Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

sacrilegium

[Latin fr. sacer "sacred" + legere "to steal"] Roman law. 1. The theft of a sacred thing, punishable by death. 2. Violation of an imperial law. "In the later Empire the conception of sacrilegium was somewhat distorted and those 'who through ignorance or negligence confound, violate and offend the sanctity of a divine law' ... were considered guilty of sacrilegium. 'Divine' is here used in the sense of imperial, issued by the emperor . . . . Thus sacrilegium and sacrilegus became rather general terms applied to the neglect or violation of imperial orders or enactments." Adolf Berger, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law 689 (1953).