Harvard Law School Library

Bracton Online -- English

Previous   Volume 2, Page 298  Next    

Go to Volume:      Page:    




[001] his person, as the crime of lese-majesty, or before justices specially assigned thereto
[002] if the matter concerns private persons. Power over the lives and members of men
[003] is in the king's hand,1 to protect or to punish when they do wrong, unless some
[004] private person enjoys the special liberty of having toll and team etc., as below.2
[005] Cognisance of the crime of lese-majesty belongs to the lord king and his crown, as
[006] an attempt on his life or the betrayal of his person, his realm or his army.3 Also
[007] the crime of forgery, which is of many kinds4 and may be committed in many
[008] ways, as where one counterfeits the royal seal, or coins false money, or makes bad
[009] money out of good,5 or wittingly connives with a forger. 6Also the fraudulent
[010] concealment of treasure trove [and] the plea of the king's peace broken.7 These are
[011] the major and more serious crimes because they principally affect the person of the
[012] king. There are crimes that are somewhat less serious, since they only partly
[013] concern the king, because of the breach of his peace, and partly the private
[014] individuals against whom the wrong is committed,8 as the crime of theft, robbery
[015] against the peace and wounding. Also the crime of homicide, whether accidental
[016] or intentional, though the two do not involve the same punishment since in one
[017] there is severity and in the other mercy.9 Also the crime of arson feloniously caused,
[018] the rape of a maiden or a nun or a chaste matron.10 Also robbery and imprisonment
[019] contrary to the peace and the imprisonment of a free man. All these involve
[020] corporal punishment, heavy or light depending upon whether the crimes are major
[021] or minor.11 Some involve the ultimate penalty, with greater pain and torture lest
[022] they die at once; sometimes that same penalty without torture.12 Some entail
[023] mutilation of members, some exile, permanent or temporary,13 [or] permanent or
[024] temporary imprisonment. Punishments were devised for the correction of men,14
[025] so that those whom the fear of God cannot turn from evil may at least be restrained
[026] by a temporal penalty.15 For God himself punishes men for their iniquity.

Of the kinds of punishments set upon men because of their iniquities.


[028] 16 The kinds of punishments visited upon malefactors are these. Some take away
[029] life or member; some entail the abjuration of a city, borough or county, others
[030] abjuration [of the realm], permanent or temporary, or bodily restraint, that is,
[031] imprisonment, for a time or for life. Others entail cudgelling,



Notes

1. Supra 283; infra 346, 412

2. Infra 346, 436

3. Glanvill, i, 1-2, xiv, 1; infra 334

4. Ibid., xiv, 7; infra 337

5. Cf. D. 13.7.24.1; infra 338

6-7. Glanvill i, 2; xiv, 2; infra 338

8. Infra 340

9. Infra 438

10. C. 9.13.1; Inst. 4.18.8; infra 415

11. Supra 290, infra 437

12. Infra 318-9

13. Infra 383; mutilation: C.R.R., xiii, no, 2782; blinding and emasculation: Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1247-58, 47 (1249)

14. D. 48.19.20: ‘quod poena constituitur in emendationem hominum’

15. Supra 20

16. Br. and Azo, 187-91

16-18. D. 48.19.6.2, 7-8 pr. (with minor omissions and additions); G’terbock, 167, Kantorowicz, 64-76


Contact: specialc@law.harvard.edu
Page last reviewed April 2003.
© 2003 The President and Fellows of Harvard College