Note 17 — Chapter I · PENAL METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES
Reading edition
“It is curious to observe how little the men of primitive times were troubled with these scruples (as to the degree of moral guilt to be ascribed to the wrongdoer), how completely they were persuaded that the impulses of the wronged person were the proper measure of the vengeance he was entitled to exact, and how literally they imitated the rise and fall of his passions in fixing their scale of punishment.”—Maine, Ancient Law, p. 389.