deeds, and found it in those passages of Scripture which speak with
approval of the powers of punishment committed to the civil
magistrate. The New Testament was appealed to as proving that secular
rulers exist for the terror of evildoers; the Old Testament, as laying
down that "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be
shed." There can be no doubt, I imagine, that modern ideas on the
subject of crime are based upon two assumptions contended for by the
Church in the Dark Ages--first, that each feudal ruler, in his degree,
might be assimilated to the Roman Magistrates spoken of by Saint Paul;
and next, that the offences which he was to chastise were those
selected for prohibition in the Mosaic Commandments, or rather such of
them as the Church did not reserve to her own cognisance. Heresy
(supposed to be included in the First and Second Commandments),
Adultery, and Perjury were ecclesiastical offences, and the Church
only admitted the co-operation of the secular arm for the purpose of
inflicting severer punishment in cases of extraordinary
aggravation. At the same time, she taught that murder and robbery with
their various modifications were under the jurisdiction of civil
rulers, not as an accident of their position but by the express
ordinance of God.

There is a passage in the writings of King Alfred (Kemble, ii. 209)
which brings out into remarkable clearness the struggle of the various
ideas that prevailed in his day as to the origin of criminal
jurisdiction. It will be seen that Alfred attributes it partly to the
authority of the Church and partly to that of the Witan, while he
expressly claims for treason against the lord the same immunity from
ordinary rules which the Roman Law of Majestas had assigned to treason
against the Caesar. "After this it happened," he writes, "that many
nations received the faith of Christ, and there were many synods
assembled throughout the earth, and among the English race also after
they had received the faith of Christ, both of holy bishops and of
their exalted Witan. They then ordained that, out of that mercy which
Christ had taught, secular lords, with their leave, might without sin
take for every misdeed the _bot_ in money which they ordained; except
in cases of treason against a lord, to which they dared not assign any
mercy because Almighty God adjudged none to them that despised Him,
nor did Christ adjudge any to them which sold Him to death; and He
commanded that