189 
punished by a fine or mulct. ‘ Whoever killed an archbishop or a 
** duke was fined no more than 15,000 thrysmas or groats, (about 
“ £250. sterling.) The parricide of a bishop and the killing of 
“* an earl was taxed at only 8,000 groats. A viscount’s life was 
“* compensated by half that sum. The blood of a baron was esti- 
“ mated at 2000 groats, which was also the fine and only punish- 
““ ment for murdering a simple priest. Whoever killed any other 
“ plain man, within the twelve days of Christmas, on the Sundays of 
** Easter and Pentecost, on Ascension Thursday, or on the festivals 
* of the Purification, Assumption and Nativity of the Blessed Vir- 
“ gin Mary, or on the day of All Saints, was punished with a fine 
“ of 40 shillings. Rape, robbery, and theft, were also punished 
** with 40 shillings fine.’* 
In the laws of William the Conqueror (being the same, as the 
title imports, which Edward the Confessor observed before him), 
we find the following : 
“ Ifone man kills another, and confesses it, yet refuses to pay 
the usual compensation, there shall be given out of his manbote 
to the lord, for a freeman ten shillings, and for a villain twenty 
shillings.—The were of a Thane in the Mercian and West Saxon 
laws is twenty pounds, and by the same laws the were of a villain 
“ is one hundred shillings.” 
“ As to the were; for one who was of noble extraction, let 
there be paid to the widow and orphans X°. and let the orphans 
“ and the kindred divide the remainder between them.’’+- 
“ Where a Frenchman is killed, and the men of the hundred do 
“ not apprehend the murderer and bring him to justice within 
eight days, so as that it may appear who committed the murder, 
they shall pay in the name of murder 47 marks.” 
a 
Y 
* Leg. Athelsst. Reg. de diversis occisorum sanguinis pretiis. 
+ Laws of William the Conqueror, published by Kelham, p. p. 25, 27- 
+ Ibid, page 47. 
