Swiss court wipes slate clean on centuries-old farm debt

[Hum]

GENEVA (AP) ? A Swiss court has wiped out an annual debt that farmers have had to pay the Catholic Church to atone for a crime 655 years ago.

Swiss public broadcaster RTS says a court in the northeastern canton (state) of Glarus ruled that the current farm owner no longer has to pay 70 Swiss francs ($76) each year because Swiss mortgage reforms in the mid-19th century made the practice invalid.

The broadcaster reported Tuesday the court sided with the landowner in a dispute with the church after he refused to make the annual payment for oil and candles.

The payments had been a tradition since 1357, when a man named Konrad Mueller killed a man named Heinrich Stucki. To atone, Mueller promised to always pay to keep an eternal lamp lit.

source

[HSoft]

and it took 655 years to bring this to court? Wow

[exotoxic]

I wonder if they actually kept the lamp lit for all those years.

[Hum]

Sound like 'tribute' money.

[Japlabot]

Assuming this is a family farm passed down from generations, what an ass. It's not very expensive, and I'm your family (still alive) would have got much more than that in inheritance that has been passed down from your ancestors. The tradition is already 655 years old, this could be an attraction that it has been running this long, you could have made it go on for 1000s of years but it stopped because of you, and doing disgrace to your ancestor to whom you owe your life to or you wouldn't exist.

Edit - sounds like it was a family farm passed down the generations. http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/culture/Court_releases_man_from_655-year_church_debt.html?cid=34676472 What an ass.

[Growled Member]

It's about time.