the present business.
The Levy boy has been missing for ten months or more.
Exactly. They're both jewish children, both about the same age.
It is just possible they both died by the same hand, and the pig is innocent!
- I ask for an adjournment. - Monseigneur...
the costs to the state in this case are already prodigious.
- I have things to find out. - By questioning a little heap of bones?
- No, I don't think so. - What do we all think this is?
Two children have died here. What kind of game are we playing?
In that courtroom, you're a judge. You're sworn to a solemn duty.
And I'm an advocate at law, and I'm telling you I do have the right.
Seven days.
How long has he been here, the silent one upstairs?
- Not long. - But the seigneur's man, is he keeping an eye on all of us?
- How long? - Maitre, he came only days before we did.
- Five months then, no longer? - Do we take the land claim, Les Ezies?
Any other strangers in town? What about the players? Oh, no.
Directly from the presses, monseigneur.
The torture of Jeannine the Witch and her death agony on the scaffold.
- Leave us. - Many others of fair ladies under duress.
Both Jewish children, both around the same age.
Persecution of theJews of Mainz by the Christian Brothers.
Persecution of the Christians of Mainz by the Jews thereof.
Go away!
''The murder of a young Jewish child...
by one of the dia--''
''diabolical Flemish brotherhoods in the godless city of Den Haag.''
[ Mathieu ] D'Auferre has a brotherhood.
Yes. Why should a lord run a guild?
What do they do there?
It's all riddles, play little boys' games.
Think of the old orders, the most secret ones:
the Cathars and the Templars.
They taught us in school that the king of France...
burnt every last heretic three generations ago.
But what if some madmen keep the faith? Bring them back to life a hundred years on?
It's a Cathar family.
D'Auferre. They were Cathars.
- How did you know that? - It's my job, Maitre. I'm your clerk.
Find out when they meet.
[ Filette ] Which would you prefer, Richard--
A wife who was true and virtuous...
though your neighbors called her a false woman:
or a wife whom you knew to be false...
though she seemed virtuous to all the world?
Sorry. A wife?
[ Seigneur] That's the way, Courtois.
- [ Heavy Breathing, Whispering ] - What?
Not here.
Oh, shit.
You seem well at home now, Maitre.
[ Bell Ringing ]
[ Man ] Wood, wode...
vermilion, madder...
wool combs, teasels.
[ Second Man ] We can't ask more from the town. They've done enough.
[ Seneschal ] Linen: two livres, dozen bolts.
- [ Seigneur ] Too much! Who are they? - The merchants from Saxony.
- [ Seigneur ] Half a livre. How much is our own? - Half.
[ Seigneur ] Half that or they can take it to Paris.
No, I don't like that. I won't have it.
[ Man ] Grease, soap, muslin.
- Do we go with Aquitaine with the taxes? - The corn tithes set the same?
[ Continues Chatting ]
- No, we have an agreement. I won't go back on that. - [ Man ] They can force us.
- They've no control over us. I don't care who they are. - [ Creaking Noise ]
Do we agree to stay as we are?
[ Organ Pipes Resounding Loudly ]
[ Pipes Resounding, Music Playing ]
- - [ Dogs Barking ]
Excuse me, I--
[ Chortling ]
[ Chortling Continues ]
- I think you're lost, Maitre. - Lost?
Are you not?
There's the door.
[ Seigneur ] What did you hear?
Very little. Are you a Cathar?
My grandfather was one of the last. Had his legs burnt off by King Philip.
- What little did you hear? - Um, about prices. The price of linen.
Something about the annual tithe.
- Is that it, the brotherhood? - What did you expect?
Drinking the blood of virgins?
Good God, look at them. They've all one leg in the grave already.
It's how we keep control-- order and rule.
We fix tithes and prices for the whole province.
Stop the foreign merchants underselling. You look terrible.
A little fever.
Mind you, you can have your tongue cut out if you think to tell the tale.
We shouldn't meet now until it's over.
- What have we done? - It's not what we've done. It's what they think we've done.
Look I have to-- I want you!
- I can't think of anything else. - Not now. I said it.
What are you doing to me? You disturb me. I--
All of it! I wanted to make it work here, and it's falling apart.
All of it!
What do you want from me?
Well now, the maitre been dipping his fingers...
in his Little Egyptian casserole, has he?
Sweet, but stinking, is it, the little black crack on her?
Tooth for tooth, Maitre. Stripe for stripe.
