Justiz und Gerechtigkeit. Historische Beiträge (16.-19. Jahrhundert)

Andrea Griesebner / Martin Scheutz / Herwig Weigl (Hrsg.)

Wiener Schriften zur Geschichte der Neuzeit 1
In Kooperation mit dem Institut für die Erforschung der Frühen Neuzeit, Wien


Studienverlag
Innsbruck 2002
ISBN: 3-7065-1642-X

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Wolfgang Schmale / Karl Vocelka
Vorwort zum ersten Band der "Wiener Schriften zur Geschichte der Neuzeit" (S. 9-10)

Andrea Griesebner / Martin Scheutz / Herwig Weigl
Justiz und Gerechtigkeit. Bemerkungen zu einem Spannungsverhältnis (S. 11-16)

Wiener Vorlesungen: Justiz und Gerechtigkeit. Aktuelle Debatten in historischer Perspektive. Dokumentation der Podiumsdiskussion

Hubert Christian Ehalt
"Richtiges Handeln", "Gerechtigkeitsvorstellungen" und "Jurisprudenz" - Entwicklungen, Antinomien, Perspektiven (S. 19-21)

Andrea Griesebner
Justiz und Gerechtigkeit - Anmerkungen zu religiösen und säkularen Gerechtigkeitsmaximen (S. 23-31)

Gerd Schwerhoff
Strafjustiz und Gerechtigkeit in historischer Perspektive - das Beispiel der Hexenprozesse (S. 33-40)

Constanze Kren
Justiz und Gerechtigkeit - Betrachtungen aus der Praxis (S. 41-44)

Frank Höpfel
Gerechtigkeit - Billigkeit - Fairness (S. 45-47)

Beiträge

Klaus Graf
Justiz und Erinnerung in der Frühen Neuzeit (S. 51-60)

Gerd Sälter
Gerechtigkeit und soziale Ordnung. Konflikte um individuelle Interessen und die rechte Ordnung der Dinge in Paris im frühen 18. Jahrhundert (S. 61-74)

Monika Mommertz
Relationalität oder Normativität? "Modi der Rechtlichkeit" am Beispiel der ländlichen Mark Brandenburg in der Frühen Neuzeit (S. 75-93)

Alexander Schunka
Die Visualisierung von Gerechtigkeiten in Zeugenaussagen des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts (S. 95-114)

Martin Scheutz / Harald Tersch
Der Salzburger Pfleger Kaspar Vogl und die Suche nach Gerechtigkeit. Ein Gefängnistagebuch aus dem beginnenden 17. Jahrhundert als Streit um Interpretationen: Supplikation oder Rebellion (S. 115-140)

Brita Pohl
Wilde, unbändige leute. Zur Konstruktion von Rädelsführerschaft im 17. Jahrhundert (S. 141-148)

Ralf-Peter Fuchs
Recht und Unrecht im Verfahren Lackum - Ein Kriminalfall mit Widerhall (S. 149-168)

Arthur Stögmann
Hoffet ihr noch auf Gott, ihr narrischen leutt? Blasphemie und klerikale Autorität in Niederösterreich (1647/48) (S. 169-198)

Martin P. Schennach
Lokale Obrigkeiten und Soldaten. Militärgerichtsbarkeit in Tirol in der ersten Hälfte des 17. Jahrhunderts (S. 199-217)

Peter Klammer
In unehrn beschlaffen. Unzucht im Rahmen der archidiakonalen Gerichtsbarkeit im frühneuzeitlichen Salzburger Lungau (S. 219-239)

Susanne Hehenberger
Habe in der Teuffl verführt, und gemeint lindrung zu haben. Anmerkungen zu einem Sodomieprozess (Pöggstall 1698/99) (S. 241-254)

Cornelia Schörkhuber-Drysdale
... ich bitt dich umb Gottes willen, mein herr und frau bringen schirr umb einander ... Ehestreitigkeiten und Ehetrennung in der bäuerlichen Gesellschaft Oberösterreichs zu Beginn des 18. Jahrhunderts (S. 255-268)

Thomas Just
Das patrimoniale Gericht des Wiener Bürgerspitals in der ersten Hälfte des 17. Jahrhunderts (S. 269-284)

Manfred Zollinger
"Konkurrierende" Gerechtigkeitsvorstellungen. Der portugiesische Botschafter und das Spiel um die Öffentlichkeit. Ein Mordfall in Wien (1696) (S. 285-310)

Pavel Himl
Erfundene Hölle? Machtrepression und Konstruktion von "Übernatürlichem" in der Frühen Neuzeit. Überlegungen anhand böhmischer Fallbeispiele (S. 311-329)

Jürgen Martschukat
Dü sterheit und Barbarey? Erörterungen zum Verhältnis von Gewalt und Justiz im ausgehenden 18. Jahrhundert anhand des Falles der Hamburger Gattenmörderin Maria Catharina Wächtler (S. 331-348)

Gerhard Ammerer / Alfred Stefan Weiss
Damit sie im Arrest nicht schimmlicht werden Zucht- und Arbeitshäuser, Freiheitsstrafe und Gefängnisdiskurs in Österreich um 1800 (S. 349-371)

Margareth Lanzinger
So fordert es auch die billigkeit. Gerechtigkeitsvorstellungen in der Gemeindepolitik des späten 18. und frühen 19. Jahrhunderts (S. 373-388)

Edith Kohl
Zwischen Recht und Gerechtigkeit. Gerichtspraxis in einer oststeirischen Bezirksobrigkeit 1822-1848: Das Beispiel Stadl bei St. Ruprecht/Raab (S. 389-406)

Monika Wienfort
Ledige Mütter und unversorgte Kinder. Zur Entstehung bürgerlichen Rechtsbewußtseins im 19. Jahrhundert (S. 407-429)

Peter Wettmann-Jungblut
Unkorrigierbare Kinder und die "Pflicht der Gerechtigkeit": Jugenddelinquenz und strafrechtliche Intervention im preußischen Saargebiet, 1825-1850 (S. 431-447)

Maria Heidegger
Wir mü ssen es sagen, mit Freude vernahmen wir dieses gelinde Urteil. Inszenierung und Wahrnehmung von Justiz und "Gerechtigkeit" in Presseberichten über das Schwurgericht in Tirol 1850/51 (S. 449-467)

Justice and Justice Systems. English abstracts (S. 469-484)

Kurzbiographien der Beitragenden (S. 485-490)

Auszüge aus dem Vorwort

Andrea Griesebner/Martin Scheutz/Herwig Weigl
Justiz und Gerechtigkeit - Bemerkungen zu einem Spannungsverhältnis

