criminal acts, which was a change from Anglo-Saxon law. Bracton wrote of homicide, "the crime of homicide, be it either accidental or voluntary, does not permit of suffering the same penalty, because on one case the full penalty must be exacted and in the other there should have been mercy." It is the first signs of discrimination in the law leading to the development of the concept of mens rea (a guilty mind being necessary to be guilty of a crime). Bracton stressed the animus furendi in theft, that is the intention to steal. Felony is according to intent, a concept that has its foundations in Bracton. Other examples from Bracton's book Sanctuary and abjuration If a criminal could make it to a church, he was given sanctuary. This was a recognition that the Church was a separate jurisdiction. Some law allowed for the criminal to be housed and fed by the clergy for seven days. Bracton recommends 40 days. After this, the reeve would knock on the door of the church and demand that the criminal surrender himself or take the shortest road to a seaport and leave England never to return. If he did not leave the church, he was to be starved. If the criminal stayed on the road to the seaport, he was to be left unharmed. If he went off the road, he could be killed by the population at large. Condemned criminals and those found with stolen goods were not to be given sanctuary. The wife of such was declared a widow and all lands owned by him were escheated to the Crown. Bracton on the writ of appeal "In every criminal case, which embraces a felony, [the writ] must mention on the appeal the year, the place, the day and the hour in which the case is heard. [The defendant] must speak of his own accord, and sight and hearing, and must be consistent in what he says and in all circumstantial details. [It should be written like this]: 'A' appeals 'B', by such words for the death of his brother and should he fail, by such a one, and so on, so that there are several appealing him to one and the same deed." Equity Bracton wrote of equity (circa 1258) that it required in equal causes an even-handed justice and a true equality in all things. This appears to have been