the king [w]; and that no criminal
shall be killed who flies to the church, or any of the king's towns
[x]; and the king himself declares, that his house shall give no
protection to murderers, till they have satisfied the church by their
penance, and the kindred of the deceased, by making compensation [y].
The method appointed for transacting this composition is found in the
same law [z].
[FN [u] LL. Edm. Sec. 1. Wilkins, p. 73. [w] LL. Edm. Sec. 3. [x]
Ibid. Sec. 2. [y] Ibid. Sec. 4. [z] Ibid Sec. 7.]

These attempts of Edmond, to contract and diminish the feuds, were
contrary to the ancient spirit of the northern barbarians, and were a
step towards a more regular administration of justice. By the Salic
law, any man might, by a public declaration, exempt himself from his
family quarrels: but then he was considered by the law as no longer
belonging to the family; and he was deprived of all right of
succession, as the punishment of his cowardice [a].
[FN [a] Tit. 63.]

The price of the king's head, or his weregild, as it was then called,
was by law thirty thousand thrimsas, near thirteen hundred pounds of
present money. The price of the prince's head was fifteen thousand
thrimsas; that of a bishop's or alderman's, eight thousand; a
sheriff's four thousand; a thane's or clergyman's, two thousand; a
ceorle's, two hundred and sixty-six. These prices were fixed by the
laws of the Angles. By the Mercian law, the price of a ceorle's head
was two hundred shillings; that of a thane's six times as much; that
of a king's six times more [b]. By the laws of Kent, the price of the
archbishop's head was higher than that of the king's [c]. Such
respect was then paid to the ecclesiastics! It must be understood,
that where a person was unable or unwilling to pay the fine, he was
put out of the protection of law, and the kindred of the deceased had
liberty to punish him as they thought proper.
[FN [b] Wilkins, p. 71, 72. [c] LL. Elthredi, apud Wilkins, p. 110.]

Some antiquarians [d] have thought, that these compensations were only
given for manslaughter, not for wilful murder: but no such distinction
appears in the laws; and it is contradicted by the practice of all the
other barbarous nations [e], by that of the ancient Germans [f], and
by that curious monument above mentioned, a Saxon antiquity, preserved
by Hickes. There is indeed a law of Alfred's, which makes wilful
murder capital [g]; but this seems only to have b