Swiss Court wipes slate clean on former farm debt

Geneva (AP)-a Swiss Court has wiped out an annual debt that farmers had to pay the Catholic Church to atone for a crime 655 years ago.

Switzerland's public broadcaster RTS said that a court in the northeastern Canton (State) of Glarus said that the current owner of the farm is no longer paying 70 Swiss francs ($ 76) per year because the Swiss mortgage reforms in the mid-19th century has made the practice illegal.

The broadcaster reported Tuesday that the Court sided with the landowner in a dispute with the Church after refusing to pay per annum for oil and candles.

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

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