MEDIEVAL TIMES

Evening Star, Issue 21934, 22 January 1935, Page 7

MEDIEVAL TIMES

WHEN WRITING WAS A GRIME In medieval times the path of the budding journalist was strewn with pitfalls and dangers, and, oftener than not, imprisonment, or worse, was the only reward for giving to the world the creations of his brain. In the seventeenth century there lived Dr Leighton, a clergyman, whose writings so offended the powers that were that he was arrested. He was fined £1.0,000, and was degraded in the ministry. Ho was also pilloried, branded, and whipped; one of his ears was cut off and his nostrils were slit By way of mailing his punishment really complete,, the doctor was sentenced to imprisonment for life. According to trustworthy records, he served eleven years in gaol and was then liberated, to be told by the authorities that his mutilation and imprisonment had been illegal. The Rev. Benjamin Keach, tho then Baptist minister of Winslow’ (Bucks), committed the crime of writing and issuing ‘The Child’s Instructor: Or a New and Easy Primer.’ The book was regarded as seditious, and the authorities order: “Ye shall stand upon the pillory at Ailsbury for the space of two hours, with a Papan on your head bearing a suitable inscription. . . And the next Thursday so stand in. the same manner and for the same time in the market of Winslow; and there your book shall be openly burnt before your face by the common hangman, in disgrace to you.” De Foe, author of ‘ Robinson Crusoe,’ was prosecuted for writing''a severe satire by the title of ‘ The Shortest Way to Deal with Dissenters.’ So exasperated were the authorities with the booklet that a reward of £SO was offered for the author’s apprehension. De Foe managed to keep out of the arms of the law, but on hearing that the printers and publishers of his work had been thrust into prison he gave himself up, and the others were released. De Foe was fined 200 marks, ordered to appear three times in the pillory, and to remain in prison during the Queen's pleasure. Instead of being pelted with rotten eggs and street garbage, as was the custom of the times, De Foe, when, in the pillory, was pelted with flowers, and the pillory was decorated with garlands. According to old records, Voltaire, the Frenchman, was flogged for writing an uncomplimentary epigram about the King of Prussia. After being punished he was compelled to write the following acknowledgment:—“ Received from the right hand of Conrad Bochnoffner thirty lashes on my bare back, in full payment for epigram on Frederick 111., King of Prussia, Vive le Roi. In the seventeenth century a book or pamphlet could be published only under license from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, or the authorities of the two universities. Two printers, named Liburn and Warton, disregarded the regulation and printed what, was termed a libellous and seditious work. They were each fined £SOO and ordered to be whipped from Fleet prison to the pillory at Westminster. When in the pillory Liburn gave away copies of his books and addressed the crowd on the tyranny of his persecutors. In order to stop' his ravings he was gagged.