Tóth Arnold (szerk.): A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 57. (Miskolc, 2018)

Tanulmányok Miskolc várostörténetéből - Gyulai Éva: Kondai Kis Mihály főbíró paráznasági pere és kivégzése Miskolc város főterén, 1698-ban

Kondai Kis Mihály főbíró paráznasági pere és kivégzése Miskolc város főterén, 1698-ban

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TRIAL OF FORNICATION AND EXECUTION OF CHIEF JUDGE MIHÁLY KONDAI KIS’

IN MISKOLC, 1698

Keywords: Mihály Kondai Kis, chief judge of a market town, execution, legal history of Early Modern Age, show trial

From the Middle Ages, as part of the royal estate of Diósgyőr, the market town of Miskolc possessed several self-government privileges, including a freely elected leading body and leader, or in other words, a council and a chief judge, but at the end of the 14th century, the royal market town also hadjus gladii, i.e. it had the right to execute any criminals arrested within its borders. At the end of the 17th century, this right was used by the city' administration of Miskolc against its own chief judge who was beheaded on a scaffold erected in the centre of the town for a capital offence in 1698.

The reason for the judgment was the following: on 19 September 1698, the chief judge named Mihály Kondai Kis (Michael Kis of Kondó) as a married man with an ill-fated unmarried girl were guests with a family in Miskolc. At sunset, they left the place together, and in a garden on the bank of the river Szinva flowing through the city they were seen having sexual intercourse by several people who may have spied on them. Perhaps the most telling argument for a ’conspiracy theory’ is that, according to a brief entry in the town records, two days (!) after the events in the evening of 19 September 1698 (Friday), ’the town’ (or rather a narrow elite group) elected a new chief judge on 21 September (Sunday). The haste and the seemingly legal status of the new judge were necessary so that the town court could summon nobleman Michael Kis of Kondó, former chief judge. Four days after the case, on 23 September 1698 (Tuesday) the case went before the town court, where on the basis of the witness statements, the chief judge was found guilty of crime of fornication (adulterium) ‘exposing himself severely and obviously to the never-ending contempt of the town council and to the indignation of the citizens and the whole population’. At the time of his horrendous fornication, the chief judge was not a private individual but an official, and as he had committed himself by oath to preserving the privileges of the town, he should have preserved his moral integrity before everybody, and particularly should have lived a pious and impeccable life, which was a requirement for every official and private individual anyway — said the court sentence.

It is a suspicious circumstance that the witnesses were heard (Judicialis Inquisitio et attestatio) on the day of the trial, and, on the other hand, witnesses were not questioned by the representatives of the jurisdiction of the market town but by those of another legal authority, the officials of Borsod County, led by nobleman sheriff (iudex nobilium or iudlium) upon the county’s order.

It took merely three weeks for the trial to continue on 3 October 1698, with the appeal court consisting of three respected noblemen, in addition to the chief judge and the town’s senators. Before the court, there appeared defendant Michael Kis of Kondo in person, and submitted an application {supplex libellus) to it. The accused disputed the court’s jurisdiction, considering that he was a noble man. Then the final verdict was passed and copied verbatim into the town records: As the four witnesses consistently testified, it was obvious that the defendant had committed the hideous criminal offence of fornication; what is more, he had done so with deliberate wickedness and intention. As the defendant had ignored his official responsibilities upon which he had made an oath as the town’s judge to punish and eradicate crime, and dishonoured himself by committing fornication, he both drew the anger of Vengeful God on himself and shocked the citizens. Therefore, the sentence of the court was that, as an obvious malefactor, he should be expelled from human society and should be beheaded by an executioner pursuant to both divine and human law, and the legal regulations, as the proportionate punishment of his enormous offence, in order to set an example and deter others.

The first point of this application was discussed by the court on the first day, while the second was dealt with on the second day of the trial.

As the town records testify, the death sentence was carried out on nobleman Mihály Kondai Kis by the town’s executioner on November 4th, 1698, which was a Saturday. His hasty arrest and arraignment may be accounted for by the fact that he had committed a grave criminal offence, but there must also have been conflicts between him and the noblemen members of the town council, the representatives of Miskolc elite. The content and causes of these conflicts cannot be revealed from the written sources available, as from periods prior to the 18th century only the town records and the documents setting forth the privileges of the town have been handed down to us in the archives of the market town of Miskolc.

It is not known how Mihály Kondai Kis, who was elected chief judge less than one decade after he had moved to Miskolc, came into conflict with the noble elite of Miskolc, which controlled the leadership of the town at the end of the 17th century; it is a fact, however, that in his trial, the new chief judge and the members of the town council made an effort to pass a sentence quickly. Although as many as four witnesses had been heard, no mention was made of the witnesses’ statements in the