Note how many provisions of Scriftboc relate to the use and abuse of animals:
A23.09.0 The Greeks do not permit any men to have carrion, but they make shoes of the hide of carrion flesh and also make use of the wool and horns, although they do not put them to sacred uses.
A24.00.0 xxvi Concerning Swine
A24.01.0 If swine eat carrion or drink man's blood, we believe that they are not to be thrown away; however, one may not eat it until it is again made clean.
A24.02.0 If a hen drink man's blood, this chicken may be eaten three months later; but for this we do not have ancient authority.
A24.03.0 (Animals torn by) wolves and dogs are not to be eaten, even if the living animal received a death blow (i.e. was living rather than dead when the wolves or dogs tore it), unless the one (who found it) was able to render the death blow; if the animal was found dead, one should give it to dogs and swine.
A26.03.0 If someone with unclean hands touch meat, or a cat or a mouse or another unclean animal touch it, Theodore says that is not an offense.
A26.04.0 If a mouse or a weasel fall into water in which there is much (food), and is dead there, man should sprinkle it with holy water and drink it.
A26.05.0 If someone of necessity eats an animal that is unclean, that is no offense.
A26.09.0 If someone wishes to relieve a day's fast with alms, he must give alms to two or three poor men for one day's food, or sing the (whole) psalter, if it is summer; if it is Fall (harvest) or Lent (Spring), he must sing one hundred psalms; if it is winter, fifty.
2. Animals
A02.03.1 Whoever has intercourse with an animal must fast ten or seven winters; some wish it to be three winters, some one winter, some one hundred days. Let the priest observe who the man is and what the animal is.
A05.03.0 Whoever has intercourse with animals or a male person must fast ten winters
A05.05.0 If an animal is polluted by the member of a man (by intercourse with a man), let it be killed and given to dogs. If there is doubt about this, let the animal live.
A25.01.0 Fish may be eaten even though they are found dead, because they are of another kind.
A25.02.0 Horses flesh is not forbidden, although many tribes do not customarily eat it.
A25.03.0 Birds and other animals that are strangled in nets are not eaten, nor after they are torn to pieces by hawks, if they are found dead, are they to be eaten, for it is enjoined in the Acts of the Apostles, "Abstain from fornication, from that which is suffocated, from blood, and from idolatry" (Acts 15:29).
A25.04.0 Hares may be eaten and they are good for dysentery and diarrhea, and one can mix their bile with pepper to cure mouth sores.
A26.00.0 xxviii [no heading]
A26.01.0 If bees kill someone let them be killed quickly, and one may eat the honey they have produced [B adds: before they return to the honey, and especially so that they do not spend the night in it.]
A26.02.0 If a little pig falls (into water) and is taken out alive, one should sprinkle that water with holy water and smoke it with incense [B adds: and one can then drink the water]. If the animal is dead, one may not give the water to anyone and must throw it out.
A26.05.0 If someone of necessity eats an animal that is unclean, that is no offense.
A26.06.1 If someone commits a great theft, that is if he steal a four-footed animal, a horse or a cow, or break into a house, he must fast one year and repay that which he has stolen, or fast two years. If he steal more, he must fast four winters or as his confessor judges.
Try to come up with logical explanations for some of the regulations given above. Why do you think the church is concerned about the fate of animals that have killed or eaten people? Why do you think A25.04.0, which doesn't seem to be a regulation, is included? What does its presence tell us about the way information is being organized here?
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