Der Tagungstitel: "Justiz und Gerechtigkeit" sollte einerseits bisher kaum bearbeitete Fragen nach dem Verhältnis anstoßen, in welchem Justiz und Gerechtigkeit sowohl in der Vergangenheit wie auch in der Gegenwart stehen. Zugleich sollte über die historische Forschung hinaus die Brücke zu anderen Disziplinen, wie etwa den Rechtswissenschaften, der Ethnologie oder auch der Soziologie geschlagen werden. Der Tagungstitel sollte gleichzeitig präsent halten, daß es die Justiz, die institutionalisierte Rechtspflege ist, der wir das Entstehen der Quellen, ihre Erscheinungsform und ihre Überlieferung verdanken. Das Wort "Justiz" impliziert zudem den Anspruch, Gerechtigkeit zu garantieren, was eine der grundlegenden Legitimationen von Herrschaft darstellt, nämlich daß Menschen sich der Hoffnung hingaben und -geben, vor einem als legitim akzeptierten Gericht Gerechtigkeit zu finden.
Erfreulicherweise wurde der Veranstaltungstitel zu einer größeren Provokation, als wir erhofft hatten. Er trug uns nicht nur Beiträge aus Österreich, Tschechien und der Bundesrepublik Deutschland ein, sondern auch eine rege Diskussion beider Begriffe, ihres theoretischen und konzeptuellen Gehaltes und ihrer analytischen Tragfähigkeit. Von verschiedener Seite wurde etwa die Unübersetzbarkeit des Tagungstitels ins Englische, man könnte wohl modifizieren: ins Lateinische betont, dessen iustitia in den Nachfolgesprachen eine bessere Karriere beschieden war als der ebenfalls römisch-rechtlichen aequitas. Allein die Betonung des von uns nicht notwendigerweise komplementär verstandenen Veranstaltungstitels - manche betonten "Justiz", manche "Gerechtigkeit" und wieder andere hoben das "und" hervor - ließ erahnen, wie unterschiedlich das Spannungsverhältnis beider Begriffe gesehen wird. Auch die vielen, um die Achse der Gerechtigkeit gedrehten Sprichwörter deuten das Herrschafts- wie Kritikpotential an, das dem Begriff der Gerechtigkeit innewohnt: Wo keine Gerechtigkeit, da ist auch kein Friede!; Kommt Gerechtigkeit vor das Tor, so findet sie Schloß und Riegel vor!
Wie bereits der kursorische Blick in diverse Lexikas zeigt, kann im deutschen Sprachraum der Begriff der "Justiz" in all seinen Facetten - normative Texte, Rechtssprechung, Rezeption von Recht - als eingeführter Begriff betrachtet werden, dessen semantisches Umfeld seit dem 18. Jahrhundert auf der institutionellen Ebene anzusiedeln ist. Der Begriff der Gerechtigkeit verweist dagegen auf recht verschiedene Bedeutungsfelder. Während die alte Ausgabe des Grimm'schen Wörterbuchs Justiz lapidar mit Gerechtigkeitspflege und Rechtsbehörde abfertigt, sammelt es für die Gerechtigkeit Belegstellen in neun Spalten; das Deutsche Rechtswörterbuch gliedert die Bedeutungen von Gerechtigkeit in acht Hauptgruppen auf und schließt eine Fülle von Verweisen auf Composita an. Unter den modernen, begriffsdefinierenden Nachschlagewerken kennt das renommierte Handwörterbuch zur deutschen Rechtsgeschichte hingegen kein Lemma Gerechtigkeit, sondern führt lediglich Gerechtigkeitsbilder an, worin der verbildlichten, deifizierten aequitas , der Gerechtigkeit zum Sieg verholfen wird. Eine Aufnahme des Begriffes Gerechtigkeit in das Handwörterbuch scheiterte an der vorsorglichen Beiordnung dieses strittigen, zwischen den verschiedenen Fachdisziplinen angesiedelten Begriffes zur Rechtsphilosophie. Theologische Enzyklopädien, die die Gerechtigkeit vor allem Gott zuordnen, weisen dem Begriff, anders als die meisten der historischen Fachlexika, breiten Raum ein. Gerechtigkeit ist nach dem Befund der Lexika bei Rechtshistorikern - anders als bei den Rechtsphilosophen - eine scheel angesehene Kategorie und wird bestenfalls als "eye-catcher" in Buchtiteln angeführt, aber wenig behandelt.
Aus der Sicht "ketzerischer" HistorikerInnen erscheint die gängige Zuordnung der "Gerechtigkeit" zur Rechtsphilosophie und damit die Eskamotierung dieses Begriffes aus der Rechtsgeschichte weder zwingend noch sinnvoll, wie auch die frühneuzeitliche Illustrationspraxis von "Gerechtigkeit" deutlich belegt. In vielen Städten der Frühen Neuzeit wurden "Justitia"-Darstellungen zur Legitimierung der Stadtgerichte verwendet; als strafende und schützende, aber auch als kritisierte Institution waren sie ins Stadtbild integriert. Die bildliche oder figürliche Ausgestaltung der Justitia, nach dem Vorbild der antiken weiblichen aequitas geformt, verwendet meist die Attribute von Schwert und Waage. Aber schon im "Narrenschiff" des Juristen Sebastian Brant gerät die Justitia zur Spottfigur. Gerechtigkeit als Teil der Erinnerungskultur und des "boshaften Gedächtnisses" läßt sich hier fassen. Die Gerechtigkeit sitzt ausgestattet mit Krone, Schwert und Waage auf einem Sessel, während ihr von einem Narren die Augen verbunden werden. Ohne eigene Sicht der Dinge vermag die Justitia das Schwert der Gerechtigkeit nicht mehr zu führen und die ausgewogene Verteilung der "Gerechtigkeits"-Waage nicht mehr zu erkennen. Die mit diesem Bild karikierte Justiz und die rechtsprechenden beziehungsweise -vorschlagenden Juristen sind der rechten, das heißt der gerechten Sicht der Dinge verlustig gegangen.
