Il reato di spergiuro nelle fonti giuridiche anglosassoni. Considerazioni sugli istituti giuridici e sulla terminologia giuridica

The occurrences of the Old English terms employed to identify the ‘false oath’ are analysed on the basis of a corpus including the laws of Kent, Wessex (Ine and Alfred), the treaty with the Danes, as well as the laws of Edward the Elder, Æþelstan, Edmund, Edgar, Æþelred, Cnut, William I and Henry I, taking into consideration both their semantics and the context (secular or spiritual) in which they are used. It is pointed out that these early English vernacular texts have, apart from their relevance for legal history, a great cultural value, since they show to which extent Christianization has influenced the pre-existing legal tradition. Furthermore, the context in which the occurrences of the Old English legal terms for ‘perjury’ are handed down to us highlights the existence of a particular tension between the secular need for legal certainty and the Christian principle of redeemability of sin in early Medieval English society.