Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 384

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Volume 2, Page 384

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[001] as the character of the offence demands, according as it is serious or slight, [or]
[002] exile for crime and ¹lata fuga, as exclusion from all places except [a certain place]²
[003] forever, or deportation to an island,³ forever or for a time, which may be termed
[004] abjuration of the realm or outlawry. If one so exiled has not complied with the
[005] exile⁴ he is punished by capital punishment,⁵ that is, if he returns without license
[006] after being so exiled.

Of homicide through misadventure and accident.

[008] Of accidental homicide.⁶ [Accidental homicide], which was touched upon above,⁷
[009] may be committed in many ways, as where one intending to cast a spear at a
[010] wild beast [or does something of the sort, as⁸ where playing with a companion he
[011] has struck him in thoughtless jest, or when he stood far off when he drew his bow or
[012] threw a stone he has struck a man he did not see, or where playing with a ball it has
[013] struck the hand of a barber he did not see so that he has cut another's throat,⁹ and
[014] thus] has killed a man, not however with the intention of killing him; he ought to
[015] be absolved,¹⁰ because a crime is not committed unless the intention to injure exists,¹¹
[016] ¹²<It is will and purpose which mark maleficia,¹³ nor is a theft committed unless there
[017] is an intent to steal.>¹⁴ as may be said of a child or a madman, since the absence of
[018] intention protects the one and the unkindness of fate excuses the other.¹⁵ In crimes
[019] the intention is regarded, not the result.¹⁶ It does not matter whether one slays or
[020] furnishes the cause of death.¹⁷ But here we distinguish between true cause [and
[021] cause in] misadventure, by¹⁸ animals which lack reason,¹⁹ or other movable things,²⁰
[022] which provide the occasio, as a ship, a tree that crushes and the like. Properly
[023] speaking stationary things, as a house or a rooted tree, provide neither the cause
[024] nor the occasion, [nor do moving things sometimes,²¹ neither a ship nor a boat in
[025] salt water, though it may in fresh,²² by mishandling,] but he who conducts himself
[026] stupidly, as in many other cases.

Of those who are arrested: that they ought not to be despoiled of their goods but receive sustenance therefrom.

[028] He who is arrested and imprisoned or kept in custody for a crime or a major felony,
[029] such as homicide, ought not to be despoiled of his goods or disseised of his lands²³
[030] but ought to be sustained by them until

Notes

1-2. D. 48.22.5: ‘aut lata fuga, ut omnium locorum interdicatur praeter certum locum, aut insulae vinculum’; ‘ut’ for ‘et; om: ‘et’

3. D. 48.22.6

4. D. 48.19.4

5. D. 48.19.28.13

6. Rubric

7. Supra 341

8. ‘ut’ for ‘vel’

9. D. 9.2.11.pr.

10. D. 48.8.1.3: ‘Divus Hadrianus rescripsit eum qui hominem occidat si non occidendi animo absolvi posse’

11. Azo, Summa Inst. 1.1, no 2; C. 9.16.1.1

12. Supra i, 388

13. Supra 23, 289, 290, 375

14. Inst. 4.1.7; supra 290, infra 425

15. D. 48.8.12: ‘Infans vel furiosus si hominem occiderint lege Cornelia non tenentur, cum alterum innocentia consilii tuetur, alterum fati infelicitas excusat.’; ‘fati,’ as D

16. D. 48.8.14

17. D. 48.8.15: ‘Nihil interest, occidat quis an causam mortis praebeat.’

18. ‘ab’

19. Supra 379, infra 424

20. ‘moventibus’ for ‘inanimatis’

21. Reading: ‘neque res moventes (for ‘nec equus multotiens’) quandoque’; Fleta, i, ca. 25; Hunnisett, Medieval Coroner, 32; Maitland has read this passage differently: P. and M., ii, 474, n.

22. Supra 344, 380

23. D. 48.20.2; supra 346