Note 2 — Chapter I · PENAL METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES
Reading edition
It has been said that imprisonment is not mentioned in Anglo-Saxon laws as a punishment; it is, however, referred to in the laws of Æthelstan thus: “For murder let a man forfeit his life, if he will deny it and appear guilty at the threefold ordeal let him be 120 nights in prison; afterwards let his relations take him out and pay the king 120 shillings and to his relatives the price of his blood....” See J. Johnson, Ecclesiastical Laws. London, 1720. The same king ordained that “If a thief be brought into prison that he be 40 days in prison and then let him be released thereout with cxx. shillings and let his kindred enter into borh for him that he will ever more desist.”—B. Thorpe, Ancient Laws and Institutions of England, fol. ed. p. 85. London, 1840.