Sentence:  The consequence of conviction was, the payment to the person injured, of a <WSD>were</WSD>, or penalty, proportioned to the offencel but though this was the ordinary course, the recovery of the <WSD>were</WSD> was not the only object of the proceedings. "The <WSD>were</WSD>," says Reeve, "in cases of homicide, and the fines that were paid in cases of theft of various kinds, were only to redeem the offender from the proper punishment of the law, which was death, and that was reddemable, not only by paying money, but by undergoing some personal pains; hence it is that we hear a great variety of corporal punishments..."... 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A fine for slaying a man; weregild.