Per Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror, brigands in 14th-century France would routinely surround towns and threaten to attack unless they were both paid off and absolved of their sins by the local clergy.
MeidasTouchNEWS: Trump officials are worried the ICC may try to prosecute them for war crimes once Trump's term ends, and are threatening sanctions against the ICC to change its founding document to grant them immunity. (via Reuters / link in reply)