Chickens in History

Believe it or not, chickens occasionally played important, even vital, roles throughout history. Here are a few examples!

During the persecutions of the Christian martyrs, much imagination was put into execution and torture techniques. One manner of execution was to put the condemned person into a sealed bag with an ape, a dog, a viper, and a rooster. The sealed bag was then thrown into deep water where there would be one humdinger of a fight before everyone drowned.

A chicken named Nan was considered a familiar in the 17^th-century Bury St. Edmonds trials of Suffolk, England. Three other chickens were also cited as imps in the same area.

During the Middle Ages, the cock was an important Christian symbol of resurrection and vigilance. A rooster represented God, goodness, and lightness. Cocks' places were earned at the top of buildings, domes, and church steeples. They crowed at the birth and death of Christ, and they herald the dawn, "which brings light to the sins of the night and rouses men to the worship of God."

Witches Sabbats were dispersed, and enchantments were dissolved, by the crow of a rooster. The rites of Satan ended because the Holy Office of the Church had begun. the 4^th-century Christian Latin poet Prudentius sang, "They say that the night-wandering demons, who rejoice in dunnest shades, at the crowing of the cock tremble and scatter in sore affright." In the time of Saint Benedict, Lauds and Matins were recited at dawn and became known as Gallicinium, or Cock-crow.

According to Nicholas Remy, a 16^th-century witch prosecutor and demonologist, cocks were despised by all sorcerers and witches. However, roosters did not keep witches away. Cocks were a frequent sacrifice victim by witches because killing one was tantamount to spitting in the eye of God.

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