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[001] either be put to death or abjure the realm or the patria, the county, city, borough
 [002] or vill, or let him be flogged and after such flogging released.

If stolen property is found in another's possession.


 [004] 1If stolen property is found in someone's hand or within his potestas, he in whose
 [005] house or potestas the stolen property has been found will then be held liable, unless he
 [006] finds a warrantor to defend him with respect to it,

If a wife is held liable for her husband's theft.


 [008] but his wife will not be held liable because it is not she who has it within her potestas
 [009] but her husband.2 [A wife ought not to accuse her husband nor disclose his theft or
 [010] felony,3 but neither ought she to assent to it or act as his confederate; she ought
 [011] to keep him as best she can from felony and wickedness.] In certain cases of theft,
 [012] however, she will be held liable, 4where the stolen property is found under her
 [013] keys, for a wife ought to have those keys in her care and custody, namely, the
 [014] keys of her store-room, her chest and her cupboard,5 and if any stolen property is
 [015] found locked up under the said keys she and her husband will be guilty. But what
 [016] if the stolen property is found in the wife's hands? Will not the husband be liable?
 [017] Not, it is submitted, unless he has expressly consented, as where,6 when she has
 [018] vouched him to warranty he has warranted the thing to her. He is presumed to
 [019] consent unless he expressly dissents, or unless there is a presumption that he is
 [020] law-abiding, since he had eschewed the company of his wife as much as he could.

Where [the wife] has joined7 with her husband.


 [022] What will happen if the wife has joined7 with her husband or has confessed that
 [023] she gave her husband counsel and aid? Will not both be held liable? Certainly, for
 [024] it is evident that the husband alone may be held liable, when he is a bad man, and
 [025] his wife, who may be good and law-abiding, discharged. [Conversely], the wife
 [026] alone may be bad and the husband law-abiding. Thus since each alone may be bad
 [027] and the other good, both together and conjoined may be bad as well as good. 8The
 [028] wife must therefore not be discharged in every case, because of counsel, aid and
 [029] consent. Since they are partners in crime they will be partners in punishment. And
 [030] though she ought to obey her husband she need not be obedient to him in heinous
 [031] deeds. A husband may bind and hold, and a wife freely and without coercion slay,
 [032] and thus, as is evident, both are liable for the crime. 9But a concubine or housemaid

Notes

1. Inst. Cnuti, 23; Liebermann, i, 327: ‘Si latrocinium invenitur in manu vel in potestate alicuius’

2. ‘quia ipsa sub potestate non habuerit sed vir,’ from lines 10-11

3. ‘Virum accusare ... neque feloniam,’ from lines 9-10; om: ‘cum’

4-5. Inst. Cnuti, (76); Liebermann, i, 363-5; Richardson in Traditio xiv, 399

6. ‘ut (for ‘vel’) si’

7. ‘coniuncta’

7. ‘coniuncta’

8. New paragraph

9. A continuation of the passage in brackets above

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