Wie wichtig für das Nachdenken über Gerechtigkeit die Einbeziehung der religiösen Dimenson von Gesellschaft ist, wird in vielen Beiträge sichtbar. Noch das aus dem 18. Jahrhundert stammende Zedlersche Lexikon unterscheidet bei seiner Begriffsbestimmung von Gerechtigkeit prinzipiell zwischen der menschlichen und der göttlichen Gerechtigkeit, wobei Gott die höchste Gerechtigkeit besitzt und weltliche Gerichte sich bestenfalls in Stellvertreterfunktion üben dürfen. In den 1520er Jahren wurde das Spannungsverhältnis zwischen menschlicher und göttlicher Gerechtigkeit vornehmlich über die "Konjunktion" des Evangeliums gelöst, das die Bauern nach einer bekannten Formulierung der Zwölf Artikel zu leer vnd leben begerendt . Die sich am Evangelium orientierende Gerechtigkeit Gottes war eines der zentralen Themen der Reformation und der Revolution des "gemeinen Mannes". Um ein Beispiel zu nennen: Nach Ansicht der Allgäuer "Christlichen Vereinigung" hatte Erzherzog Ferdinand als Statthalter dafür zu sorgen, daß das göttliche, sich auf das Evangelium stützende Recht als das einzige wahre und billige Recht zum Durchbruch kam. Die Bauern argumentierten in ihren Beschwerdeschriften häufig mit der Verteidigung von Recht und Gerechtigkeit, sie versuchten ihren Vorstellungen von "Billigkeit und Recht" zum Durchbruch zu verhelfen. Das Gottesreich sollte durch eine Christianisierung in politicis, deren evidenter Ausfluß die Gerechtigkeit ist, verwirklicht werden - was Gott in seiner Gerechtigkeit den Ungerechten nicht zugestehen würde. Der Begriff der Gerechtigkeit gewinnt vor dem Hintergrund des Naturrechtes und des daraus hergeleiteten Widerstandsrechts besondere Relevanz. Das Widerstandsrecht der Untertanen gegen die "Tyrannis" der Obrigkeit wurde zu einem im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert häufig diskutierten Thema. Die Monarchomachen beanspruchten das Widerstandsrecht gegen einen ungerechten, sich wider Gott stellenden Landesfürsten. "Wenn die Fürsten uns zum Unrechttun verleiten wollen, wenn sie die reine Lehre Gottes umzustürzen trachten, so ist ihre ganze Autorität dahin, denn sie empören sich gegen den, dem allein souveräne Herrschaft gebührt."
In der Mangelgesellschaft der Frühen Neuzeit meint die nicht nur auf Rechtssysteme zu beziehende Gerechtigkeit auch den "zeitlich und räumlich nachvollziehbaren Ausgleich von sozial und materiell verankerten Lebenschancen". Weil materielle Güter nicht beliebig vermehrbar waren, konnten materielle Interessensgegensätze in der frühneuzeitlichen Gesellschaft innerhalb der dörflichen Grenzen bestenfalls unter Einbeziehung anderer Ebenen sozialen Lebens gemindert werden. Um diesen Ausgleich zu erreichen, bedurften alle Handlungsketten der "Öffentlichkeit". Mit welchem Bedeutungsgehalt die Einzelnen die Gerechtigkeit aufluden, läßt sich deshalb nur vor dem Hintergrund überschaubarer Erfahrungs- und Konflikthorizionte rekonstruieren, erst in einer kleinräumigen Perspektive kann der Ausgleich nachvollzogen werden. Die BewohnerInnen wachten mittels der Dorfausschüsse genau über eine ausgewogene und gerechte Verteilung der sozialen und materiellen Ressourcen, etwa bei der Bewirtschaftung der Felder, Verteilung der Weiden, Nutzung des Waldes oder der Bestrafung von DelinquentInnen. Das Dorf erscheint vor diesem Hintergrund als eine "Gerechtigkeitstotalität" (Rudolf Schlögl), "in der alle Ebenen sozialen Zusammenlebens notwendigerweise aufeinander bezogen" werden müssen. Erst über Öffentlichkeit wird Gerechtigkeit im Sinne der "moral economy" von E. P. Thompson transparent beziehungsweise wird das Mißverhältnis der Verteilungen sichtbar. In seinem "Monstervortrag über Gerechtigkeit und Recht" machte der scharfsinnige Schweizer Dramatiker Friedrich Dürrenmatt auf die gesellschaftliche Relevanz von Gerechtigkeit aufmerksam: "Die Gerechtigkeit ist eine Idee, die eine Gesellschaft von Menschen voraussetzt. Ein Mann allein auf einer Insel kann seine Ziegen gerecht behandeln, das ist alles."
Das mit dem Begriff Gerechtigkeit verbundene Ideal einer gleichen Verteilung von Lebenschancen und Ressourcen hat in der seit den 80er Jahren geführten Egalitarismus-Debatte ("Equality of what?") zu weitreichenden Diskussionen zwischen PhilosophInnen, PolitikwissenschaftlerInnen, SoziologInnen und RechtsphilosophInnen geführt. In der vorwiegend von ZeithistorikerInnen geführten Debatte um "Geschichtsschreibung als Legitimitationswissenschaft" wird der Begriff der Gerechtigkeit mit der Tätigkeit von HistorikerInnen während der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus in Zusammenhang gebracht und auf die Analogie von Historiker und Richter verwiesen. In der aktuellen Diskussion um die historische Erforschung von Kriminalität, aber auch um Legitimität von Herrschaftsformen spielte der Begriff Gerechtigkeit dagegen eine wenig beachtete Rolle. Die Vernachlässigung von Gerechtigkeit im historischen Kontext überrascht, wenn man, wie kurz angedeutet, die Relevanz und die politische Dynamik dieses Begriffs beispielsweise im Vorfeld des "Bauernkrieges" von 1525 bedenkt. Generell ließe sich an verschiedenen europäischen Beispielen zeigen, daß das Rekurrieren auf Recht und das Bestehen auf der "Gerechtigkeit" des Rechtes oder des Herrschers eine der zentralen Forderungen der frühneuzeitlicher Untertanen im Unruhefall darstellte. Gerechtigkeit kann als ein Leitbegriff der "alten", mit dem Selbstbild der Justiz und des Sanktionierten verbundenen Rechtsgeschichte angesehen werden, der in dieser Tagung wenn schon nicht wiederbelebt, so doch immer wieder zur Diskussion gestellt wurde. Wie wichtig eine kontextuelle Analyse dessen ist, was jeweils mit Gerechtigkeit konkret gemeint ist, belegen der Band und der Verlauf der Tagung. Dem entspricht, daß der überwiegende Teil der Beiträge Fallbeispiele sind. Trotz des hohen theoretischen wie methodologischen Reflexionsniveaus wurde in den Diskussionen nicht unberechtigt eingemahnt, daß es in einem nächsten Schritt darum gehen müsse, verallgemeinerbare Aussagen zu formulieren. Ob und in welchen Punkten die großen Erzählungen über Recht und Gerechtigkeit umgeschrieben werden müssen, wäre ein lohnendes Thema für weitere Tagungen und weitere Sammelbände.

