“peccatum illud horribile, inter chriſtianos non nominandum[1].” A taciturnity obſerved likewiſe by the edict of Conſtantius and Conſtans[2]; “ubi ſcelus eſt id, quod non proficit ſcire, jubemus inſurgere leges, armari jura gladio ultore, ut exquiſitis poenis ſubdantur infames, qui ſunt, vel qui futuri ſunt, rei.” Which leads me to add a word concerning it's puniſhment.
This the voice of nature and of reaſon, and the expreſs law of God[3], determine to be capital. Of which we have a ſignal instance, long before the Jewiſh diſpenſation, by the deſtruction of two cities by fire from heaven: ſo that this is an univerſal, not merely a provincial, precept. And our antient law in ſome degree imitated this puniſhment, by commanding ſuch miſcreants to be burnt to death[4]; though Fleta[5] ſays they ſhould be buried alive: either of which puniſhments was indifferently uſed for this crime among the antient Goths[6]. But now the general puniſhment of all felonies is the ſame, namely, by hanging: and this offence (being in the times of popery only ſubject to eccleſiaſtical cenſures) was made felony without benefit of clergy by ſtatute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 6. revived and confirmed by 5 Eliz. c. 17. And the rule of law herein is, that, if both are arrived at years of diſcretion, agentes et conſentientes pari poena plectantur[7].
These are all the felonious offences, more immediately againſl the perſonal ſecurity of the ſubject. The inferior offences, or miſdemeſnors, that fall under this head, are aſſaults, batteries, wounding, falſe impriſonment, and kidnapping.
V, VI, VII. With regard to the nature of the three firſt of theſe offences in general, I have nothing farther to add to what has already been obſerved in the preceding book of theſe com-
