Antioch, where she was exposed to wild beasts, then fastened to bulls in order that she might be torn asunder, and finally thrown into a pit full of serpents; but she was delivered from all these perils. She converted many heathen. Returning to Iconium, she withdrew into a mountain solitude, and became distinguished by many virtues and miracles. In spite of their highly fabulous character, which caused them to be more than once condemned by the Church, the Acta of Paul and Thecla, which date back to the 2nd century, are among the most interesting monuments of ancient Christian literature.
See Acta Sanctorum, September, vi. 546–568; J. A. Lipsius, Acta apostolorum apocrypha (Leipzig, 1891), i. 235-269; C. Schmidt, Acta Pauli (Leipzig, 1905), where an attempt is made to prove that the Acta of Paul and Thecla formed an integral part of the Acta Pauli; see also Apocryphal Literature. W. M. Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire before A.D. 170 (London, 1893), pp. 375 seq.; C. Holzey, Die Thekla-Akten, ihre Verbreitung und Beurtheilung in der Kirche (Munich, 1905). (H. De.)
THEFT, the act of thieving or stealing. In English legal usage the practice is to call this act by its Norman-French
name of “larceny,” but properly theft is a wider term including
other forms of wrongful deprivation of the property of another
(see Larceny).
The O.E. word peofðe or biefðe is formed from peof, thief or peofian, to thieve, cf. Ger. Dieb, Du. dief, Goth. thiubs. The origin is not known. It may be related to Lithuanian tupēti, to crouch or squat down; thus “thief” would mean “one who hides himself.” The O.E. stelan, to steal, appears also in other Tent. languages, cf. Du. stelen. Swed. stjäla, Goth, stillan, &c. It has been doubtfully connected with Gr. στερεῖν, to deprive.
THEGN, or Thane, an Anglo-Saxon word meaning an attendant, servant, retainer or official, and cognate with Gr. τέκνον, a child. From the first, however, it had a military significance, and its usual Latin translation was miles, although minister was often used. J. Bosworth (Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, new ed. by T. N. Toller) describes a thegn as “one engaged in a king’s or a queen’s service, whether in the household or in the country,” and adds, “the word in this case seems gradually to acquire a technical meaning, and to become a term denoting a class, containing, however, several degrees.” The precursor of the thegn was the gesīth, the companion of the king or great lord, the member of his comitatus, and the word thegn began to be used to describe a military gesīth. It is only used once in the laws before the time of Aethelstan (c. 895–940), but more frequently in the charters. H. M. Chadwick (Studies on Anglo-Saxon Institutions, 1905) says that “the sense of subordination must have been inherent in the word from the earliest time,” but it has no connexion with the German dienen, to serve. In the course of time it extended its meaning and was more generally used. The thegn became a member of a territorial nobility, and the dignity of thegnhood was attainable by those who fulfilled certain conditions. Thus from a document of uncertain date, possibly about the time of Alfred the Great, and translated by Stubbs (Select Charters) as “Of people’s ranks and laws,” we learn:—“And if a ceorl throve, so that he had fully five hides of his own land, church and kitchen, bell-house and burh-gate-seat, and special duty in the king’s hall, then was he thenceforth of thegn-right worthy.” And again—“And if a merchant throve, so that he fared thrice over the wide sea by his own means, then was he thenceforth of thegn-right worthy.” In like manner a successful thegn might hope to become an earl. In addition to the thegns there were others who were thegns on account of their birth, and thus thegnhood was partly inherited and partly acquired. The thegn was inferior to the aethel, the member of a kingly family, but he was superior to the ceorl, and, says Chadwick, “from the time of Aethelstan the distinction between thegn and ceorl was the broad line of demarcation between the classes of society.” His status is shown by his wergild. Over a large part of England this was fixed at 1200 shillings, or six times that of the ceorl. He was the twelfhynde man of the laws, sharply divided from the twyhynde man or ceorl.