Justice and Justice Systems: English abstracts

Gerhard Ammerer / Alfred Stefan Weiß
...so that they do not grow mouldy in prison... Penitentiaries and workhouses, sentencing and the prison discourse in Austria around 1800

The authors are planning a publication on the penitentiaries and workhouses within the territory of modern-day Austria. These were located in Graz, Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, Linz, Salzburg and Vienna. After briefly discussing the founding and development of these institutions, the authors will, as in the accompanying article, focus on two aspects in particular: 1. everyday life in these institutions, and 2. the discourse carried on during the last decades of the 18th century and the first decades of the 19th century regarding space allocation, meals, hygiene, medical care, the corrigibility of the inmates, and the best way of re-integrating them into society. Besides pointing out the deplorable material conditions in these institutions, enlightened criticism called attention to the general impossibility of reforming the prisoners in the way the authorities were going about it, a fact that prison administrators obviously failed to realize. The theory of differential contacts developed by Edwin H. Sutherland, according to which the propensity to criminal behavior correlates to the frequency and intensity of contact with criminals, was already anticipated by critical observers around 1775. The high rate of recidivism supported this position. Aside from revisiting the discussions of how things might be changed as well as the measures that were actually implemented, this study will also shed some light on the convicts' experiences, describing their reactions to prison conditions, strategies of adjustment and subordination, and feelings of complete powerlessness in confronting the penal machinery. Around 1800, the harsh criticism finally led to various innovations, including those of a normative nature and - above all - changes based on a different conception of natural rights. A number of factors, significant among which were the 1790 decree to moderate criminal sentences and various other ordinances, did help to bring about at least partial improvement in sentencing and the penal system and, thus, of the situation of the prisoners.

Hubert Christian Ehalt
Legitimate Acts, Ideas of Justice and the Law - Developments and Prospects

Ideas of justice have determined differing actions and perceptions of everyday life for a long time. While the perception of norms and forms of legitimate acts were largely dependent on family constellations in former times, modern society has established other institutions to maintain justice, such as the church, schools, local authorities or the judiciary. Especially the role of jurisdiction has risen within the past twenty years by controlling and organizing an increasing range of spheres. Accordingly, space for individual perceptions of justice has conspicuously been reduced. In spite of the manifold tendencies towards deregulation, especially in the economic sphere, individuals have only recently been able to place their rights as "children", "women", "men", "students", or "disabled persons" more intensely in the forefront and to articulate them in public. The "Viennese lectures" ("Wiener Vorlesungen"), financed by the city of Vienna, have offered a platform for the discussion of issues in society since more than fifteen years and have willingly supported this historical quest for justice in history in cooperation with the Department of History of the University of Vienna.

Ralf-Peter Fuchs
Aspects of justice - the Lackum case. A trial and its repercussions.

This case study is based on my research on legal complaints claiming damage to honour in early modern Germany. In 1593, members of the Lackum family petitioned the Imperial Chamber (Reichskammergericht) to accuse their territorial Government - which would in turn accuse certain local authorities - of executing their father and husband for a homicide he had not committed. The family demanded the honourable burial of their relative and compensation for the loss and damages through the payment of a huge sum of money. The case is quite a good example of interpretations of law and justice (which, in German, can be subsumed under one term: Recht) on different levels. These different - and sometimes conflicting - perceptions will have to be incorporated into our understanding of the phenomenon of legal acculturation (Verrechtlichung), which is of great importance in legal history.

Klaus Graf
Justice and the culture of memory in the early modern period

This article argues for interdisciplinary research on the "culture of memory" as it applies to criminal justice. Using examples from the German-speaking region and, especially, from the history of witch hunts, the essay raises the question of how the practice of criminal justice is remembered and then recounted in the form of "legal narratives". Using the examples of torture instruments and so-called folkloristic legends, the paper explores the relationship between fact and fiction, emphasizing the constant reciprocity between the politics of memory of the elites and the memories of simple people. In keeping with the research of Natalie Zemon Davis, this essay regards memories of justice as being stories about justice.

Andrea Griesebner
Justice and equity. Remarks

The paper begins with a reflection on the motivations behind dedicating a conference to the relationship between the justice system and concepts of justice. In the western philosophical tradition, reflection on justice followed primarily two paradigms: the principle suum cuique and the Golden Rule. Both paradigms have in common the characteristic of not defining but presupposing the measure used to evaluate justice. On the one hand, their indeterminacy with respect to content opens them up to negotiation processes. On the other hand, various rulers were able to determine what one has a right to (which rights are conceded?), which practices should be legitimate and which forbidden. The author stresses that the religious foundation of criminal law legitimized the worldly "Gerichtsherrschaft"[judicial authority], which was assumed only to enforce divine law, while at the same time the presumed existence of a supernatural justice also implied the fallibility of the earthly Obrigkeit [authority]. When considering the biological coding of gender and the exclusion of women from the Human Rights Declaration of 1789 which it legitimized, it is crucial that one not refer to natural conditions and anthropological settings. Particular world views - including Marxist traditions - are projected onto a pre-cultural state of nature which is epistemologically not determinable, in order to offer a scale by which justice can supposedly be measured. With respect to the political-practical dimension, the question is how - in the absence of a universal scale of evaluation - the aim of a universal justice can still be legitimated. Not only early and pre-modern, but even modern criminal justice could be a method of enforcing highly particular values and goals, e.g. the judicial treatment of affirmative action programs. The author Griesebner demonstrates just how problematic the narrowing of concepts of justice and the justice system is, by referring to the fact that - until recently - it was legally impossible for a wife to accuse her husband of rape in a court of law. Even if law is the product of negotiation processes, it is important to not forget that the positions realized over time are neither the only ones possible, nor are they necessarily rooted in consensus. They are the product of various relations of power and domination.

Susanne Hehenberger
... seduced by the devil in order to get relief from physical pain. Annotations to a case-study on sodomy (Pöggstall, Lower Austria, 1698/99)

On 13 May 1699, the 75 year-old Georg Dörffl was beheaded at the public place of execution in the Lower Austrian village of Pöggstall. His corpse was burnt at the stake together with a dead cow. How did it come to the execution of this old man? Georg Dörffl's execution was the final event of a capital offence (Malefiz) trial for the crime of "sodomy". In a first step, this study deals with the normative preconditions of the trial, concentrating on the conceptualization of sodomy in the criminal laws which where in force in 17th and 18th-century Upper and Lower Austria. The second part deals with court records that were found concerning Georg Dörffl's trial, questioning the opportunities and limitations they present for historical analysis. The third and last part of this short essay relates the case study with other records on sodomy investigated by the author so far, pointing out the special features of Georg Dörffl's persecution in comparison with other trials. The paper is concluded by a reflection on the analytical tools used in the author's dissertation project, inspired by the results of similar studies written in the fields of sexual, criminal and gender history.

