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First Commandment but an examination of the problematic effects of the transition towards the new legal framework in terms of practical application and communication. As the analysis shows, the priests’ growing practical experience in the examination of penitents in confession triggered a complex feedback effect. As a consequence, the imposition of legalism in the moral sphere appears more ambiguous and incomplete than the neat trajectory Bossy intimated. The problematic Ten Commandments Law codes, in as far as
instance, the threat of total confiscation (both of titles and inheritances) ensured absolute loyalty. From Alfred on, we can see changing notions of kingship and power in early medieval England. Charters narrativise how all land comes from the king with the possession of such lands demanding obligations. Moreover, the law codes reveal that the bonds between a king and his thane can be forever undone through especially heinous crimes. In numerous places, we also read that sovereigns revoke privileges and transfer ownership to fortify their realm. All this would suggest
direct manipulation of peasant life and their authority ranged from organizing village defence to creating surtaxes and conducting land-grabbing. They were very familiar with violence. In 1485, Le dynastic records already mentioned ‘epidemic local bullying’ and ordered those responsible to be subjected to the law.24 Hue’s failure to govern the villages after 1802, however, led to unprecedented hardship. The unique nature of Nguyen administration allowed early nineteenth-century local gentry more space to exercise their dominance over the countryside. First, the state law code enforced
. 68–9. Religious Saxons: Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae 195 capitali sententia(e) punietur.78 In contrast to such customary expressions, the phrase morte moriatur has only one real precedent: the Old Testament. In particular, we encounter the phrase in two of the Old Testament law codes, known today as the Covenant Code (Exodus 21.1–23.19) and the Holiness Code (Leviticus 17–26).79 In the Carolingian period, these codes were seen as part of one and the same legal tradition, known as the ‘Old Law’ (Vetus Lex) or simply ‘the Law’ (Lex).80 The origins of the Old
such presumptuous persons shall be duly restrained by suitable punishment meted out by the secular rulers, so that none dare blaspheme against Him who was crucified for our sake. 6 One of those who attempted to obey this injunction was Alfonso X of Castile (1252-1284), His seven-part law-code, known in
assume that an expropriation apparently done by a king or lord was not thought at the time to be done on behalf of the community he ruled and after consultation with men who spoke on its behalf. The early medieval law codes do not seem to say anything about expropriation, but one reason for that may be that there was relatively little need for direct, total expropriation, as opposed, for instance, to the
English state emerged in the tenth century, roads became established in law as directly under royal oversight and travellers upon them became subject to the special protection afforded by the king’s peace, fixing them as ‘the king’s highways’ in popular and legal tradition.11 Maintenance of the roads themselves is not stipulated in the early law codes but the specific reference to technically more difficult and expensive bridge repair duties offers circumstantial evidence that the maintenance of the communications network in general was an obligation imposed by kings on
’s Ecclesiastical History (items 8 and 11). At the opposite extreme, such copies of the laws as have survived are regularly small (items 96, 99, 100 and 102), exceptions being where law-codes are added to other material, as in the Parker Chronicle (item 15). It is possible that copies of particular sorts of material traditionally have a uniform size, or it may be that these are of like size because the copies are in some way related in their transmission history, for example the copies of Ælfric’s Grammar in items 51, 54, 59, 65, and 66, and again 92 and 94, 17 or copies of
at the 1008 Enham meeting, while Wormald suggests that it might better be associated with the meetings in 1014 which promulgated the law-codes IX and X Æthelred. 1 Whichever date is correct, the considerable overlap between this homily and Wulfstan’s legislation, especially V–VIII Æthelred, indicates its significance as an early statement of his views on the relationship
within the Frankish army along with their military lands and resources. 10 The most striking feature of militarisation, however, is the fact that most of the law-codes drafted in the sixth and seventh centuries under Frankish rule presuppose a general obligation of the free adult men to perform military service. 11 As it is inconceivable that men were sent to war without prior military training, the potential recruitment of the entire male population premises that this