Note 58 — Chapter XVIII · THE KILLING OF WOMEN AND OF SLAVES—THE CRIMINALITY OF HOMICIDE INFLUENCED BY DISTINCTIONS OF CLASS.

Lecky, History of European Morals, ii. 66. Mr. Lecky states (ibid. ii. 66 sq.) that the Council of Illiberis excluded for ever from the communion a master who killed his slave. I have only been able to find the following enactment made by a Council held at Illiberis in the beginning of the fourth century:—“Si qua domina furore zeli accensa flagris verberaverit ancillam suam, ita ut in tertium diem animam cum cruciatu effundat; eo quod incertum sit, voluntate, an casu occiderit; si voluntate, post septem annos; si casu, post quinquennii tempora, acta legitima pœnitentia, ad communionem placuit admitti” (Concilium Eliberitanum, ch. 5 [Labbe-Mansi, op. cit. ii. 6]).