[ Albertus ] I see a dark shadow behind you, my son.
It seems to take the form of a great black goat.
Can it be your little master Satan?
- Go about your business, Domini. - This is my business, Sheriff.
Should the priest of this parish not witness to the Holy Fathers what he sees with his own eyes?
You see, it works.
Stay with me tonight.
When you asked me if I lied to you--
Just tonight.
Stay in me.
''Thou art black but comely, my sister, my wife:
thou hast--''
[ Laughing ]
[ Humming ]
So, Domini, an animal has no soul and cannot therefore be excommunicated.
No. It may be anathematized. It's a fine distinction.
I believe clerics are undecided as to whether a woman has a soul.
Rather elderly clerics, I think, Maitre.
The child was Jewish, was he not?
Is the crime of the beast less than if he had been a Christian?
I can't say!
A Jew may be below the Christian in divine order...
but he's certainly above the goat and the ass.
On a level, perhaps, with the dog?
Well, it is only 30 years since a citizen of Paris...
was burnt for sodomy because he cohabited with a Jewess.
It was thought to be on a level...
of copulation with a dog.
Interesting, Domini.
So a man known to have lain with a heathen woman might forfeit his life for it.
But not today, I would hope, monseigneur.
Well... are you finished, Maitre?
Are you telling us, Domini, that in your theology...
it is futile to anathematize or execute...
an insentient beast?
N-No, no.
The beast may contain a devil, and it's the devil we curse and the vessel we destroy.
A devil in the pig? A devil in the cat that steals the fish?
In the locust that destroys the harvest?
Is the locust big enough to contain a devil, Domini? A fly?
Interesting point about the fly.
It was debated for three days at a convocation in Rheims, and no conclusion reached.
You don't really believe everything you've been saying in here, do you?
This is monstrous!
Do you, Domini?
Oh, I believe it, Maitre.
Every word of it.
[ Pincheon ] Gentlemen...
any man's death is terrible, inexplicable.
The death of a child...
even a Hebrew child...
Maitre, more so.
It causes us to question the natural law...
to ponder in our anguish the purposes of God himself.
Where is order... and rule?
And what do we do when faced...
with the unknown and the unknowable?
We give ourselves up to fear!
Every day, every one of us...
awaits in terror...
some new chaos, some new darkness.
It is the curse of our times...
gentlemen.
Not the black death...
but fear... so much the blacker.
And what, aside from our prayers...
can help us to bear this burden?
I would say to you...
the law!
The law is not only punishment and retribution.
The law can purge the deed, put an end to the chapter, close the book!
When we see justice done...
we go back to our daily lives...
knowing at least that the next time the fears come...
they will be subject...
to the same immutable process.
A child is dead.
Killing the pig won't bring it back.
But it will, for the rest of us say:
It is done this time, and properly done.
For now...
the circle is full again.
Complete.
Maitre Courtois?
[ Bells Ringing ]
We wave our replication, ask for the court's mercy.
Then I believe we may proceed to judgment.
- The bells. - What bells?
The festival of the Advent has begun.
Judgment after the first week is out.
Jesus Maria.
Well, you were born to preach Armageddon.
I'd swear you almost believed it.
[ Pincheon ] Oh, I believe it...
or I wouldn't prosecute.
Do you want to know your future, Courtois?
Look at me.
I am what will become of Maitre Courtois...
the country lawyer, in 20 years.
Well... 30 years.
You'll do well here.
You learn fast and... you're good.
But it's pearls to swine,you know.
That's what they are, these poor country folk.
Suspicious, superstitious, selfish...
lubricous, salt of the earth...
scum of the earth.
Go back to the city where you belong.
Don't grow old and tired in a place like this.
- You'll never go back? - Uh-uh. No.
They make a lot of money now in Paris...
but somehow I don't think they love the law.
I think you do.
Once perhaps.
But now--
I can't remember now.
Pincheon...
there were things behind all this neither of us knew.
No...
Maitre.
[ ''Tota Pulchraes'' ]
This is the real inferno ofJehan d'Auferre.
A few hectares of goose-bumped flesh, illustrating...
the absolute corruption of power.
- Disappointing, I know. - Is it true what they say about your hunt?
- My-- - The chase.
They say you use human quarry for the chase.
Oh! I did once, yes. Made quite a scandal.
- To the death? - Good God, no. I'm not a barbarian. No!
There were a few bumps and bruises, but they were well paid for it.
