[Footnote 63: _Digesta_, xlviii. 8. 14.] [Footnote 64: von Jhering, _Das Schuldmoment im römischen Privatrecht_, p. 16. Mommsen, _Römisches Strafrecht_, p. 85.] [Footnote 65: Mommsen, _op. cit._ p. 85.] {226} The principle of ancient Teutonic law was, "Qui inscienter peccat, scienter emendet"--a maxim laid down by the compiler of the so-called 'Laws of Henry I.,'[66] no doubt translating an old English proverb.[67] In historic times, the law, distinguishing between _vili_ and _vadhi_, treats intentional homicide as worse than unintentional. In one case there can, in the other there can not, be a legitimate feud; and whilst wilful manslaughter can be expiated only by _wíte_, as well as _wer_, the involuntary manslayer has to pay _wer_ to the family of the dead, but no _wíte_ to the authorities.[68] Yet the _wer_ to be paid was not merely compensation for the loss sustained, as Wilda, misled by his enthusiasm for Teutonic law, has erroneously assumed;[69] it was punishment as well.[70] And the character of criminality attached to accidental homicide survived the system of _wer_. When homicide became a capital offence, homicide by misadventure was included in the law. However, the involuntary manslayer was not executed, but recommended to the "mercy" of the prince. This was the case in England in the later Middle Ages,[71] and in France still more recently.[72] And when the English law was altered, and the involuntary offender no longer was in need of mercy, he nevertheless continued to be treated as a criminal. He was punished with forfeiture of his goods. According to the rigour of the law such a forfeiture might have been exacted even in the year 1828, when the law was finally abolished after having fallen into desuetude in the course of the previous century.[73] [Footnote 66: _Leges Henrici I._ xc. 11.] [Footnote 67: Pollock and Maitland, _History of the English Law before the Time of Edward I._ i. 54.] [Footnote 68: Wilda, _op. cit._ p. 545 _sqq._, 594. _Idem_, _Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte_, i. 165. Pollock and Maitland, _op. cit._ ii. 471.] [Footnote 69: Wilda, _op. cit._ p. 578.] [Footnote 70: Geyer, _Die Lehre von der Nothwehr_, p. 87 _sq._ Trummer _Vorträge über Tortur, &c._ i. 345. Brunner, _Forschungen_, p. 505 _sq._] [Footnote 71: Bracton, _De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliæ_, fol. 134, vol. ii. 382 _sq._; fol. 104 b, vol. ii, 152 _sq._ Brunner, _Forschungen_, p. 494 _sqq._ Biener, _Das englische Geschwornengericht_, i. 120, 392. Pollock and Maitland, _op. cit._ ii. 479.] [Footnote 72: Beaumanoir, _Les coutumes du Beauvoisis_, 69, vol. ii. 483. Esmein, _Histoire de la procédure criminelle en France_, p. 255.] [Footnote 73: Stephen, _History of the Criminal Law of England_, iii. 77.] If men at the earlier stages of civilisation generally {227} attach undue importance to the outward aspect of conduct, the same is still more the case with their gods.