THE

CHAP. IV.

Adultery.

IV.

HE criminal intercourse between the fexes is C H A P.. not punished among us as a public wrong committed against the general peace and order of fociety. No perfonal punishments, and no criminal profecutions can be directed against it, although the most trifling affault and the most inconfiderable misdemeanor are liable to fuch confequences. It is confidered by us, if unaccompanied by force, merely as a matter of civil injury, for which the individual must bring an action and get what damages he can; and even this right of action is limited to hufbands and fathers, and the latter fues under the guife of a fiction, pretending to have. fuftained an injury by having loft the service of his daughter.

OUR Saxon legiflators did not leave the punishment of this intercourfe to the will and judgment of individuals. But they enacted penalties against it as a public wrong, always punishable when it occurred. In the amount of the penalty, however, they followed one of the great principles of their criminal legislation, and varied it according to the rank of the female. The offence with a king's maiden incurred a payment as high as to kill a freeman, which was fifty fhillings; with his grind

• Wilk. p. 2.

BOOK ing fervant half that fum, and with his third fort twelve fhillings.

>

V.

WITH an earl's cupbearer the penalty was twelve fhillings, which was the fame that attached if a man killed another in an earl's town. With a ceorle's cupbearer fix fhillings was the fine, fifty fcættas for his other servant, and thirty for his fervant of the third kind 2.

EVEN the poor fervile efne was protected in his domeftic happiness. To invade his connubial rights incurred the penalty of a double compenfation3.

.

FORCIBLE Violation was chaftifed more feverely. If the fufferer was a widow, the offender paid twice the value of her mundbyrd. If fhe were a maiden, fifty fhillings were to be paid to her owner, whether father or master, and the invader of her chastity was alfo to buy her for his wife at the will of her owner. If the was betrothed to another in money, he was to pay twenty fhillings; and if she was pregnant, in addition to a penalty of thirty-five fhillings, a further fine of fifteen fhillings was to be paid to the king.

THE next laws fubjected adulterers to ecclesiastical cenfure and excommunication, and enjoined. the banishment of foreigners who would not abandon fuch connections. The pecuniary penalties were alfo augmented.

THE laws remained in this ftate till the time of Alfred, when some new modifications of connection were introduced. He governed the punishment of adultery by the rank of the hufband. If 3 Ib. p. 7. 4 lb. p. 7. 5 Ib. p. 10.

2 Wilk. p. 3.

IV.

he was a twelf hind-man the offender paid one hun- CHA P. dred and twenty fhillings. If a fyxhynd-man, one hundred fhillings. If a ceorle, forty fhillings. This was to be paid in live property, but no man was to be perfonally fold for it ".

BUT the most curious part of Alfred's regulations on this fubject was the refinement with which he diftinguished the different fteps of the progress towards the completion of the crime. To handle the neck of a ceorle's wife incurred a fine of five fhillings. To throw her down, without further confequences, occafioned a penalty of ten fhillings; and for a subsequent commiffion of the crime, fixty fhillings".

BUT as we now allow the previous misconduct of the wife to mitigate the amount of the damages paid by the adulterer; fo Alfred and his witan provided that if the wife had tranfgreffed before, the fines of her paramour were to be reduced an half s.

FOR the rape of a ceorle's flave five fhillings were to be paid the owner, and fixty fhillings for the wite. But the violence of a theow on a fellow flave was punished by a perfonal mutilation".

BOOK
V.

A

CHAP. V.

The Were and the Mund.

S the Were and the Mund are expreffions which occur frequently in the Saxon laws, it may be useful to explain what they mean.

EVERY man had the protection of a were and the privilege of a mund. The WERE was the legal valuation of an individual, varying according to his fituation in life.

IF he was killed, it was the fum his murderer had to pay for the crime-if he committed crimes himself, it was the penalty which, in many cafes, he had to discharge.

THE were was therefore the penalty by which his fafety was guarded, and his crimes prevented or punished. If he violated certain laws, it was his legal mulct; if he were himself attacked, it was the penalty inflicted on others. Hence it became the measure and mark of a man's perfonal rank and confequence, because its amount was exactly regulated by his condition in life.

THE King's were geld or were payment was thirty thousand thrymfas, or one hundred and twenty pounds; an etheling's was fifteen thoufand; a bishop and ealderman's eight thousand; a holde's and heh-gerefa's four thoufand; a thegn two thoufand, or twelve hundred fhillings; a ceorle's two hundred and fixty-fix thrymfas, or two hundred fhillings, unless he had five hides of land at the king's expeditions, and then his were became that

V.

of a thegn. The were of a twelfhynd man was c HAP. one hundred and twenty fhillings, of a fyx hynd man was eighty fhillings, and of a twy hynd man thirty fhillings'.

A Welchman's were who had fome land, and paid gafol to the king, was two hundred and twenty fhillings; if he had only half a hide of land, it was eighty fhillings; and if he had no land, but was free, it was seventy fhillings.

THE amount of a perfon's were determined even the degree of his legal credibility. The oath of a twelfhind man was equal to the oaths of fix ceorles; and if revenge was taken for the murder of a twelfhynd man it might be wrecked on fix ceorles 3.

To be deprived of this were was the punishment of fome crimes, and then the individual lost his greatest focial protection.

THE MUNDBYRD was a right of protection or patronage which individuals poffeffed for their own benefit and that of others. The violation of it towards themselves, or those whom it sheltered, was punished with a feverity, varying according to the rank of the patron. The king's mundbyrd was guarded by a penalty of fifty fhillings. That of a widow of an earle's condition was equally protected, while the mund of the widow of the fecond fort was valued at twenty fhillings, of the third fort at twelve fhillings, and of the fourth fort at fix fhillings. If a widow was taken away against her confent, the compenfation was to be twice her mund. The penalty of violating a ceorl's mund

Wilkins, p. 71, 72. 25.

Ib.

3 Ib.