introduction offers a model well worth following: ”This tapestry does not have neatly hemmed edges: in both geographical and chronological terms they are ragged, and deliberately so.”52 With this background the problem of an exact period of years in this study will now be commented on. Interest, understanding, and interpretation are important words that have been used above, but what about a time where the interest in the yet-to-be-defined, many of the crimes of our time were negligible, and thus neither understanding nor interpretation of such a crime existed? One might wonder, for example, about an event noted from the sixth century and the diocese of Mérida in Spain. The hermit and later abbot Nanctus was given an estate by the king Leovigild. At the estate, Nanctus behaved in an inappropriate manner, according to the slaves there. He herded his sheep himself, he was unkempt, and he did not dress in a suitable manner. Therefore, they decided to kill him, despite risking their own lives. It seems their view was it was better to die than serve such a master.53 We cannot today know if they hoped to be killed or if his unacceptable behaviour really was their motive; we can be fairly certain, though, that the question was not asked at the time. In time, the more the question were asked, the easier it is to find cases and discussions. This is one reason that the study of these crimes can only start rather late in history. Background far, far back in history will be brought into the picture and cases starting in late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries will be mentioned. The seventeenth–century cases however also underline the question of where in history this problem exists. Because then the cases only have been found through studies of court material by other researchers. I have not found them in legislation or any related texts. Even if it might be mentioned somewhere it is only in the eighteenth century that the crime starts being defined and thus starts to exist. The latter half of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century is a period when crimes, legislation and debate often are 52 Smith 2005 p 1, 295. 53 Harrison 1999 p 211 sq, Smith 2005 p 174. 35
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