HOMICIDE. 173 HOMILIARIUM. known as excusable and justifiable homicide. This article will be confined to the two latter species. By the early common law an important distinction was made between e.xcusable and jus- tifiable homicide. The slayer in the latter case was not liable to anj' punishment, while in the former he was. In other words, excusable homi- cide was not legally excusable. Just how far it subjected the slayer to criminal punishment is uncertain. Lord Coke declares that it rendered him liable to death, but Blackstone and Stephen insist that his liability did not extend beyond the forfeiture of goods. At present neither excusable homicide nor justifiable homicide is punishable at all. but the two terms are still retained in use in England and in many of our States. The signification of each, however, has been varied by modern legislation from the common-law meaning. .t common law excusable homicide was of two kinds: killing by accident or misfortune, and killing in self-defense. At common law, justifi- able homicide was of three kinds: killing bv a public officer in conformity to a judicial sen- tence; killing by an officer or his assistant when necessary to overcome unlawful resistance to legal process, or to the performance of a legal duty, including killing by military forces in time of war or riot ; and killing to prevent the commission of an atrocious crime. Homicide is not wholly excusable unless it is committed without legal fault on the part .of the slayer. The killing may not have been planned or thought of — it may have been accidental — yet if it resulted from the slayer's unlawful conduct, it is not a case of excusable homicide, but of manslaiighter or murder, as the ease may be. So, too. homicide is justifiable only when it is in- flicted in .strict accordance with lawful authority. A sherifT who inflicts the death penalty upon a convict in a manner not authorized by the ju- dicial sentence which he imdertakes to execute does a criminal, not a justifiable, act. An officer cannot justify the unnecessary killing of even the worst malefactor that is resisting arrest. Nor is a person at liberty to take the life of a brutal assailant unless he can show that he had reasonable ground to believe that the assailant was about to connnit a felony or do some great pcrsimal injury tn the slayer or to some mem- ber of his family or other person in his presence, and that there was imminent danger of the as- sailant's accomplishing his design. Consult: Stephen, Uixlorti of the Criminal Law of England (London. 18,S3)': Clark and Marshall, Law of Crimen (Saint Paul, 1900) : and the authoritii-4 referred to under Ckihin.vl L.w. HOMILDON, honiTl-don. or HXTMBLEDON (hfim'b'l-don) HILL. An elevation near Wool- er. in Xortbumherland, England, not far from the Scottish border, noted as the scene of a battle in which (he English, under the Earl of Northum- berland and his son, Harry Hotspur, overthrew a Scottish army under the command of Sir Mur- doch Stewart and the Earl of Douglas, September 14, 1402. Tlie victory at Homildon Hill was soon followed by the rebellion of the Earl of North- umberland and his son. See Henry IV. HOMTLETICS (from Ok. iiuX-nTiKis, linmilcti- i'0.<t. relating to conversation, from 6/iila. ho- milia, conversation, from oiitXeTv, homihin, to converse, from SfuXot, homilos. assembly, from 6/i<s, homos, similar + rij, He, tCKri. eile, com- pany, from (fKuv, eilein, to crowd together). -s the term is now used, the science of sermon- writing. Originally the religious discourses were less formal than they became later (see Homily), and so were properly called 'homilies.' The ear- liest writer on the subject of homiletics is Saint Augustine, whose book De Doetrina Christiana is in some sense an adaptation of profane rhet- oric to sacred uses. Rabanus Maurus and Isi- dore of Seville also incidentally treat the sub- ject ; but the nearest approach to a systematic treatment in mcdiieval literature is to be foimd in Hunibert, De Eruditione Concionatorum. .Saint Carlo Borromeo's Iiistruetianes Faslortim was a part of his general scheme for the improvement of clerical education; and in the ecclesiastical course, as well of Catholics as of Protestants, homiletics occupies an important place. Text- books on homiletics have been written by Bautain, Broadus, Claude, Dabney, Hoppin, Kidder, Phelps, Shedd, Storrs. Vinet, and many others. HOMTLIA'RIUM: (ML., from Lat. homilia, Gk. 6ui7.ia, homilia, conversation, homily). A. collection of homilies for the use of the clergy either to read to their congregations or for their own edification. Such collections were in use from the sixth century, for the use of those clergy who were unable or unwilling to write their own sermons. The homilies of the Venerable Bede were in familiar use among the clergy in all parts of the West, and we find in the letters of the early mediieval time traces of an inter- change of sermons, original or otherwise, be- tween bishops and clergy, even in distant coun- tries. Alcuin made an homiliarium, which, strangely enough, considering its author, passed out of mind and was only discovered in 1892. What since the fifteenth century has been called his is reallj' a revision of that by Warnefried mentioned below. One of the many reformatorv measures of Charlemagne was a compilation of homilies under the title of •Homiliarium.' which was made under his direction by the deacon, Paul W;iniefried. a monk of Monte (^assino and one of his chaplains. It was compiled in the end of the eighth century, .and contains homilies for all the Sundays and festivals of the year. It is tlie most famous of these collections. Maxi- mus of Turin (fifth century, homilies in Migne. Patrol. Lat., Ivii.) is more drawn upon than any other author, but Bede comes next, and then Leo the Great. (Gregory the Great. Augustine, and others. The language was. of course, Latin. !Many synods directed the clergy to translate these sermons for their flocks, and the collection continued in use for this purpose down to the sixteenth century. It was printed at Speyer in 1482. and again at Cologne in 1.557, and is re- printed in Migne. Patrol. Lat.. xcv. A collection of English homilies turned into verse, that they might be more readily remembered by the peoplr. appears to have been composed about the middle of the thirteenth century. This collection, af- fording a metrical sermon for every .'Sunday and festival day in the year, exists iri manusl'ript ; and a portion of it was edited with introduction and notes by .John Small. librarian to the Uni- versity of Edinburgh fEnijlixh Metrieal nomilie.'!. Edinburgh. 18(52). When the Reformation was introdviced into England the unfitness of the clergy to preach was so keenly felt that a book of homilies was prepared and sent forth bv authority of Edward VI. ( 1,547), and again under
