[2]. It has been said that imprisonment is not mentioned in Anglo-Saxon laws as a punishment; it is, however, referred to in the laws of Æthelstan thus: “For murder let a man forfeit his life, if he will deny it and appear guilty at the threefold ordeal let him be 120 nights in prison; afterwards let his relations take him out and pay the king 120 shillings and to his relatives the price of his blood....” See J. Johnson, Ecclesiastical Laws. London, 1720. The same king ordained that “If a thief be brought into prison that he be 40 days in prison and then let him be released thereout with cxx. shillings and let his kindred enter into borh for him that he will ever more desist.”—B. Thorpe, Ancient Laws and Institutions of England, fol. ed. p. 85. London, 1840.
[3]. “In the reign of Henry III. imprisonment for a definite period was an unknown punishment.”—G. J. Turner, Select Pleas of the Forest, p. lxv. London, 1901.
[4]. “Imprisonment occurs in the Anglo-Saxon Laws only as a means of temporary security.”—Pollock and Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, vol. i. p. 26. Cambridge, 1895.
[5]. “In the nature of the Saxons in the most ancient times there existed neither a knowledge of the most high and heavenly King ... nor any dignity of honour of any earthly king....”—W. Stubbs, Const. Hist. p. 49. Oxford, 1880.
[6]. Ibid. p. 75.
[7]. “Nihil neque publicae neque privatae rei nisi armati agunt.”—Tac. Germ. xiii.
[8]. Among the Jutes, etc., see J. M. Lappenberg, Hist. of Eng. under the Anglo-Saxon Kings, i. p. 97. London, 1845. The Anglo-Saxon lad came of age at twelve; see work just quoted, p. 173, and J. Thrupp, The Anglo-Saxon Home, p. 108. London, 1862.
[9]. The exceptions to this wise though primitive rule are to be found where occasionally “God” and even “Nature” would be cited as injured third parties, upon theological grounds. See, for instance, N. Marshall, Penitential Discipline of the Primitive Church, pp. 49, 190, Oxford, 1844; and the thirteenth-century Mirror of Justice, chap. xiv.
[10]. “To keep the peace is the legislator’s first object, and it is not easy. To force the injured man or the slain man’s kinsfolk to accept a money compensation instead of resorting to reprisals is the main aim of the law-giver.”—F. W. Maitland, Constitutional History of England, p. 4. Cambridge, 1908.
[11]. Thus in the Laws of the XII. Tables the manifest thief would be killed if a slave, or if free become the bondman of the person robbed; if, however, he were captured later, he had to refund double the value of what he had taken. By the Germanic codes a thief might be instantly chased and then hanged or decapitated, but fines for homicide would be imposed if he were slain after an interval. Henry Maine, Ancient Law, ed. of 1906, pp. 387, 388.