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[001] the testicles which excited his hot lust. Punishment of this kind does not follow in
[002] the case of every woman, though she is forcibly ravished, but some other severe
[003] punishment does follow, according as she is married or a widow living a respectable
[004] life, a nun or a matron, a recognized concubine or a prostitute1 plying her trade
[005] without discrimination of person, all of whom the king must protect for the preservation
[006] of his peace, though a like punishment will not be imposed for each. In
[007] times past the defilers of virginity and chastity [suffered capital punishment],2 as
[008] did their abettors, 3since such men were not free of the crime of killing,6 especially
[009] since virginity and chastity cannot be restored,4 and since 7virgins and widows as
[010] well as nuns are dedicated to God [and] their defilement is committed not only to
[011] the hurt of mankind, but indeed, in scorn of Almighty God Himself, and [since]
[012] without punishment of this kind such infamy may not be put down.8 9But in modern
[013] times the practice is otherwise and for the defilement of a virgin they lose their
[014] members, as aforesaid, and their abettors suffer severe corporal punishment but
[015] without loss of life or members.]10 11She must go at once and while the deed is newly
[016] done, with the hue and cry, to the neighbouring townships and there show the injury
[017] done her to men of good repute, the blood and her clothing stained with blood, and
[018] her torn garments. And in the same way she ought to go to the reeve of the hundred,
[019] the king's serjeant, the coroners and the sheriff. And let her make12 her appeal at
[020] the first county court,13 unless she can at once make her complaint directly to the
[021] lord king or his justices, where she will be told to sue at the county court.14
[022] Let her appeal be enrolled in the coroners' rolls, every word of the appeal, exactly
[023] as she makes it, and the year and day on which she makes it.15 A day will be given
[024] [her] at the coming of the justices, on which let her again put forward her appeal
[025] before them, in the same words as she made it in the county court, from which she
[026] is not permitted to depart lest the appeal fall because of the variance, as is true in
[027] other appeals.16 The rule in this and in other appeals is this: let the appeal of the
[028] appellor be heard first and then the coroners' enrolment of that appeal as made in
[029] the county court;17 the reason for this is that if the coroners' rolls were read first
[030] the appellor could phrase her appeal accordingly. The words of the appeal are
[031] these:



Notes

1. ‘quaestuaria’

2. ‘mortis damnantur supplicio’, as C. 9.13.1. (pr.); so Thornton's Summa: Thorne in Univ. of Toronto L. Jour., vii, 17; cf. Woodbine in Yale L. Jour., lii, 435-6

3-4. C. 9.13.1 (pr.)

7-8. C. 19.13.1 (pr.): ‘et maxime si deo fuerint virgines vel viduae dedicatae (quod non solum ad iniuriam hominum, sed ad ipsius omnipotentis dei inreverentiam committur, maxime cum virginitas vel castitas corrupta restitui non potest): et merito mortis damnantur supplicio, cum nec ab homicidii crimine huiusmodi raptores sint vacui. Ne igitur sine vindicta talis crescat insania, sancimus per hanc generalem constitutionem . . .’

9-10. ‘Modernis . . . vitae vel membrorum’, from lines 9-12

11-13. Glanvill, xiv, 6 (continuing 414, n. 11): ‘Tenetur autem mulier quae tale quid patitur, mox dum recens fuerit maleficium vicinam villam adire et ibi iniuriam sibi illatam probis hominibus ostendere, et sanguinem si quis fuerit effusus et vestium scissiones. Dehinc apud praepositum hundredi idem faciat. Postea quoque in primo comitatu id publice proponat.’; om: ‘Cum ... regis,’ a connective; supra 345, 394-5

12. ‘faciat’

14. Supra 394

15. Supra 394, 395

16. Supra 395, 396

17. Ibid.


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