V. THE IRISH COIRP-DIRE AND HONOUR-PRICE TRACED FURTHER BACK THAN THE BREHON LAWS.
The evidence regarding the coirp-dire of the Brehon Laws and its payment in female slaves does not rest on those laws alone.
St. Patrick’s ‘pretium hominis’ of ‘seven ancillæ.’
St. Patrick, in his ‘Confessions,’[81] treats the pretium hominis as a well-known unit of value. These are the words of St. Patrick:—
Vos autem experti estis quantum erogavi illis qui judicabant per omnes regiones quas ego frequentius visitabam; censeo enim non minimum quam pretium quindecim hominum distribui illis.
You know by experience how much I have paid out to those who were judges in all the regions which I have often visited; for I think that I have given away to them not less than the pretium quindecim hominum.
Further, in the ‘Tripartite Life’ St. Patrick is represented as putting the alternative between the death of a transgressor and the payment of seven cumhals (‘Aut reum morti aut VII. ancillas reddere debet’).[82] The evidence for this coirp dire and its payment in ancillæ seems to be thrown back by these passages to the fifth century.
Evidence of the ‘Canones Hibernenses.’
Further, when we turn to the series of ‘Canones Hibernenses’ published in Wasserschleben’s work, Die Bussordnungen der abendländischen Kirche (p. 136), we find repeated evidence that the ‘pretium hominis,’ or ‘pretium sanguinis,’ of seven ancillæ, was a well-recognised unit of payment in ecclesiastical quarters more or less connected with the Irish and Breton Churches.
The first group of these Canons is headed ‘De disputatione Hybernensis Sinodi et Gregori Nasaseni sermo de innumerabilibus peccatis incipit.’
The first clause of this group imposes a penance for parricide of fourteen years in bread and water and satisfaction; or half this only if there was no intention.
The next clause imposes for ordinary homicide seven years’ penance in bread and water.
Clauses 8 and 10 fix the ‘prætium animæ’ of a pregnant woman (including woman and child) at twelve ancillæ.
Ancilla of same value in silver as the Brehon cumhal.
Clause 9 fixes for us the silver value of the ancilla and seems to show that it was the same as the silver value of the cumhal in the Brehon Laws.
The clause is as follows:—
XII. Altilia[83] vel XIII. sicli (? XII.) prætium uniuscujusque ancillæ.
Ecclesiastical usage retained to some extent the use of Roman phraseology. The siclus or sicilicus, as we have already seen, was the didrachma of two Roman argentei or silver drachmæ. And as the drachma after Nero was one eighth of the Roman ounce, so the siclus was one quarter. The Altilia was the ‘fattened heifer’ possibly of Irish custom.[84] Twelve fattened heifers or sicli equalled therefore three Roman ounces—i.e. the exact silver value of the cumhal of the Brehon Laws. Here, therefore, in these so-called Irish Canons the ancilla seems to be reckoned at the Brehon silver value of the cumhal.
Having gained this point we proceed to examine the other clauses.
In title III., headed ‘Synodus Hibernensis decrevit,’ are the following:[85]—
Seven ancillæ the price of a man’s life.
Sanguis episcopi vel excelsi principis vel scribæ qui ad terram effunditur, si colirio indiguerit, eum, qui effuderit, sapientes crucifigi judicant, vel VII. ancillas reddat.
The blood of a bishop or high prince or a scribe poured on the ground, si colirio indiguerit,[86] the ‘sapientes’ judge that he who sheds it shall be crucified or pay seven ancillæ.
Here, obviously, the VII. ancillæ are the price of the life of the criminal—the seven cumhals of the coirp-dire. The canon adds the following:—
Si in specie, tertiam partem de argento et comparem verticis de auro latitudinem nec non et similem oculi de gemma pretiosa magnitudine reddat.
If paid in specie, one third must be paid in silver, and of gold of the size of the crown of the head, and also the like in precious stone of the size of an eye.
These passages seem to have a curious correspondence with the following passage in the Brehon Laws (sequel to the ‘Crith Grabhlach,’ iv. p. 363):—
As to the shedding of a bishop’s blood, if it reaches to the ground as blood that requires a tent the guilty person is to be hanged for it, or it is seven cumhals that are to be paid for his sick maintenance and his eric.
