The Council of Troyes of the ninth century renewed these ecclesiastical penalties. Pope Nicholas I. says, “a suicide must be buried, but only lest the omission should be offensive to others.” Charlemagne adopted the principle of refusing the Mass, but allowed psalms and charitable subscriptions for prayers for the dead to be used, because, he said, “no one can sound the depths of God’s designs.” The Roman Catholic canon law, section De Pœnitentia, assures us that Judas committed a greater sin in killing himself than in betraying his master Christ to a certain death. In our own country we find the Anglo Saxon King Edgar assimilated the crime of suicide to that of murder in general, and ordered that the suicide was not to be buried in holy (_i.e._ consecrated) ground, and neither psalms nor masses were to be used. For several centuries afterwards, the civil lawgivers of England remained content to allow suicide to fall under Ecclesiastical Law, but at the Reformation the Ecclesiastical Statutes were incorporated with the Statute law of the realm, thus constituting it a civil offence as well as a great moral crime. In France, Louis IX., Saint, d. 1270, enforced the penalty of the confiscation of the property of a suicide; and by the criminal law of Louis XIV., dated 1670, the statutes relating to suicide were revised, and the body was ordered to be dragged at the cart’s tail. It became the custom of Normandy to insist on forfeiture of estate if the suicide was committed to avoid punishment, and not otherwise. The Parliament of Toulouse also decided in this manner. In the 14th century Charles V. imposed this law on all the country under his dominion; and indeed it remained in force in France until 1789, when it was repealed by the National Assembly, because it impeded human liberty of action. Suicide is not a crime in the Code Napoleon. Yet in the early Christian centuries suicide lingered on as an occasional virtue, either for the purpose of preserving the faith, or to avoid apostacy, to procure the honour of martyrdom, or to retain the crown of virginity: some eminent Christian teachers have considered such deaths desirable. The Roman Catholic Saints Pelagia and Sophronia were examples of canonised suicides; and two widows, Berenice and Prosdocea, are praised by St. Chrysostom for destroying themselves to avoid pollution. CHAPTER III. NOTABLE SUICIDES. I.─MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE. ABIMELECH, 1206 B.C., King of the Shechemites. Judges, cap. ix. SAMSON, 1120 B.C., Judge of Israel. Judges, cap. xvi. SAUL, 1050 B.C., the first King of Israel. I. Samuel, cap. xxxi. SAUL’S Armour Bearer, an Amalekite, loc. cit. AHITOPHEL, 1023 B.C., Counsellor of David. II. Samuel, cap. xvii. ZIMRI, 929 B.C., King of Israel. II. Kings, cap. xvi. ELEAZAR, 164 B.C., one of the Maccabees. I. Maccabees, cap. vi. RAZIS, 162 B.C., a Jewish Elder. II. Maccabees, cap. xiv. JUDAS ISCARIOT, A.D. 33, the Traitor. Acts, cap. i.