[498]. Beda, Hist. Eccl. iv. 22.
[499]. “Twelfhyndes mannes áð forstent syx ceorla áð; forðám gif man ðone twelfhyndan man wrecan sceolde, he hið full wrecen on syx ceorlum, and his wergyld bið syx ceorla wergyld.” Oaths, § 12. Thorpe, i. 182.
[500]. The technical term is, to set up the king’s protection, “cyninges munde rǽran.” Eádw. and Guð. § 13. Eádm. ii. § 7. Thorpe, i. 174, 250. This is the engagement of the State that the arbitrament shall be peaceably made, and it at once abrogates all right of feud, and fear of violent revenge.
[501]. “Suscipere tam inimicitias seu patris seu propinqui quam amicitias necesse est. Nec implacabiles durant; luitur enim etiam homicidium certo armentorum ac pecorum numero, recipitque satisfactionem universa domus: utiliter in publicum; quia periculosiores sunt inimicitiae iuxta libertatem.” Germ. xxii. “Sed et levioribus delictis [including homicide] pro modo poenarum equorum pecorumque numero convicti multantur. Pars multae regi vel civitati, pars ipsi qui vindicatur, vel propinquis eius exsolvitur.” Ibid. xii.
[502]. The Saxon law says, in accordance with the universal law of nature and society, “A man may fight, without incurring the penalty of raising war, against him whom he finds with his wedded wife, within closed doors, or under one covering; or, with his daughter lawfully born, or with his sister lawfully born, or with his mother, who was given to his father as his wedded wife.” In these cases there is, and can be, no murder before the law. It is needless to show from the history and traditions of every European state, that this is a principle universally recognized.
[503]. Leg. Eádw. Conf. xii. Thorpe, i. 447.
[504]. Probably, “Let him, forfeit all claim to the assistance of his kinsmen, either in repelling feud or paying fine.”
[505]. Ælfr. § 42. I have slightly varied the form of expression in the last sentences, on account of the difficulty of rendering the adjective orwige. Ælfred says in these cases a man may fight orwige, literally, without incurring the guilt of making war, without becoming obnoxious to the penalties assigned to the crime of war-raising.
[506]. A forfeiture of this kind is recorded in the Codex Diplomaticus, Nos. 714, 719, 1304. A lady had harboured her brother, while an outlaw for murder. Her lands were all forfeited and given to the king.
[507]. Eádm. Sec. Leg. § 1. Thorpe, i. 246.