[''De Tous Bien Pleure'']
[ Barking ]
- Did you remember the silk, Maitre? - What? Maria!
Silk from Paris!
Uh, no.
- Oh, well. Maybe soon. - Yes.
[ Seigneur ] Look at them.
The forbidden fruits, they think all this is.
But you and I know, Courtois...
that the only entertainment worth the coin...
is offered by the true object of desire.
Don't worry. She's here willingly. I told you I pay well.
[ Woman Laughing ]
Samira!
Well now, what can we do?
- The boy insulted her. - A hazard of her profession, I'd have thought.
She didn't know who he was. Let her go, please.
What was that, Courtois? I don't think we heard you.
We were talking about the future. There's still time to settle things.
You wouldn't be expected to give up all your little weaknesses, just be circumspect about them.
And of course, you'd understand where your loyalties lie.
Divine animal, a little wild. I can see the temptation.
Let her go... in the morning.
The guard can make use of her 'til then... if they're not too drunk.
[ Speaking Arabic ]
[ Hissing ]
[ Shrieking ]
What did you say in there? The curse?
It's... what you call it? For children?
- Nursery rhyme? - It's the way you say it.
[ Courtois ] Come and drink with me, monsieur.
Here's to the eyes and ears ofJehan d'Auferre.
You can tell him he's won. You've all won.
Tell him the advocate is going back to the big city.
But I think all you good Christians look on...
while the devil walks about and about in your neat little town.
And there's not one of you dares speak.
You've seen everything here, Monseigneur Creeper In The Dark.
Have you seen one man without fear?
You're a melancholy fellow, Mathieu.
It's our last night. Shine yourself up and we'll go to a brothel.
A brothel.
There won't be one in this piss-ass town, but there'll be one in Laviers.
Maitre, this is the brothel.
The Abbeville Inn is the Abbeville whorehouse.
You mean that skinny girl? You pay her for it?
- I never gave Maria a sou. - It's all in the price we pay by the week.
They put it down as the lodging tax.
[ Whinnies ]
You see, Maitre, the mind has a little eye.
It shows us in our dreams what we've looked on when we're awake, but not seen.
There is darkness all about you. You can bring the light.
- Look to the boy, Maitre. - Do not be too sure, Maitre Courtois.
For indeed I have recently seen one I could wish to make a prisoner.
[ Filette Chortling ]
[ Seigneur's Voice ] It seems of no consequence, but the boy's death was unnatural.
And a kind of fear spreads here... easily.
Best if it's done with quickly.
[ Courtois' Voice ] And if the animal's innocent?
It may be the pig contains a devil. Opinions differ.
I remember once in Joinville--
Why did I see that face?
[ Boy ] Here! Here! Help me!
Here! Hey! Hey!
Here!
- [ Whinnies ] - Hey, hey, hey!
Good night.
[ Whistling ]
[ Boy ] Help!
Help! No! Help me!
[ Groaning ]
- Hey! - No! No!
[ Grunting ]
Hey!
- Who was it? Did you see his face? - No.
[ Loudly ] Did anybody see?
[ Windows, Doors Closing ]
[ Whinnies ]
Who are you?
I am all eyes and all ears, but not forJehan d'Auferre.
Who then?
You said it yourself, my friend.
I am the one who has no need for fear.
Ah.
He tried to take another boy.
NotJewish this time. None left.
- They told me it would be stopped! - Did they?
Well, it won't stop, not while a priest perjures his immortal soul...
to protect a monster...
to keep his comfortable living and all his little amusements.
You're funny, Domini...
with your ''new knowledge we wise men keep to ourselves,''
and your special kind of shriving from the ladies.
It was only a game, I told you.
With every one of them?
Or were there two or three who were afraid you just might mean it?
- Look to the boy. - What?
You said the witch said, ''look to the boy.'' So, did you?
Yes. I found a little heap of bones and another good citizen too scared to--
Wrong--
Wrong boy.
Your son killed that child, monseigneur.
You'll deny it, and I'll prove it if it takes 20 years of my life.
I won't deny it. I don't know it, but it is possible.
He has the devil in him, certainly.
And he did injure a child once in one of his private little games.
I had a priest in Joinville exorcise him. We spend our summers there.
It worked for a time, then we found him nailing dogs to trees.
Three of them crucified, the middle one above the others naturally.
They'd have burned him if they'd seen it.
And the other child, the one who died before?
