Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 10.pdf/165

 142

lutely forbade it. Nevertheless, as late as the twelfth century there were members of the Christian church who regarded it as jus tifiable, as well as some who actually put an end to their own lives. As the teaching of Christ spread over Europe, its adherents naturally did their utmost to obtain the enactment of laws in favor of its canons; but it was many centuries before any or the states of Western Europe were induced to recognize suicide as a crime. It was during the tenth century that the law first made suicide a crime in England, and the same course was not taken in France until about the middle of the thirteenth cen tury. In both England and France the old Ro man system of confiscation of property was .adopted, but, as was also the case in Rome, the law did not apply to those " driven to the act by ill-health or madness." In Eng land, during the reign of Henry III, all the suicides' property, real and personal, es cheated to the king or to the lord of the manor; but the part of the law relating to realty soon ceased to be operative, and con fiscation of the personal estate was the sole civil penalty. This remained the law of Eng land up to 1870 (33 & 34 Vict., Ch. 23), when all forfeitures for felony of any kind were abolished. The law of forfeiture for felony, as applicable to the suicide, was sel dom set in motion for many years prior to its repeal. Perhaps I should add that civil disability for suicide is no longer enforced in any civilized country, although it is nomin ally the law of some countries — Scotland, for example. It is well known of course, that the Greeks, Romans and other ancient peoples some times showed their disapproval of self-de struction by treating the body with disre spect. The Christians, however, as far as brutal barbarity was concerned, surpassed anything ever attempted by their predeces sors. For several centuries it was the cus tom, not only in England, but also in France,

to drag the body by the feet, face downward, to the place of public execution, hang it on the gallows by the feet, and after a time throw it upon the highroad, or into a ditch, to be devoured by the wild animals, or to putrefy. The bodies of lunatics, however, were exempt from these forms of barbar ism. As late as 1747 the disgusting cus tom which I have described was carried out in Paris, although it seems to have ceased in England and Scotland about the year 1600. From that time the barbarous practices which I have named were replaced in Great Britain by burial at the crossroads with a stake driven through the body. A number of attempts have been made to explain the origin of this strange method of disposing of the suicide's corpse. The most probable is that, the churchyard being closed at night, the highroad in front of the crucifix often set up at the intersection of roads was chosen as the most appropriate place of burial. The stake was driven through the body to pro tect the people of the neighborhood from annoyance upon the part of the ghost of the deceased. This peculiar mode of sepulture was continued until 1823. In that year the law was amended by the passing of 4 George IV, Ch. 52. This statute provided that the body of a suicide should be buried privately in any churchyard or cemetery, between the hours of nine and twelve at night, without any religious ceremony. This remained the law until 1882, when a statute (45 & 46 Vict. Ch. 19) was passed providing that the body of the suicide might be buried at ordinary hours, either silently or with any such orderly or Christian service at the grave as the person in charge of the body might think fit. The Act did not make it obligatory upon ministers to conduct a re ligious service, and they have quite often re fused to give consolation in this form to the bereaved relatives. From the foregoing very brief summary it will be noticed that the only disability of any kind under which the suicide now labors