Maria Heidegger
Reception and evaluation of justice in newspapers. The assize court in Tirol from 1850-52

This article is based chiefly on press reports and commentaries on the first trials by jury in Tirol. The German-speaking press in the most western province of the Habsburg monarchy for the most part welcomed the provisional Code of Criminal Procedure of the year 1850, but celebrated it more as an ancient and firmly rooted practice of Tirolean culture than as an achievement of the liberal bourgeois movement and of the Revolution of 1848. In the Austrian monarchy, trials by jury were subsequently abolished in 1852. The following rigid politics of neo-absolutism also brought an end to the freedom of the press. Therefore, this article discusses the suppositions made about, and the portrayal of the main actors of trials by jury in press reports of the year 1851. These sources illustrate clearly the explosive effect of the political issue of criminality in these years. Press reports on trials by jury reflect popular local discourses about justice and criminality. In any case, they are firmly connected to pre-determined ideas and expectations. This article, therefore, deals - from a regional point of view - with press reports as important sources for questions about the production, creation and communication of interpretations of law and justice in a specific historical moment when trials managed - for a brief period - to command public attention.

Pavel Himl
Imagined Hell? Institutional repression and the construction of the supernatural in the Early Modern Period. A reflection on cases in Bohemia

The presented cases of alleged conjuring of the devil in Prague (1643/44) and of demonic possession in Southern Bohemia (1724/25) make it possible to reconstruct not only ideas about the supernatural and the approaches of individuals and official authorities to this topic, but also the course of investigations (which in none of the cases, however, led to court proceedings). In case of the farm labourer from Southern Bohemia, his demonic obsession was most likely the result of extraordinary physical and mental states, while the conjuring of the devil in Prague was ostensibly committed by children at play. Only after both matters were taken on by church and state authorities (the priest, Jesuit clergy, seigniorial courts, investigation committees), were the persons concerned forced (during the course of their hearings) to articulate their knowledge and ideas of the devil. Of course, their formulations were influenced by their efforts to deflect from themselves the suspicion of having committed a crime as well as by psychological pressure, threats and suggestions on the part of the investigators. In case of demonic possession, the image of the devil and his activities was likely complete already before the investigation started, e.g. as a result of preaching or popular tradition. The schoolchildren from Prague were "creating" an exact and detailed image of the devil based on their experience, fragments of knowledge and ideas during the investigation itself. Its progress and the mutual influencing of the investigators and the investigated can be seen from drafts and notes made by the scribes. Although neither the devil's existence nor his activities were challenged significantly, the sceptical views of the educated authorities (judges, clergy and doctors) prevailed in both of these concrete cases. In the case of the suspects, however, the detailed investigation could paradoxically have enhanced, or reinforced their ideas of the devil's actions and appearances.

Frank Höpfel
Justice - Equity - Fairness

We have learned over the course of history that the greatest justice can turn into greatest injustice (summum ius summa iniuria), for which reason we have developed supplementary instruments of equity (aequitas ) and mercy (gracia). In criminal law, these concepts have often contributed to important reforms, such as the introduction of early release and suspended sentences. Also, the new instruments of diversion which, according to Austrian legislation, allow for the dropping of a case before judgement (especially after having reached an agreement in terms of restorative justice), have turned out to offer valuable alternatives of response to criminal behaviour which are being well accepted by the public. The change in public attitudes also can be seen by asking why the young generation prefers to discuss certain solutions in terms of fairness rather than of justice.

Thomas Just
The court of the "Vienna Citizens Hospital" in the first half of the 17th century

The "Vienna Citizens Hospital" was for centuries Vienna's dominant social service institution. The financial basis of the hospital consisted, apart from its monopoly on the brewing industry, mainly in viniculture. The hospital was also a major owner of estates in and around Vienna. The written administrative records of this manorial entity constitute the main source material for the article. The results of research dealing with the questions of historische Kriminalitätsforschung [research on the history of crime] presented here underline a phenomenon already documented in the work of Thomas Winkelbauer: judicial authority over subjects was one of the most important parts of this manorial system, for which reason those involved in criminal matters and civil disputes had to go to court; in requiring court involvement, landlords wanted to prevent the development of alternative methods of social control. This study provides evidence for the fact that the prevention of out-of-court settlements on land owned by the Vienna Citizens Hospital took place some years earlier than in the previously analysed territories of Lower and Upper Austria.

Peter Klammer
Fornication and ecclesiastic jurisdiction in early modern Salzburg (Lungau)

In early modern Europe, all premarital and extramarital intercourse was criminalized. Such norms appeared for the first time in Salzburg in the Landesordnung of 1526. This essay shows how women and mothers of illegitimate children, in particular, called upon the ecclesiastic jurisdiction in the Kommissariat of Lungau (a part of the Archdiocese of Salzburg) to execute their claims - either for marriage to or (child) support from the men in question. The ecclesiastic jurisdiction decided, based on the testimony of the involved parties, on the credibility of the women's claims of men having promised to marry them and being the fathers of their children. A lot of the men in question had already fathered several children, in spite of their repeated denials of having promised to marry. In nearly half of the cases between 1628 and 1681, marriage was out of the question (e.g. due to financial considerations). This type of case is typical of servants. The situation was particularly bad for those women whose partners in parenthood fled the jurisdiction in order to avoid responsibility for their offspring. The structure of the ecclesiastic jurisdiction and the way these trials took place forbid an interpretation of the ecclesiastic jurisdiction as a body that exercised purely disciplinary power. The decisions of the jurisdiction were dependant on broad acceptance thereof by the concerned parties and the community at large.

Edith Kohl
Between law and justice. Trial practice at a district authority court in Eastern Styria in the first half of the 19th century: The case study of Stadl bei St. Ruprecht/Raab

In the late eighteenth century, the Austrian judicial system had been altered significantly by the reforms of Maria Theresia and Joseph II. The myriad of local manorial courts was replaced by "district authorities" (Bezirksobrigkeiten), where professional judges and officers acted as the primary judiciary instance, controlled only by the territorial authority - in Styria, this was the Kreisamt (one administrative level higher) in Graz. Formally still within the premises of a specific manor (Grundherrschaft), the district authority dealt, at the lowest level of administration (alongside other duties such as military conscription and public health), with minor offenders and remitted more serious criminals to a higher court. The preserved court records of Schloß Stadl (1822-1848) show that the vast majority of the cases belong to the category of minor offences. A trend towards mildness, according to the principles of the Enlightenment, resulted in many crimes being regularly judged as lesser offences. This was particularly true with "female-specific" offences like abortion and child abandonment. The personal and economic circumstances of these women were taken into account favourably, so that only very short sentences of imprisonment, often commuted to corporal punishment, were imposed. Brawls amongst journeymen, disorderly conduct and defamation accounted for most of the recorded trials. Here also, as long as no threat to public security was to be feared, mild sentences - often a few hours of arrest - prevailed. In consideration of the precarious financial situation of the rural communities, the deportation of the homeless and jobless poor to their places of birth was a common practice. The delicate business of the district authority, therefore, was to preserve a balance between written law, communal interests and common sense.

