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Various. Legal Lore: Curiosities of Law and Lawyers
Legal Lore: Curiosities of Law and Lawyers
Table of Contents
Preface
Bible Law
Sanctuaries
Trials in Superstitious Ages
On Symbols
Law under the Feudal System
The Manor and Manor Law
Ancient Tenures
Laws of the Forest
Trial by Jury in Old Times
Barbarous Punishments
Trials of Animals
Devices of the Sixteenth Century Debtors
Laws Relating to the Gipsies
Commonwealth Law and Lawyers
Cock-Fighting in Scotland
Fatal Links
Post-Mortem Trials
Island Laws
The Little Inns of Court
Obiter
Index
Отрывок из книги
Various
Published by Good Press, 2022
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The system was one that led to gross abuse. It was held that the right did not extend to others than those whose offences entailed forfeiture of life and limb, but in practice knavish debtors, fraudulent executors, etc., availed themselves of the protection. There was plenty of scope for dispute as to jurisdiction. In 1427, the Abbot of Beaulieu was required to give proof of his right to shelter William Wawe, who is described as a heretic, traitor, common highwayman and public robber. “Wille Wawe was hanged,” is the sum of the matter as recorded by Stowe. Between 1478 and 1539, at Durham, 283 persons took refuge who were, as principals or accessories, accused of homicide. There were sixteen debtors, four horse-stealers, nine cattle-stealers, and four house-breakers. One had been charged with rape, and seven with theft. One had been backward in his accounts, one had harboured a thief, and one had failed to prosecute. Sir John Holland, in revenge for the death of his esquire, killed the son and heir of Hugh, second Earl of Stafford, and then took sanctuary at Beverley. The murderer, in this case, was the half-brother of Richard II., but it was with great difficulty that the king was induced to grant a pardon.
The church of St. John of Beverley had a charter from Athelstan, and near the altar was the Fridstool, or chair of peace, “to which what criminal soever flies hath full protection.” The privilege extended for a radius of about a mile round the minster, and the limits were marked by stone crosses. Infraction of the right of sanctuary was punishable by severe penalties, and to take a refugee from the Fridstool was to incur both secular and ecclesiastical penalties, the latter extending to excommunication.[2]
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