assassinator (as as in at or)

1. An a a in.-2. In canon law, one who hires another to kill a third person by surprise or secret a ault. He loses the right of sanctuary and all other ecclesiastical immunity, and is subjected to excommunication, and, by the letter of the law, to confiscation of goods or even to deprivation of personal rights, including that of security of life: these penalties could be imposed even when the attempted a a ination fell short of its effect. The law was first made against those employing infidels to murder Christians, but almost immediately and a fort i or i extended to Christians as against any person, whether Christian or not, who was allowed to live in the state. The peculiar malice of the crime was placed in its being secret murder for hire. Technically it was unknown to the civil law. [