ABSTRACT
THE way this malignant audacity, this accursed act, is abhorred and punished, or directed to be punished, by both divine and human laws in the most sacred ordinances, is set out in the following words: 'Vessels,' says Frederick II under the heading On the Constitutions, Practices, and Privileges of Holy Places, 'whithersoever they shall have arrived, if by some mishap that has befallen them they shall have been damaged, or have for some other cause put in to land, both the vessels themselves and the goods of those sailing in them are to be kept intact for those men whose concern they were before the vessel had run into hazard; and the custom of any place which is contrary to this enactment is to be entirely disregarded, unless they are such vessels as follow the wicked practice of piracy, or are hostile to us or the name of Christianity.