Constanze Krenn
Some notes on Justice

In the space of a few pages, the author, who is responsible for the training of Austrian Judges at the Federal Ministry of Justice, gives an informally structured, general overview of the history and development of the judge's profession in modern times and continues by describing and depicting the new features of the judge's profession as it appears nowadays, fulfilling citizens' expectations of the courts' role as part of an open democratic society. By characterizing the role of a judge in our times, a great potential for change can be sensed, not only in terms of the judge's profession, but with regard to the contents of justice itself, as a concept and dream of mankind.

Margareth Lanzinger
As equality demands . Concepts of justice in local government

Starting from a short outline of historical and current terms and concepts of justice, the article sets out to focus on a market town in South Tirol in the nineteenth century. This local community was characterized by very restrictive self-regimentation regarding issues such as marriage or the establishment of residency - from a democratic perspective, one would have to consider it a society that was, fundamentally, socially unjust. But within the framework of this specific political culture, there existed a whole string of ideas and concepts of justice. The aim of the paper was to track down various fields of their application. Justice played an important role in connection with the compensation paid for taking over certain tasks of public interest, such as keeping the breeding bull or housing and supporting soldiers. Local tax rates were graduated and the differences in amounts were legitimated by factors like a higher income, a local citizen's ownership of a house, or the marriage with a local citizen's daughter or widow. Another realm of justice encompasses obligations to certain communal institutions, e.g. the allocation of pastures and herdsmen to the citizens. Finally, the argument of more convenience - measured by the distance between house and fountain - was also crucial in determining the amount of fountain tax to be paid. The legitimisation of unequal treatment is, therefore, a central theme which also raises questions about the formation of local consensus.

Jürgen Martschukat
Darkness and Barbarism : On justice and violence in late eighteenth-century Germany

The article discusses the ambivalent relationship between violence and justice in late eighteenth-century Germany. It focuses on the case of Maria Catharina Wächtler, who was accused of having brutally murdered her husband in Hamburg in 1786. Though contemporary society considered itself to be enlightened, and violence was discursively stigmatized as a brutal means of barbaric times, Maria Cathrarina Wächtler was tortured to make her confess. Finally, she was executed - broken on the wheel. Still, the authorities were anxious not to let her suffer too much physically. Moreover, the violence of the punishment and the specific circumstances of the Wächtler case - a wife of "doubtful" character brutally murdering her husband - fascinated the public. The public debate on sex, crime and violence was accompanied by a state of emotional arousal and excitement among the townspeople of Hamburg.

Monika Mommertz
"Normativity" and "Relationality"? Modes of justice in Early Modern Brandenburg

In order to find out about questions of justice, historians have asked about the specific norms and values of the society or group they study. This article proposes a different approach by suggesting that we need to be more aware of the very modes in which justice was perceived in Early Modern societies. It scrutinises practices of "justice-making" as the basis of inherent concepts of justice. As the example of 16th and 17th century Brandenburg peasant society shows, a wide range of ritualised practices of conflict-resolution served to investigate, to judge, to punish and to reconcile a perceived wrong. In its procedures, which paralleled those of the patrimonial courts, conflict-resolution typically worked independently of these courts by initiating a long process during which important relations between the conflicting parties and virtually the entire village "public" got involved. What at the end of this process came to be perceived as a just solution, was suitable to a small, face-to-face-society; it was highly local, variable, and dependant upon networks: Justice was thus constituted relationally. "Relationality" can be understood as an important mode of making justice in the Early Modern period, and therefore, that which one can call "normativity" has to be investigated as a historically specific mode.

Britta Pohl
Fierce and unruly people . Some remarks on the concept of the ringleader (Rädelsführer) in peasant riots in the 17th century

The question of leadership in peasant resistance movements is tackled both by the local, early modern authorities and in historical research. The interest of the authorities was to find and prosecute those who had initialized resistance, while historical research often relies on the statements of the "leaders" in interrogations as the only way of accessing information on the arguments and goals of the resisting peasantry. The article is based on an analysis of the Passauer Untertanenprozess, a case of civil action on the part of the peasantry against the bishop of Passau, their legal authority, in the late 17th century, and the eventual conviction of Georg Uhrmann, one of the peasant's deputies to the imperial court. An analysis is attempted of the concept of "ringleadership" (Rädelsführerschaft), i.e. the leadership of resistance or revolts, in early modern times. Both the preconceived construct of resistance needing a leader, and the practical impossibility of convicting all participants in such events caused the authorities' blindness to the collective character of the action. This is often reflected in research that takes the leadership roles of the convicted for granted. In the analyzed case, there is no hint of the convicted Uhrmann's leadership role, while it is evident that he acted as one of the speakers and deputies for the peasantry. He appears to have been arbitrarily chosen from the group of active peasants, criminalized and convicted as an example to his fellow peasants. He was condemned not his own actions, but by the authorities' conceptions of peasant resistance and leadership.

Gerhard Sälter
Justice and social order: conflicts over personal interests and the proper order of things in early eighteenth-century Paris

"Justice" is a controversial concept. It was used by those in power in the ancien régime as the basis for their legitimacy and the laws imposed by them. In implementing it, they encountered many interpretations of what is just. Justice was used by the public as a category for evaluating individual actions or the system of values as a whole. In conflicts, a discourse on the concept of justice and its concomitant evaluation was initiated, one in which the proper order of things was debated. In this discourse on attempts to assert personal interests, notions about the rights, privileges and obligations of groups and individuals - and thus about the social order - were discussed. The public, then as now, continually negotiates a normative frame of reference for their social conduct. This discourse was situated within a context of power, and its conclusions were transformed into social practice.

