Note 385 — Chapter VIII · THE UNFREE. THE SERF.

“Si faemina, furore zeli accensa, flagellis verberaverit ancillam suam, ita ut infra diem tertium animam cruciatu effundat, et quod incertum sit, voluntate an casu occident; si voluntate, vii annos; si casu, per quinquennii tempora, ac legitima poenitentia, a communione placuit abstinere.” Poen. Theod. xxi. § 13. “Si quis servum proprium, sine conscientia iudicis, occiderit, excommunicatione vel poenitentia biennii reatum sanguinis emundabit.” Ibid. § 12. Even as late as the seventeenth century in France, it appears that it was usual to flog the valets, pages and maids, in noble houses. Tallemant des Réaux mentions a riot which arose in Paris from a woman’s being whipped to death by her mistress, in August 1651. See his Historiettes, viii. 80; x. 255, etc.