This phrase was used in English law as early as the seventeenth century to describe people afflicted by madness, the loss of memory or ability to reason.
[3][4] Suicide was a severe crime in Tudor and early Stuart England and was considered a form of murder; a sin not only in the eyes of the Church but also defined by criminal law.
The penalty for suicide in England originated in the ancient world and evolved gradually into their early modern form; similar laws and customs existed in many parts of Europe.
The medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas extended Augustine's arguments against suicide and added the new interpretation of "violation of natural law" to it.
After the civil war, political and social changes, judicial and ecclesiastical severity gave way to official leniency for most people who died by suicide.