If the wound be in his face, the breadth of his face of silver is paid, and of the crown of his head of gold.
The canons go on to state that if the blood does not reach the ground nec colirio indigeat the hand of the striker is to be cut off, or the half of VII. ancillæ paid, if the act is done with intention; if not, the price of one ancilla is to be paid.
Another clause states that if a bishop be struck or violently handled, without effusion of blood, half the price of VII. ancillæ is to be paid.
In all these cases the fines are reckoned in a unit of VII. ancillæ or the half of it. The cutting off of the hand of the criminal is reckoned as equal to half of VII. ancillæ. The VII. ancillæ is the recognised unit.
When, in other clauses, dealing with the case of the same things done to a priest, a lesser punishment is decreed, still the price of VII. ancillæ is the price of the life of the criminal. If the blood of a priest is shed and reaches the ground, donec colorium subfert, the hand of the criminal is to be cut off, or half of VII. ancillæ to be paid, if the act be intentional. If not intentional, the price of one ancilla is enough.
In title IV., Dejectione, after a clause stating that he who ejects a poor man kills him, and he who meets a person ready to perish and does not succour him kills him, there follows this clause:—
Si quis jecerit episcopum et si mortuus fuerit, accipiatur ab eo pretium sanguinis ejus L. ancillas reddit, id est VII. ancillas uniuscujusque gradus vel l. annis peniteat et ex his accipiuntur VII. ancille de jectione ejus.
If any one ejects a bishop and if he should be dead, let there be received for him the price of his blood, let him render fifty ancillæ, i.e. seven ancillæ for each grade of rank, or do penance fifty years, and from these shall be received seven ancillæ de jectione ejus.[87]
‘Pretium sanguinis’ seven ancillæ.
Here the ordinary ‘pretium sanguinis’ or coirp-dire is again clearly reckoned at VII. ancillæ, and the bishop, being of the seventh grade of rank in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, is to be paid for sevenfold.
It is also worth notice that in these clauses the cutting off of a hand is reckoned as half of the ‘pretium sanguinis.’ This is in full accordance with the Brehon rule laid down in the ‘Book of Aicill’ (iii. p. 349).
Half the eric-fine of every person is to be paid for a foot, a hand, an eye, a tongue.
But inasmuch as the ‘eric-fine’ in this case might be taken by mistake to include the honour-price as well as the coirp-dire, the commentary adds:—
He is entitled to half ‘coirp-dire’ and half compensation (aithgin) and full honour-price.
The loss of the hand was reckoned at half the coirp-dire. The full honour-price was due for the insult or assault.
Yet another clause in these canons seems to show that not only the coirp-dire of seven cumhals was familiar to the makers of the canons, but also the honour-price.
In the Brehon Laws the honour-price was payable for breach of a chieftain’s protection, and in the case of the Ri-tuaith or kingly chieftain of a Tuath the honour-price was, as we have seen, seven cumhals. And so also was that of the bishop of the church in his territory.[88]
‘Honour-price’ of a bishop or king seven ancillæ.
Accordingly, in the following clause in the canons the bishop is put in the same position as a king, with what was practically an honour-price of seven ancillæ:—
Patricius dicit: Omnis qui ausus fuerit ea quæ sunt regis vel episcopi aut scribæ furari aut rapere aut aliquod in eos committere, parvipendens dispicere, VII. ancillarum pretium reddat aut VII. annis peniteat cum episcopo vel scriba.
Patricius dicit: Every one who shall dare to steal anything belonging to a king or bishop or scribe, or to take away from or commit anything against them heedlessly, shall pay the price of seven ancillæ or do penance for seven years with a bishop or scribe.[89]
So that, though it is not very easy to put an exact date upon these canons, they seem clearly to adopt and confirm for ecclesiastical persons the Irish coirp-dire of seven ancillæ, and the highest honour-price also of seven ancillæ. And further the ancilla of these canons was, it appears, of the same silver value as the cumhal of the Brehon Laws.