Virgin Mary as an ideal lawer in “Processus Satanae contra genus humanum”

<jats:p>The article is devoted to the analysis of the treatise “The Trial of Satan against the human race” (Processus satanae contra genus humanum, turn of the 13th and 14th centuries), a description of a fictional trial initiated by the devil against all mankind, defended by the Virgin Mary. Considering in detail the peculiarities of two opposing parties’ behavior at the court sessions, the author of the article comes to the conclusion that the image of the Virgin Mary as an ideal lawyer presented in this anonymous treatise differed from the tradition of that time (in particular, from the Franciscan one). Mary acted aggressively and even rudely towards her opponent, often using emotions instead of legal arguments. The discrepancy between two hypostases of the Blessed Virgin – an experienced lawyer and a weak, passionate woman – is described in modern historiography as an insoluble paradox. However, as the author of the article proves, this contradiction is eliminated if the analysis takes into account not so much the theological but the legal tradition. In medieval manuals on judicial ethics, dating back to the ancient “Rhetoric for Herennius” (Rhetorica ad Herenium), the active position of a lawyer, i.e. his sophisticated eloquence, aggressive gestures, playing on feelings of the audience, was considered as the most successful for the outcome of a case. This interpretation of judicial ethics ran counter to its second medieval concept, which originated in Cicero’s treatise “On the discovery of rhetoric” (De inventione), which recommended the lawyers to behave modestly and refrain from direct deception and excessive emotionality in their speeches. Thus, according to the author of the article, the sources that influenced the “Trial of Satan against the Human Race” should include either the “Rhetoric for Herennius”, which remained extremely popular throughout the Middle Ages, or the comments on this treatise dating back to the 12th–13th centuries.</jats:p>