Martin Paul Schennach
Military justice in Tirol in the first half of the 17th century

Whereas we are sufficiently informed about the normative regulations - such as articles of war - valid in mercenary units in the 16th and in the first half of the 17th century, our knowledge of their everyday application by military justice is still very limited. Since a regiment was "owned" by its commander, the military entrepreneur was (at least in the 16th century) totally independent of his warlord as far as military justice was concerned. Although this autonomy was formally respected during the first half of the 17th century - and especially during the Thirty Years' War - the Tirolean example demonstrates how civil authorities (the sovereign himself, the "Secret Council" and the so-called "government" [Regierung]) began to interfere more and more frequently in military justice, especially in cases involving soldiers on the one hand and civilians on the other. The way these interventions took place varied according to the severity of the crime, the "owner" of the regiment or company (obtaining a positive result was much easier for the authorities when he was in Tirolean - and not in Imperial or Spanish - service) and the disposition of the civilian population. We can discern simple orders to a military commander to enforce better discipline among his subordinates, the delegation of mediating and supervising commissioners of war by the Secret Council and the conviction of soldiers by local civil courts. This procedure had a double aim: to calm down the civil population, which was suffering due to the generally undisciplined behaviour of mercenaries, and to prevent further conflicts by deterrence. However, there was a remarkable gap between the extremely severe penalties laid down in the articles of war and the punishments actually inflicted; during the 30s and 40s, almost no soldier was sentenced to death or submitted to severe corporal punishment, which was due to the fact that - as raising new mercenaries became more and more difficult toward the end of the Thirty Years' War - a soldier was considered far too precious a commodity to be thrown away. Although jurisdictional disputes between civil authorities in Innsbruck and owners of troops stationed in Tirol still occurred quite frequently, the obvious limitations of the formerly autonomous military justice systems represent an important step on the way towards the integration of armed forces into the developing early modern state.

Martin Scheutz / Harald Tersch
In search of justice. A prisoner's diary in seventeenth-century Salzburg and differing interpretations of justice: Are petitions to be equated with rebellion?

The Salzburg mid-level official (Pfleger) Kaspar Vogl was suspected of having been involved in peasant-riots around Zell am See in 1606, riots which were caused by the revision of the old castral register under the reign of Archbishop Wolf Dietrich (1587-1611). Several peasants wrote a petition wherein they attempted to argue why they would not comply with a further increase in contributions. Although the local official Vogl noticed the beginnings of these riots - the central authorities interpreted the movement as such - he did not stop the petition, which was in the process of being signed by the peasants around Zell. In spite of his tolerance, indirect reports of these alarming activities eventually reached the capital city of Salzburg. The archbishop, still unsettled by the events of 1525/26, seems to have overreacted. He dispatched soldiers to Zell am See, dismissed Kaspar Vogl from his position and forced him and several peasants to report to Salzburg for further judicial investigations. Immediately upon his arrival, Vogl was arrested and accused of being spiritus rector of these peasant-riots, although Vogl denied this. Already imprisoned, Vogl wrote a diary dated from June 22nd to November 7th, in which he recorded not only his daily consumption of wine, but his strategy of defence, as well. On the other hand, this diary also portrays the intensive discussions between peasants and the authorities concerning the active/inactive role of the peasants (gemeiner Mann): Was a peasant allowed to protest against new taxes by means of petition or not? The archbishop denied the peasants this right, whereas these - and also Kaspar Vogl - were convinced that they were not harming any prerogative of the archbishop's by writing petitions as a form of protest. In the end, Vogl was sentenced to death as example to other disobedient officials. The edition of the diary presented here shows in a very impressive way Vogl's fight for justice and for the right of opposition.

Cornelia Schörkhuber-Drysdale
Quarrels and separation from bed and board in the peasant society of Upper Austria at the beginning of the 18th century

This chapter discusses the option of separation from bed board (Separatio quoad thorum et mensam) in early modern Austria. The focus shall be on two farming families from the mainly Catholic region of Upper Austria. These two case studies will examine why the two wives, Rosina Peisl and Catharina Petereder, gave up their marital status and went to the ecclesiastical (Konsistorium) and civil court to take action against their husbands. A qualitative analysis of surviving documents will provide insight into marital life in peasant society. Of particular interest are the "disruptions" of marital life expressed as domestic conflicts leading up to attempts at separation by board and bed. To understand such marital "disruptions", it is necessary to first provide a brief explanation of the "norm" of the Catholic marriage concept. Secondly, certain elements in effect of canon law which define separation of board and bed will be discussed. The words "divorce", "dissolution" and "separation" were also often used with regard to issues of marital status in various theological writings and legal documents, and are also used in the records analyzed here. It is important to apply these terms accurately, as each of them has a specific meaning. Catholic doctrine provided for annulment and separation, but not for legal divorce. With separation by bed and board, the marital bond was not broken, for which reason remarriage was impossible. The wife and the husband were allowed to live separately and could have individual economic lives, but neither was allowed to remarry while the other was still living. Following a description of the methodology used in the study, the actual cases will be detailed. The cases concern two women who went to ecclesiastical and civil court seeking a solution to their marital problems and - ultimately -separation from board and bed. The surviving fragments of the documents pertaining to their cases reveal the actual reasons these women and men took such steps: lack of mutual understanding of the roles of wife and husband, and different expectations with regard to the display of respect, consideration and affection, differences which led to verbal and physical violence.

Alexander Schunka
The visual representation of princely privileges in 16th and 17th century German witness examinations

The paper examines how the process of visualizing certain privileges contributed to the establishment of ties of loyalty and control between princes and their subjects. Starting from the early modern German usage of the term Gerechtigkeit [today: "justice"] to mean "privilege" [i.e., what the law or established order of things permits one to do by virtue of rank or station], the author discusses the phenomenon of visual representation as a means of communication between the rulers and the ruled. He analyzes witness examination protocols produced in legal proceedings at the Imperial Chamber (Reichskammergericht), interpreting them as "Ego-Documents". These testimonies of illiterate people from rural areas reveal the importance of visual representation in a face-to-face society. In addition, successful visual representation of princely privileges (Gerechtigkeiten) provided a basis for mutual understanding and for the expansion or reproduction of loyalties between the ruler and his subjects.

Gerd Schwerhoff
Trials and justice from a historical perspective: the example of witch trials

The relationship between trials and justice seems, at first glance, to be very close. A given justice system is often supposed to be a concretisation of prevailing ideas of what is just. Witch trials of the early modern period show, on the other hand, how far away from each other criminal trials and justice could actually be - even in the perception of contemporary spectators. These trials can be interpreted as the result of a process of criminalizing social groups, as a result of changes that had been made to the mode of court trials for witches, and as result of the influence of certain pressure groups, groups which took a strong interest in the prosecution of certain people within a town or within rural society. The idea of doing harm to any person or thing by magical means became more and more criminalized; this development is shown by several historical examples (up to the "last" witch trial in Glarus). Witch crime, in particular, was quite different from normal crime (theft, burglary and so on) because this "crime" was in most cases hardly to be proved by facts or by witnesses. A special mode of trial (called crimen exeptum) had to be developed; some judges specialized in witch trials and lived well from this are of expertise. Local society and judges - but also the local authorities and/or the sovereign - had great influence on the initiation and the stoppage of witch trials. In such trials, justice often no longer had a role to play, a fact willingly accepted by the angry mob.