Yes, that one as well perhaps.
He's my bane, Courtois, always has been.
- But this kind of thing-- - We can't allow to get out.
One law for the rich--
Yes! Always.
Seigneur, I will have your son arrested on my account and with my authority.
And I will have a new trial under a new judge.
And whether or not it brings down Armageddon on our heads...
I'll have the boy in that courtroom, and I can get to the truth.
You may not think it, but I'm lawyer enough for that.
I don't doubt it, but I'm afraid it won't be possible.
You see, my son left France this morning for England, in fact.
They have Mussulman surgeons there, and he may be helped.
I think without an accused in human form,your story will lose something in the telling.
Let it be, Courtois.
I give judgment tomorrow, and we'll let the Egyptians go in peace when it's done.
It's only a pig.
No, no. Not that pig. Not now.
We can stop the coach from Angers, Maitre.
Find me the villain with the wife, Valliere, the one who killed the man.
Find him, bring him here.
You have had your time, Maitre.
We must go tojudgment.
- I ask the court's indulgence a little longer. - No, that's it.
[ Squealing ]
[ Courtois ] You'll note, monseigneur, that the two pigs are identical.
The one could easily be mistaken for the other.
They're black hogs, patch under the eye.
This man will swear that his pig has already eaten two of its own litters...
killed a newborn calf in front if its mother, and attacked a baby in the cot.
Is this not, monseigneur, a malicious and criminal beast?
And it was untethered and went missing on the day the child died.
And when it returned, it had blood on its mouth.
This good citizen will testify to all of this.
And is this good citizen aware of the penalties for bearing false witness?
As we all are, monseigneur, in this court...
even up to my lord the judge.
Pincheon?
I'm not happy to say this, but the law demands a retrial.
All this again?
All of it, monseigneur, with the pig kept in prison...
at the state's expense until a new advocate arrives as his counsel.
- I won't be here. - No, no, this is impossible.
We've only the fellow's word for it.
It's not as if the pig had confessed!
Would you like me to put it to him?
As advocate for the first porker...
should I not try to get this one to take the blame?
You, pig, if you have a devil in you, if you and your devil avow...
- that you are guilty of this unnatural murder-- - Seigneur?
Courtois, this is a matter of some gravity.
If you confess to this you will give voice in this courtroom, twice to be sure.
If you are not guilty, you may keep your silence.
[ Courtois ] If you do speak, speak clearly so the whole court may hear you.
[ Squeals Twice ]
[ Laughter ]
[ Whispering ]
In the case of a full and open confession, it is my judgment...
that the first accused pig is not culpable of the charge against it.
This animal leaves the court with no stain on her character.
As to the second pig:
[ Clears Throat ]
''In detestation and horror at its unnatural crime...
''this porker will be detained until such time as our sentence can be carried out:
''the which is that it be hanged and strangled upon a gibbet...
in a public place until it be dead. ''
We'll go somewhere else. I'll keep you in the country.
And one day you come home, and your house is burned down...
and your black witch wife inside it.
Pig flesh, roasted.
I think I'm a little bit animal to you:
not brute beast like they think...
but yes...
some strange fine creature you'd like at your fireplace and in your bed.
Go away from here.
Do your job. Make money.
Marry the fine lady.
Have pretty children, all shining and white.
I love you.
I could love you.
But I couldn't sing your songs, only my own--
Lost songs from a long time ago...
but they are mine.
A part of you stays here.
A part of me goes with you.
Who was that man who sat here?
Calls himself Fournier.
He comes here every second year...
and the Holy Fathers arrive soon after him.
He's a spy for the Inquisition.
He doesn't know we know.
We'll get to Paris by nightfall?
You will, Maitre.
I'm staying in Abbeville.
Maitre Pincheon has given me a position.
[ Bell Ringing, Dogs Barking ]
[ Courtois' Voice ] Now if you recall the prophesy of Jeannine the Witch...
she said these were bad times, and there'd be more.
Then there'd come a fine knight in armor that shone like the sun.
And he'd carry the weapons of strength and righteousness.
And deliver us from our evil and our lies...
and make this a fit place for all of us.
[ Screams ]
Shall we reach Paris before dark?
Yes.
I'm taking my goddaughter to live there in Saint-Denis.
We'll be neighbors then.
I'm a lawyer.
I had a position in Abbeville for some time, but...
really the city's the only place to...
[ Courtois ] uh, make a living.