Sacrilege

Sacrilege is not now a legal, but is a popular term used to denote the breaking into a place of worship and stealing therefrom. In England whoever breaks and enters any church, chapel, meeting-house, or other place of divine worship and commits any felony therein, or whoever, being in such places, shall commit any felony therein, and break out of the same, is guilty of felony and liable to penal servitude for life, or for not less than three years, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, with hard labour. The legal offence of breaking and entering a place of worship with intent to steal comes under the head of burglary or housebreaking. In Scotland there is no increase of severity in the punishment by reason of the sacred character of the things stolen.