your laws. Religion is of God to man; the civil law is of you to your people.
CHAPTER V.
Of Profanation.
LEWIS IX. King of France, who for his virtues was numbered among the saints, made a law against blasphemers. He condemned them to a new punishment; their tongues were pierced with a hot iron. It was a kind of retaliation; the sinning member suffering the punishment. But it was somewhat difficult to determine what was blasphemy. Expressions frequently escape from a man in a passion, from joy, or even in conversation, which are merely expletives, such as the sela and the vah of the Hebrews, the pol and the ædepol of the Latins, as also per Deos immortales, an expression frequently used, without the least intention of swearing by the immortal gods.
The words which are called oaths and blasphemy, are commonly vague terms
