Thread by @INdilimfumu

Henry de Bracton’s (#Bracton) compilation of the English (Canon) Law on #SUICIDE, in the original Latin and modern English. Bracton was a 13th century English Catholic Archdeacon, itinerant judge and legal commentator. His opus magnum, “De Legibus Et Consuetudinibus (1/26)

Anglilae”, is often cited by conservatives as representative of the origins of British and English common law. As you shall see, here, below, the work (and the contemporaneous law) was heavily influenced by Bracton’s Catholic faith. YOU be the judge of that!
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The comments interposed by the editor, Woodbine, are indicated in {}. Note that Latin makes heavy use of the “subjunctive”, something long since disused in English and difficult to properly translate, other than in the third person: If the translation reads somewhat (3/26)

like Shakespeare, so be it !:

Si quis fecerit feloniam de se ipso.

Whether one have committed a felony upon oneself.

Eodem moda quo quis feloniam facere poterit interficiendo alium, ita feloniam facere poterit interficiendo se ipsum, quae quidem felonia dicitur
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fieri de se ipso. Feloniam quidem facit de se ipso, ut si quis reus fuerit alicuius criminis ita quod captus fuerit pro morte hominis vel cum furto manifesto, vel cum utlagatus fuerit, vel in aliquo scelere et maleficio deprehensus, et metu criminis imminentis mortem (5/26)

sibi consciverit, heredem non habebit. Quia sic convincitur felonia prius facta, sicut furtum vel mors hominis vel huiusmodi. Sed qui criminis rei postulati non sunt vel in crimine deprehensi manus sibi intulerint, bona eorum fisco non vindicentur, non enim facti
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sceleritatem esse obnoxiam, sed conscientiae metus in reo veluti pro confesso habetur. Et ideo si rei postulati fuerint vel in scelere deprehensi, si se ipsos interfecerint, bona eorum confiscentur, scilicet bona eorum qui reatum mortis sibi consciverint,
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ut si eius criminis fuerint quod damnarentur morte vel deportatione.

In the same manner by which a man may commit a felony by killing another, so he may commit a felony by killing himself, which is said to be a felony upon himself. A felony done to himself,
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as if one were responsible for some charge, such that he were arrested for a man's death or for an obvious theft, or when he has been outlawed, or being discovered in some criminality or misdeed; and for fear of an imminent charge, [then] he had consigned himself to
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death, [and thus] he will not have an heir. Because he is convicted thus of a felony committed beforehand, such as theft or the death of a man or the like. But those who have not been prosecuted for the crime or have brought themselves into the hands of those caught
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in crime shall not be made whole for their [lost] belongings. And not for the fact that wickedness is guilt, but because the accused’s consciousness of guilt would be held as a confession. Therefore if they would have been prosecuted for a crime or were caught
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in a crime, [and] if they would have killed themselves, their belongings will be confiscated, namely, the belongings of those who had committed suicide for the “guilt of death”, as if they were [held guilty] of that charge, thus they would have been sentenced to death
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or deportation.

{Si se submerserint vel praecipitaverint ex alto, vel alio modo, tales heredes habebunt, quia non convincitur felonia, nec praecedat aliquod crimen propter quod periculum mortis vel membrorum sustinere deberet.}

{Have they drowned or thrown themselves
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from on high, or otherwise [succumbed], they shall have such heirs, because not convicted of a felony, nor shall have any charge advanced on account of which he had to endure the risk of life or limb.}

Si quis autem taedio vitae vel impatientia doloris alicuius se
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ipsum interfecerit, successorem habere poterit: talis non amittit hereditatem sed tantum bona mobilia, sed bona eius mobilia confiscentur. Sed si quis sine causa manus sibi intulerit per iram et malam voluntatem, ut cum alteri nocere vellet adimplere non posset
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quod voluit se ipsum interfecerit, puniendus est et successorem non habebit, quia convincitur et punitur felonia quam in personam alterius facere proposuit, quia qui sibi ipsi non parcit, multo minus aliis parceret si facultatem haberet. Sed de furioso quid
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dicetur qui rationem non habet? Et de mente capto, et de frenetico, vel de infantulo? Vel si ille qui laborat in acuta se ipsum submerserit vel interfecerit, quaeritur an talis feloniam faciat de se ipso. Videtur quod non, nec hereditatem forisfaciunt nec catalla, eo
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quod sensu carent et ratione, non magis quam brutum animal iniuriam facere possunt nec feloniam, cum non multum distent a brutis, secundum quod videri poterit in minore, qui si alium interficeret in minori aetate, iudicium non sustinere. Et haec vera sunt quod furiosus
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non tenetur, nisi hoc fecerit simulato furore cum dilucidis gaudeat intervallis.

But if any man, through the weariness of his life or the impatience of some pain kill himself, he will be able to have a successor: such a man does not lose his inheritance but only
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movable belongings, and his movable belongings will be confiscated. But if any man without cause lay his hands upon himself in anger and malice, as if he wished to do harm to another, it could not [be] but that he wanted to have slain himself, [and] he is to be punished
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and shall have no successor; because he is convicted and punished for a felony which he proposes to do against the person of another; because he who does not spare himself would spare others much less if he had the opportunity. But what shall be said of the madman who
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has no reason? And of the mentally ill, and of the deranged, or of the infant? Or if he who suffers in acute pain have drowned or killed himself, one questions whether one would do such a felony upon oneself. It is seen that no, they don’t forfeit their inheritance
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nor chattels, because they lack sense and reason, nor can they do more harm than a brute animal, nor any felony, since they be not much different than the brutes, as can be seen in the young who another of a younger age would kill, a judgment not being upheld.
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And these things are true, such that the madman not be held, unless he have feigned madness and rejoice in lucid intervals.

{De submersis et oppressis et per infortunium mortuis. Sed si quis se ipsum suspenderit, non propter hoc exheredantur heredes secundum
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quosdam, nec uxor dotem amittit, nisi in casu ut supra, quia felonia de se ipso facta convinci non poterit.}

{The drowned and the oppressed and the misfortunate dead [, no]. But if one [thus, accidently] have

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hanged himself, according to some, his heirs will not therefore be disinherited, nor does his wife lose her dowry, except otherwise as above, because one cannot [then] be convicted of having committed a felony against oneself.}
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