"Men do not despise a thief," says Solomon, " if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is himgry. But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house" (Prov. vi, 30, 31). Bishop Hall is of opinion that Solomon, in this passage, does not so much extenuate the crime of theft as point out the greater criminality of adultery; but we have abundant evidence that theft, unaccompanied by violence, was
viewed more leniently by ancient than by modern leg- islators. NN'ilkinson says, "The Egyptians had a sin- gular custom respecting ilieft and burglary. Those who tollowed the profession of thief gave in their name to the i-hief of the robbers, and agreed that he should be in- I'ormed of everything they might thenceforward steal the moment it was in their possession. In consequence of this, tlie owner of the lost goods always applied by letter to the chief for their recovery ; and having stated their (juality and quantity, the day and hour when they were stolen, and other requisite particulars, the goods were iiientified, and on payment of one quarter of their value they were restored to the apjtlicaiit ill the same state as when taken from his house; for, being fully persuaded of the impracticability of putting an entire check to robbery, either by the dread of punishment or by any other method that could be adopted by the most vigilant police, they considered it more for the advan- tage of the community that a certain sacrifice should be made, in order to secure the restitution of the remain- der, than that the law, by taking on itself to protect the citizen and discover the offender, should be the indirect cause of greater loss; and that the Egyptians, like the Indians, and, I may say, the modern inhabitants of the Nile, were very expert in the art of thieving, we have abundant testimony from ancient authors" {^A nc. Egyj)- tiam, ii, 216). See Steal.
The criminals who were crucified with our Lord ap- pear to have been, not "thieves" in the ordinary sense of the word, but rather public robbers or highwaymen iXyari^Q is carefully distinguished from k\(-kti]c, John X, 8), i.e. inWow-insurgents with Barabbas; for it is said that he "lay bound with them that had made insurrec- tion with him in the city, who had committed murder in the insurrection" (Mark xv, 7). These malefactors, as bishop Maltby has well observed, "were not thieves who robbed all for x>^'"fiU 'jut vacn who had taken up arms on a principle of resistance to the Konian oppres- sion, and to what they thought an unlawful burelen,the tribute-money ; who made no scruple to rob all the Ro- mans, and when engaged in these unlawful causes made less difference between Jews and Komans than they at first meant to do" {Sermons [1819-22], vol. i). See
EOBBEIl.
Thiemon, otherwise Diethmar, a Bavarian prelate and artist, was born of noble parentage about 104.i. Agreeably to the custom of his time, he was as well versed in mechanics as in the fine arts. He executed many works in painting and sculpture for the churches, particularly for the Church of St. Blaise, near Ems. In 1079 he was appointed abbe of the diocese of Salzburg, and in 1090 was chosen archbishop of that city. He started for the Holy Land about 1099, and is said to have been taken prisoner by the infidels, who, learning of his skill in sculpture, commanded him to restore the arms of a brazen idol. Refusing to do so on account of religious scruples, he was put to death, in 1101, See Spooner, Biog. JJut. of the Fine A )is, s. v.
Thiermes (or Tiermes), in the mythology of the La])landers, was the son of the devil by a La|)land girl. The latter was sitting upon the ground under a tree, when Perkel (the devil), disguised as a stranger, came to her, and asked her to hang her fur coat uiion a bundle of wood. This she com]ilied with, but suddenly the bun- dle of wood began to burn, and she, vainly endeavoring to escape his embraces, became his victim. The child was removed to the highest heaven, and was there ques- tioned as to whose child it desired to be, the latlier's or the mother's. It decided in favor of the mother, after which the high ruler made of it a god of thunder. As such, pursued by its father, it flies about in the heavens, thundering and lightening, now uprooting trees, again splitting rocks, doing good and evil. The Laplanders have a poorly developed worship of the deities. Thus, it seems, there can be accredited to Thiermes only a general worship. — VoUmer, Wortei-b. d. Mythol. s. v.
THIERS
359
THIEVES
Thiers, Jean Baptiste, a French divine, was born at Cliartres, Nov. 11, 163G. He was professor at the College ilu Plessis in Paris, and was, in UXG, appointed to the incumbency of Champrond in Gastine (Chartres). Here he came in conflict with the archdeacon of Char- tres, and went to Kibraye (jMeiise), where lie died, Feb. 28, 1703. He wrote. Be h\storuin IHcruin I inminntiune (Lyons, 1G68), which was placed on the Intlex "donee corrigatur:" — Traite de U I'-xpositiun du S. Sacrament de VAutel (Paris, ItiTo) : — Tniite des Supei'stitions selon VEcriiure Sainte (ibid. 1679): — Dissert, siir la Sainte Larme de Vtnddme (ibid. 169G), against which Mabillon wrote a rejoinder, Lettre dhin Beiii'dict'm a M<jr. de Bluis (ibid. 1700). Against the priesiliood he wrote, L'Avocat des Pinn-res (ibid. lG7(i) : — llistuire des Per- ruqnes (ibid. 1690). He also wrote some historical works, for which see Niceron, ^[emoires pour Servir, etc., vol. xi ; Dupin, Nouvelle Bihlioth. vol. xix ; Theoloy. Universal-Lex. s. v. ; Hoefer, Xouv. Bioij. Generale, s. v. (B. P.)