Note 28 — Chapter II · NEWGATE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

This abjuring the king’s land was an act of self-banishment, akin in its effects to the old Roman penalty of aquæ et ignis interdictio. Any criminal who took sanctuary might escape the law, provided that within forty days he clothed himself in sackcloth, confessed his crime before the coroner, and after solemnly abjuring the land, proceeded, cross in hand, to some appointed port, where he embarked and left the country. If apprehended within forty days he was again suffered to depart.—Note in Thom’s ‘Stow,’ p. 157.