The increase in the number of thegns produced in time a subdivision of the order. There arose a class of king’s thegns, corresponding to the earlier thegns, and a larger class of inferior thegns, some of them the thegns of bishops or of other thegns. A king’s thegn was a person of great importance, the contemporary idea being shown by the Latin translation of the words as comes. He had certain special privileges. No one save the king had the right of jurisdiction over him, while by a law of Canute we learn that he paid a larger heriot than an ordinary thegn.
But, like all other words of the kind, the word thegn was slowly changing its meaning, and, as Stubbs says (Const. Hist., vol. i.), “the very name, like that of the gesith, has different senses in different ages and kingdoms, but the original idea of military service runs through all the meanings of thegn, as that of personal association is traceable in all the applications of gesith.” After the Norman Conquest the thegns appear to have been merged in the class of knights.
The twelve senior thegns of the hundred play a part, the nature of which is rather doubtful, in the development of the English system of justice. By a law of Aethelred they “seem to have acted as the judicial committee of the court for the purposes of accusation” (W. S. Holdsworth, History of English Law, vol. i. 1903), and thus they have some connexion with the grand jury of modern times.
The word thane was used in Scotland until the 15th century, to describe an hereditary non-military tenant of the crown. (A. W. H.*)
THEINNI, or Hsenwi, one of the Northern Shan States of
Burma. It is called by the Shans Hsenwi, and also officially
so designated, but is better known by the Burmanized name of
Theinni. It was by far the largest of the cis-Salween Shan
states, and at one time included not only all the territory of the
present states of North and South Hsenwi, but also Kehsi
Mansam, Möng Hsu, Möng Sang, and Möng Nawng, besides
having a sort of protectorate over Mang Lön and other Wa
states east of the Salween. These had, however, fallen awayin
Burmese times, and at the period before the British annexation
Theinni was divided into five parts by name; but there was no
central authority, and the whole state was in hopeless disorder.
This continued until the appearance of British troops in March
1888, when it was divided into two states—North Theinni,
which was assigned to a successful adventurer, Hkun Sang, of
Tôn Hông, and South Theinni, which went to Nawmöng, of
the old Shan ruling house. North Theinni has an area of 6330
sq. m., and a population (1901) of 118,325 persons; estimated
revenue, £6000 South Theinni has an area of 2400 sq. m.,
with a population (in 1901) of 67,836; estimated revenue
£4800.
The northern part of North Theinni is a mass of hills affected by the geological fault which has produced the rift that forms the Nam Tu or Myit-ngè valley, and has thrown up a series of parallel ranges which extend northwards to the Shweli (Lung Kiang), without altogether destroying the north and south trend which is the characteristic of the Shan hills as a whole. In the valleys between these hills are numerous tracts under rice cultivation, some circular or oval, some mere ribands along the river banks. The southern portion has much more flat land, along the line of the Nam Tu, its tributaries the Nam Yao and the Nam Nim, and the Nam Yek flowing into the Salween. This was formerly thickly populated, and still remains the most valuable portion of the state. A range running westwards from the Salween, and marking the southern border of the rift in the hills, divides North from South Theinni. Both north and south of the Nam Tu there are many peaks which rise to 6000 ft., and several over 7000 ft; The northern portion is almost consistent enough in its altitude of about 4000 ft. to be called a plateau. It has large, grassy, upland downs. This part of the state has fallen almost entirely into the hands of the Kachins. The Shans are found in the Nam Mao (Shweli or Lung Klang) valley, and in the Nam Tu and other valleys in the southern part of the state. The line of the Nam Mao is the lowest portion of North Theinni, being little over 2000 ft. above sea-level. The southern valleys are about 500 or more ft. higher. South Theinni is practically bisected by the huge mass of Loi’ Ling, nearly 9000 ft. above sea-level, and by the spurs which that peak sends north and south. Apart from this it consists of broken hill-country of no great height, or open rolling downs, the latter chiefly in the eastern half of the state. It is watered by numerous streams, of which the chief is the Nam Pang, an affluent of the Salween. The chief river in the northern state, apart from the Salween, is the Nam
