If the person slain be unknown, then in such case it belongs to the coroners to enter a murdrum on their rolls, according to the statute of King Knut, made on setting out for Denmark, who, for the preservation of his Danes whom he left in England, ordained that whenever an unknown man was slain all the hundred should be in the mercy of the king under a judgment of murdrum. Four things relieve from the judgment of murdrum: the first if the felon be known or the person killed; for if the felon be known then he can be attainted for the felony. The second, if the felon be taken or has fled to a church. The third, if the killing were not felonious but by misadventure. The fourth, where a man is felo de se. Since of a man who is known no murdrum can be committed, it is the duty of the coroner in these felonies to inquire into the lineage of such persons who are killed, so that one may know from their kinsmen whether they were of English birth.

The current die-ins are part of a movement to end police brutality against and the mass incarceration of black and brown people, and have drawn allies from different races, generations and faiths. When non-black participants join black people in die-ins, they affirm the need for institutional change – but they also visibly highlight the remaining disparities facing black and brown people.

To understand how indulgences were intended to work depends on linking together a number of assumptions about sin and the afterlife, each of which individually makes considerable sense.

“What if it does rain? You ain't made of sugar,” Clete said. “You ain't goin' to melt.” Poole laughed. “You ain't made of sugar,” he repeated. “I like that.”