VII. A Person Guilty of Crime shall Receive the Sentence of the Law not Secretly, but in Public.

When a judge inflicts the death penalty upon a criminal, he shall execute the sentence of the law not in secret and retired places, but publicly, in the sight of all.

TITLE V. CONCERNING FORGERS OF DOCUMENTS.

I.Concerning those who Forge Royal Orders and Mandates.
II.Concerning those who Forge Documents, or Attempt to Forge Them.
III.Concerning those who Forge, or Serve, False Orders in the Name of the King, or a Judge.
IV.Concerning those who Falsify a Will against the Consent of a Party while Living, or Disclose the Contents of the Same.
V.Concerning those who Attempt to Forge or Conceal the Will of a Person Already Deceased.
VI.Where Anyone Assumes a Fictitious Name, or Adopts a False Lineage or Relationship.
VII.Concerning Documents Fraudulently Dated, Prior to their Execution.
VIII.Concerning Later Documents Fraudulently Executed.
IX.Concerning those who Falsely Write, or Publish, Decrees and Edicts of the King.

I. Concerning those who Forge Royal Orders and Mandates.

Whoever shall change, impair the force of, omit something from, or interpolate anything into, any part of our royal decrees or mandates; or shall alter the date of the same; or shall make or attach a forged seal to any of them; if said person is of high rank, he shall forfeit half of all his property, and it shall be confiscated for the benefit of the royal treasury; if, however, he is a person of inferior station, he shall lose the hand with which he committed the crime. Where the judges, or other authorities before whom the hearing was to be had, or for whom the order of the king was intended, die; then either the bishop of the diocese, or any other bishop, or the judges of the territory adjacent to that affected by the order, shall have full authority to act in their stead; to promulgate the decree; and to make such disposition of the matter as, in their judgment, shall appear to be legal and just.

FLAVIUS CHINTASVINTUS, KING.

II. Concerning those who Forge Documents, or Attempt to Forge Them.

Whoever forges a document; or publishes it; or knowingly makes an addition to it; or produces it in court; or anyone who suppresses, abstracts, mutilates, impairs the force of, or changes, a genuine document; and whoever engraves, makes, or attaches a false seal, and is found guilty of such infamous crimes, shall, with all his abettors, lose the fourth part of their property, if they are persons of noble rank. If any person should steal, or deface a document belonging to another, and should afterwards confess, in the presence of the judge, that he had stolen or defaced said document, and this confession should be corroborated by witnesses, said testimony shall have the same force in law as the destroyed or defaced document would have, if it still existed in its integrity. But if the contents of the document cannot be shown with certainty, he who drew it up shall be permitted to prove by his own oath, or by a witness, what said document contained; and the testimony so given shall establish the contents of said document.

When the property of those who have been condemned is not sufficient to pay the fine prescribed by law, they, with such possessions as they have, shall be delivered up, as slaves, to those whom they have defrauded. He who sustained the injury or loss, shall receive, by order of the king or the judge, three quarters of the fourth part of the property hereinbefore mentioned; and the fourth part of the same shall be reserved for the king, to be disposed of at his royal pleasure. Persons of inferior rank, or of infamous character, who have been convicted of these offences, must sign a confession as hereinbefore provided; and shall forever be the slaves of those who suffered by their fraudulent acts. In addition to the above penalties, culprits of inferior, as well as of superior rank, shall receive a hundred lashes with the scourge. If a slave commits such an offence, and it should appear that he was influenced by other persons, all parties implicated in the crime, and who are proved to have either stolen, concealed, or mutilated, the document in question, shall become slaves forever to those who were injured by their unlawful acts. But if it should appear that said acts were committed under the orders of a master, he shall be responsible for all damages sustained. We also decree that this same rule shall apply to all who, for the sake of gain, either suppress or mutilate any documents belonging to others, with the view to inflicting upon them either loss or injury. Such persons also shall be considered forgers, and shall suffer the penalty hereinbefore provided, according to their rank.