| Chap. 144. |
Felony.
Præcepto
' Lingua, tribus Consilio de
his vid. cap. 108.
' modis.
Tuitione.
1 Voluntate, de qua postea.
' Facto, quatuor 2 Justitia
' modis.
3 Necessitate de quibus postea.
4 Casu, de quo postea.
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341 |
|
Felo de se. CHAP. CXLIV.
BUt first to write something of Felo de se, '
who destroyeth himself
' by hanging, poysoning, drowning or otherwise. |
§. 1.
The Fact. |
|
For the hainousness thereof, it is to be observed,
That it is an offence
against God, against the King, and against Nature. Also it is within
the
degree of, or quality of Murther, sc. pretended and resolved of
(in
his mind) to be done, before it be done: yea it is holden to
be a greater"
offence than to kill another Man, Plo. 261. & in hoc
casu Christianæ sepulturæ
interdicitur. |
|
|
And yet the Civil Law maketh a difference of such
Offenders, and of
their punishment, according to the quality of their minds, whereby they
were moved to kill themselves; for if they kill themselves through
grief
or impatience of some infirmity, no punishment followeth such their fact
(by the Civil Law) but they are left to the Tribunal of the Almighty
Judge of the Quick and the Dead; But if they Kill themselves upon any
other Cause, their Goods are confiscated, and their dead Bodies (for the
terror of others) are drawn out of the House, &c. with Ropes, by a
Horse, unto a place appointed for punishment or shame, where the dead
Body is hanged upon a Gibbet; and none may take down the Body but by
the authority of the magistrate, &c. Vide Fulbeck 90.
& Dr. Cowell 249. |
|
Dyer 262.
Plo. 261. |
But by the Common Law, if a Man kill himself (either
with a mediate
hatred against his own life, or out of distraction, or other honour) he
is
called Felo de se; and he shall forfeit to the King all his Goods
and Chattels
real and personal, and his Debts due to him by specialty (but no Debts
due to him without specialty, or upon simple contract, Dyer 262.
16 E.
4. 7.) |
§. 2.
Forf. |
|
' And their Goods are usually granted and allowed
by the King to the
' Bishop Almoner, and in such sort as Deodands are, Ba.
3. V. |
|
Fl. Cor.
301. |
But he shall not forfeit his Lands, neither shall
his Blood be corrupt.
See Fitz. Coron. 362, & 426. |
|
| Plo. 261. |
' Yet if a Man be guilty of another Mans Death,
or a manifest Theft, &c.
' and be taken, and for fear thereof killeth himself; here he shall forfeit
' his Lands, ac hæredem non habebit, Bract. lib. 3. cap.
13. |
|
| Plo. 262. |
If a Man do give himself a deadly Wound, and dyeth
thereof within a
Year and a Day after, all his Goods, &c. which he had at the time
of the
Blow given, or any time after, shall be forfeited to the King, Plo.
262. ad. |
|
Co. 5. 110.
21 H. 7. 33. |
Yet the Goods of Felo de se, but not forfeited
till his death be presented
and found of Record, neither can these Goods be claimed by prescription,
(by Lords od Liberties, &c.) but by the Kings Grant. |
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|
And although he cannot be attained of his own Death,
for that he is
dead before that there is any time to attaint him, yet the finding of his
Death by the Coroner (or other Person thereto authorized) is by Law
equivalent to an Attainder in deed, as to his Goods, Plo. 258. b. |
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