Arthur Stögmann
A Counter-Reformation case of priest against judge in the market town of Großkrut in the 17th century (Lower Austria)

The article analyzes the phenomena of blasphemy and anticlericalism in a specific case, which took place in the village of Großkrut (Weinviertel, Lower Austria) at the end of Thirty Years War. It is shown just how strongly specific economic and social problems, especially in times of misery and bitter poverty, influenced the religious behavior of "ordinary" people and the efforts of the parish clergy to enforce their visions of religious and ecclesiastical discipline within the context of "Catholic Confessionalization". Ecclesiastical reformers and counter-reformers - as in the specific case of parish priest Johann Warendorfer - had to take these problems seriously, if they wanted their visions and demands for discipline to be accepted by the people. The explored case shows how "weak" those attempts could be if they were not supported by a convincing "performance" of the parson in question as a spiritual adviser, as one who tried to aid people in their afflictions and troubles in a "self-sacrificing" manner. Only this "pastoral credibility" made it possible for him to be recognized as a mediator between mankind and God. "Isolated" and purely ideological attempts to establish clerical authority - even if they were supported by a government motivated to enforce the Counter-Reformation - were determined to fail and to evoke a certain kind of alienation of the people from the clergy and the standardized rituals and sites of religious and ecclesiastical life within the Catholic Church.

Peter Wettmann-Jungblut
Incorrigible children and the "duty to do justice": Juvenile delinquency and penal corrections in the Prussian Saar district, 1825-1850

Throughout western Europe, the early nineteenth century was characterized by the 'invention of juvenile delinquency' and the development of a more lenient penal treatment of juvenile offenders. In 1826 the Prussian minister von Altenstein ordered local administrations to keep special statistics of the crimes committed by juveniles and children. His first aim was to combat the 'licentiousness' of juvenile offenders and the alleged rising level of juvenile crime. The example of a small town in the coal-mining area of the Saar demonstrates that most of the crimes committed by juveniles from 1830 to 1850 were petty larcenies or acts of illicit coal-mining due to the poverty of the working-class youth; furthermore, there was no general increase of juvenile delinquency but rather a changing pattern of crime which followed from economic conditions and the local presence of police forces. Finally, the ambivalent character of the disciplinary measures taken by the Prussian state should be shown: New penal institutions and educative punishments for juvenile offenders may point out to an increasing humanistic concern for the fate of the delinquent child. But it is also not to be denied that they reflected a new concept of the social nature of evil which oscillated between childrens' innocence and evil or guilt inherent in children, which regarded children both as victims and unfortunate creatures and as offenders and "born criminals".

Monika Wienfort
Unwed mothers and neglected children: The formation of bourgeois legal culture in nineteenth-century Germany

The Prussian Legal Code of 1794 offered unwed mothers and their children comparatively generous provisions for financial support. In paternity suits, women (who most often came from the lower orders of society) could claim financial aid for the birth, an indemnity for reduced marriage chances and maintenance for the child until his/her fourteenth birthday. This article examines the changes in the practical application of Prussian law during the nineteenth century. More and more, bourgeois morality condemned unwed mothers as being depraved and immoral. Prussian jurists and conservative legal reformers eventually were successful in changing the law. After 1854, mothers who were convicted of having sexual contacts with other men besides the putative father, were judged to have lost their sexual integrity - and consequently lost all their claims. Prussian judges appeared deeply impressed by the fact that biological evidence of the man's involvement was impossible to come by. Morals and manners of the bourgeoisie sided with putative fathers to secure individual rights, although the new law rendered the integration of illegitimate children into civil society more difficult. Consequently, many mothers and children had to turn to charity and other forms of relief.

Manfred Zollinger
Competing Images of Justice. The Portuguese ambassador and the public. A strange case of murder in Vienna (1696)

When, in 1696, the chamberlain Count Halleweil was murdered in the forests near Vienna, the Portuguese ambassador Arronches was said to have committed or engineered the crime. Arronches had lost a considerable sum to the count while gambling, and had allegedly been seen accompanied by an unknown person near the place where the corpse was subsequently found. The victim's father demanded justice from the Emperor, whereupon the court discussed how to proceed. The problem lay in the ambassador's status and immunity. On the pretext of protecting him from the incensed nobility and common people, the Emperor ordered that a guard be placed upon him. Before this could be done, however, Arronches escaped. Although not convicted, the ambassador was held to be guilty. Though no proceedings had been initiated against him, a series of publications presented him as the evildoer. Yet there were several trials held in Portugal which eventually, in 1700, acquitted Arronches. The acquittal was published in European journals, while other publications, German and Austrian, showed little inclination to accept it. These, on the other hand, told the story the way it had already been established, persisting in a kind of media-supported proscription. On the other hand, an Apologie in favour of the ambassador was aimed not only at re-establishing Arronches' honour, but also hinted that there was another suspect, a Pole, who was also said to have lost much money to the count while gambling. The Apologie turned out to be prophetic when, in 1747, the Historia Genealogica of Portugal retold the story, presenting the transcription of a will written by a Pole who confessed to the murder. Whether this was a fake or not, can no longer be proved. Yet the confession demanded to be taken seriously, not only because it was attested to by numerous notaries but also because the "real" murderer delivered himself into the hands of eternal justice. The confession was simply ignored by other publications which went on telling the story as they had done before. The well-established ambassador and evildoer became part of the historical tradition. Popular history books and tales added details and motives. Rendering narrative justice to the victim, some publications had the ambassador die under circumstances which dramatically contrasted with his noble condition and splendid appearance. In some later tales he is driven to confession by his conscience which, as in other 19th century tales of crime, officiated as the "inner court of justice". Yet justice - by way of legislation - had become active as soon as the crime had been reported. In the name of the Emperor, gambling was prohibited. This meant the banishment of the "real" cause of the murder and was an effort to re-establish, in a symbolic way, the moral and social order which had been so profoundly upset by the murder. The case reveals the steps taken by publications to judge and render justice where the judicial institutions remained inactive or, as with the acquittal, were ignored and held to be unworthy. It also proves how narrative could establish guilt where, since the beginning of the affair, there was mainly rumour.